The Warning of the Prodigal Church: What Went Wrong (and How to Avoid It)
The Corinthian church had knowledge, gifts, and good intentions—so why were they falling apart? This reflection uncovers the hidden warning for every believer today.
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Greeting
1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,
2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving
4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Three Significant Matters for the Prodigal Church
As we begin our journey through 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul sets the stage by addressing three significant matters that every prodigal church—indeed, every Christian community—must understand if we are to walk faithfully with Christ. These three areas, covered in verses 1-9, set the foundation for journeying through 1 Corinthians.
1) The Significance of Living into Their Sanctification
“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 1:2-3
Notice Paul refers to the Corinthians and describes them as “sanctified in Christ Jesus” and “called to be saints.” In almost all his other letters, Paul’s greeting to people is based not upon sanctification, but justification. However, in this letter, he refers to this group as having been sanctified.
These two words, sanctification and justification, are theological terms:
Justification is the description of the change that God makes within an individual when they come to Christ. It means an inward change of nature, a deep and fundamental difference in outlook and attitude because of a deep change within. It is also referred to as being made right with God.
Sanctification is the visible result of justification in the behavior of a Christ-follower. It is all those changes working out in terms of practice, so that you see that someone is different. That is what the Apostle Paul referred to in this passage to the Corinthians, because their behavior was what was in question.
At the close of verse two, he stresses the Lordship of Jesus. He sends the letter to all those “who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” which not only includes the Corinthians, but it also includes us, too.
Then he adds, “both their Lord and ours.” That was because in this Corinthian church, there were people who were professing faith in Christ, but not living under His authority. They were following the opinions of people and turning away from Jesus’ authority.
Divisions had entered the church, and early in the letter, the apostle reflects his concern for their departure from the centrality of Christ. Their outward expression did not match their inward profession.
2) Significance of Their Spiritual Wealth
“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge – even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you.” 1 Corinthians 1:4-6
Once again, this letter is different from Paul’s other letters, because he’s not correcting the church because they’ve become legalistic. The Corinthian believers weren’t caught up with wrong rituals (you have that in the letter to the Colossians); they were not involved with disputes over circumcision (you get that in Galatians); and there was no resting upon dead works (you get that in Philippians).
Instead, the church of Corinth has a unique problem: License. The church in Corinth accepted God’s grace, professed faith in Christ, but it made no difference to how they were living. That’s the root of all the problems we see emerging throughout 1 Corinthians.
The apostle admits that they understood the grace of God. There are no questions raised in this letter on the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, the substitutionary atonement, or the incarnation of Jesus. They all understand that they were set free from their sins by the gift of God through Jesus Christ. Their entrance, therefore, is clearly based upon God’s grace.
Furthermore, in verse five, Paul says, they are enriched by God with all speech and knowledge.
“…so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 1:7
The word for “enriched” is the word from which we get our word “plutocrat.” The Corinthian church was rendered plutocrats, spiritually. They had a wealth of enrichment, and Paul points out that it was in two particular areas: In the Word and in knowledge.
The word for “speech” here is really the word logos, the Word of God. This is his first admission to them that they were recognized, avid Bible students. They understood the Bible. They did not have the New Testament as we have it (it wasn’t written yet), but among them, they had New Testament prophets who were preaching and teaching the same truth that we have in the New Testament. Therefore, they had all the truth available to them, that is available to us, and according to Paul, they were knowledgeable in it.
3) Significance of Their Giftedness and the Lack of Jesus’ Presence
“…so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:7-9
Not only were they knowledgeable, but they also weren’t lacking any spiritual gifts. If you continue reading 1 Corinthians, you’ll see that there were more than 20 giftings in operation at the church in Corinth, some of which included gifts of:
Miracles
Healings
Teachings
Tongues/Interpretation of tongues
Knowledge
Leadership
There was not a single one of these gifts that was lacking in the church. Can you imagine the type of fascinating meetings they must have had when they came together? No one wanted to miss church at Corinth because of what might happen! They never knew whether somebody would be healed, a miracle would be demonstrated, a remarkable prophetic utterance would come forth, or somebody would speak in a language they had never learned, and someone else would interpret.
