A Coptic Orthodox Journey through the Bible

Over the next few chapters St. Paul responds to social problems that the congregation sent to him. In this chapter he deals with questions concerning marriage, virginity, and physical relationships among married couples. The church in Corinth suffered controversies because of concepts of sex, physical relationships, and marriage because of being raised in a pagan society. Living in the world today...

In the first 4 chapters, St. Paul dealt with unity in the church. In chapter 5, he begins discussing sexual immorality among Christians. In chapter 6, he tells people to not file lawsuits against other believers. He builds on ideas from previous chapters including the Church has authority over believers, and that spiritual people should bring their problems before spiritual people.

In the first 4 chapters of this epistle, St. Paul deals with the problem of unity in the church. In this chapter, he builds on his arguments from the previous chapters regarding the importance of unity. We will see that he pushes them further, in an effort to convict them so they recognize their error. In every step of his argument, St. Paul reinforces that their focus should be on the crucified C...

In this chapter St. Paul continues to deal with the problem of divisions in the church. Here he diagnoses the problem and gets more personal by telling the people of Corinth that they are carnal people. St. Paul describes people in 3 groups: spiritual, natural and carnal. In the last chapter he discussed spiritual and natural. To resolve this problem, they must grow in their spiritual maturity. Th...

In this chapter, St. Paul builds on that idea that we are all united in Christ. He points out that he does not depend on persuasive words. Instead he relies on heavenly wisdom which comes from the Holy Spirit when we build our relationship with God. He also introduces the natural man while in the next chapter he discusses the carnal man. Here, he explains that the natural person cannot understand...

This episode offers a general introduction to St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians and a review of chapter 1. In this Chapter, we see St. Paul writing to a church he loved, he feels they are family. He begins with a joyful introduction that brings to them the spirit of hope. He sets forth with them to the cross of the Lord of glory Jesus Christ to find in it a solution for all their pro...

The previous chapter could be considered as the concluding part of the practical teachings of the Epistle. It is in harmony with the first part of the epistle where St. Paul discussed theological issues. This is because it is impossible to separate the faith of the church from its daily conduct. This chapter represents the concluding words of the Epistle, and provides us with a great number of nam...

St Paul considers that ‘the mystery of the Lord Jesus Christ’ lies in the opening of the door of faith to the whole world, and allowing all nations access to salvation. While the entire epistle proclaims the nature of salvation, here St. Paul presents practical applications which are in harmony with all the other parts of his message. He stresses the obligations of the Church as a whole as well as...

This episode reviews both chapters 12 & 13.Chapter 12 is roughly divided into 3 parts: 1) asking us to be transformed by the renewal of our minds; 2) instructing us how to use the spiritual gifts to the glory of God; and 3) how to live as Christians in this world with one another and with our enemies. In Chapter 13, St Paul addresses, in a spirit of humility and respect, the issue of his status as...

In this chapter, St Paul addresses the Gentiles and warns them against misunderstanding his earlier speech directed to the Jewsish-Christians and advises them not to harbor any pride or contempt towards them. He explains that towards the end of time, the Jews will ultimately accept the Lord Jesus Christ and repent. In other words, when St Paul speaks to the Jews, he reproaches them in order to lea...

Here in Chapter 10, St Paul addresses the issue of being ‘God’s chosen people.’ Instead of feeling God’s love for them and feeling committed to their responsibility of preaching among the Gentiles, their hearts were hardened with ingratitude. In addition to helping the Jews understand how they are stumbling on Christ instead of embracing him, St Paul writes to us about the issue of the ingratitude...

Most look at chapters 9-11 as a shift in Romans, as St. Paul shows that God has not rejected Israel and turned His back on promises He has made. In this chapter, we see St. Paul speak from a place of great love for his Jewish brethren. He wants them to see that they have rejected God and everything He offered them. That is, it is they who have left God and not God who left them. He confirms that t...

St. Paul began his epistle to the Romans by talking about the sinful state of both Gentiles and Jews; and that Christ came to save both. Then St. Paul discussed the relationship between sin and death and how, through Adam, death came into the world. Because of what Adam chose to do, all human beings became mortal, and being mortal, all human beings fell into sin. St. Paul then presented Christ as...

St. Paul continues his argument from the previous chapter, where he asserted that the reason believers can now overcome sin is that they are no longer under Law, but under grace. In this chapter, he further reflects on the nature of the Law. The Law helps us see that we are sinning but does not save us. Thus, while the Law exposes sin and does not deal with it or treat it, it still leads us to the...

Chapter 5 focused on Adam, he was the key to the problem, through his transgression, all humanity became mortal and disposed to sin; while Christ was the solution. In this chapter, St. Paul begins discussing how we move from Adam’s side to Christ’s. He discusses baptism where we move to being children of God. When we follow Our Lord Jesus, we offer our bodies as instruments of God’s righteousness...

Chapter 5 is a shift in St. Paul’s argument and can be broken into two halves: In the first half of this chapter (vv1-11): after we were enemies with God because of our sins, now having been justified through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with Him. Also through our justification we have access to the grace of God and the gifts of the Spirit. We also have hope in the glory of God and it is t...

In this chapter, St. Paul presents an example of Abraham as a righteous person in the Old Testament, Jewish Scriptures. He was justified through his faith even though he was uncircumcised and before he had practiced any of the instructions in the Law of Moses because the Law of Moses had not been given.

Among other things, here St. Paul discusses that all people have fallen under the yoke of sin - Jews & Gentiles. In some ways, this chapter sounds like an indictment of all humanity: all lack true righteousness and need to be justified.

In chapter 1, St. Paul spoke about the sins of the Gentiles and how they needed salvation and justification. Chapter 1 ended with St. Paul giving a long list of sins - things that people were doing and justifying to others that they were good things. In the last chapter St. Paul basically shared that the Gentiles have no excuse to not follow Jesus. In this chapter he is saying the same thing to th...

This episode offers a general introduction to St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans and a review of chapter 1. In this chapter, St Paul reveals the essence of his whole message. Throughout his letter, we see St. Paul’s love for everyone.

The last chapter explains St. Paul’s journey from Caesarea to Rome. We did not see him make it all the way to Rome as he journeyed at sea, encountered a storm, and the last chapter ended with a shipwreck. In this chapter we learn that they came ashore after the shipwreck on the island of Malta. We see God working through St. Paul on this island and the rest of his trip to Rome. Overall, the book o...

In this chapter we see the beginning adventures of St. Paul’s journey to Rome. St. Luke has constructed Acts in such a way that chapter 27, the great voyage and shipwreck, functions as a kind of parallel to the climax of his Gospel, which is obviously the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. That had been the moment when “the power of darkness” did its worst. This, now, is the moment when Paul has to f...

In this chapter we see St. Paul’s speech in front of Festus, Agrippa, and Bernice. This is the last time we see him give this type of speech in Acts. His speech before Agrippa, Bernice, Festus, and the others who are gathered is longer than either the Areopagus (Acts 17) address or the farewell address to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20). Like them, however, what is written in Acts must be a great de...

In the previous chapter St. Paul had a trial before Felix, the Roman governor of the region with both the Jewish leaders and St. Paul present. Following the trial, the governor refused to make a final decision and put St. Paul back in prison. Afterwards, Felix and his wife, Drusilla met with St. Paul for some conversations. St. Paul spent two years in prison with no trial, as Felix did a favor for...