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Every large city has one pocket where prostitutes, strippers, gamblers and drug dealers hang out. Tourists stroll by to gawk at the sights. In the ancient world, the whole city of Corinth was known for that kind of lifestyle. Romans made the Corinthians the butt of dirty jokes, and playwrights consistently portrayed them as drunken brawlers. The Greek verb “to Corinthianise” meant to live shamelessly and immorally.
A Wide-open City Everyone knew what the Corinthians worshipped: money and the kinky things it could buy. Money flowed freely, for Corinth straddled one of the Roman empire’s most vital trade routes. When a ship wrecked nearby, salvage companies housed the hapless sailors at inflated prices while they scrambled to auction off the ship’s cargo. The city was a sprawling open-air market, filled with slaves, Orientals, Jews, Greeks, Egyptians, sailors, athletes, gamblers and charioteers. Yet Corinth was no blue-collar town. It had a population of 700,000, second only to Rome’s and as the capital of a large province, the city hosted a parade of Roman diplomats and dignitaries. Its clever citizens showcased new “Corinthian” architecture and prided themselves on having a cosmopolitan outlook. For their religious ideal, the fun-loving Corinthians adopted Venus, the goddess of love. A temple built in her honour employed more than 1000 prostitutes. Paul Takes on the Corinthians Due to all these influences, Corinth loomed as the one city “least likely to convert” to the Christian faith. What crazy cults and new religions did spring up there quickly gave in to the prevailing good-time atmosphere. The gutsy Paul, reeling from one of his most difficult missionary assignments in Athens, came to Corinth “in weakness and feat, and with much trembling” (2:3) He knew its strategic importance: If the gospel could take root there, it could transplant anywhere – and probably would, considering Corinth’s crossroads location. Paul worked in Corinth for 18 months. To everyone’s surprise, the church he founded became one of the largest in the first century. But several years later he heard reports that the church, true to its city’s heritage, had broken out in a series of spiritual ills. The distressing news prompted the letter known as 1 Corinthians. The tone of this letter differs drastically from the one that precedes it. If Romans was stylistically carved in stone, 1 Corinthians was dashed off in tears and anger. One of Paul’s longest letters, it covers the greatest variety of topics, partly because the Corinthians added bizarre new twists to ethical issues. In it, Paul gives advice on a series of church problems, as well as a fascinating glimpse into the personal lives of early Christians. How to read 1 Corinthians To fully appreciate Paul’s letters, keep in mind that they are personal correspondence. We are actually reading someone else’s mail.
In 1 Corinthians a riled-up apostle gives direct, forthright advice to a troubled local church. Paul saw alarming trends at work, and he used his full literacy powers to set this Church’s members on the right course. He tried sarcasm, emotional pleas, autobiography, poetry and lengthy arguments. First you will encounter the problems that had been reported to Paul: divisions in the church, a case of incest, court cases, the abuse of Christian freedom, chaos in the worship services. Paul lunges into these problems early in the book. Then, beginning with chapter 7, he takes up some other issues the Corinthians had written him about: marriage and the single life, pagan festivals, behaviour of women, spiritual gifts and the resurrection of the dead. The first letter to the Corinthians presents a foundation for practical Christian ethics. Not all the problems discussed will apply directly to modern situations. But the general principles underlying Paul’s advice do apply. As you read, look for those principles behind Paul’s arguments. * * * Taken from The NIV Student Bible © 2002 by Zondervan. Notes written by Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford. |
