PAUL’S LETTERS · OUR SHARED CALLING
One Lord.
One body.
1 & 2 Corinthians invite us to hear Paul’s words together—as believers in Jesus Christ, across denominations and congregations.
“with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours”1 Corinthians 1:2 · World English Bible Updated
THE CONNECTION AT THE HEART OF STAY AT THE TABLE
His question still reaches us:
“Is Christ divided?”
Read these letters as a whole. Their call joins belonging to Christ with truth, love, repentance, care, and shared service. This is the biblical foundation of our invitation to Christians in every denomination and congregation.
Listen with gentle harp music. The spoken words or passage glow red as you follow.
The address reaches beyond one congregation
First Corinthians begins with a local church and a wider fellowship: the believers in Corinth, together with all who call on Jesus’ name in every place. Second Corinthians is addressed to the church in Corinth with all the saints throughout Achaia. These are real letters to particular communities. As Scripture, they also instruct Christians today, across denominations and congregations. Applying them to our divisions is a Christian reading of their message; Paul was not naming denominations that developed later.
1 Corinthians 1:1–3 · 2 Corinthians 1:1–2
‘Is Christ divided?’ is a question for us
Paul confronts Christians who organize their loyalties around Paul, Apollos, and Cephas. He directs them back to the crucified Christ and the one foundation, Jesus Christ. The question for us is searching: have the names of our groups become more important to us than the Lord we confess? Stay at the Table invites Christians to bring their convictions into a conversation centered on Jesus, with the humility to receive correction as well as offer it.
1 Corinthians 1:10–17 · 1 Corinthians 3:1–11 · 1 Corinthians 15:1–4
One body means we need one another
Paul describes different gifts, different forms of service, and the same Spirit and Lord. The eye cannot dismiss the hand. The members who seem weaker are necessary. If one member suffers, all suffer together. This is more demanding than being polite: it calls us to notice Christians outside our familiar circles, listen to the gifts they bring, and share their burdens. The body’s unity is a gift in Christ that we are called to live out.
1 Corinthians 12:4–7 · 1 Corinthians 12:12–27
Love shapes the whole conversation
The chapter on love stands within Paul’s teaching about the church and its gifts. Knowledge, eloquence, and even extraordinary faith do not make us faithful neighbors without love. Love is patient and kind, and it rejoices with the truth. Paul also challenges sin, disorder, and denial of the resurrection. His call to unity asks us to pursue truth with love, examine ourselves, repent where needed, and build up the church through words others can understand.
1 Corinthians 8:1–3 · 1 Corinthians 13:1–13 · 1 Corinthians 14:26 · 1 Corinthians 15:12–20
A shared table carries responsibility
In chapters 10 and 11, Paul speaks specifically about the Lord’s Supper: one bread, one body, and the shame of a gathering where some go hungry while others indulge themselves. His instruction to wait for one another gives the image of a table real moral weight. This website uses that image for conversation and shared service. Churches’ teachings about Communion deserve careful attention; an online gathering cannot settle those sacramental questions. Here, we can begin by refusing indifference to one another’s needs.
1 Corinthians 10:16–17 · 1 Corinthians 11:17–34
Reconciliation begins with God and changes us
Second Corinthians carries the call through strained relationships, suffering, correction, forgiveness, and restored trust. Paul says that God reconciles us to himself through Christ and gives a ministry of reconciliation. Its center is the gospel: be reconciled to God. That grace also gives us reason to open our hearts to one another, reaffirm love, and work toward restoration. Paul’s closing appeal is to be restored, be of the same mind, and live in peace.
2 Corinthians 2:5–11 · 2 Corinthians 5:14–21 · 2 Corinthians 6:11–13 · 2 Corinthians 13:5–11
Shared faith becomes practical care
Paul brings congregations into cooperation through a collection for believers in need. Generosity is willing, proportionate to what people have, and handled honorably. This gives our shared action a practical direction: pray together, identify real needs, offer our different gifts, and serve freely. Stay at the Table exists to help Christians across traditions practice that kind of faithfulness together. The measure is how faithfully we follow Christ and love the people he calls us to serve.
