In 1 Corinthians chapter one the apostle Paul tells us that God’s intention is to give Christ to us as our everything instead of giving us so many other things. There is a background to the apostle’s speaking. At that time, like the Pentecostals today, the believers in Corinth emphasized gifts and especially stressed speaking in tongues. Therefore, Paul wrote this Epistle to tell them that what God gives us is not tongues, nor gifts, nor signs, nor wonders. Rather, what God gives us is Christ, who is our portion. God has called us not into tongues, signs, or wonders but into the fellowship of His Son, Christ. The Jews require signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but God gives us Christ to be our wisdom and our power. God also puts us in Christ that Christ may become wisdom to us. This wisdom includes righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, which refers to the transfiguration of our body in the future. None of these matters are objective; instead, they are all Christ Himself. Christ Himself has become our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. This means that God is working Christ into us for our participation.
The hardest thing in reading the Scriptures is that it is not easy to stay away from the non-essential items. When a person comes to read the Scriptures, he is frequently hindered by the superficial things and is thus unable to see the inner things. Generally, when Christians read 1 Corinthians, they say that chapter one speaks about not being divisive. Actually, this is not the focus of that chapter. That chapter is focused on Christ. Christ is our portion, and we have been called to enjoy Him. But when someone reads 1 Corinthians 1, he is easily blinded by the words concerning not being divisive; he sees division but not Christ. This may be compared to the way we look at a person; we are easily blinded by the outward appearance and are not able to see what is in his heart. Likewise, the Bible has its outward appearance, and it has also its spirit, its core. When we come to read the Scriptures, it is very easy for us to be hindered by the appearance.
First Corinthians does not speak about anything other than Christ. Chapter one tells us that the Jewish religionists require signs, while the Greek philosophers seek wisdom. But what God gives us is neither philosophy, nor religion, nor miraculous power, nor knowledge, nor wisdom; what God gives us is Christ Himself. Christ is the power for signs and wonders, and Christ is the highest wisdom. It is of God that we are in Christ. It is God who has put us in Christ so that Christ may become our wisdom, our method, and our way, firstly as our righteousness, secondly as our sanctification, and thirdly as our redemption. Christ becomes everything to us from the inside to the outside, and we are thus completely mingled with Him. This is the first chapter of 1 Corinthians.
From chapter two on, 1 Corinthians begins to speak about how we can experience this Christ. In order to experience this Christ, first we must realize that this Christ is Spirit and He is also in the Spirit. Second, we must also know that as the Spirit He dwells in our spirit, and if we want to experience and enjoy Him, we must come back to our spirit. We must know how to return to our spirit and how to use our spirit. With these few sentences I have covered 1 Corinthians chapters two through sixteen.
However, I am afraid that after reading the book of 1 Corinthians five or six times, we may still not have such a realization. On the contrary, we can readily see that chapter five deals with excommunication, chapter six deals with lawsuits among brothers, chapter seven deals with the matter of marriage, chapter eight deals with the prohibition against eating the things sacrificed to idols, chapter twelve deals with speaking in tongues, chapter thirteen deals with love, chapter fourteen deals with the various gifts, and chapter fifteen deals with the matter of resurrection. But I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, that these are still the superficial matters. You need to go beyond these superficial things to see the intrinsic matters. Simply speaking, intrinsically, this book shows us that today the Christ whom God has given to us for our enjoyment is not only in the Spirit but also is the Spirit. Furthermore, as the Spirit He is in our spirit, and if we truly want to have fellowship with Him, to enjoy Him, and to participate in Him, then we must come back to our spirit to contact Him as the Spirit. This is what chapter two to chapter sixteen speaks about.
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