Corinthians or Kentuckians?

Corinthians or Kentuckians?

“Corinthians or Kentuckians?”

(1 Corinthians 1:1-3 & Book Summary)

Series: Chaos & Correction (A verse-by-verse study of 1 Corinthians)

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson

 

  • Take your Bibles and join me in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1 (page 767; YouVersion).

 

We are beginning a new series of messages this morning, a verse-by-verse study of the book of 1 Corinthians. Now this is as good a place as any to ask, “Why do we preach this way, verse-by-verse through books of the Bible?” Why not preach a topical series such as, “Five ways to help your marriage” or, “Seven steps to success,” and so forth. And the main answer is because the Bible is not written that way. It is not written as, “Five ways to improve this” or, “Seven steps to resolving that.” The Bible is written sequentially, verse-by-verse. The New Testament epistles are written this way, written to churches to be read and studied the way they were written. So we turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and we begin reading verse-by-verse.

 

  • Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

 

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

  • Pray.

 

Introduction:

 

The church at Corinth was a mess. Just a mess. There was division in the church, disorder in the church, and difficult questions the church was struggling to answer. In a word there was chaos in Corinth.

 

When I lived in Gainesville Georgia a number of years ago I remember hearing about a church called Harmony Baptist Church. That’s a good name for a church, harmony. It denotes oneness and unity. But the church began to have internal problems and division occurred. Some sided with one group and others with another group and before long a number of people left Harmony Baptist Church and began another church called–Harmony Baptist Church. And to distinguish the one church from the other, people in the community referred to the two churches as Harmon Number One and Harmony Number Two. So much for harmony, oneness, unity.

 

The church at Corinth was on the same path as Harmony Baptist Church. And again the word “chaos” just seems best to describe the essence of a church that was on the verge of coming apart. There was internal squabbling and pride, sexual immorality, loose worship practices, no member accountability, sin, and worldliness. Unfortunately, in many ways, the church at Corinth bears remarkable resemblance to many churches today. The letter is written to the Corinthians but it may just as well be addressed to the Kentuckians. And because it is the Word of God, Paul’s letter does address us in our situation. This letter provides biblical correction to a chaotic condition. So our series of verse-by-verse messages in 1 Corinthians is entitled, “Chaos & Correction.”

 

This morning’s message is largely an overview of 1 Corinthians. We will introduce the series by considering a few aspects of the church at Corinth. First:

 

  1. Consider the Culture of Corinth

 

Let’s talk about the background of this letter. We know from the very first word in the letter that it is written by the Apostle Paul. Verse one, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother.” Sosthenes was with Paul and, like a secretary, may have been the one who wrote the words that Paul dictated. The fancy word for that role is the role of an amanuensis, one who writes while another speaks.

 

Paul is writing to a church that he established a few years earlier. Acts 18 tells us that Paul established the church during his second missionary journey and the date would be roughly AD 50. You’ll remember that after Paul left Athens he went to Corinth where he met up with a wonderful couple named Priscilla and Aquila and they helped Paul as he planted the church at Corinth and spent a total of 18 months there.

 

Paul writes this letter, 1 Corinthians, a few years later from Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:8-9), probably around AD 54. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians during his third missionary journey near the end of his three-year ministry in Ephesus.

 

Now, I certainly don’t want to confuse anyone, but when we study 1 and 2 Corinthians it becomes clear that Paul actually wrote four letters and only two of them are purposefully preserved by God in the canon of Scripture. We’ll note as we study 1 Corinthians that Paul actually wrote a previous letter to the congregation that he mentions later in chapter 5 (1 Corinthians 5:9).

Sometime after Paul wrote that very first letter, he received word that indicated the Corinthian church had largely misunderstood his letter and that they were also experiencing disunity and disorder. In addition, the church members also had a number of questions about issues such as marriage & divorce, the use of spiritual gifts, and so forth. So Paul writes this letter, 1 Corinthians, addressing the church’s problems and answering the church’s questions.

