November 29, 2025 | 1 Corinthians 1-4
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Introduction and Greetings
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Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. What day's a today? Saturday. Saturday. It is Saturday. Yeah. Happy Saturday folks. Just a regular old Saturday. It's not Black Saturday or Green? Saturday. Saturday. Well, cyber Mondays come in, so I'm gonna call this one. Savings Saturday.
Saving Saturday. There's giving Tuesday. There's, that's, I dunno what Wednesday is. Yeah, we're gonna capitalize on that one. Wacky Wednesday.
Weather Talk and Weekend Plans
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Yeah, so anyways, it's it's Saturday and weather's getting a little bit a little bit colder. In fact, I think next week we're dropping down in the forties for the highs.
And so it's, you are bold. To make that prediction days before Saturday. I just, I'm telling you what the weather people say, okay, well, you are joining into their ranks and you're gonna be among the false prophets. Well, because remember I talked about the weather people a couple episodes ago, and then all of a sudden the temperature for Thanksgiving Day changed drastically.
All right. Well, it was like they work after us. Okay, so. I just want their job because they can be wrong most of the time and still be employed. Yeah. Doesn't work in the [00:01:00] church anyways. Least not ideally. Not ideally, no leftover leftovers.
Thanksgiving Leftovers and Traditions
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Hopefully everybody's enjoying leftovers. Are you a leftovers guy?
Do you enjoy leftovers? I'm utilitarian. I want to eat good food regardless. So leftovers fresh. I'll take anything really. If it's good food, if it's less than good, I'll still eat it. Yeah. Just with less enjoyment. I like Turkey day of when it's fresh and off. Smoker and hot. Yeah. No Turkey.
Turkey. Yeah. Turkey's rough, man. Yeah, it's dry it's flavorless. Even on a good day. Yeah. My wife said, somebody she heard described it as the LaCroix of meats. I mean, really, that's a great description. It has like the essence of meat without actually tasting like meat. You have to dress it up.
Yeah. Put cranberry sauce on top, gravy, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese jelly on top, bacon jelly. You gotta do a lot to make it look good. Yeah. And yet, I enjoy like a thin slice deli sandwich with Turkey on it. I, mm-hmm. I'm good with that. It's, I think, I don't know, maybe the thin, that's because it's thin, there's hardly any there.
Yeah. And then it's, you're tasting the bread I and all the other condiments, the cheese, the [00:02:00] mustard. Yeah. I'm not, it's not that, not it's everything else. Oh, that's fair. That's fair. So I'm gonna suggest that for our next Turkey day, we should adopt a new tradition and just get rid of the Turkey and.
Do a good meat that we all like. My wife's family is Italian, so they did homemade oli the spaghetti. Oh, I like that. Yeah. Homemade ravioli. That's a great call. So that was their Thanksgiving tradition. They had Turkey as well, but the Turkey was not the star of the show. It was like, oh man. It was like an also ran.
Yeah. Well you put it on the side where no one could see it. We should do Thanksgiving brisket. I mean, all in favor say Aye everybody. Yep, I heard you. Yep. I see that hand. Yeah, I see that hand. Yeah. We can put, I don't know turkey picture next to it or something, and this is what Turkey would be if it had a choice.
We should all pardon our turkeys next year, just like the president does. Everybody's gonna pardon their turkeys. Yeah. And then we can have briet instead. That'd be favorable. Yeah.
Discussion on First Corinthians
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Well, hey, we are in First Corinthians today and for the foreseeable future. So first Corinthians one through four today as we open up here with Paul's letter and we're reading First Corinthians because in the third missionary journey or [00:03:00] right before the third missionary journey, I guess, Paul was in Corinth, and so this is where I remember he met Priscilla and Aquila, and so he's writing this during his third missionary journey.
To correct some issues that have been threatening the wellbeing of the church. First Corinthians has a lot of hard things in it. Galatians similar, Galatians, he comes outta the gate swinging. First Corinthians is interesting. He does give thanks for the believers that are there. And so that is, is unique compared to Galatians, I should say.
