How we’re going to tackle Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth

Last month, we had a good look at Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome. Now we turn our attention to 1 Corinthians, another letter from Paul, this time to the Christians in Corinth. This is the first of two letters to the church in Corinth. Paul wrote these letters in response to issues that had arisen at the time.

Paul had visited Corinth, a seaport in Greece, about the year 51 AD, as recorded in chapter 18 of Acts. Corinth is located in southern Greece, about 50 miles from Athens. At the time, Corinth was in a strategic location controlling two major harbours. It stood at a major crossroads within the Roman Empire. When Paul visited Corinth, it was the most beautiful, industrious and modern city of its size in Greece. Because of its physical location, there was a mix of religions represented in Corinth. The city had a reputation for immorality. The temple with its 1000 cult prostitutes contributed to this perception. The phrase ‘live like a Corinthian’ conveyed living a life of drunken and immoral debauchery.

Five years later, Paul learned that the Christian community had become divided, as members began identifying themselves with different religious leaders. News of division and arguments reached Paul and he wrote this letter in response to these issues. This letter therefore provides us with excellent insight into the life of the early Christian Church in the middle of the first century AD. The word Church – ecclesia – appears 24 times in this letter, more than any other book of the New Testament.

So this letter was about how to do church back then.

Whilst some of it is written to a specific context – a precise time and place – much of it can inform our understanding of how to do church today.

I’m thinking about how Paul may convey that information to us today. He probably wouldn’t write us a letter. How many people write actual letters today? Maybe he would send a series of Facebook messages or emails or texts… So that’s how we’re going to look at this letter to the Corinthians this month. We’ll have a look at an excerpt from the letter and draw out the message Paul might have sent to us today in a way that he might have sent it to us.

It’s going to be quite an adventure!