1 Corinthians 16: Hey Fam! Be Nice to Folks!

Have you ever had a friend that was a lot of fun in small doses? You could only stand them for a little while before they became hard to deal with? This is what I think about when I think of Corinth. They were in a large international metropolis filled with people from various backgrounds. It was likely a fun place to be for a visit. However, living there was probably a different story. Paul is in Ephesus when he receives word that the church in Corinth is at it again. Divisions and quarreling are breaking out everywhere over wild things... trust me... wild things. They are a church in division. Paul has a frank discussion with them on the need for harmony among the various people groups, the need to rally around the essentials, how to conduct proper worship services without hurting each other, and so much more. The real-life soap-opera needs someone to make sense of it all.

Let’s read it together.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Bible Breakdown
• 1:30 First Corinthians 16: Final Instructions
• 5:37 Dealing With Difficult Church Members
• 9:00 Paul's Closing Words of Encouragement
• 11:00 Looking Ahead to Second Corinthians
• 14:42 Final Prayer and Closing Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. 1 Corinthians, chapter 16, and if I were to give this one a title, it would be hey, fam be, nice to folks.

Speaker 2: 0:36

You ever been around somebody that they are the nicest people in the world to you, but you kind of want to give them a disclaimer before you introduce them to somebody else, like, can you be nice to my friends? That's exactly what Paul is doing as he is finishing up this family therapy session and we're going to get to that in just a moment. But if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel. It really does help us out. Give us a comment on the YouTube channel. Let us know how you are interacting with God's word. If you're the podcast person, I love you so much. Thank you for leaving us those five-star reviews. I'm seeing those. They're really helping us get the word out. Thank you so much for sharing this.

Speaker 2: 1:12

I hear more and more people. Just the other day I was on a trip and I came across somebody and they were like hey, I listened to the Bible breakdown podcast and it blew my mind because I was like how in the world do you even know about it? Well, a friend of a friend of a friend told a friend I love that we are slowly but surely developing this community. The more we dig, the more we find we are just getting to know God by getting to know his word. Thank you so much for sharing the Bible Breakdown podcast with people. It is my honor to be your Bible tour guide and just to kind of gush about God's word every day, so just it gives me an excuse to brag on Jesus every day. So thank you so much for that opportunity. And also I want to say thank you for everybody that goes to our rallying point, the Facebook discussion group called the Bible Breakdown Discussion, where they are leaving amazing devotions every single day. We have a wonderful team that works really hard. So do me a favor when you go there, read them and comment on those, because it really encourages them to see that. And so if you have your Bibles, you want to open them up with me to first Corinthians, chapter 16.

Speaker 2: 2:13

I had this, this friend of mine who he had watched a movie called Napoleon Dynamite, and If you knew the movie Napoleon Dynamite, you thought that my friend was the funniest guy you'd ever met, because he could turn any conversation into an opportunity to quote Napoleon Dynamite. But here's the problem If you didn't know Napoleon Dynamite, you would think he was an idiot, and then, because you weren't getting his jokes, he would go know and trying to really help you get the joke, until finally one day I had to start giving him like a disclaimer and I'd be like, hey look, I'm going to bring this friend. He's never seen Napoleon dynamite. So don't use them please.

Speaker 2: 2:55

Just be nice. And he's like what person hasn't seen? I was like, I know, I get it, I get, that's your thing, you know. And that's exactly what Paul is doing Not Napoleon Dynamite, of course, but he is giving some last-minute instructions Because, if you remember, he is trying to bring some harmony out of all this diversity and all this division that's going on in the church at Corinth, and he's getting ready to leave this letter and he's trying to tell them hey look, can you just be nice until I can get there, I'm going to send some people there.

Speaker 2: 3:31

Don't hurt their feelings. I mean, it's just a rowdy group of people, and that's awesome, because what I love about that is, if God is willing to mess with and work with and mold this difficult church, that gives me hope too, that he's not going to give up on me, even though I'm not cookie cutter easy either. And so this ending, while it is very kind of like like you go, wow, these people really were hard, well, so were we, right? We're all at a different growth rate in the kingdom of God, and this helps us realize that if God's not going to give up on the crazy Corinthians, he's not going to give up on us either, right? So let's read this and kind of see how Paul ends this letter. As we look at 1 Corinthians 16, verse 1 says this Now, regarding your question about the money being collected for God's people in Jerusalem, you should follow the same procedure I gave to the church in Galatia On the first day of each week, you should each put aside a portion of money that you have earned.

Speaker 2: 4:34

Don't wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once. Now pause. Now what's going on? Well, a lot of theologians think that what happened is when the day of Pentecost happened way back in Acts, chapter 2, that a lot of the people who had traveled to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost happened way back in Acts, chapter two. That a lot of the people who had traveled to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost just never went home. They just stayed there as the early church was starting to grow and things, and because of that, a lot of people that started running out of money and different things, and so over time, as they were trying to then relocate their lives and all this kind of stuff, the church in Jerusalem was dealing with a lot of need. They needed help from different ones because their lives had been totally displaced and, among other reasons, a lot of these other churches would then send relief effort over there so that these people could continue to do the ministry of reaching out to the different Jewish people. And so what would happen is is Paul would tell them about the need, and then churches like in Corinth would say well, we want to help. And so they would start to collect money, and so then, when missionaries were coming through, they would then send money on the way. So what Paul is saying is don't wait until I get there and then take up an offering, but if you want to give, go ahead and collect it so that I can be on my way as quick as possible. That's what he's saying.