Not unique to Paul's letters in general, but compared to Galatians. But nonetheless, Paul's gonna. Tackle some pretty big issues here in First Corinthians, and it's a helpful letter. I think it's immensely practical and even dealing with a lot of stuff that we still deal with today. But one of the things I find interesting in chapter one here is when he talks about divisions in the church and he says, some are following this person and this person and this person.
Notice he's gonna talk about Apollos there and we talked about Apollos yesterday in yesterday's episode. So Apollos, by the time that Paul's writing Corinthians, he had amassed a following for himself here, and Paul's gonna say this, he said, I'm gonna be. Honest with you, I'm glad that I didn't baptize any of [00:04:00] you because Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
So that's a problem for I won't call them our brothers because I think they add to the gospel, but to our friends who would suggest that there is a focus on a need to be baptized in order to be saved. Because Paul here is saying I didn't baptize any of you except for a couple of you, because that's not why Jesus sent me.
Now with Paul's passion for people to come to faith in Jesus, if baptism was necessary for salvation at. I don't think he would've ever made a statement. Like I didn't, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you for sure. Because he would've left the job undone. Yep. And so here's evidence of the fact that baptism is important.
It's a step of obedience, but it's not necessary for salvation. That's right.
Paul's Teachings on Unity and Growth
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What we're gonna see here in these next few chapters is that one of the things that Paul is constantly guarding against is the very thing that's happening at Corinth, and that's division in the church. There is a disunity among them, and part of it is, oh, I like this guy.
Oh, I like. That guy. I'm a MacArthur Wite, I'm a Piper ride, I'm a whatever else that, obviously they're using different names at that time and some are saying, well, I'm holier than all of you. I follow Christ. I'm part of the Bible Club guys. So what you'll see here is something that [00:05:00] we are always guarding against as pastors, and it's something that you should help us guard against as a parishioner.
This is one of the greatest threats to the church that there is division for ungodly reasons. Now, God godly reasons to divide are there, there's doctrinal divisions that we should have when there's the gospels on the line or something important to our faith. First order, second order issues. But there's a lot of things that we shouldn't divide over.
And Paul's gonna attack some of these issues in his letter and he's gonna come off strong because this does threaten the church and it threatens the gospel re representation because of this very thing. So pay close attention and really, he goes on to talk about how. God works against those divisions even in the nature of the gospel itself, that the gospel is designed such that it is something that's a message of foolishness.
This is not a message for man to boast in. It's not a message for the wise to say, well, I understand the gospel because look how smart I am. Rather, this is a message that confounds the wisdom of the world and is only explainable by the fact that God helps people to understand this message.
And so this is that famous section where he talks about the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but [00:06:00] to us who are being saved, it is the power of. And he gets to the point there in verse 29 of chapter one. He says, so that no human being might boast before the Lord. The gospel is set up to rob us of our boast.
In it's done in such a way as to be so confounding to say, well, you worship a crucified savior that doesn't seem to make any sense in the world is done. So in such a way that the person that is saved can only say, but by the grace of God, am I saved? He's the one that opened my eyes to understand these things and.
Yeah. We as the church, have the opportunity to grow in our understanding, and that's where he goes in, in chapter two by talking about progressing in our spiritual understanding of things, that there are things that he mentions in chapter two verse seven, A secret and hidden wisdom of God.
This is not a mystical, secret society kind of wisdom, rather. It's something that's a secret because it's only available to those that have the spirit of God who has the Spirit of God. Romans eight, nine, again, the believers, the followers of Jesus have the Spirit of God. So if you have the Spirit of God, jump down to verse 12.
It says, the Spirit who is from God, that we might [00:07:00] understand the things freely given to us by God. We, I impart things in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit. Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. So though the wisdom of the cross is foolishness, we as Christians should expect after we're saved, to continue to understand the wisdom and to grow in the wisdom and to grow and progress as followers of Jesus as well.