 

So again, this letter we know as 1 Corinthians is first only in the sense that it is the first of two letters included in the canon of Scripture. But Paul wrote a previous letter as well as a letter in-between 1 and 2 Corinthians that is not a part of the canon of Scripture. We’ll talk about that again later, I just want to mention it now as we are simply proving an overview of this letter.

 

So Paul is the author of 1 Corinthians and he is writing, verse 2, “to the church of God which is at Corinth,” stop there. Paul is writing to “the church of God.” Though Paul established the church it is not his church. It is the church of God. It is not helpful when we identify churches with a pastor, leader, or member. This church is the church of God. It is His church.

 

So, verse 2, Paul is writing “to the church of God which is at Corinth,” and let’s pause here for a moment. The Church of God at Corinth. Where was Corinth and what was the culture of Corinth?

 

Where was Corinth? Corinth was in Greece (Slide one). Here’s a map of Corinth. You see Italy to your left, Italy to the West. Everyone recognizes the “boot” of Italy. So to the East, in the middle here at the dot, is Corinth. There is Northern Greece and Southern Greece and from a distance it almost looks as though Southern Greece is an island, but it is not an island, but a peninsula. It is the peninsula of Peloponnese. The only thing that prevents Southern Greece from being an island is a small strip of land called an isthmus. It always sounds like you’re lisping when you say, “Isthmus!”

 

So when we zoom in a bit (slide 2) we see this isthmus and we see where ancient Corinth is in relation to the isthmus. This strip of land is about 4 miles in width. And the reason this is significant is because Corinth was strictly speaking a port town. It was a popular and very busy spot where ships stopped and people shopped. It was a wealthy town with a bustling population of half a million people, a town full of everything a person could ever want. There were numerous shops, a gymnasium, a theater, a focus upon the gifts of oratory and artistry. It was quite an economic and cultural crossroads.

 

If you went from north to south or south to north you had to go through Corinth. And if you went from east to west or west to east you also usually went through Corinth. In fact sailors chose to go through Corinth rather than sailing around the peninsula because going around what is southern Greece meant adding several hundred miles to the journey, a dangerous sailing journey that also exposed sailors to pirates and problems.

 

So sailors going east to west, for example, would port at the one side and then cargo would be off-loaded and carried by hand to the other side–four miles–(slide 3) where it would be loaded onto another ship and the sailors would go from there. Here is a picture of the ancient path across the Peloponnesian isthmus.

 

In many cases rather than unloading the cargo of the ship, the ship itself would be pulled along the four-mile road (slide 4). Can you imagine?! How would you like to be one of these guys? Pulling the ship for four miles. Actually, the Corinthian workers at the port became quite good at this. A phrase from that era became popular, “to run like a Corinthian.” These guys were actually quicker at this then we may realize.

 

Now today, there is a canal that runs through the isthmus (slide 5). You can just barely see it here in this satellite image. Several attempts were made to dig out a canal but it wasn’t until the late 1800s that there was success in this effort (slide 6). Here is a ship being pulled through the canal. It’s very narrow, as you can see, and for that reason used very little and is mostly just a tourist attraction.

 

But back in the day Corinth was a thriving port of activity. It was like the New York City of its time. People from all over the world came through Corinth and spent a lot of money and often engaged in a lot of lewd behavior. It was a party town, a city of luxury as well as a city of immorality.

 

The city proper was located at the base of a mountain called the Acrocorinth (slide 7). This mountain rose nearly 2,000 feet high and at the top of the mountain was a temple dedicated to the Greek goddess, Aphrodite, the goddess of love. In fact, there were some 26 temples dedicated to various Greek gods all over Corinth. In this particular temple, the Temple of Aphrodite, some 1,000 priestesses served and they served as prostitutes. Corinthian men worshiped Aphrodite by having sexual relations with these temple prostitutes.

 

Such is the background of Corinth (slide 8), a busy port city in the Mediterranean, a city full of wanton sexual lust and immorality. Sexual immorality became so prevalent throughout Corinth that the phrase, “to Corinthianize,” meant to engage in loose, sexual behavior.

