Unpacking the context in the Roman city of Corinth.
The Bible is the Christians guidebook. It is full of wisdom that transcends the time it was written in and the way we run our services, talk to our neighbours, order our coffee, raise our children, the way we live our WHOLE lives should be informed and in line with what the bible says. Not for the sake of following rules but because it truly is the best and most fulfilling way to live!
1 Timothy 3:16 says ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness‘ but that doesn’t mean that we take EVERYTHING the bible says at completely face value without digging in at all. You can justify pretty much anything you want from murder to slavery by misquoting the bible and we don’t want to do that! We must remember that the bible was written by humans at specific times for specific reasons, and yet completely holy and inspired by God.
So, because it is such a wonderful and sacred collection of writings inspired by the God we worship, it is only right that we treat it with the reverence and authority it deserves, and REALLY dig into it to find out what it is REALLY saying, especially with the more difficult or controversial verses, like many of those in 1 Corinthians. We don’t try and put our own ideas in it or justify an already conceived opinion, but simply try to understand what and why it says what it does, so that we can apply it to our own lives.
This brings us nicely to 1 Corinthians. In short, we want to dig into and understand what this book is all about to hopefully get a good understanding of why it is relevant to us today in 2024.
We are going back to basics to dig in to 1 Corinthians by doing a little quiz as we go through.
QUESTION 1:
What style or genre of writing is 1 Corinthians, and who wrote it?
1 Corinthians is a letter written by Paul.
The backstory to Paul is he used to be called Saul and had a dramatic conversion on the road to Emmaus where he went from literally Christian killer to church planter, missionary, and apostle overnight.
The genre is a letter and because it is a letter, that means we must read it like a letter, or perhaps easier to understand in today’s language, an email. The best way of reading any of the letters in the bible is to read it from start to finish, without breaks or paying too much attention to the verse or chapter numbers that were added years later. When you receive an email or long text, you don’t split it up and read it in multiple sittings because that isn’t how it was intended to be read.
Like any email or text 1 Corinthians has an intended recipient so:
QUESTION 2:
Who was 1 Corinthians written to?
It was written to the church in the Roman city of Corinth.
Because it was written to the church and not an individual, one of the elders would have likely gathered the congregation and read it to them, like we do in church services today.
Paul has written a big email to the congregation of Corinth Christian Fellowship and because now we know the author, genre, and recipient, we are already a lot more clued up on what is going on throughout the book.
Paul is writing to give the church in Corinth some advice to help them out on their Christian journey. He wasn’t trying to write the bible and yet it’s completely inspired by God and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.
Paul was simply reaching out to friends of his, to try and support, teach, and correct that specific church, at that specific time, in that specific location and should be read with this in mind.
QUESTION 3:
How many letters did Paul write to the church in Corinth?
You may or may not be surprised to hear that 1 and 2 Corinthians are not the only letters Paul wrote to the church. We know he wrote at LEAST one other letter to them before he wrote 1 Corinthians as he mentions his previous letter very briefly in chapter 5. This also helps us with understanding Paul and his relationship with the church. Paul not only planted the church, but he is in semi-regular contact with them, and they were familiar with Paul as a person as well as his writing style, personality, and beliefs.
A harder question now but one of the most important!
QUESTION 4:
What was the 1st Century city of Corinth like?
Corinth was a bustling trade city that was significantly rebuilt when the Roman Empire came to Greece. Its location was strategic both militarily and commercially and was one of the biggest and most important cities in the Roman world. People would have come from far and wide to Corinth.
This meant the city was not only very modern and state of the art, but also very wealthy and influential. It was a real destination, and a melting pot of different people of different cultures, religions, and worldviews and wealth and status levels. Now days we would have described it as ‘very up and coming’ with all the important people relocating some of their work and personal lives to Corinth.
However, life was not all peachy! It also had a darker side. Much like Vegas, Corinth had a reputation, shall we say. Just like Vegas, Corinth was known as ‘sin city’ to the extent that it was even the root of some first century slang, that featured in the writings of many others of the day, even Plato! To ‘Corinthianize’ a person would be to corrupt them, especially in regard to sex and prostitution.