This would also parsely explain what didn't you say? Some of the reasons why what is so plain and obvious to us is so obscure and inaccessible to others. A hundred percent right. You hear the YouTuber or the podcaster? Yeah. The a OC not Alexandria, Ocasio-Cortez, the other one. Yeah. Alex O'Connell.
O'Connor. O'Connor. O'Connell. One of those, O'Connor one of the guys. Yeah. He's been talking about his exploration, or at least his softening up to Christianity. And people who are Christians are like, dude, it's so obvi. Like, dude, open your eyes. Just see what's there. And yet. As we see here, part of what's missing for Alex is not just the facts or the intellectual ascent to the understanding.
It is the [00:08:00] spirit. The spirit has to awaken his dead heart to become new, to become soft, and become supple to God's word and to God's truth. And that's what we pray for our loved ones. This is why this is so critical. We need the spirit to open eyes for our message to be effective, which he's gonna address even more in Second Corinthians chapter four, which is one of
the main text for this when he says, the God of the world has blinded the eyes of the lost. That's right. And so Paul's gonna build on that even in, in Second Corinthians four. Well, in chapter three, he opens up by addressing them as those that are still in, in the flesh. I could not address you as spiritual people.
Carnal Christians. Huh? The contrast Carnal Christians. This is what's interesting. This is hard because he does call them as those that are still in Christ. Mm. He says, you are of the flesh. Mm, but you were more, are you done? But I could not address you as such because you were infants in Christ. So this seems to be he's addressing them similar to the way the writer of Hebrews does in Hebrews five 13 when he said, Hey, by now you should be teachers, but I have need to go back and teach you the basic things you [00:09:00] have need of milk, not meat.
I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. So I think this is hard. We have to be careful not to make sweeping statements across the board, because I think there could have been some here who were acting in a carnal way, a fleshly way that weren't saved.
And some that were acting in a fleshly way and a carnal way that were saved. And what was gonna distinguish them is their response to Paul's admonition in, in instructions. Yeah. And I would add to that. I would not wanna play with this. I would not wanna be like, well, I could be a al Christian.
Let me just float and hope for the best. For sure. Paul addresses this very thing in Galatians, we just read about it and in James, he talks about this both in the letters that we have already previously read. You can't have faith without works. A faith without works is a dead faith. And so it's very possible that someone might have diluted themselves thinking, oh, I'm just an infant in Christ.
I'm just a carnal Christian. When in reality they're not a Christian at all because they have no real tangible faith to speak of. So. If you're even close to entertaining this idea, just because it says here they're infants in Christ. I would be very careful not to tread [00:10:00] upon this sacred ground where God himself if you're a believer, God's gonna deal with you, I don't want you to do that.
If you're an unbeliever, then okay, this is not gonna matter. But I just want you to see here, this is not something to play with. God is very serious about your sanctification. Yeah. And that's reinforced by the fact that from this, after this, he goes on to talk about this metaphor of planting and watering and growth.
The implication being growth is expected. And Paul's gonna say, you know what it, it doesn't matter who planted the original seed and who watered it. He's gonna say God is the one that causes the growth. And so if you are in Christ, there is going to be growth there. There can't be somebody who says, I'm a believer.
And for. 20 years. You, there's no progression in Christ's likeness. You don't desire to be in the word of God. You don't put off sin, you don't darken the doors of the church. You don't, if there's no transformation, your profession that you made 20 years ago when you walk the aisle outta to Billy Graham crusade, I mean that seems to be
a false profession. That seems to be something that's not valid. Because of what Paul's talking about here. God is gonna cause the growth in somebody who truly is a follower of [00:11:00] Jesus. Can we update that reference? Let's do Greg. Lori. Okay. Greg. He still til doing things. I don't, we've got the last time Billy Graham even did a crusade 20 years ago.
