Message of Warning and Entreaty
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to the church at Corinth one of the richest, most instructive, most
powerful of all his letters.
With remarkable clearness he proceeded to answer the various
questions brought forward by the church, and to lay down general
principles, which, if heeded, would lead them to a higher spiritual
plane. They were in peril, and he could not bear the thought of failing
at this critical time to reach their hearts. Faithfully he warned them of
their dangers and reproved them for their sins. He pointed them again
to Christ and sought to kindle anew the fervor of their early devotion.
The apostle’s great love for the Corinthian believers was revealed
in his tender greeting to the church. He referred to their experience in
turning from idolatry to the worship and service of the true God. He
reminded them of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which they had received,
and showed that it was their privilege to make continual advancement
in the Christian life until they should attain to the purity and holiness
of Christ. “In everything ye are enriched by Him,” he wrote, “in all
utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was
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confirmed in you: so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm you unto the
end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul spoke plainly of the dissensions that had arisen in the
Corinthian church, and exhorted the members to cease from strife.
“I beseech you, brethren,” he wrote, “by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions
among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment.”
The apostle felt at liberty to mention how and by whom he had
been informed of the divisions in the church. “It hath been declared
unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you.”
Paul was an inspired apostle. The truths he taught to others he had
received “by revelation;” yet the Lord did not directly reveal to him at
all times just the condition of His people. In this instance those who
were interested in the prosperity of the church at Corinth, and who
had seen evils creeping in, had presented the matter before the apostle,
and from divine revelations which he had formerly received he was
prepared to judge of the character of these developments. Notwith-
standing the fact that the Lord did not give him a new revelation for