My wife and I have been to Pompei twice and it is a truly fascinating place! To see what a first century Roman city would have looked like and functioned is astounding! The first time we got taken round the town and were shown all the stalls, bars, money exchanges, speed bumps, reflective markings in the road and got to learn just how it would have operated. The second time we were really excited to go back, and it was just as we remembered and really interesting, but we quickly realised that the tour we went on the first time was the PG tour.
The second time was essentially the brothel tour. The guide would point out all the different brothels and showed us how they were identified and how to find one. I know we are British, and you aren’t meant to talk about this in a sermon but there are depictions of men’s genitals everywhere! On the floor and on the walls and all pointing the way to the nearest brothels, which were identified by more ‘artwork’ protruding from above the doorway of the matching building. Once you arrived at your choice of brothel, you were treated to more artwork which was like a menu of different activities you could take part in.
We couldn’t help but laugh as we were directed around the ancient red-light district and as funny as it was, this is almost exactly what Corinth or ‘sin city’ would have been like.
As amazing a place as it tried to be, Corinth was plagued with immorality of many kinds but particularly that of sex and prostitution. This was to the extent that there were temples dedicated to just that, with one temple rumoured to have 1,000 prostitutes working there at once.
Since Corinth was in Greece and such a melting pot, it was also full of what we might call very spiritual people. The significant roots of paganism came alongside the rich Greek religion and culture meaning that many of those who lived in Corinth would have been at the very least, familiar with religion and spirituality.
And with all that in mind, it should come as no surprise what Paul decides to write about in his letter to Corinthians.
Much like today, Paul doesn’t need to lecture or confront the church on an issue they are not struggling with. If a friend of yours is always on time, you don’t need to send them a long email about the importance of being punctual. They already know that and understand that, but if that same friend is a terrible cook, you might message them with a few easy recipes or good tips to help them out. It doesn’t mean it isn’t important to be on time, or cooking is far more important than punctuality, but that one friend (or church in Paul’s case) doesn’t need to hear it.
QUESTION 5:
What issues are the church in Corinth struggling with?
Looking at Corinth in the context of the Church and Christianity, people were very proud of their knowledge and spiritual experiences and would often boast about how spiritual they were which was only intensified and fed by the culture around them. The church in Corinth had a very overinflated ego when it came to all things spiritual and religious.
As we read through the letter Paul writes to the church in Corinth it is clear that they are struggling with unity, sex, food, regular Sunday worship services, and all things spiritual!
There are of course a few more issues and a bit more nuance to those issues, but these are core issues that the church is struggling with.
Paul writes about these problems because the church is struggling with them. He isn’t addressing circumcision or faith like he does in other letters, because they aren’t relevant to them, even though they might be important and relevant in other places.
So once again as we read this letter, we must bear this in mind.
QUESTION 6:
So what…?
All this information and background is interesting, but you might be thinking so what? Or why is this relevant!
Well now we know the genre or style, who has written it, why they have written it, and the context, we can begin to understand this letter much more fully, and what we can learn from it becomes far more meaningful too.
There are some difficult and challenging things Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians, that without the proper context and understanding are very awkward to say the least, and I have had many a discussion about it with non-Christian friends. Particularly the verses about women being silent in church!
We may be struggling with some of the things that this letter is talking about and although 2,000 years may have passed, much of it is just a relevant in our society today.
There may not be brothels on every street corner, but we are all familiar with the term sex sells. We may have habitual sin that we need to break and deal with. We may have divisions within our church/work/family life that God is wanting to speak to us about or heal. We may not be doing our Sunday services very well. We may be causing others to stumble instead of building them up and encouraging them.
When we read letters in the bible it is VITAL to understand who is writing, who the recipient(s) are, what the historical, social, and geographic context is, why they are writing what they are, and then what they might say to us today.
The bible is far too important and wonderful for us not to take it seriously, but in taking it seriously, particularly in the letters, we must also make sure we understand what is really going on, not just take it at face value!