I'm sure he was still active 20 years ago. Okay. It's 2020, so that would be 2005. Yeah. 2005. All right, let me just ask Google here ask, when was the last time Billy Graham preached on crusade? Okay, here it goes. Let's go. Here's what it says. 2025 last week. Hey, look at this. June 24th through the 26th. 2005.
Boom. See at 86 years old and declining and healthy. He appreciate, I, this is Google Gemini's AI review. Hey, come on now. And it's come on historically inaccurate, so I'm just gonna give it to you. Hey, tentative, 20 years ago. That's the ballpark. That's what said, that's what, that's what, that's what I said.
I saved June 24th, 26. If someone from this church at the last one, Graham Crusade, at that crusade, and you got saved, I wanna know about it. There you go. Let us know. Yeah. And hopefully you are growing in Christ because that's the whole point of this is that that's the [00:12:00] expectation. I think we should update our reference.
Still fair? Okay. Greg, Lori Crusade. But even with Greg, Lori, man, growing up out here, people don't who know who that is? Doesn't, didn't he come out last year? I thought he was at the at and t, or he may be more so now, but like before I moved to California, I had no clue who Greg Laurie was, who was a crusader out here then.
Was there anybody? I mean, everybody was there. You just heard of Billy Graham. Okay. But this is Texas. Everybody's born, saved, so you know. That's true. Okay. Yeah. Anyways, so he's talking about growth here and this is a corporate focus as well. 'cause he's gonna use the temple metaphor that here in verses 16 through 17, so that you are a temple and this is a you plural, this is where the Texas standard version would come in handy that y'all do not know that y'all are God's temple and God's spirit dwells in you.
And so he's gonna be talking about the importance of that. So unity, growth, all of these things, right outta the gate. Paul's talking about we need to deal with these things because here's the problems, there's disunity. You're not progressing in faith. And it's leading to the threat of what God's doing, which is to build together.
The spiritual house, even we've seen is in one Peter, Peter [00:13:00] makes the similar con. Set there the idea that we're being built up into a spiritual house as spiritual priesthood. So Paul is sharing some similar themes there.
Paul's Ministry and Apostolic Authority
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Chapter four. Then we progress on Paul's argument here into more of his discussion of his own ministry and not just his ministry, but the ministry of the apostles.
He calls himself and the other Apostles servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. I love that that they are stewards. A steward is someone who cares for something that's not their own. So you think back. To the parable of the talents. You think back to the parable of the servants that Jesus told they, they're entrusted with something and they're to be faithful with what they've been entrusted with.
And the apostles have been entrusted with the steward as stewards of the mysteries of God. And I think by extension there is something about. That, that has been passed on to us, not in the same way. We're not Apostles Capital A, but we've been sent, we've been entrusted with the stewards as stewards with the gospel, with some of these same things to go out and see these things proclaimed in the the lives of the lost around us as well.[00:14:00]
The apostles had endured some treatment from the the local churches there in, in Corinth, he's talking about here in verses nine through 13. And basically he's calling him to say. You need to respond to what I'm telling you here. You need to respond to what I'm doing because if you don't, when I come to visit you, I can either come to visit you in one of two ways.
I can come and visit you with with blessing or with the rod. Whenever I go to church, I always tend to come with the rod 'cause he needs worship. Boom. Watch out. Now this is the rod of discipline. So basically in chapter four. Paul is saying here's the thing, y'all I'm coming and I can come and this can be a good visit or I can come and this can be a bad visit.
And so it's up to you. How are you gonna respond to what we're dealing with here? So far in the intro to the letter, but even more so where he's gonna go from this point on.
Pastoral Authority and Spiritual Care
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Does the pastor have a similar authority over his congregation or is this unique to the Apostle Paul
as far as calling out sin and admonishing the sentiment, this approach, this [00:15:00] kind of. This kind of interaction? I think so. Granted the Apostle Paul a unique authority as the, as an apostle, but I don't know if what he's conveying here in this context is unique to his identity as apostle.
