Exploring Christian Unity on Waikato University Campus through the lens of 1 Corinthians 1-4

This study has been the work of two students over two years. In 2012, Danyell had a vision to see Christian groups on campus working in unity.  In 2013, Nick helped to work through key ideas in these passages from Corinthians. In 2015, our Hamilton TSCF staff team tested the material and now it is ready for students to have a go at leading it. Some topics are so complex that they take a collaborative effort and time to unpack. Thank you, Danyell for your ideas and heart for the campus.

Aim:

Learning what the bible says about the topic: Christian unity.

Applying what we learnt to our campus.

Learning how to apply bible passages as solutions to real-life situations.

How to write a topical bible study?

* Research and select the passages that are relevant to the topic.

I recommended 1 Corinthian 1-4 because it is a well-known passage on Christian Unity and it deals with thought, knowledge and wisdom, which reside in the domain of Tertiary Education.

* Examine the bible passage in its context. Corinthians is written by the Apostle Paul and we need to examine the city and background of the book. One of the challenges of writing and doing a topical bible study is that we may not be able to unpack the text deeply enough. Why is this even an issue? By the end of the 3rd century A.D., most of the canon of the bible was already collected. This means that, while all of the Bible is truth we can apply to our lives, most, if not all, of the Bible was not originally written to us. The authors had in mind the hearers of that day. That should cause us to be very careful when interpreting the Bible for today’s Christians. Taken from.

* Before we work out how the Bible applies to us, we must first come to the best possible understanding of what the Bible meant to its original audience. If we come up with an application that would have been foreign to the original audience, there is a very strong possibility that we did not interpret the passage correctly. In other words, what are the differences in language, time, culture, geography, setting and situation? One person who has studied the cultural environment during Paul’s time is Kenneth Bailey. Here is the outline that goes with the talk. 

* Now we can apply the text to our situation. Examine the situation you are facing on campus from as many perspectives as possible. Draw out relevant principles from the biblical passages you have selected. Pray and ask God to show your group how to apply what you have learnt about God to this situation.