Hold fast to the word
by Sara Wootten Corinth Missionary Baptist Church
1 Corinthians is a hard book. On the whole, it’s not difficult to understand. Paul’s language is pretty clear if you come to it with a preconceived disposition that it’s true.
But at so many points, the truth is hard to apply.
We read a principle that we immediately try to explain away because we are a prideful people who don’t want to face our own sinfulness.
Or we are confronted with the desperate need we have to put the good of our brothers and sisters above our own desires.
We have been sprinting through many chapters where Paul is correcting the behavior of the Corinthian church. At times, it has seemed daunting to me.
But as we come to chapter 15, Paul orients their hearts to the thing that is most important – the gospel.
Why would Paul do this?
While sorting through all these issues the Corinthian church was facing, God’s Word – and especially the character of the gospel – has been the foundation of the Biblical solutions that Paul was explaining.
The gospel has always been of primary importance (15:3).
So as we come to the end of the corrections, it makes sense that Paul will now spend a chapter reminding the believers of the gospel in greater detail.
None of their sin will ever be resolved if they neglect the gospel.
Paul defines the gospel for the believers in 15:3-4, which says, “…
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” (ESV).
In God’s divine and incredibly wise plan, He sent His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins.
We deserve death, but Christ took that death away from us on the cross so that we don’t experience the wrath that God has stored up for sinners.
Instead, for all who believe in Him and Him alone, we experience the joyous resurrected life that can only be found in Christ.
This resurrected life that we have in Christ changes us.
When someone has a scrape with physical death, oftentimes, his life looks vastly different than it did beforehand.
How much more so when we experience a spiritual death in Christ and new life in Him.
All of a sudden, our lives begin to look more and more like the One who saved us.
This is why Paul can tell the Corinthians to be self-controlled, humble, and loving throughout this letter.
They aren’t the same as they once were. They are people who have been changed by the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, Paul reorients the Corinthian believers to the gospel and encourages them to hold fast to the Word that was preached to them (15:2-3).
This is the only thing that will bring lasting obedience in their lives.
It would be a tragedy to abandon the truth of God’s Word for the continued sin evident throughout the congregation.
That would prove that they had indeed believed in vain (15:2). So Paul’s encouragement is to hold fast to Christ, to His Word, and to let it dwell richly.
