1 Corinthians

Introduction

Corinth has an ancient history. It was a major Greek city during the rise of Greece on the stage of world history. Its position on the Greek isthmus made it militarily important and its location also made it commercially important.

It was destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.C. and 100 years later it was rebuilt by Julius Caesar.  He settled veterans and freedmen there but because of its strategic location it very quickly became a regional governmental center for Rome as well as a military outpost.  Because of its location it became a commercial center as well. Here also stood a temple dedicated to the goddess Venus along with its compliment of cult prostitutes.

In short Corinth was a politically and commercially powerful city immersed in paganism and corruption. It was here that the Apostle Paul started a Christian ecclesia. Although it has been 2000 years since this first congregation was founded, Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Christians sounds as pertinent today as it would have sounded then.

They were new to the faith, trying to understand their new faith and reconcile it with the corrupt culture that surrounded them and finding that all too often if they followed their faith it put them at odds with the world around them.  Such a dissimilarity forced them to either compromise or encounter conflict.  All to often they chose compromise.

So it is with the church today, especially in the western world.  We are living in a wealthy society sinking into a more and more corrupt culture.  We are often called upon to choose either conflict or compromise.  Like the Corinthian Christians, all to often the decision is made to compromise.

The Apostle Paul begins to confront the problem of compromise right from the very beginning.

Chapter 1

1 Corinthians 1:1 ESV

                     Paul,

called

by the will of God

to be an apostle of Christ Jesus,

and our brother

Sosthenes,

We know from Paul’s history that it was not his original intention or will to believe or spread the gospel.  He started by doing his best to eradicate the gospel message and all those who professed and proclaimed it.

Acts 8:3 ESV
But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

(The story of his eradication efforts and conversion is found in Acts 7:58-8:4, 9:1-24)

It was only when he encountered the risen Christ on the way to Damascus that he was converted to a believer and began a life-long effort to win others, especially the Gentile population, to faith in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God

Paul claims two things in this opening sentence of his first letter to the Corinthian Christians.  First, he claims that he was called by God to the task.  This claim was in keeping with his encounter on the road to Damascus. What he did was not the result of his own determination but as result of God’s will, an inexorable will that cannot be resisted or circumvented.

Secondly, he claims that he was called to be an “apostle’.  According to TDNT, to be sent as an apostle is the be sent as a messenger with a special task.  (TDNT, Vol 1, p400).  He was to be a special messenger from God to bring the gospel message of Jesus Christ to those to whom he was sent.  In point of fact, he felt compelled to proclaim the gospel.

Paul begins his letter to the Corinthian church by underlining his authority.  He could have started by pointing to the fact that he had founded the church in Corinth but instead he points to a more foundational element undergirding his ministry: his gospel and thus his ministry comes straight from God. What Paul has told them in the past and what he tells them now is by the authority of God himself.  He is merely a messenger sent with the message.  God is the author of the message and the message is the word of God.

Paul also mentions Sosthenes who happens to be present as Paul pens this letter. There does not seem to be agreement among authorities as to who this Sosthenes is.  Some believe that he is the one beaten by the mob before Galilio in Corinth and who was described as the ruler of the synagogue.  Others believe he is a different person all together.  Why Paul would mention him if he was not the one from Corinth is not clear.

(See also: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_corinthians/1-1.htm) especially Benson.