Do you realize that if you have given your life to Jesus you have been filled with his Spirit and therefore, you have the mind of Christ?!?!? That’s right!!! You have the mind of Christ so your life should reflect that. When we look at the church at Corinth, whom Paul calls holy, they are lacking in the category! There are things going on that do not reflect Christ in that church and Paul is saying to them, “What are yall doing? Why do yall have divisions among you? Yall should all be focused on Jesus and nobody else!” Why? Because they have been given freely the Holy Spirit of God and through the Spirit, they have the mind of Christ and God reveals His secrets to them through His Spirit.

Paul was dealing with a lot of stuff with the church at Corinth but one thing in particular he was wrestling with was the local philosophers. These philosophers were engrained in the Corinthian culture, especially with the rich. These philosophers would come to town with their fancy speeches trying to persuade young men to become their followers so they could teach them their ways and they too, could sound educated and impress the crowds. They would charge the rich families a fortune to send their children to their school. Paul says to the church at Corinth, “I came to you with a simple thought...the gospel, and I let the Holy Spirit do his thing.”

Paul tells the church at Corinth the power is in the cross of Christ. He says to the Greeks the cross is foolish and they refuse to believe while to the Jews, the cross is foolishness and they seek a sign to prove that it is true. This is nothing new for this was going on when Jesus was there among them performing miracles. There are so many people today trying to gain power, doing whatever they can to climb the ladder to get power. All they have to do is look to the cross and the gospel yet, they reject it. Sure they will climb the ladder and have power, even a lot of money, but like Jesus said, “What is your soul worth? You can gain the whole world and lose your soul.” Then what? When we take our last breath, none of that power will help us. When we cross into eternity, the only thing that will matter is Jesus and whether we had a relationship with him or not.

The first issue Paul brings up to the church at Corinth is their division. One thing we understand from what he says is these people are playing favorites. Someone shared the gospel with them and they were baptized by that certain person. Paul even shares some of their names! However, Paul tells them they are focused on the wrong person and their division isn’t necessary. They are to be focusing on Jessus, the one who died on the cross and saved them from their sins. He is the most important person and the others are not important at all.

When we studied Titus, Paul talked about the Holy Spirit being poured upon God’s people from the depths of God’s bosom and he said God gives His spirit “generously,” He gives an endless supply to His people! Why? So we can endure to the end as he leads us. There are people who teach we have nothing to do with our salvation and this is absolute false. Paul says, “and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Paul is talking to the church in Corinth, the ones he called “holy” at the beginning of the letter. He makes it clear that Jesus has the power to keep us and will keep us, if we keep in partnership with him. It’s called free will. If we look at other scriptures, they will support the idea. We will do a deep dive in this podcast...take a listen then share it with others!

Paul has just told the church in Corinth they are holy because they belong to Jesus. He then proceeds to tell them they have all the spiritual gifts they need as they are waiting for Jesus to return. We see these gifts mentions in chapter 12 and we will discuss these in more detail when we get there but we want you to know God has filled you with the Holy Spirit and through His Spirit, He has given you a gift to use to encourage others in the kingdom, to endure, and to bring God glory! What gift do you have to use? Are you using it? If not, why not?!?!?

Paul mentions to the church in Corinth that they are holy because they have called on the name of the Lord. Not only them, but people outside of Corinth, both Jew and Gentile. What does it mean to “Call on the name of the Lord”? Does that mean we can just call on Jesus and be saved? What about baptism? Is baptism necessary for salvation? Should I get baptized? We take a deep dive into these two very important questions and we aren’t regurgitating someone else’s teaching. We will bring you truth straight from the word of God because THAT is what matters!

Does God call us? Do we call on God? Is salvation only up to God or do we play a role? Where does baptism fit in that scenario? Does baptism even fit? Does it matter when it comes to salvation? Is the only thing we have to do is to confess Jesus and believe in our heart? We tackle these question in this episode.