Hopefully one of the outcomes of this devotional series for the consistent reader is to be renewed in understanding as to when Paul wrote his various letters to churches and individuals as it fits within the context of his overall ministry and travels. Today we look at the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians.

In the same way we in America often look at Vegas as “sin city,” Corinth had something of a similar reputation in the ancient world. In Plato’s classic work “Republic,” when making reference to a prostitute he used the expression “Corinthian girl.”  Indeed, much of the wealth and depravity in the city was due to the thousand temple prostitutes at the temple of Aphrodite.

Located on the sliver of land from the mainland that connected the large peninsula of Greece (known as Achaia), it was a crossroads of both land and sea commerce.

Likewise, the church of Corinth is well-known by even lesser-informed Christians today as the community of believers in the New Testament that was the most immature. Many factors worked together to make it a challenging environment for holy and sanctified living. Churches are essentially spiritual hospitals, and the church of Corinth was therefore the ultimate Mayo Clinic!

Here are some of the messy issues afflicting the Corinthians … issues that can repeat themselves even in modern era churches that give into human desires over obedience to divine revelation.

1. Divisions, squabbling, fighting among themselves …

Paul had received reports about how they had divided into camps around their favorite teachers …

1 Corinthians 1:10-11 – I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.

This behavior demonstrated their immaturity …

1 Corinthians 3:1-4 – Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

2. Failure to live holy lives and deal with sin …

1 Corinthians 5:1 – It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 – Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

The practices of the surrounding world were simply a part of the church community and not confronted toward living a different life. This therefore led also to Paul needing to answer a variety of issues surrounding marriage in chapter 7.

3. They were insensitive in regard to Christian liberties …

1 Corinthians 8:9-11 – Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.

4. Their focus on spiritual gifts was wrong, reveling in grandiose personal expressions, rather than seeing the gifts as given to serve others …

1 Corinthians 12:24-27 – But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

5. Some denied, while many others undervalued the central teaching of the resurrection …

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 – For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…

We might tend to look back at these Corinthians and wonder how these folks could be so clueless and entirely messed up. But remember, this is still very early in the church era. They didn’t even yet have the gospels to reference, along with the writings of Paul, etc.  We’ve already referenced their geographical and cultural setting. They had been Christians for only a very short time and had no models around them of people who had walked with Christ for decades. This is not making excuses, as Paul himself said they should have been more mature in faith; but these factors do help to give some explanation for the complications unique to this church.

But, having said that, how unique are they … really?  We too live in a crossroads community with many worldly problems. Issues of morality, sensuality, addictions, and generational dysfunction are all a part of our community as well (and to a large extent in most communities). If in our church community we ever allow division to rule the day, sin and licentious living to be unaddressed, and a focus upon wrong priorities to govern our values and energies, we have far fewer excuses or explanations. We live with the completed word of God. We have the resource of the cumulative writings of two millennia of Christian leaders and scholars. We have everything we need to run the Life Race well.