Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Yesterday in Acts 18, we met the people of the church in Corinth. Paul went there on

a missionary tour and stuck around for 18 months. He likes to check in on them from time

to time and he sends them letters in response to what he hears. Before he wrote First Corinthians,

he wrote them another letter that we haven't found. We call it zero Corinthians. He references

it in the section we'll read tomorrow. Then at some point later he sent this letter,

First Corinthians, to address some really upsetting problems he'd been hearing about as

well as some questions they had. Before we jump in, this is your friendly reminder

to slow down when you're reading Paul's intros. They aren't fluff. They are steeped in theology.

Okay, here we go. Paul spends a lot of time in this letter correcting things the Corinthian

church is doing and believing. It carries the weight of a rebuke, but he opens with some

encouraging reminders before launching into the problem areas. In 17th through 9, he says

that Jesus will sustain them to the end and will make them guiltless. He says that since

God is the one who called them into his family to begin with, God will be the one to keep

them there because what God initiates, he will sustain and he will fulfill. When you're

about to be confronted with all your sin, it's nice to be reminded that none of it changes

the way God views you. None of it revokes your status as his beloved child. The first

problem Paul addresses today is that the people are divided over their favorite leaders in

the church. There are some things worth dividing over for sure, but these aren't those

things. None of this is about doctrine or theology at all. This is a popularity contest.

This is about being part of the in-grout. Worshiping their teachers is idolatry. Paul isn't

the one who died for them. All Paul does is plant some seeds. He has zero power to make

...