In short, there was a dramatic failure of leadership at Corinth. The wealthy local converts who dominated the community were behaving as Greco-Roman leaders behaved.
They were competing with one another for influence, status, and power—no love lost in this battle! In addition, they were continuing to despise and humiliate their social inferiors. Paul points out at the beginning of 1 Corinthians—returning to the theme at many later points in the rest of the letter—that this behavior is a fundamental betrayal of Christian community.
Christians are to love, support, and encourage one another, not compete with one another, and their leaders are to follow in the footsteps of the crucified Christ.
The leader who reaches down to live alongside people, and who values and engages with the poor and the marginalized, is the true Christian leader. We learn a lot from this Corinthian debacle.
At Thessalonica, he had to deal with things like lazy community members. It had to overcome deep divisions of race, class, and gender present within the fabric of the community. Here we see both the importance of Christian leadership and its true nature. Christian leaders can manage and heal these divisions, provided they act appropriately. They are to humble themselves and bridge existing social chasms, thereby drawing the community together behind them.
But this type of leadership is deeply countercultural. It is hard to recognize, while cultural accounts of leadership in terms of status, wealth, and influence directly undermine this authentic account. Sadly, there was another factor at work at Corinth that was closely related to the leadership failure, and it made things still worse. Some of the community leaders were intellectually arrogant. They were inferring what they thought were theologically appropriate Christian actions and behaviors, but they were jumping to conclusions and pushing them too hard.
The results were destructive. Some of the Corinthians were Jews or were strongly committed to Jewish ways of living. They shared the general Jewish revulsion to meat that has been improperly prepared.
Such meat would have been quite literally a nauseating prospect for them, and I imagine that they looked down their noses at anyone eating it. But our amateur theologians reversed this attitude and paid it back with interest. They happily ate their idol meat and mocked those who had a problem with it. What fools! Paul corrects this insensitivity with his basic relational argument.
The kindness and consideration that he began the letter describing in relation to God and Jesus is not being followed here, as it should be. In a second problematic act of intellectualism, the group pushed another maxim to extremes.
It is not as if anything is actually there! In this way, the puffed-up ones, as Paul calls them, could continue to attend the plethora of idolatrous events that structured the ancient pagan city—its processions, feasts, festivals, and sacrifices. To deal with this problem, Paul reintroduces the relationality and connectedness that these thinkers keep overlooking.
Pagan culture might not be what it says it is, but it is still dangerous. Attending an idolatrous worship event is creating a foolish vulnerability to evil, as well as being deeply unfaithful to God. Can we really attend a black Sabbath and escape unscathed?
Paul instructs this group of Corinthians not to play with fire 1 Cor. Some strands of ancient Greek thinking disparaged matter and material things.
They believed that only the unseen world of the spirit was important. Spirit was pure and eternal; matter was impure and transitory. Spiritual things had been trapped in material things the way we might get our car stuck in a mudslide. The right way forward was to get the car out of the mud and hose it off. He was spirit. View Chuck Swindoll's chart of Second Corinthians , which divides the book into major sections and highlights themes and key verses.
Second Corinthians. Who wrote the book? Where are we? Why is Second Corinthians so important? What's the big idea? How do I apply this? Second Corinthians Overview Chart View Chuck Swindoll's chart of Second Corinthians , which divides the book into major sections and highlights themes and key verses. He expected that we would settle our problems internally, that we would encourage one another in the pursuit of purity, and that we would strive together by holding tightly to the hope of our bodily resurrection to come.
View Chuck Swindoll's chart of First Corinthians , which divides the book into major sections and highlights themes and key verses. First Corinthians. Who wrote the book? Where are we? Why is First Corinthians so important?
What's the big idea? This factious spirit was also revealed in the attempt of women to be as independent as possible in the congregation ; and in the insistence of those with spiritual gifts on displaying them publicly without regard to the edification of the church chaps.
These religious societies provided the initiated with a close fellowship; forgiveness of sins and personal salvation were promised. The longing which these mystery religions filled was an indication of the spiritual hunger of the time. The official worship was no longer satisfying, and something more personal was being sought. Especially popular among these mysteries was the Isis cult, one which extended religious equality to women. These religious societies doubtlessly offered some degree of preparation for membership in a Christian church.
Corinth was the most prosperous city in all of Greece, and as a trading center it ranked with Ephesus and Antioch. Commerce flowed in every direction, and there were abundant signs of wealth. However, not everyone shared in this wealth, and there was a great gulf between the rich and the poor. Slaves and freedmen were both present in large numbers. The church in Corinth reflected the population of the city; there were contrasts in its social and financial standings.
Paul indicates in Romans written from Corinth that his host was Gaius, probably a man of some wealth. This same verse indicates that Erastus was the city treasurer. Some of the church members were engaging in litigation and attending private banquets, a situation which indicated that they were men of means.
Another factor from the atmosphere of Corinth which made its impact upon the church was the intellectual climate. There is difficulty involved in classifying this climate because it consisted of many diverse elements. Here was an amalgamation of Roman, Greek, and Oriental life. Although Corinth was not the intellectual center that Athens was, the Greek mind was still felt here. In Athens Paul had been ridiculed because of his preaching of the resurrection Acts The Greeks considered matter evil and spirit good; consequently, they held that a resurrection of the body was repugnant.
Corinth retained enough of this Greek outlook to view the doctrines of the resurrection and the potential goodness of the body during this life with suspicion. Another expression of the Greek mind is reflected in 1 Corinthians , where some were contending that the body was innately evil and that the sins of the flesh could neither be avoided nor condemned.
Paul countered with the Christian teaching of the dignity of the body. His previous experience in the cities of Greece had given him little basis to anticipate a warm reception in Corinth. In Philippi he had been illegally beaten and thrown into prison. His labors in Thessalonica were fruitful, but the Jews soon stirred up a mob in opposition to him.
From there he traveled to Berea, a city in which the Jews were quite receptive to his message. However, the Jews of Thessalonica did not waste much time in following Paul and inciting the crowds against him. His preaching bore some fruit, but it also precipitated scorn from the sophisticated Athenians. When Paul left Athens to make the short journey down to Corinth, he approached the teeming city aware of its notorious reputation.
The very name of the city suggested immorality and corruption. Corinth was proud, busy, and intellectual. It is understandable that Paul confessed that he approached the city in weakness, fear, and in much trembling 1 Cor. Paul became acquainted with Aquila and Priscilla, a Jewish couple who had recently been expelled from Rome at the command of the Emperor Claudius. He found lodging with these new friends, and they worked together both in the Christian enterprise and in the trade of tentmaking.
After making tents all week, Paul attended services in the synagogue every sabbath and there persuaded Jews and Greeks Acts Silas and Timothy arrived from Thessalonica and greatly encouraged Paul with the message that his converts were standing firm in the faith.
This news doubtlessly strengthened him for the task at hand. Soon the opposition which Paul had experienced in other cities arose in Corinth; the Jews opposed him and reviled his message. Another base of operations was found just next door to the synagogue in the home of Titus Justus. Such a location was certainly a source of irritation to the Jews, but it afforded the advantage of being convenient for the Gentiles who had attached themselves to the synagogue.
They were attracted by the superior moral and pure monotheism of the Jews, but they could not accept the narrow Jewish nationalism and such ritual practices as circumcision.
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