SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES by F. D. Starr

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 10, 1906

SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES

By F. D. Starr

FIRST CORINTHIANS.

PERHAPS no other church enjoyed so long a period of ministerial labor by the apostle Paul as did the church at Corinth. The record of his experiences at the time of his raising up that church is found in Acts 18. We read that "he continued there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them." It is stated that he "reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." That would make seventy-eight Sabbaths that he thus observed. At the same time he worked at the trade he had learned in his youth, tent-making, in partnership with a Jew by the name of Aquila, and his wife Priscilla, who of course, like all other Jews, labored six days in the week and rested the seventh. We have here a good example of apostolic Sabbath-keeping. It was here that the Lord encouraged Paul's heart by saying to him in a vision: "I have much people in this city." These are the people to whom this epistle is addressed.

The Corinthian church furnishes one of the most pronounced instances of God's forbearance and goodness toward poor fallible mortals who profess to be His children. Brought out of heathen customs and surroundings, these Christians had much to learn in order to become fully freed from the influence of their former training and practises. Paul addresses his letter to "the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints." By their being called saints, sanctified, are we to understand that they might claim, as some latterly do, that they were living absolutely without sin? Alas! for human depravity and weakness, as often evinced even among those from whom we might expect better things.

After introducing the matter of his epistle in the assuring and encouraging manner that he employed, Paul proceeds to mention some things that seriously need correction, which we will enumerate:

1. He says: "It hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, . . . that there are contentions among you." Some were claiming to be followers of Paul, some of Peter, some of Apollos, thus creating an imaginary division in the inseparable body of Christ, the church. This he says was a sure proof of carnality, and the same proof holds good today.

2. Besides these divisions there was "envying and strife" among the members of this congregation.

3. The next charge is a very serious one indeed: "It is commonly reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles." Chapter 5: 1.

4. The existence of this immoral condition did not serve to humble them and lead them to mourn over the matter, and vindicate the injured cause of Christ by exercising proper discipline toward the offending member, but they were, on the contrary, puffed up, and independent about the matter.

5. Instead of manifesting the Spirit of the Master by suffering wrong rather than doing wrong, they were going to law with their brethren, and that before unbelievers, and defrauding their own brethren. This was to their shame. 1 Cor. 6: 1–8.

6. When they came together to partake of the Lord’s Supper, they conducted themselves in a very disorderly manner, insomuch that Paul told them they were not really celebrating that solemn rite when they thus assembled; some feasted while others were suffering hunger. They thus failed to discern the Lord’s body, failed to recognize the true import of the sacred ordinance. The apostle could not praise them for such conduct. Chapter 11.

7. The women seem to have failed to act with proper decorum in the church at Corinth, imitating the manners of the Gentile females in this respect.

8. There were heretical teachings being inculcated in the church, one tenet of which was the denial of the resurrection of the dead. Chapter 15: 12. This gave occasion for Paul to write that masterly defense of the doctrine of the resurrection as found in chapter 15.

All these points make quite an array of evidence as to the sad condition into which the church had lapsed when Paul wrote his first epistle to that body of believers. But was not such a case and such a condition hopeless? The apostle did not so regard it, but set about the task of restoring the erring congregation, and we find by his second epistle to them that his efforts were not without results. He thus manifested the spirit of Him who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the glimmering torch, but who will encourage the faintest indication of hope, quicken to spiritual life the dormant energies now slumbering in carnal insecurity, and cause the dry bones to live again. An example and encouragement here for us. "His mercy endureth forever."

The most noted section of this intensely-interesting book is chapter 13. "The greatest of these is charity." The greatest theme in the universe is here revealed. Charity (in most versions rendered, love, and correctly, too) is the superior grace, the fundamental principle upon which every true Christian’s experience must be built. No gift, natural or acquired, amounts to anything in the absence of this qualification. Love must be the motive and the rule by which all of our actions and plans shall be weighed and determined. Love excels even so-called reason itself in this respect. Reason seemed to suggest that the costly gift from the alabaster box was misspent, but love moved the devoted worshiper to lavish the contents on the object of her affection. She loved much, and this was the standard by which her actions were determined. We shall never reach right conclusions unless we decide from the standpoint of love instead of finance.

In chapter 14 we find some very important instructions concerning the manner of conducting religious worship. "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also." Verse 15. The French version reads: "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray so as to be understood; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing so as to be understood." Quite a revolution would be effected in our assemblies if all would do likewise. When people pray in a tone so low that only a very few who are next to them can understand what they say, it is just the same as if they prayed in an unknown tongue; and when the singing is done in such a way that one can not distinguish one word from another it is the same as if we were listening to barbarians. Certainly our praying and singing should be so uttered that all who are present can understand.

The necessity of earnest study of the Scriptures is thus set forth in chapter 10: 11: "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come." God had the past history of His people written for our benefit who are living in the closing days of this world’s history. So little heed, however, is paid to the admonition given, that professed Christians are found committing the same sins that brought the displeasure of the Lord upon the congregation so long ago. He meant that we should profit by their experience and not have to go over the same ground ourselves. But considering the ancient warnings of so little consequence, professors of religion have repeated the sad history of Israel over and over again. Let us search the Scriptures that we may not fall into the same error.