Nevertheless... to the saints.

<p>Yesterday we started our journey into 1 Corinthians, situating the text into its moment in time. To understand letters, like 1 Corinthians, we first have to understand something right off the bat.  Each letter in the NT is written to a specific group of people, with a specific set of circumstances, questions, problems, pain points, etc.  A moment none of us are familiar with.  In a language none of us speak. But the beauty of Scripture is that all of it is revelatory. It is a unified story that shows the nature of God and His purposes for His people. It is both particular to a moment in time, and has universal import.Truly, there are things in 1 Corinthians that are wild, and will make no sense to us. We may not be sacrificing food to idols, but we are addicted to our iPhones. We may have “evolved” some, or advanced intellectually, but the human heart is the same. We, like the Corinthians, love Jesus. But we also tend to love the things that make Him grieve.Nevertheless, Paul doesn&#39;t start his letter to them (and us) with scathing comments. He addresses them as saints. Cleaned up by Jesus. He recognizes first who they actually are, then invites them to live into what&#39;s already true of them. He extends the same invitation to us, too.Teacher: Caleb SprinkleTexts: Acts 18 and 1 Corinthians 1</p>