Footsteps #120

While Paul must have wondered about the wisdom of planting a church amidst the corruption of Corinth, he had received direct instruction from God to do so “For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you, for many people in this city belong to me.” NLT (Acts 18:10). This should remind us not to give up on those immersed in the cultural abnormalities of our day. Corinth was the most important city in Greece and Paul saw it as a strategic centre for Christian mission. It was a large, wealthy, maritime, and geographically important city that offered its citizens all the pleasures and temptations of a bustling urban environment. Located on an isthmus it had 2 seaports and shipbuilding industry. Many coverts came directly from the corruption of the city and from paganism. Their previous lives had been moulded by immorality and now had to be shaped by the values of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul’s first letter to Corinth was about sexual immorality, however, this letter, while alluded to in 1Cor5:9&11, has been lost. 

Aquila and Priscilla had come to Corinth as tent and leather goods traders in AD49, following Claudius’ expulsion of Jews from Rome.  They were probably Christians when they arrived (Acts.18:18). The account of Acts.18:1-8 opens a window into the large and cosmopolitan city where Greeks, Romans, and Jews mingled in commerce and worship with people of all nations and creeds. Paul spoke of the “many gods” (1Cor.8:5) in the city. This cosmopolitan, seafaring nature of Corinth explains the need for the gift of languages (KJV = tongues) that became a problem in the church and is discussed in chapters 12-14. 

In AD 57 Paul received a letter from the Corinthians themselves (7:1) and this caused the writing of the letter that we now call 1Corinthians. This was written before his departure from Ephesus on his third Missionary journey (1Cor.16:8). 

Despite all the problems that the book makes apparent, I am encouraged by Paul’s introduction in 1Cor.1:2 ”  I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.“ NLT where they are called “saints” – the words “to be” are not in the Greek. The original word ‘hagios’ means set apart for holy use. That’s what you are! While we constantly fall short of that ‘calling’ that does not diminish the ideal.