1 Corinthians 16:1–4 · 1 Corinthians 16:14 · 2 Corinthians 8:1–15 · 2 Corinthians 8:20–21 · 2 Corinthians 9:7–13
READ THE LETTERS FOR YOURSELF
1 & 2 Corinthians
Choose either letter and a chapter, or listen to a complete letter. Settle into the words with light Christian devotional harp music, and follow the red glow as they are read. You can turn the music off at any time.
1 Corinthians 12
31 verses · World English Bible Updated (WEBU) · English
Listen with gentle harp music. The spoken words or passage glow red as you follow.
Chapter 12 · Many members, one body
12:1 Now concerning spiritual things, brothers, I don’t want you to be ignorant.
12:2 You know that when you were heathen, you were led away to those mute idols, however you might be led.
12:3 Therefore I make known to you that no man speaking by God’s Spirit says, “Jesus is accursed.” No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” but by the Holy Spirit.
12:4 Now there are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
12:5 There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord.
12:6 There are various kinds of workings, but the same God who works all things in all.
12:7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all.
12:8 For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit,
12:9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit,
12:10 and to another workings of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of languages, and to another the interpretation of languages.
12:11 But the one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing to each one separately as he desires.
12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
12:13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit.
12:14 For the body is not one member, but many.
12:15 If the foot would say, “Because I’m not the hand, I’m not part of the body,” it is not therefore not part of the body.
12:16 If the ear would say, “Because I’m not the eye, I’m not part of the body,” it’s not therefore not part of the body.
12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be?
12:18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired.
12:19 If they were all one member, where would the body be?
12:20 But now they are many members, but one body.
12:21 The eye can’t tell the hand, “I have no need for you,” or again the head to the feet, “I have no need for you.”
12:22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
12:23 Those parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, on those we bestow more abundant honor; and our unpresentable parts have more abundant modesty,
12:24 while our presentable parts have no such need. But God composed the body together, giving more abundant honor to the inferior part,
12:25 that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
12:26 When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. When one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
12:28 God has set some in the assembly: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracle workers, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and various kinds of languages.
12:29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all miracle workers?
12:30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with various languages? Do all interpret?
12:31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. Moreover, I show a most excellent way to you.
Scripture is reproduced from the public-domain World English Bible Updated, the same English text used in the Table’s Bible reader. Chapter themes are reading guides. Read the source and its footnotes ↗
A WELCOME FROM DANIEL
The invitation we begin with
The opening letter brings this shared calling into the welcome at Stay at the Table.
Listen with gentle harp music. The spoken words or passage glow red as you follow.
Paul opens 1 Corinthians by addressing the church in Corinth together with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place (1 Corinthians 1:2). Before he challenges their divisions, he reminds them whom they belong to.
Some were saying, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas.’ Paul asks, ‘Is Christ divided?’ (1 Corinthians 1:12–13). These were factions in Corinth, before the denominations we know today. Yet his question speaks to every denomination and congregation wherever loyalty to a name or a leader overshadows our belonging to Jesus.
That is the connection at the heart of Stay at the Table. Every believer in Christ is called to hear these words. We may worship in different congregations, but we call on the same Lord. Jesus Christ is our foundation, and his death and resurrection are at the center of the faith we share (1 Corinthians 3:11; 15:3–4).
Paul describes one body with many members who need one another. When one suffers, all suffer; when one is honored, all rejoice. He then shows us the way of love: patient, kind, humble, and rejoicing with the truth (1 Corinthians 12:12–27; 13:4–7). These words ask something of the way we treat Christians beyond our own church walls.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks of God reconciling us to himself through Christ and entrusting a ministry of reconciliation. He calls believers to open their hearts, restore one another, and live in peace (2 Corinthians 5:18–20; 6:11–13; 13:11). Faithfulness includes repentance, truthful teaching, and love that becomes practical care.
This is why this table exists: to bring Christians across denominations and congregations together around Jesus and Scripture, to listen carefully, speak truthfully, pray, and serve together. Our differences deserve honest attention. Our shared belonging to Christ calls us to approach one another with humility and love.
I hope you will read these letters with us and bring that willingness to the conversation. Let all that we do be done in love (1 Corinthians 16:14). Welcome to the table.
Daniel
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