I think this is unique. I think this is just his indicative of his love for this church and his caring concern for the flock there. And there's spiritual wellbeing. Mm-hmm. And I think any pastor should have that same caring concern for his flock in their spiritual wellbeing. It's different because he's away from them for a period of time and not able to monitor what's going on a regular basis.
But I think a pastor should, if he sees. Divisions cropping up in the church, call it out and say, Hey we're not gonna be divisive over the color of the carpet. We're not gonna be divisive over, this Bible translation or that Bible translation. We're going to work together for the unity of the bride of Christ.
I think when there's sin in the camp, the pastor needs to call it out and deal with it. So, yeah, I think this is appropriate for a pastor to do. I would wonder if a lot of people today, maybe not our church, but there are people who would maybe see or hear something like this and say, oh man, this is abusive.
This is spiritual abuse. [00:16:00] This terminology became popular over the last couple years, especially with the downfall of Mark Driscoll and the podcast that was spawned because of that. Is there parameter, are there parameters that you think. People should know about so that they can receive instruction like this without it verging into the territory of what is commonly called spiritual abuse.
And two things I think number one you should be in a place where you can trust that your pastors love you and care for you. So that's a marker of a good church. A solid church who is you're there and you say, man I know my shepherds care about me and love, love me. And then I think, how would they know that?
Time that is spent visits, hospital visits, visits that, baby's born. You're sick, you're being cared for by community group leaders that the pastors are investing in that layer of leadership that's over you as well. And this even leads into kinda my second point too, is even the pastor's tone in how he's gonna address these things with you.
Is he the angry, rash preacher that's up there yelling at you, making [00:17:00] you feel belittled for these thing? Or is he the loving shepherd that's admonishing but in a tone that is loving and a tone that is conveying, Hey I care about you and I'm concerned. This is a real concern I have for you because I do care about you.
I love you and I don't want to see these things. Derail your faith or break up the church in what's going on here. So, so you'd wanna know that they care. Yeah. Big checkbox right there. Care. And the second thing I was gonna say is just the tone that, that how he conveys it is something that can speak to that as well.
Not that if a. Pastor stands up and speaks truth in something that is actually true and speaks it in a tone that may come across as aggressive to you that you can say, oh, well that's abusive. I don't have to listen to what he says. Yeah. But I think the pastor needs to be careful about that, just to be cautious in how he delivers the truth so that he's not putting any stumbling blocks in the way people hearing what he, what needs to be said.
That's right. Yeah. And that's, yeah, that's hard to do. That's why I'm thankful for. Years in getting [00:18:00] older because I feel like I'm becoming less of a fool the more the older I get. So join the club. Tim. Tim Keller has an awesome phrase where he says, 10 years from now, your future self will think your present self is a fool, dude.
So you're always foolish. Oh, I feel, I feel that. I feel that. Yeah. And I, and I. And same here. And I love it at the same time because it's sign of growth. Sure. Hope so. Like what we talked about earlier. Yeah.
Closing Remarks and Prayer
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Alright, well, let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode. God protect our church. I would ask of of you to continue your hand of good favor upon us as you have, and protect us from divisiveness and division.
And Lord, that we would become a church that is ineffective and unfruitful because we're pursuing some of these things. Help us Lord, to pursue you, to love you, to grow. As followers of Christ to groan our understanding of the gospel, to mature as believers and not to be those that are infants in Christ.
Guard us against any sort of carnal Christianity that would seep into our church, invade our church in any way, shape or form. Lord, we want to continually be saying, how can we become more like Jesus? And so we pray that you do that by your grace and that you'd enable us to do that for the glory of Jesus.
And Jesus name we pray. Amen. [00:19:00] Amen. Keep your Bibles tuned in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Bye bye.
Bernard: ​Well, thank you for listening to another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast! We're honored to have you join us. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about our Church at compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review, to rate, or to share this podcast on whatever platform you're listening on, and we hope to see you again tomorrow for another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.
PJ: Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said