But that’s still not all!
Not only was their entrance orthodox and their gifting superb, but their expectation was right too. They were waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, and they understood that when He appeared, He would set things right on earth. They weren’t given to naive delusions that they would, by their own efforts, handle all the problems of the world, and correct all the evil in life, and bring in the kingdom that way.
They were not propounding self-reliant schemes for earning a status and a position of blessing with God. Instead, they understood that it was Christ who would sustain them to the end, and that it was He who would present them blameless before the Father. Paul acknowledged that all this is true of them.
But in verse 9, the apostle suddenly seems to change the subject, and rather abruptly introduces a word of description about the fellowship that they needed among them:
“God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our LORD.” 1 Corinthians 1:9
This is the key verse of 1 Corinthians. The rest of the letter centers around it, and is a statement that God had called them to a very important relationship, and, by implication, at the beginning of this letter, we learn that this is the reason for all of the problems in the Corinthian church.
They had not understood the implications of their calling, and the relationship they personally and individually had with Jesus Christ Himself. Instead, as we see, beginning with the very next verse, the apostle has to deal with problems in the church at Corinth, including:
Sexual Immorality
Lawsuits
Drunkenness
Cliques
Class Wars
Your conduct should match your calling.
As you read this, it becomes clear that, despite this fullness of provision which they had received, they were experiencing a great failure in the church. They had all this ability to do all these mighty things in the Spirit, but not much was happening in their city.
Instead of making an impact on Corinth, Corinth was making an impact on the church. All these ugly attitudes and actions and activities that were going on every day and night out in the city were beginning to infiltrate the church, and instead of the church changing the city, the city was changing the church.
That was the problem: Despite all this mighty provision, there was no manifestation of the power of God.
You may be saying, “Hold on, you just said they all of these special gifts, but now, you’re saying there’s no manifest presence and power of God, how can that be?” As you go deeper in 1 Corinthians, that answer will reveal itself more, but to address it briefly: When God gives spiritual gifts, they can also operate in the flesh, which is what the church at Corinth was dealing with.
The Corinthians lacked an understanding of what it meant to have Jesus Christ living among them. They also lost sight of the reality that they each have an individual relationship to the Lord of glory Himself. When that begins to fade from the Christian consciousness, all these troubles that the Corinthians were experiencing begin to press in upon us. Therefore, this letter is written to call these people back, just as it is written to call us back, too, to an awareness of what it means to have fellowship with Christ. If it can happen to them, it can happen to us.
In Christianity, it’s essential to guard against a transactional relationship with Jesus. “I put my faith in Jesus; therefore, my soul is safe.” That kind of mentality reduces our faith to a transactional relationship, yet in reality, it’s much deeper and life-giving than that. Not only are our sins forgiven, but we’ve been reconciled to be in fellowship and relationship with Jesus forever.
Imagine if a marital relationship kept a scorecard and operated with that mindset. That kind of relationship reduces everything to “If you do this for me, I’ll do this for you.” Be careful to avoid doing this with Jesus. In essence, this is no different than declaring, “Jesus, thank you for bleeding and dying for me, but I’m good, now.”
You’re offered so much more through Christ. You’re designed for more, which includes fellowship with Him, and that’s what the church at Corinth missed. May we live into the gift of the Son so we don’t make the same mistake.
TL;DR
1 Corinthians 1:1-9 opens by highlighting three essentials the church must cling to: living into our sanctification, recognizing our spiritual wealth, and maintaining real fellowship with Christ.
The Corinthian believers had abundant spiritual gifts and biblical knowledge, but without true submission to Jesus’ Lordship, those blessings became distorted.
They lived with transactional faith, trusting in God’s grace but not living in daily fellowship with Him.
When the church loses its connection to Christ, cultural decay seeps in, and instead of changing the city, the city changes the church.
The call for us today is clear: don’t settle for spiritual gifts without spiritual intimacy. Christ invites us into more.
Related Reading
An Introduction to Reading 1 Corinthians
