The Corinthians were making mud pies, playing with imaginary friends, and blindly following know-it-alls who were leading them into theological and moral pitfalls.
Let us not recoil at the sight and sound of the crucifixion. It is the battlefield of victory. It is the throne of the King. It is the symbol of salvation.
Christianity is not principally about ethics. It was the Cross on the Hill rather than the Sermon on the Mount which produced the impact of Christianity upon the world.
The Church becomes anti-church when the new world order Christ inaugurated by eliminating demographic division through the commonality of Baptism is exploded by allegiance to cults of personality.
Human history and especially the Christian life have a shape, and Jesus is its shaper at every point, infusing even the mundane and the difficult with sanctifying purposes, ultimate meaning, and enduring hope.