Who is first corinthians

When the church was founded ten years before this exchange of correspondence, in the early 40s, Priscilla and Aquila worked with Paul to convert people in the handworker community and probably also in the streets outside the small factory-shops the handworkers labored in. These potential converts were out-and-out pagans. They were tough, poor, uncouth people. In the synagogue in Corinth, however, Paul was more successful than usual. Generally, he got expelled from the local synagogue after he had tried to convince everyone there to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, and sometimes he was quickly chased out of town.

But in Corinth he had some outstanding successes. By the time he wrote his Corinthian letters, ten years later, another Jewish synagogue patron had been converted, Sosthenes. So there were Jewish converts and God worshipers in the Corinthian church alongside the pagans. Equally important, some of these converts seem to have been wealthy, forming an additional contrast with the poor pagan handworkers and street converts.

Ancient society was marked by considerable differences in wealth. The top 1. The rest of the top 10 percent owned the next 20 percent of income.

The bottom echelon of society lived in constant hunger, literally "from hand to mouth," meaning that when they got any food they immediately ate it. By our standards, then, ancient society was extremely unequal.

The elite were very wealthy and well connected compared to everyone else, and vastly superior to them in terms of power and status. Every community is always involved with these powerful relational dynamics which do not always play out smoothly. In short, the Corinthian church was crisscrossed by significant differences. It was composed of people who were from an utterly pagan background, who were half-Jewish pagans that is, converted God worshipers , and who were Jews.

There were many poor converts but also a number of high-status and wealthy figures, along with their households. And as always, there were complicated gender dynamics surrounding sexual activity. These diverse Corinthian converts brought into their Christian community all the hostility, suspicion, and misunderstanding that arose from these differences in race, class, and gender.

Moreover, there were problems of leadership that prevented the Corinthians from resolving their differences. Paul composed 1 Corinthians carefully in five blocks of argument, each one of which addresses a cluster of related problems. But he began the letter with the heart of the matter: the partisan divisions in the Corinthian community. The Corinthians are factionalized. On one level this partisanship is entirely understandable. The United States recently came through an extraordinary election in which both sides vilified their opposition.

But things were even nastier in the ancient world. There was no liberal veneer to cover things over. The bitter partisanship evident at Corinth is linked tightly with another feature of the community: life in the ancient city was a desperate struggle for survival and an equally desperate climb up the proverbial greasy pole to the top.

The tiny number of people who inhabited the top 1 percent were survivors. They were highly competitive, aggressive, tough people who sat on those beneath them and fended off their rivals ruthlessly. They also used the considerable resources of Greco-Roman rhetoric to mock and denigrate their competitors. The unusual degree of factionalism in the Corinthian community is traceable in large measure to the handful of elite figures who are in it—the wealthy and highly educated converts that Paul and Apollos had made in and around the synagogue, including Gaius, Crispus, and Sosthenes.

These local civic leaders were acting as they usually did, striving with one another for attention and influence in an intensely competitive fashion, all while preserving their privileges and status from the great unwashed who made up the rest of the congregation.

In addition to their competitiveness, the Corinthians have a cultural view of leadership, and this problematized their relationship with Paul. Greco-Roman cities loved appearances. They loved what people looked like, how much money they had, their connections, and how they spoke. Fully trained rhetorical professionals could captivate audiences for hours.

They were the rock stars of the ancient world, and they commanded huge fees for their performances. They looked beautiful and spoke beautifully. In one of the most profound passages he ever wrote, Paul points out that the Christian God revealed in the crucified Jesus could not be more different from this — By journeying down into the human condition and ultimately accepting a shameful death, Jesus revealed that God was a reaching God, an inclusive and gentle God who valued everyone, including the most despised and marginalized.

Those whom society looked down on, God was especially concerned about and eager to reach. The older theological term for this virtue was condescension , a word that has now been inverted into its opposite, being freighted with unhelpful connotations of superiority and haughtiness. This is what a Christian leader should look like. It could hardly be more dramatically countercultural, and Paul lived out this leadership style in person. He was not trained in the flashy tradition of Greco-Roman rhetoric.

He had taken a somewhat unusual sectarian degree in advanced Jewish studies at an obscure regional university in Jerusalem. He was quite brilliant and a leader in his own tradition, being highly skilled in the things it valued. He could recall and manipulate scriptural texts at will. He was dirty, bedraggled, and unpaid. He labored away in small filthy workshops with his own hands.

He might even have had an ongoing battle with some unsightly disease like acute conjunctivitis. This would have made his eyes red and weepy. Paul uses two words in this verse to elaborate what he means.

In this sense, leaders attend personally to the needs of the people they lead. Leaders are not exalted, but humbled, by accepting leadership. The chief distinction in this position is trust. The steward is trusted to manage the affairs of the household for the benefit of the owner. This quality is explicitly ascribed to Timothy 2 Cor. These are the kinds of people God relies on to carry out his plan for his kingdom.

This is probably a wise practice, unless it encourages leaders to attain such rewards at the expense of the people they lead. Leaders are indeed responsible to accomplish—or better yet, exceed—the work their teams are assigned to do. At this point, he says simply that Christians are not called to withdraw from the world because of fears about ethics.

By mentioning the greedy, robbers, and idolaters, he explicitly indicates he is including the work world in his instructions. Needless to say, this is a difficult proposition, although he defers getting into specifics until chapter The point he makes here is simply that Christians are forbidden from trying to create some kind of Christian-only economy and leaving the world to fend for itself.

Instead, we are called to take our place in the work of the world alongside the people of the world. Other things being equal, believers should remain in the life situation in which they found themselves when they were converted 1 Corinthians The specific question that Paul is dealing with does not directly impinge upon most people in the Western world, though it is critical in many parts of the globe today.

