Hello friends, welcome to the Scripture Study Project, our podcast that gives you a fresh and faithful perspective of the scriptures that we hope will renew your excitement for your own personal study and help you passionately

teach what you are learning to others.

I am your host, Krista Horton, and I am here with my other host, Zach Horton, and we are

excited to be studying with you today.

We are studying following along with a Come Follow Me lesson this week

in 1 Corinthians chapters 8 through 13. And in fact, as I was reading the Come Follow Me manual

as part of my study this week, the introduction here is actually really good and I want to read

what's written here. It says, in Paul's time,

Corinth was a wealthy trade center with residents from all over the Roman Empire, which we talked

about in our last episode. With so many different cultures and religions in the city, church members

in Corinth struggled to maintain unity. So Paul sought to help them find unity in their belief in Christ. This unity was to be more

than just a peaceful coexistence. Paul wasn't asking them merely to tolerate each other's differences.

Rather, he taught that when you join the Church of Jesus Christ, you are baptized into one body,

and every body part is needed. When one member is lost, it's like losing a limb,

and the body is weaker as a result. When one member suffers, we should all feel it and do our part

to relieve it. In this kind of unity, differences are not just acknowledged, but cherished,

because without members of diverse gifts and abilities, the body would be limited.

So whether you feel like you've always been at home in the church or find yourself wondering

if you truly belong, Paul's message is that unity is not sameness. You need your fellow saints,

and your fellow saints need you. I loved that write-up. And I think this episode sounds a lot like

last episode. There'll probably be some similarities with the next episode because this idea of

unity and disunity is so central to Paul's letter to the Corinthians. But I love it because I think

...