Many of the problems in our churches today are the same things that the Corinthians struggled with. Problems with pride and arrogance, with misunderstanding the gospel, with thinking that the Christian life is more about health, wealth and happiness than about suffering, wrestling and persevering through difficulties to reach glory.

Just like the Corinthians, we get stuck in the here and now, and forget about eternity. Like them, we are more impressed by fame and fortune than by faithfulness to Jesus Christ. We too struggle when life gets hard, and would love life to be a prosperous bed of roses. We would love to be strong, but know that we are weak – fragile clay pots that are filled with the immense treasure of God’s grace.

So Paul’s letter speaks to us as it spoke to them – about the way of true discipleship. And the reality he paints is not for the faint–hearted. Because it involves suffering as well as comfort. It means listening to hard truth as well as receiving and enjoying forgiveness. It involves dying to ourselves and the world, as well as living for the Lord.

Use this lively guide to get to grips with what it means to live as God’s ‘new creation’ in the old creation that is passing away.