Introducing...First Corinthians

I am going to be offering some thoughts on the book of 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians is an interesting book, perhaps it is the most relevant New Testament book to the church in America that is struggling to find itself amidst the ever increasing pluralism of our day. If nothing else, it provides encouragement to Christians to know that their situation isn't foreign to human experience, especially if they find their church at the crossroads of syncretizing with the culture around them.

Perhaps this is another takeaway from looking at the background of 1 Corinthians. We know that Corinth was a harbor city based on trade and commerce. Thus, the city became a melting pot for religion, culture, lifestyles, and philosophies. Life in Corinth was marked with religious pluralism mixed with crime, sexual promiscuity and a variety of entertainment options. There was a 2 to 1 ratio of slaves to owners in Corinth, highlighting the new wealth that was created in the Roman colony. The temple of Aphrodite used many temple slaves as prostitutes, which was not only an intersection of worship but viewed as part of the city's trade and commerce. In other words, worship and sexual immorality merge with the economy in Corinth. The influx of Jews from Rome just before the founding of the church would certainly have heightened religious and social tensions within the city, adding to the tension and conflict within the church community that concerned Paul.

Needless to say, you can imagine how church planting in Corinth would have been as difficult as it gets and this is evidenced in Paul's letters. For him, the church in Corinth gave him the most gray hairs. It was also the church he gave the most attention to, writing more to them than any other church he planted.

Going a step further with the history of Corinth we see that it was repopulated by ambitious and competitive freedmen from Rome, whose social status was just above that of a Roman slave. Under Julius Caesar the city shifted towards becoming a Roman colony. As far as worship goes, there was another shift from a focus on Greek gods but on the emerging emperor worship of the Romans. As the city was re-established after the Roman conquest of 146 BC a competitive spirit marked it's people. It was the competitive spirit that rebuilt the city but as it seeped into the church it turned spiritual gifts into a an olympic event, hence the lengthy treatment on Spiritual gifts in 12-14.

Overall, the main message of Paul to the Corinthians relates to the true meaning of "being spiritual." In chapter two Paul uses a barrage of the word "spiritual" (more usages there than in all of his other letters combined). As much as the church wanted to claim themselves to be extremely mature and spiritual it was this arrogance that led to their lack of love for one another, which was ironically immature. The main problem Paul seems to address in both letters revolved around the issues of what it means to be truly "spiritual."

I have already alluded to this but knowing the background of the city helps us see a few things:

1. We see that the church is deeply impacted by the culture around it. Church planting and all gospel ministry must take into account the ways the church struggles to "live in the world but not be of the world." The teaching and instruction of Paul affirms that this is much harder than it looks. The term we use for this today is secularization (the process of the church embracing its pagan surroundings in thinking, belief, and lifestyle). We see the human propensity to either embrace the culture by becoming secularized or by completely rejecting. What good gospel ministry aims to do is to engage and engage within a culture that is pagan while it is clearly determined what aspects of that culture need to be redeemed or rejected.

2. We see Paul's understanding and awareness of the culture and how the church as succumb to it. He sees where they are weak and taken captive by the philosophies of this world. Thus, he addresses these issues and seeks to lead them to maturity where there is immaturity.

3. We are confronted with our own Spiritual blindness. We are left with the conclusion that should be made: if it can happen to the Corinthians then it can happen to me. There are many ways our church setting is similar the Corinthians. Living the Christian life in our American context should cause us to take heed and examine ourselves.