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STUDIES IN I CORINTHIANS
BY GLENN PEASECONTENTS1. THE INDWELLING SPIRIT Based on I Cor. 3:10-162. THE CHRISTIAN AND SUICIDE Based on I Cor. 3:1-173. THE CHRISTIAN AND DIVORCE Based on I Cor. 7:8-164. DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE PART 2 Based on I Cor. 7:10-165. THE IDEAL AND THE REAL Based on I Cor. 7:12-166. THE PAULINE PRIVILEGE Based on I Cor. 7:12-167. THE THIRD CHOICE Based on I Cor. 7:17-248. SINS AND MISTAKES Based on I Cor. 7:25-319. DEVOTION TO THE LORD Based on I Cor. 7:32-4010. LOVE MAKES THE SIMPLE COMPLEX I COR. 811. FROM START TO FINISH Based on I Cor. 9:24 to 10:1212. AN ACT OF OBEDIENCE Based on I Cor. 10:1-513. THE CONCEPTION OF COMMUNION CLARIFIED I Cor. 11:17-3414. A MOVING EXPERIENCE Based on I Cor. 11:23-2615. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING INFORMED Based on I Cor. 12:1-1116. TEST OF THE TONGUE Based on I Cor. 12:1-317. GIFTS UNLIMITED Based on I Cor. 12:4f 18. GIFTS FOR THE COMMON GOOD Based on I Cor. 12:7f 19. THE GIFT OF WISDOM Based on I Cor. 12:8f 20. THE GIFT OF WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE Based on I Cor. 12:8f 21. LAYING THE GROUNDWORK Based on I Cor. 15:5-1122. THE BURIAL OF HIS BODY Based on I Cor. 15:1-1123. THE GOSPEL AND THE BODY Based on I Cor. 15:1-1224. THE CONTEMPORARY CHRIST Based on I Cor. 15:12-2825. THE IMMORTALITY OF PERSONALITY based on I Cor. 15:35-4926. BODY LOVE Based on I Cor. 15:35-4927. THE RESURRECTION BODY based on I Cor.15:35-4928. THE MYSTERY OF DEATH Based on I Cor. 15:51-5829. WORK AND WAGES Based on I Cor. 15:58
1. THE INDWELLING SPIRIT Based on I Cor. 3:10-16
In the Old Testament the emphasis is on Jehovah, the God who is above us. In the Gospels theemphasis is on Jesus, the God who is with us. In the book of Acts and the Epistles the emphasis ison the Holy Spirit, the God within us. There can be doubt that this is the age of God’s indwelling.Pentecost began a new relationship between God and man. Jesus pointed to it when He taught Hisdisciples in the upper room that the Holy Spirit, the Father and Himself would all abide in them. No
 
longer would God be one afar off, and one to whom you had to go. He will be nearer than your hands and feet, for He will be within.In the Old Testament this relationship was a promise, but at Pentecost it became a possession.In Ezek. 36:26-27 we read, “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; andI will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spiritwithin you...” The promise is of a two fold change. A man’s own spirit is to be renewed, and thenGod’s own spirit will dwell within. Man’s old spirit in incompatible with the spirit of God, and sothere has to be a radical renewal of it before God’s Spirit can dwell within it. The disciples of Jesuswere prepared, and their spirit was renewed, and they waited then for the promise of the Father.Pentecost fulfilled that promise.There was fire and a demonstration of power at Sinai also, but it was a fire that stirred up fear rather than joy. Men were compelled by external power to bow and obey God. At Pentecost the picture is radically different, for God no longer stands above and apart from man. He comes withinand demonstrates His power, and He gives His message through man. Keble wrote,The fires that rushed from Sinai down,In trembling torrents dread, Now gently light, a golden crownOn every sainted head.Men became the temple of God. This was a basic fact and essential truth of Christianity, but itwas one that was difficult to grasp, and it still is today one of the most difficult concepts for Christians to make real in their lives. The Corinthians had an especially hard time understandingthis truth of the indwelling Spirit. Paul tries hard to get it across to them. They were very poor Christians, and they were ignorant and immature, and some of them were even immoral, they werestill Christians. Paul begins this chapter by writing, “But I, brethren, could not address you asspiritual men, but as men of the flesh...” He goes on to tell them how they are just like ordinary menyet. They are jealous, envious, and they fight over which man to follow. They are like childrenarguing over whose father is the strongest, and how many people their big brother can beat up. Thenhe comes to verse 16 and asks this question: “Do you not know you are God’s temple and thatGod’s Spirit dwells in you?”It is obvious they did not know, or at least never gave it much consideration. If they had, theywould not have been such miserable specimens of the Christian life. In chapter 6 Paul repeats thisquestion again after pointing out that if they realized the Holy Spirit