Sabbath School Week

Read Acts 18:4–8. What were the results of Paul’s preaching?

The work of Paul among the Jews at Corinth was not as fruitful as he wanted it to be. He had to face some hostility and hatred. The Bible says that “they opposed him and blasphemed” (Acts 18:6, NKJV). When the object of the Greek verb blasphēmeō (“to blaspheme”) is a human being, it means “to revile” or “to defame.” In other words, they intended to stain Paul’s reputation and to prevent him from succeeding in his missionary endeavors.

Fortunately, the work of Paul in the Corinthian synagogue was not in vain. After all, God was in charge of this mission. He promised, “[My word] shall not return to me empty” (Isa. 55:11, ESV). Some Jews did not expect that Crispus, the synagogue’s ruler, and his entire household would accept Jesus as the Messiah and get baptized (Acts 18:8). In addition, “many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized” (Acts 18:8, NKJV), very likely also because of the influence of Crispus.

Read Acts 18:9, 10. What can we infer about Paul’s feelings in the face of his challenges in Corinth? How did God encourage His servant?

Right after Paul left the synagogue, he had an experience that brought him encouragement. Christ Himself appeared to him by night in a vision, with words that recall Isaiah 41:10: “Fear not, for I am with you” (NKJV). Indeed, Paul admits he was in Corinth “in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3, NKJV). He had to depart from Berea to Athens because of staunch opposition. He seems to have thought he would have to leave Corinth for the same reason: great opposition. But that would not happen this time. Jesus said to him: “ ‘I have many people in this city’ ” (Acts 18:10, NKJV). And Paul was His instrument to take the news of salvation to them.

Read Isaiah 41:10. What wonderful promises does God give you in this verse? What hope do they give you right now in your life?

Supplemental EGW Notes

The angels of God are ready and waiting to go with humble men who with their Bibles in their hands will go to those who have not had this light, and read to them a “Thus saith the Lord.”
Those who have the gift of song are needed. The melody of praise is the atmosphere of heaven. Often by the words of sacred songs, the springs of penitence and faith have been unsealed. Song is one of the most effective means of impressing spiritual truth upon the heart.
Let little companies of workers go out as the Lord’s missionaries, and do as Christ commissioned the first disciples to do. Let them go into the different parts of our cities, two and two, and give the Lord’s message of warning. Tell the people the story of Creation, and how at the close of His work the Lord rested upon and blessed the Sabbath day, setting it apart as a memorial of His work.
Church members young and old should be educated to go forth to proclaim this last message to the world. If they will go in humility, angels of God will go with them, teaching them to lift up the voice in prayer, how to raise the voice in song, and how to proclaim the gospel message for this time. We have not a moment to lose. . . .
Who will take up this work of teaching Bible truth to old and young? Who will carry the message, following Christ’s plan of labor? . . . Many there are in every city who feel the need of gospel shepherds. We need men who will read the truth, practice the truth, and explain the truth.
Brethren, Christ calls you. Will you heed His voice? Will you become His messengers? Will you seek the sheep that are lost? Will you teach the Word in all humility and earnestness to those who will hear?
Young men and women, take up the work to which God calls you. Tell the wondrous story of the cross. Christ will lead you, and teach you to use your abilities to good purpose. As you receive the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit, and you seek to teach others, your minds will be refreshed, and you will be enabled to present words that are new and strangely beautiful to your hearers. Pray, and sing, and speak the word. . . .
Spiritual freedom will come to those who consecrate themselves unreservedly, and the quickening grace of Christ will bring light and peace and joy. The saving influence of truth will sanctify the soul of the receiver.—The Upward Look, p. 91.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

Read 1 Corinthians 1:11–13; 1 Corinthians 4:14; 1 Corinthians 5:11; 1 Corinthians 7:1; and 1 Corinthians 14:37, 40. Also read 2 Corinthians 1:12, 2 Corinthians 2:9, 2 Corinthians 11:3, and 2 Corinthians 13:10. How do these passages help us understand why Paul wrote letters to the Corinthians?

