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Exell's Victorian homily isolates four charges against this congregation, each applicable to contemporary faith communities.
He names it twice in his opening movement (verses 1 and 4), and again when addressing the Corinthians themselves (verses 6-7).
Its acquisition presents such difficulties that it is seldom truly found in our age.
First, the gospel illuminates what was previously hidden.
The title "Lamb" applied to Christ appears nowhere else in Scripture save John's Gospel—this is no accident.
When worldly distractions fade and darkness surrounds us, the soul engages in its most consequential work—calling upon departed friends, recalling the past, foreboding the future, and wrestling with its deepest longing: communion with God.
In Adam's family stood Cain; in Christ's family, Judas; in the earliest Church, deceivers.
In Lawrence of Arabia, T.E. Lawrence crosses the Nefud Desert—the Sun's Anvil—where no water exists for days. Men die of thirst; mirages taunt survivors. When they finally reach the well, the drinking is almost religious.
The Jews employed the pipe (*aulos*) for both marriages and funerals—music for joy and mourning alike.
The Kim family lives in a basement apartment that floods with sewage. The Park family lives on a hill in architectural splendor. When Ki-taek, the poor father, asks what the rich Mr. Park's plan is, he answers: "I never make plans.
First, the *phobos* (fear) of preparation for judgment itself.
Christ was the reputed son of a village carpenter, a poor despised Nazarene—yet His fame spread abroad.
All intelligent creatures act from some consideration—money, pleasure, regard for others—yet Christ calls us to a higher ordering of life itself.
The upright man bequeaths his heirs three precious gifts: (1) His example—a living testimony that sons and daughters may trace throughout their own success.
Exell's Victorian homiletic unpacks this indictment with surgical precision.
This seems counterintuitive until we understand what Spurgeon observed: the subjects of God's people's joy extend far beyond comfort and blessing.
Many people attribute their deliverance to fortune or their own skill, yielding only scattered praise to God.
They possessed nothing—no influence, no numbers, no world support.
This vivid metaphor describes how God's people must guard and maintain the truths contained in Scripture through deliberate action.
They had witnessed Christ feed five thousand with five barley loaves and two small fishes, yet their enthusiasm remained carnal—impressed by the multiplication, unmoved by His wisdom or deeds.
Maclaren asks the penetrating question: why did they not seize Him?
Paul "strived" to preach Christ where His name had never been spoken—a holy ambition rooted in Christian love and respect for others' labour.
Jesus appeared distant in the man's apprehension, yet he was far from God in four critical ways: in character—separated by the gulf between holiness and sin; in knowledge—aware of Jesus but ignorant of His love; in hope—the demons had extinguished...
Maracleren observes that all earthly teachers—however towering—accomplish limited, transient work.