1 Corinthians Introduction

Letter Background

Author

The writer of both letters to the Corinthians is the Apostle Paul. Paul also sites Sosthenes as a writer.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

1 Paul, called as an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Sosthenes our brother:

The Apostle Paul

Paul was a Jewish Pharisee who zealously persecuted christians, believing Christianity to be a blasphemous religion. However, Jesus Christ appeared to Paul on Damascus road, changing Paul from a persecutor to the greatest missionary to have lived (Acts 9:1-9).

Paul’s missionary journey consisted of him, along with other apostles, traveling to unreached towns, preaching in Jewish synagogues, as well as in common places, and in front of legal authorities. Ultimately, Paul spent his life planting churches for the gospel.

Sosthenese

Sosthenese is only mentioned in two places throughout Scripture: Here in 1 Corinthians and in the book of Acts (Acts 18:17). Essentially what happens is Paul preaches the Gospel in Corinth to the Jews, but the Jews vehemently reject it. And so they take Paul to the Judgement seat of the Roman Proconsul Gallio that Paul may be executed. The leader of the Synagogue who leads the Jews to take Paul to the Judgement seat is Sosthenese. However, Gallio does nothing and sends Paul away. When Paul is sent away, the Jews turn on Sosthenese and beat him (Acts 18:12-17.

They likely beat him due to him not being able to convince Gallio.

It seems, then, that Sosthenese was an enemy of the Lord and, after his own people turned on him, was saved by the Lord and continued ministry in Corinth, but eventually followed Paul on his missionary journey.

Recipients

As for the recipient, Paul writes:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

2 To the church of God at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord—both their Lord and ours.

Let’s breakdown how Paul describes this church:

To the church of God at Corinth

This was on church for the entire city of Corinth. Paul calls it a church of God not as a denomination, as there weren’t denominations yet, but as a literal name. This was a church of the Creator—God.

to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints

The church is not a mix of believing and unbelieving, but it is exclusively for Christians. For the churches in Paul’s time, there would not have been many unbelieving seeking to attend. For us, we have visitors all the time—they are welcome to visit, but they cannot become members until the church has vetted that they are believers.

Paul is writing, not to unbelievers, but to saints in Jesus Christ. These are Christians—set apart in Jesus Christ and called saints.

with all those in every place who call on the name of the Lord…

This ending to his description of their church implies that Paul expected his letter to be passed around to other churches and believers. This shows to us that, even though Paul is specifically talking to these Corinthian believers, these words are still applicable to us.

Date of Writing

Paul likely wrote this letter in AD 55. It is believed that he was at Ephesus when writing this and he intended to visit Corinth very soon after writing this letter.

Purpose for Writing

As you will see as we go through Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, their church has a lot of major issues. There was sin being ignored; their members were split and fractioned into groups based on what Apostle baptized them; they gloried in their spiritual gifts and sought to be the greatest. Paul wrote to correct these major problems and bring about some unity. In the reading of 2 Corinthians, you will see that some of these issues get resolved and others emerge regarding a disrespect for Paul’s authority as an Apostle.

This church had a lot of problems, as most do. In fact, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians church is said to be the most culturally relevant to our times due to such similar issues emerging today. But it is important to mention something Paul says as he is moving into more rebuke towards the church in 1 Corinthians 4:14-15

1 Corinthians 4:14–15 CSB

I’m not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children. For you may have countless instructors in Christ, but you don’t have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Paul is harsh in this letter at times, but he does not want the church to misconstrue his rebuke as a shaming of the church— rather this is a warning from a spiritual father to his spiritual children.

Paul truly loved this church and he wrote out of a sincere love for these congregants. This cannot be forgotten as we delve into this letter—the love that envelopes and is weaved throughout this letter..

Themes Across the Letter

As far as themes in this letter, almost every topic is hit on!

Encouragement

Unity

The Body of Christ

Church Discipline

Grace

Sex and Marriage

Calling

Singleness for Christ

Love

Idolatry

Spiritual gifts

Power of the Gospel

Resurrection

Victory

Of all these themes/topics, which are you the most interested in learning about?

City Background

Location

The city of Corinth is on the coast of the Gulf of Corinth. This made Corinth a major trade city.

It is in Greece, leading to much Greek god influence. It was occupied by Rome.

Population

Corinth was extremely diverse, due to it being a trade city. There were pagans, Jews, Greeks—everyone lived in Corinth. This was a big city too.

Cultural Information

To help explain the culture of this city, I will be referencing a commentator Stephen T. Um in his descriptors:

Corinth was Aspirational

Corinth is described as an aspirational city—meaning that everyone was seeking to climb the social ladder and get to the top.

In this way, they were very much like we are now, even in America.

Due to this, Corinth was known for its wealth and “ostentatious display”—aka bougie lifestyle. People were very prideful in this way. Modesty was very uncommon. To help understand this, I am going to quote this guy David Garland in his attempt to overlap American culture and Corinthian culture:

To use terms from American culture: schmoozing, massaging a superior’s ego, rubbing shoulders with the powerful, pulling strings, scratching each other’s back, and dragging rivals’ names through the mud—all describe what was required to attain success in this society.

Um, Stephen T. 2015. 1 Corinthians: The Word of the Cross. Edited by R. Kent Hughes. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

Corinth was Explorational

Because Corinth was a trade city, its population was extremely diverse—ethnically and religiously. People from all walks of life resided in, and frequently visited, Corinth.

This gave the average Corinthian a plethora of options when it came to faith communities and religions to pick from. And so, people were very individualistic. It was very much a “Do what is best for you,” society.

Here is another quote, this one from Stephen T. Um in his commentary—

The ideal of the Corinthian was the reckless development of the individual. The merchant who made his gain by all and every means, the man of pleasure surrendering himself to every lust, the athlete steeled to every bodily exercise and proud in his physical strength, are the true Corinthian types: in a word, the man who recognized no superior and no law but his own desires.

Um, Stephen T. 2015. 1 Corinthians: The Word of the Cross. Edited by R. Kent Hughes. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

Application to Us

What is so fascinating is that Um’s description of the true Corinthian types are almost the exact same as our culture’s types. We are extremely me-centered and self-obsessed. Marketing companies have done a fantastic job at feeding this mindset by revolving every product and service around the individual— “Make life and reality adjust to you and your preferences.”

This has formed extremely weak and soft people to discomfort and change. This has led many to hate Christ even more because of His “Deny Self” teachings. This has led Christians to reject the same mission of Christ because of the uncomfortable nature to it.

We all need this. We all struggle with self-obsession in ways that many of us don’t even realize. Social media has only amplified this! Thus is why our Dnow will be addressing this issue.