Modern Life and Ancient Corinth

For the past year I've been leading a Bible study with a small group. We've been examining and discussing what the Apostle Paul wrote in his so-called first letter to the Corinthians. He wrote the letter about a generation after Christ's ministry. At that time there were hundreds in Galilee and Judea who had seen the Lord Jesus alive and present with them after His resurrection. Paul makes reference to that fact in the fifteenth chapter.

The Corinthians are so interesting because their problems have so many parallels in modern urban life, as well as the life in contemporary churches. Three individuals in particular, Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus, come to Paul while he was teaching in Ephesus over on the eastern side of the Aegean Sea (modern Turkey). They told him they wanted to assist him with his work, but they may also have been the ones who carried news about predicaments in the several house churches there in Corinth.

I can imagine them saying, "Brother Paul, we have some real headaches, especially with one of our families. This man--dare we call him brother--is living with his step-mother. He claims it's perfectly legal and refuses to listen to anything we have to say. We're uncertain about how to proceed."

Perhaps Paul listened intently, asked some detailed questions and assured them he would be writing a letter. Was there anything else?

"Oh, yes," they replied. "We have a whole list of hurdles. Some are even questioning your right to claim the title of Apostle. They insist they follow Apollos. Others claim to be followers of Peter. And so it goes. They don't want to listen to anything you have to say."

"Interesting," mused Paul. "Continue."

And they did, listing controversies about church leadership, lawsuits, sexual experimentation, prostitution, marriage, idolatry, the Lord's Supper, worship, the work of the Holy Spirit and on and on.

Paul must have prayed for long hours for wisdom. How should he reply? Would they even bother to listen to what he had to say? After such musings and guided by the Holy Spirit, the Apostle wrote this wonderful letter to the believers scrattered around Corinth.

Corinth had a long history as a city and a city state, long before Paul's day. It was the home of more than 250,000 free persons, with nearly double that number of slaves. It was a harbor city, with commerce flowing back and forth across the isthmus upon which it was located. Greek to the hilt, controlled by the Romans, Corinth was home to a dozen pagan temples, many that sponsored religious prostitution. This was a center for open and unbridled immorality. At one time as many as a thousand sacred prostitutes served in the temple of Aphrodite.

In writing his letter, Paul deals with these and many other questions about morality, faith, religion, hope, life after death and the resurrection. As I said, it's a letter packed with vital and meaningful teachings that have scores of applications to modern life. I want to tackle what Paul writes and reflect upon it over the next months. Stay tuned.