Paul was in Ephesus when he wrote 1 Corinthians (1 Cor. 16:5–9). The family of Chloe went to him with the report that things were not going too well back in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:11). In 1 Corinthians 1–6, Paul addresses the issues brought by Chloe's household. The problems include factionalism, sexual immorality, lawsuits, and prostitution. Paul also received a letter with specific questions (1 Cor. 7:1). His response fills the space from chapter 7 onward. The questions were related to marriage, divorce, celibacy, food sacrificed to idols, conduct in worship, the use of spiritual gifts, and incorrect understanding of the resurrection. The church of Corinth was very problematic and immature. Perhaps your local church has many problems. Yet the church at Corinth was probably worse.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is very relevant to our time, as well. After all, don’t we, to some degree, face some of the same issues in many of our churches today? This letter has much to say to us. It is “one of the richest, most instructive, most powerful of all his letters.”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 301.

Paul may have written three or four letters to the Corinthians (compare with 2 Cor. 10:9). He wrote an initial letter before 1 Corinthians (1 Cor. 5:9), but it is lost. Before 2 Corinthians, he wrote a letter referred to by scholars as the “severe letter” (2 Cor. 2:3, 4, 9; 2 Cor. 7:8), but it is lost, too. Some think he is referring to 1 Corinthians, or that this letter is partly preserved in 2 Corinthians.

From 2 Corinthians, we realize that the members of Corinth were influenced by the surrounding culture. They valued such things as competition, power, and wealth, all things that can challenge our church today, as well. Conversely, Paul sought to create a Christ-focused culture, a way of seeing the world through the lens of the gospel. How crucial that we, too, see our present world through the lens of the gospel.

Read 2 Corinthians 2:4 again. What does this verse tell you about how much Paul cared for these people? In contrast, how much love is in your heart for others?

Supplemental EGW Notes

In this letter to the Corinthians Paul endeavored to show them Christ’s power to keep them from evil. He knew that if they would comply with the conditions laid down, they would be strong in the strength of the Mighty One. As a means of helping them to break away from the thralldom of sin and to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, Paul urged upon them the claims of Him to whom they had dedicated their lives at the time of their conversion. “Ye are Christ’s,” he declared. “Ye are not your own. . . . Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
The apostle plainly outlined the result of turning from a life of purity and holiness to the corrupt practices of heathenism. “Be not deceived,” he wrote; “neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, . . . nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” He begged them to control the lower passions and appetites. “Know ye not,” he asked, “that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?”
While Paul possessed high intellectual endowments, his life revealed the power of a rarer wisdom, which gave him quickness of insight and sympathy of heart, and brought him into close touch with others, enabling him to arouse their better nature and inspire them to strive for a higher life. His heart was filled with an earnest love for the Corinthian believers. He longed to see them revealing an inward piety that would fortify them against temptation. He knew that at every step in the Christian pathway they would be opposed by the synagogue of Satan and that they would have to engage in conflicts daily. They would have to guard against the stealthy approach of the enemy, forcing back old habits and natural inclinations, and ever watching unto prayer. Paul knew that the higher Christian attainments can be reached only through much prayer and constant watchfulness, and this he tried to instill into their minds. But he knew also that in Christ crucified they were offered power sufficient to convert the soul and divinely adapted to enable them to resist all temptations to evil. With faith in God as their armor, and with His word as their weapon of warfare, they would be supplied with an inner power that would enable them to turn aside the attacks of the enemy.
The Corinthian believers needed a deeper experience in the things of God. They did not know fully what it meant to behold His glory and to be changed from character to character. They had seen but the first rays of the early dawn of that glory. Paul’s desire for them was that they might be filled with all the fullness of God, following on to know Him whose going forth is prepared as the morning, and continuing to learn of Him until they should come into the full noontide of a perfect gospel faith.—The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 306, 307.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.