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Addressing the Controversies among the Corinthians

1. READ

   1 Corinthians 5–7; 15; 2 Corinthians 5–7; 10–11; 12:11-21; 13

2. CONNECT

   10min
   The church at Corinth sent Paul a series of questions, and when Paul heard what was going on in Corinth, he had some questions of his own. Some of the issues came from the fact that the Corinthians were looking at life through the lenses of their culture and their fleshly desires instead of from God’s perspective. Paul invited them to grow up and stop living like spiritual infants.

3. Reflection

   What is something you believed when you were a child that you later found out was not true?

4. WATCH

   20min

5. DISCUSS

   10min
   • What is something you learned from the video?
   • Read 1 Corinthians 6:7.
     • What do you think Paul meant when he said that to have a lawsuit with another Christian is already a defeat?
     • If someone were trying to convince you that it is better to be wronged than to take a believer to court, which of Jesus' words in Matthew 5:2-11 would be most convincing to you?
   • Read 1 Corinthians 6:13-20.
     • What do you think Paul meant when he said, “Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body” (v.18b)?
     • What can you do to flee from sexual immorality?
   • Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Revelation 22:14-15.
     • Pray together as a group that God’s Spirit would free people in your circle of influence from deceptions about the eternal results of their sins.

6. Straight from the Heart

   15min
   An Eternal Perspective Paul drew on basic principles about life in the age after Christ’s first coming to formulate his responses to the specific issues and questions that had arisen in the Corinthian church. Summarize Paul’s teaching in each of the following passages to see the eternal perspective that puts our life here in proper perspective:

   • 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
   • 2 Corinthians 5:9; 7:1
   • 2 Corinthians 5:10
   • 2 Corinthians 5:16-17
   • 2 Corinthians 5:1

   One of the great things that we Christians have to look forward to is the resurrection of the body. … And our ultimate resurrection is grounded in and guaranteed by the resurrection of Christ. This is the great argument Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 15. He says that Christ’s resurrection is the firstfruits. The image here is not only of Christ’s resurrection being the first in a sequence, but also being that which guarantees everything else to come. Because he has been raised, we will definitely be raised in and with him, giving us an absolutely incredibly certain hope for the future.
   
   — Dr. Douglas Moo (from Thirdmill’s video, Paul and the Corinthians)

7. APPLY

   Take some time to consider the following questions:

   • “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:5). Think through each of the following aspects of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10:

   Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor [those] who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
   
   Now consider v. 11:
   
   And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

   • How has God washed, sanctified and justified you?

   • Where has this study encouraged you in your faith?
   • Where has it challenged you? What do you want to do as a result?

   Session 11 Handout

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