哥林多前书 1 Corinthians

哥林多是当时著名的商港，繁华而败坏。保罗在第二次宣教旅程中在此住了一年半，建立了教会；约公元 55 年，他在以弗所听闻哥林多教会的种种问题——分党结派、淫乱诉讼、聚会混乱——又收到他们来信询问婚姻、祭偶像之物等难题，便写下这封既严厉又满有父亲心肠的信。

保罗处理问题的方式极具启发性：他不只开药方，更把每个问题带回福音的根基。教会分争？请看十字架的智慧，它使人的夸口归于无有。身体犯罪？要知道你们的身子是圣灵的殿，是重价买来的。恩赐攀比？恩赐原是为造就教会，而最妙的道路是爱——「爱是恒久忍耐，又有恩慈」。第十五章更以基督的复活作为整个信仰的根基与盼望的高峰。

今天的教会与哥林多何其相似：身处多元而世俗的都市文化，内有纷争，外有试探。哥林多前书提醒我们，问题的答案不在更高明的管理技巧，而在重新回到「耶稣基督并他钉十字架」。一间不完美的教会，仍然是「在基督耶稣里成圣、蒙召作圣徒」的群体。

Corinth was a booming port city, wealthy and notoriously immoral. Paul had spent eighteen months there on his second missionary journey planting the church. Around AD 55, while in Ephesus, he received alarming reports — rival factions, sexual scandal, lawsuits, chaotic worship — along with a letter from the Corinthians asking about marriage, food sacrificed to idols, and other dilemmas. His reply is stern yet unmistakably fatherly.

What makes the letter so instructive is Paul's method: he never merely issues rules but traces every problem back to the gospel. Divided into parties? Look at the wisdom of the cross, which silences all human boasting. Sinning with the body? Remember that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, bought at a price. Competing over spiritual gifts? Gifts exist to build up the church, and the most excellent way is love — "Love is patient, love is kind." Chapter 15 then plants the whole faith on the bedrock of Christ's resurrection, the climax of Christian hope.

Today's church resembles Corinth more than we might like to admit: set in a pluralistic, secular urban culture, troubled by conflict within and temptation without. First Corinthians insists that the cure is not better management technique but a fresh return to "Jesus Christ and him crucified." Even a deeply flawed church remains what God calls it — sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people.