Speaker 2: 5:40

All right, verse five I am coming to visit you after I have been to Macedonia, for I am planning to travel through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay a while with you, possibly all winter. Then you can send me on my way to my next destination. This time I don't want to make just a short visit and then go right on. I want to come and stay a while, if the Lord will let me. In the meantime, I will be staying here at Ephesus until the Feast of Pentecost.

Speaker 2: 6:17

I love this Verse 10. So, in other words, can y'all just be nice, send him on his way with your blessing, and when he returns to me, I expect him to come with other believers. So, in other words, can y'all just be nice? I mean, imagine how rough these people must be when he's like hey look, timothy's coming. He's a young guy, don't be rude. All right, now listen to this one. Now about your brother Apollos? Listen, I urged him to visit you with other believers, but he's really not willing to go right now. He will see you later, when he has the opportunity. Now, what's that about?

Speaker 2: 6:51

According to tradition, apollos went to Corinth and he got so frustrated with the stubbornness and the division and all this kind of stuff he just left. He's like see y'all later. Bye, fam, I'm out. And so Paul apparently sent word to Apollos to be like hey look, I know they're hard, but they're different, they're new to Jesus, give them a try. And Apollos was like I get that, but no, I'm not going back. That's how difficult the church of Corinth was. Paul had to remind them to be nice to the young guy Timothy, and Apollos was not willing to go back. Doesn't that give you hope that if you're stubborn, hard to get along with and sometimes rub people the wrong way, god can still use you? Even Apollos is like I ain't going back to them crazy people. Thank you, jesus, all right.

Speaker 2: 7:38

Verse 13. Be on guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong and do everything with love. Faith, be courageous, be strong and do everything with love. You know that Stephanas and his household were the first of the harvest of believers in Greece, and they are spending their lives in the service to God's people. I urge you, dear brothers and sisters, to submit to them and others like them who serve with such devotion. I am very glad that Stephanas, fortunas and Archaeus have come here. They have been providing the help that you weren't able to give me. They have been wonderful encouragement to me, as they have been to you. You must show your appreciation to all who serve so well. The churches here in the province of Asia send greetings in the Lord, as do Aquila and Priscilla and all others who gather in their home for church meetings.

Speaker 2: 8:28

Now, what is that? Real quick, before we finish. What that was is a lot of times that these people would use an amanuensis. Now, what is that? Someone who dictates a letter. So, paul, in this situation, he is in Ephesus, so he would stand there and he would dictate this, almost as if he is preaching to the crowd. But then someone would be writing it down. But in order for him to be able to authenticate that it really did come from him, at the end of the letter, just like this, he would write in his own handwriting so that you could see he did indeed write, was the author of this, even though someone else wrote it down. So that's him saying hey, by the way, guys, this is me actually All right. If anyone does not love the Lord, that person is cursed. Our Lord come. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you, and my love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Jesus be with you, and my love to all of you in Christ Jesus.

Speaker 2: 9:29

So as we finish up the book of 1 Corinthians, don't worry, we're going to be visiting the crazy cornflake church of Corinth a little while for 2 Corinthians. Because let me tell you what happens in the meantime. Paul does come to the church in Corinth and when Paul gets there, he is very gracious, he does talk to them, he does tell them what's going on. He talks about the person who was sleeping with his stepmother and he's like y'all need to do that, and he's very gracious, and he's not quite as straightforward as he is in the letter, because he loves these people and so he does that, and then he leaves. They end up doing exactly what Paul has said and they go a little bit overboard and they really kind of go the extra mile. And so then what has to happen is that Paul has to write to them again in order to answer more questions and actually to tell them to be a little bit more gracious to people who have decided to repent.

Speaker 2: 10:20

So there's this constant back and forth with this wonderful church that, if we remember, it's kind of like the Las Vegas of the early church. That is, this port city with all these different people, groups, and it looked like probably a big party on the outside, but behind the scenes there's a lot going on, a lot of diversity, a lot of disunity, a lot of things, and can I tell you that behind every organized, unified group of people, there's probably people working really hard to keep it that way, and so don't ever, like, let anything deceive you to think that unity, and all of that is easy. It's hard work, but the juice is always worth the squeeze. And so, as we end this letter, never forget to be on your guard, to stand firm in the faith, to be courageous, to be strong, but then to do everything with love, as Paul said. Hey listen, fam, just be nice to folks. Now, that's not the answer to everything, but it certainly will get us a lot further down the road if we just decided to love each other as we have been loved by God.

Speaker 2: 11:22

Let's pray together. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you for the opportunity you've given us to share the kindness that you have given us. Lord, we know that that's not perfect. There's time for truth. There's time for truth. There's time for grace. Lord, I pray you will give us wisdom to take those next steps and to realize, lord, that if you are so gracious with the church at Corinth, you're going to be gracious with us too. We're thankful for your word and we're thankful that we know you a little bit better for having read it together. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen and amen. Never forget God's word says in first Corinthians, 10, 31. So, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do do all for the glory of God. I love you and I'll see you tomorrow no-transcript.