 

And it is here that Paul planted a church in the early 50s. Just what Corinth needs, a church! But over time, much of the worldliness of Corinth entered the church. And that, in part, explains the second thing for us to consider:

 

  1. Consider the Chaos in Corinth

 

One may outline the book as has my good friend, Danny Akin, outlining the contents under the headings: Divisions, Disorder, and Difficulties. There are divisions in the church (chapters 1-4), there is disorder in the church (chapters 5-6), and there are difficulties in the church–theological difficulties (chapters 7-16).

 

We’ll be looking at the problems of pride and disunity, divisions in the church (1-4). With your Bible open there in chapter 1 look down at verse 11. Paul says, “For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.” Some folks from Chloe’s house–and Chloe was a member of the church there–some members of the house there told Paul that there were contentions in the church, quarrels and divisions. So in the first few chapters Paul addresses the matter of divisions in the church.

 

Then, in chapters 5 and 6, Paul addresses disorder in the church (5-6). The church at Corinth had become an undisciplined church. They failed to hold members accountable to their Christian faith and behavior. There was a guy in the church who was having sex with his father’s wife. Can you believe it?! Paul couldn’t.

 

Look at chapter 5, verse 1: “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles (unbelievers)–that a man has his father’s wife!” And the Corinthian congregation was just permitting this, apparently no one wanted to approach the guy and rebuke him and Paul is beside himself. He’s like, “What are you guys doing?! Don’t you realize that one man’s immorality may defile the entire church?! And so Paul talks about right and proper church discipline, something largely missing from many churches today.

 

He’ll also address lawsuits in chapter 6. We’ll study whether it is right for a Christian to sue another Christian. Chaos in the church: divisions (chapters 1-4), disorder (chapters 5-6) and then difficulties (chapters 7-16).

 

And what we have from chapter 7 to the end of the letter is Paul’s answering specific questions that the church asks him about by way of letter sent to him. And that is why beginning in chapter 7, Paul uses this phrase–if you’ll turn to chapter 7 you’ll see it there in verse 1, “Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me.”

 

And we’ll be studying what the Bible says about marriage and divorce (in chapter 7), questions of personal conscience (chapters 8-10), the role of women in public worship (chapter 11), abuses of the Lord’s Supper (also chapter 11), the question about spiritual gifts–namely speaking in tongues; what’s that all about?! (chapters 12-14). In chapter 15 we’ll be studying the doctrine of the resurrection–does it actually matter whether Christ was raised in bodily form? And in chapter 16 Paul addresses questions of Christian giving.

 

And we’ll see as we study through these chapters that the church was in chaotic condition. Rather than changing the worldly culture around them, the Corinthians had allowed the worldly culture to creep inside the church.

 

The culture of Corinth led to the chaos of Corinth. So the third aspect of our consideration this morning is the correction of Corinth.

 

  1. Consider the Correction for Corinth

Strictly speaking, the correction is Paul’s letter. It is the Word of God. Whatever is wrong with the Church in Corinth, the correction is the Word. It is the same correction for whatever is wrong with the church in Kentucky. The Word of God.

 

Paul writes in verse 2, “To the church of God which is at Corinth,” and then he reminds them who they are. He writes in verse 2 “to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,”

 

That’s who Christians are, saints, those who are set apart to be different from the world, sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit. And then–don’t miss this!–to a church that is in a state of moral confusion and chaos, what does Paul say next? He says in verse 3, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” What a gracious way to begin this letter! “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

Paul is absolutely confident that the Word of God will correct the people of God. He is writing to a people who have received God’s grace through the sanctifying power of the Gospel. What they need now is the gracious correction of God’s Word.

 

That’s what the Corinthians needed when Paul established the church a few years earlier. Acts 18 tells us that one evening while Paul was in Corinth that the Lord spoke to him in a vision. Remember this? Paul likely felt discouraged and so God speaks to him one evening in a vision and says to him, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them (Acts 18:9-11).

 

That’s the correction the church needed then and that’s the correction the church needed later. And that’s the correction the church needs in any day, any era, anytime: the church needs the correction of the Word of God.

 

So the Corinthians are corrected the same way the Kentuckians are corrected: by the Word of God.

 

  • Stand for prayer.

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