099 1 Corinthians - How the Corinthian church started - a podcast by Dr David Petts - Pentecostal preacher, former AoG Bible College Principal

Why study 1 Corinthians?

 

Because it is part of God’s Word, the Bible

Because it is highly relevant to our lives as individuals and to the church today

It teaches us important lessons about:

 

The secret of true wisdom

The importance of unity

The seriousness of immorality

The nature of marriage, including the right person to marry!

The right use of freedom

The way we should worship

The correct use of spiritual gifts

The overriding supremacy of love

The certainty of resurrection

 

Before we start to look at the text, I’m going to give you some basic background information on:

 

The city of Corinth

Paul’s letters to the Corinthians

How the Corinthian church was started

 

The city of Corinth

Corinth is in Greece. It’s on the Isthmus, a narrow strip of land - just over 4 miles wide - joining the northern and southern parts of Greece.

 

It was a very important trading city.  Goods were transported overland to avoid the lengthy sea-voyage around the Peloponnese (the southern part of Greece).

 

The old Greek city had been destroyed in 146BC and refounded by Julius Caesar as a Roman colony in 46BC.  As a result, there were both Greeks and Romans living there as well as Jews (Acts 18:4). 

 

A cosmopolitan city, Corinth was intellectually alert, materially prosperous, and morally corrupt.  It was possibly because of its influential position that Paul stayed there 18 months (Acts 18:11).

 

Paul’s letters to the Corinthians

We will be studying the letter we know as 1 Corinthians

But actually Paul wrote at least four letters to the Corinthians

 

How do we know this?

 

Letter 1

A problem of immorality had arisen in the church. Paul wrote to them about this. This letter is referred to in 1 Cor. 5:9..

 

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people

 

Letter 2 (1 Corinthians)

 

Letter 3

 

2 Corinthians 7:8-9

8 Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it--I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while--

9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance.

 

Compare 2 Corinthians 2:2-4

 

Letter 4 (2 Corinthians)

 

When was 1 Corinthians written?

 

Acts 18 records Paul’s appearance before Gallio who was proconsul in charge of Achaea probably from the summer of AD 51. (The dates of Gallio’s proconsulship are given by an inscription found at Delphi).

Paul, therefore, probably reached Corinth in about March AD 50 and stayed there until about September AD 51. 

From this, following the chronology of Acts,

Barrett concludes that the most probable date for the letter is early 54 or late 53. 

Fee comes to a similar conclusion, dating Paul’s departure from Corinth some time in AD 51-52 and the writing of the letter some three years later (i.e. 54-55AD).

 

How the Corinthian Church started

 

This is recorded in Acts 18:1-20

 

Paul is on his second missionary journey. He has had much to encourage him:

          the conversion of Lydia

          of the fortune-teller

          of the Philippian jailor

 

but he’s had his discouragements too:

          disagreement with Barnabas (15:37-40)

          beating and imprisonment (16:22-24)

          Jewish opposition at Thessalonica and Berea (17:5-13)

          apparent lack of success at Athens (17:32-34).

 

By the time he reached Corinth he was in weakness and in fear and in much trembling (1 Corinthians 2:3).

 

v2      There he met a Jew named Aquila .... Priscilla

 

Aquila and Priscilla were Jews who had been living in Rome.  They had moved to Corinth because Claudius Caesar had expelled all Jews from the city (18:2).  Paul stayed with them when he arrived at Corinth because they were fellow-Jews and also tent-makers.  We do not know if they were already Christians.

 

v3      and worked

 

Note Paul’s willingness to work with his hands, although an apostle – cf. 1 Corinthians 9:1-14.

 

v4      he reasoned

 

Although Paul placed great emphasis on the power of the Spirit in the proclamation of the gospel (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:1-4 - see also Romans 15:19-20) he also sought to persuade his hearers by reasoning with them from the Scriptures.

 

v5      Silas and Timothy

 

When Paul had left Thessalonica it looked as though his attempts to plant a church there had failed (17:5-10).  Now Silas and Timothy arrive with news that the church is going on (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:1ff).  So Paul is encouraged by this and renews his efforts to win the Jews for Christ.

 

v6      I will go to the Gentiles

 

Rejected by the Jews, Paul washes his hands of them and turns to the Gentiles.

 

v7      went next door

 

Paul leaves the synagogue and moves next door!  He starts a meeting in the house of Justus.

 

v8      Crispus, the synagogue ruler

 

Paul’s move next door seems to have made an issue of things.  Crispus is confronted with the all-important question, and decides for Christ.  Many then follow his example.

 

v9      a vision

 

The Lord assures Paul that he has many people in this city.  He knew that there would be many who would receive the Gospel if Paul would stay and preach it to them. 

 

(Note that this was a specific statement to a specific person about a particular city at a particular time.  Christians should beware of generalising such specific statements).

 

v11    So Paul stayed there

 

After all the opposition he had faced it might have been easy for Paul to have given up in despair.  But God has encouraged him.  By divine revelation he was to stay in Corinth for a year and a half.  He has reasoned (v4) and testified (v5), but people must be taught the word.

 

Eventually Paul left Corinth and came to Ephesus with Aquila and Priscilla (vv18-19), where he left them while he journeyed to Jerusalem (v21). 

 

While they were there Apollos arrived in Ephesus (v24).  Recognising the divine potential in him, Aquila and Priscilla explained to him the way of God more adequately (v26). 

 

Consequently, when he moved on to Corinth (cf. 18:27 and 19:1) he was greatly used in building up the young converts (v 27) and in winning many Jews to Christ (v28).  In this connection he was possibly even more successful than Paul.

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