dwelt within them, they wouldnot continue to be immoral, and they would stop visiting prostitutes. Our bodies are to be used for the glory of God, for they are temples of the Holy Spirit, says Paul. Only very ignorant andimmature Christians could be doing the things the Corinthians were doing with their bodies. Paulknew that the key to their being lifted to a higher level was in the truth of the indwelling Spirit. Themore Christians are aware that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the more they will become likeChrist.The tragedy is not just that the Corinthians did not emphasize this truth, but that it is still notemphasized today. It is a revolutionary truth, and yet it is seldom heard or practiced. Christians donot deny the doctrine of the indwelling Spirit, but they do ignore it. One of the reasons for this is the
 
fact that it is such a radical truth that even Christians fear to take it literally. It seems almost presumptuous to claim that you are a temple of God. It would be construed as pride for me to saythat the trinity abides in me. People would either laugh or be disgusted. Can we take this truthseriously? Can the infinite indwell the finite? It may be hard to believe it, but it is basic to NewTestament Christianity.W. T. Davison in his studies on the Holy Spirit writes, “The religion of the New Testament is areligion of the Holy Spirit, and the Christianity of subsequent times that would realize the NewTestament type under new conditions must also be a religion of the Spirit. Most of the declensionswhich have marked the religious life of Christendom have been due to forgetfulness of thisfundamental fact, and all striking revivals of Christian life and power have sprung from itsrecollection and reinforcement.”It is a fact of history that revivals are always accompanied with a consciousness on the part of Christians of the work of the Holy Spirit. When Christians neglect this aspect of God’s relation tothem, there is cooling off. This means Christians more often than not are ignorant of this truth.Sophir wrote, “For how long a period, even after the Reformation, were the doctrines of the HolySpirit, His work in conversion, and His indwelling in the believer, almost unknown.” This is thehardest truth to get across to believers, but one of the most important, for it is a truth distinctive toChristianity, and it is the source of the power to live the Christian life. Sir Monier Williams, a greatoriental scholar, asserts that the consciousness of a personal union and fellowship with God is aunique feature of Christianity. He fails to find it in any of the religions of the East. Dr. W. L.Walker in The Spirit And The Incarnation says, “The Spirit is the great thing in Christianity. It isthe distinctive doctrine, vital, fundamental and permanent”The power of Pentecost and of the early church was not in creed or ritual, but in the indwellingSpirit. A whole new relationship between God and man had come into the world. Peter said to the 3thousand converts on the day of Pentecost, “You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Then hesays in Acts 2:39, “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off,everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Him.” No longer was the Holy Spirit to be confined tothe favored few. He would indwell every believer. Paul says He was even indwelling theCorinthians, who such poor Christians. Of course, they were grieving and resisting the Spirit, butthey were still temples of the Spirit. Power for a victorious life of holiness was available to them, but they were not aware of it.James M. Campbell in his book After Pentecost, what? Compares the Christian who isignorant of the doctrine of the indwelling Spirit to a fish who lies gasping in the sunshine only aninch away from the water. One flip would take him over into his native element, but there he lies ina sad plight as if the water were miles away. Christians are always near to abundant life, for Godwith all His resources dwells within, but we are so seldom conscious of this reality, and we do notknow how to take advantage of it, even when we become conscious of it.Our whole way of life, and the total pattern of our culture make it hard for us to develop aconsciousness of the inner life. We seldom meditate and develop an awareness of the world within.We do not think of preparation on the inside before we read the Bible, and yet men of the Spirit tellus it is the key to Bible study. George Fox wrote, “A man can understand inspired Scriptures onlyas he is in the same spirit in which they are given.” The unique New Testament perspective is to see
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