Corinth - Or Maybe It's Us!

1 Corinthians 1:1-3, 18

¹ Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, ² To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: ³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

“In this epistle St. Paul exhorts the Corinthians to be one in faith and love, and to see to it that they learn well the chief thing, namely, that Christ is our salvation, the thing over which all reason and wisdom stumbles. For it was as in our day, when the gospel has come to light. There are many mad saints (we call them factious spirits, fanatics, and heretics) who have become wise and learned all too quickly and, because of their great knowledge and wisdom, cannot live in harmony with anybody.”

“Preface to the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians” (LW 35:380-81).

It seems appropriate as we enter October 2017 to begin the post with a quote from Martin Luther, father of the Reformation, that took place 500 years ago this month. In this quote I find Luther’s wit and uncompromising honesty about human interactions to be accurate and at the same time amusing. And it is appropriate that we study the book of 1 Corinthians which expounds upon the fact that first and foremost, Christians are people who stand at the foot of the Cross in full realization of our need for a Savior. We have nothing to boast about within ourselves but instead must bow before the One who surrendered His life that we might live. We will contemplate these ideas much more in the up-coming studies of this book. The theme verse for the entire book is summarized in 1:18.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

This letter to the Corinthian church was written in 55ad and Paul is the uncontested author. He was in residence in Ephesus at the time of this writing. Corinth was known for their wealth and an unsavory reputation for sexual vice. Even 450 years before the birth of Christ, it was said that to “behave like a Corinthian” was to be a fornicator. It was also a city of religious pluralism and hundreds made their living as temple prostitutes in the many shrines to Aphrodite.

It possessed two harbors, Lechaeum (facing Italy) and Cenchreae (facing Asia). Rather than transporting goods by the dangerous route around the southern tip of Achaia, merchants could have smaller ships placed on wheeled platforms and dragged across the isthmus along a kind of tramway called a δίολκος (from διέλκω, “to drag through”). The customs duties levied on this trade contributed greatly to the city’s wealth.¹⁵ Its fertile hinterland also contributed to Corinth’s prosperity; indeed, our word “currant” derives from the name “Corinth.”

Lockwood, G. J. ©2000. 1 Corinthians (p. 4). CPH.

So, Paul had his work cut out for him as he writes to the church in Corinth. But we do well to study these words today, as they could just as easily have been written directly to us.