1 CORINTHIANS 8-16

Chapter 8

This chapter, as well as Chapter 10, can be compared with Romans 14.

v9: It never occurs to people that the weaker brethren would have been present at the reading of this letter as well as the stronger ones for whom eating meat sacrificed to idols was not a problem. While being sensitive to the way our weaker brothers feel about certain acts, we should at the same time be trying to build them up and showing them that doing such things is not a sin.

Chapter 9

v1: In addition to all the carnal rubbish already discussed in this letter, certain of the Corinthians are apparently also saying Paul isn't an apostle because he works for a living.

v9 : Cephas, being of the tribe of Judah, would have ministered to those of that same tribe who would have understood that the Old Testament principle of the priests getting their living from the people had been carried on into the new covenant in the form of the ministers of the Gospel getting their living from it. However, the gentile believers whom Paul ministered to would not have understood this.

Chapter 10

v28: This conflict could come up pretty soon in our land because of halal meats.

Chapter 11

v4: Serious question here. If I am walking down the street in the middle of winter in Canada and I mention something about God to someone or a brother stops me and asks me to pray for him, do I have to take my touque off?

v13-15: Do all cultures around the world feel this way about hair or is this one particular example of something that was part of the culture of that day that provides a larger example of how Christians are to act in similar matters?

v16: Of course, we must take this verse into account as well.

v28: This verse shows us that communion keeps us in the faith by making us take stock of how we have been following Christ recently.

Chapter 12 

v8-10: Here Wilson shows how self-serving and vain he really seems to be. He asserts that all the gifts listed in this chapter were done away with except teaching. Thus, Wilson creates a situation in which nobody but teachers, i.e. himself, has a gift directly from the Lord. Everyone else is just the laiety. Wilson has quotes in this commentary blasting the Catholic church, but Wilson and those who believe like him have created their own little Catholic church.

v28: Helps means service.

 Chapter 13

v5: When Paul says love keeps no record of wrongs, he’s not talking about having that pedophile over for dinner. He simply means love does not grind an axe.

 I may write more about this chapter in another post.

Chapter 14 

v1: Again, Wilson shows his self-serving side. Prophecy here means foretelling the future, not teaching. If it meant teaching, Paul would have said teaching.

v26: Just because the order of service here described (each individual member contributing something to the meeting) isn’t mentioned in the later letters doesn’t mean the church matured out of it. The early church still did it this way for a long time. Though this form of meeting creates problems, everything creates problems due to the fact man isn’t perfect. Today, more and more people are leaving the institutional church and attending house fellowships because they see what a mess the supposedly more mature way of doing things has created.
v27: This verse might give credence to the doctrine of speaking a tongue in a supernatural language, that is, one not known to mankind.

Chapter 15

v30: In other words: "We apostles sure as shoot wouldn't be putting ourselves in danger from all these things we've suffered if we didn't know absolutely that there's a resurrection."

Chapter 16 

v2: This chapter doesn’t indicate the church was meeting on Sunday. Rather, the first day of the week was payday in the Roman empire.

 v3: Wilson contradicts himself by saying, in the commentary on verse 2 that the believers brought their week’s contribution every Sunday, then says they didn’t do so in the commentary to this verse because Paul tells them to store it up.

 Also, this doesn’t indicate tithing was done away with. Where too much is revealed, nothing is revealed, just like how people try to say that just because it says the believers were gathered together in Troas on the first day of the week to hear Paul speak the day of worship had been changed from Saturday to Sunday. One instance does not a changed day make, and no mention of titheing does not the abolition of titheing make. Similarly, no mention of the Chapter 14 style of worship in the later letters does not a single speaker, “more mature” style of service make. Likewise, lack of faith and/or desire to see the gifts of Chapter 12 manifested today does not secession make.

v22: Can't get much more blunt than that.

 Based on 1 Corinthians by Geoffrey B. Wilson. London: Banner of Truth, 1971.