In writing 1 Corinthians, Paul faced the challenge of a church established in the truth but rife with disunity and sin, influenced by a decadent pagan culture in its city. As he encourages the faithful, confronts the wayward, and answers pressing questions, Paul gives us some of the most beloved passages in the New Testament alongside some of the most challenging. It is a letter that deserves our careful study.
In volume two of this series, Alistair Begg looks into some of the issues that were at top of mind for Paul when he wrote: the stark and shocking examples of sin being tolerated and even celebrated in the church. The freedom of the Gospel is not a freedom to sin but a freedom from it. The church is responsible to discipline those who persist in flagrant sin and look to Christ for the power to live a new kind of life in love and holiness.