What should believers who are slaves do if they have the chance to gain freedom? Slavery in the ancient world was a complex phenomenon that is by no means identical to its modern manifestations, whether in the pre-Civil War American South, or in debt bondage in contemporary South Asia, or in sex trafficking in virtually every country on earth.

Certainly, it was equally heinous in many cases, but some slaves, particularly the household slaves Paul probably has in mind here, were better off, at least economically, than many free people. Many educated people, including doctors and accountants, actually chose slavery for precisely that reason. Thus, for Paul, it was a genuinely open question whether slavery or freedom would be the better lot in any given situation.

Modern forms of slavery, on the other hand, always severely diminish the lives of those enslaved. Paul's question then is not whether slavery should be abolished, but whether slaves should seek to become free. Do not be concerned about it. Even if you can gain your freedom, make use of your present condition now more than ever. Thus, if there are no compelling reasons to change your status, it is probably best to remain in the situation in which you were called.

While we may feel that getting the right job is the most important factor in serving God or experiencing the life he intends for us, God is much more concerned that we make the most of every job we have over the course of our lives. In a given instance, there may be good reasons to change jobs or even professions. Fine, go ahead and do so.

There is no hierarchy of more godly and less godly professions. Certainly this cautions us against believing that God calls the most serious Christians into church jobs. For an in-depth discussion of this topic, see the article Vocation Overview at www.

I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on. For the present form of this world is passing away. Paul had previously dealt with this situation in the church in Thessalonica and given unambiguous instructions.

Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Paul uses a verb here that describes how an object is pushed together synestalmenos , so that it becomes shorter or smaller as a whole. The values and aspirations that are simply taken for granted in the present way of doing things are no longer operative for believers.

The old attitudes toward everyday life and its affairs must be replaced. We should buy, yet be as though we have no possessions. We should deal with the world as though not dealing with the world as we know it. The things we buy, we should employ for the good of others instead of holding tightly to them. When we bargain in the market, we should seek the good of the person from whom we buy, not just our own interests. Our old attitude is that we work to make life more comfortable and satisfying for ourselves and those close to us.

We compartmentalize worship of our gods first, then attention to our marriage second, then work third, and then civic engagement fourth, if we have any time and energy left.

We seek to release the things in our possession for use where they will make the world more as God desires it. We integrate our lives of worship, family, work, and society and seek to invest in—rather than shuffle around—physical, intellectual, cultural, moral, and spiritual capital.

David E. In chapter 9, Paul explains why he initially chose not to accept direct financial support from the Corinthian church even though he had a right to it. He begins by asserting the right of workers, including apostles, to receive wages for their work.

We serve the Lord in our work, and the Lord intends that we draw sustenance from it in return. Paul gives three examples from daily life that illustrate this point. Soldiers, vintners, and shepherds all derive economic benefit for their labors. If even animals deserve a share of the fruits of their labor, then surely any person who participates in bringing about some benefit should share in that benefit. This text has clear implications for the workplace, especially for employers.

Workers deserve a fair wage. In fact, the Bible threatens employers with dire consequences if they deny their employees just compensation Lev. Paul knows that a variety of factors affect the determination of a fair wage, and he does not try to prescribe a figure or formula.

But the principle is not. Those who employ human labor cannot neglect the needs of those whose work they employ. Nonetheless, Paul chooses not to make use of his right to receive wages for his work as an apostle.

The point is that only the worker has the right to offer to work without fair remuneration. The employer has no right to demand it. That is, because everything comes from God, any food may be eaten irrespective of its previous use for pagan cultic purposes.

In a Roman city, much of the meat sold in the market would have been offered to idols in the course of its preparation. However, Paul sets a sharp limit to this use. If our use harms another person, then we should refrain. Since God is the owner of the earth and its fullness, the use we make of the earth must be in line with his purposes.

Second, we are expected to engage in commerce with nonbelievers, as we have already seen from 1 Corinthians — But Paul asserts that believers are to engage in commerce with society at large. This verse by no means legitimates every conceivable activity. It should not be construed to mean that absolutely anything could be done in a way that brings glory to God. If so, then whatever we do will indeed be done for the glory of God. Hans Conzelman, 1 Corinthians, trans.

James W. Leitch Philadelphia: Fortress Press, , , incl. It seems that the gift of tongues i. All of these are false assumptions, according to 1 Corinthians.

The Holy Spirit does not dispense with our bodily abilities, but honors and employs them — The community or organization, not merely the individual, benefits The purpose is to build up the community —5 and serve outsiders —25 , not merely to improve the quality of worship.

Second, Paul seems to be providing a number of examples rather than an exhaustive list. Paul also lists gifts of God in Romans —8, Ephesians , and 1 Peter —11, and the differences among the lists suggest they are illustrative rather than exhaustive. Among them there is no standard list or even a standard way of referring to the various ways the gifts are given.

Contrary to much popular literature on the subject, then, it is impossible to compile a definitive list of the spiritual gifts. They exhibit a striking variety. Paul has the church in mind here , 12 , and some Christians suppose this passage to mean that the Spirit gives gifts only for use inside the church. However, Paul gives no reason to suppose that these gifts are limited to the confines of the church.

He had led in its establishment, had kept in close touch with it, and was now writing in the face of pressing needs. A thorough knowledge of the circumstances which preceded and called forth this book is essential to its interpretation. Ancient Corinth had headed the Achaean League during the Hellenistic period.

This city was completely destroyed by the Roman L. Mummius Achaicus in B. A century passed before it was finally rebuilt, probably under the direction of Julius Caesar. The city lay on a narrow strip of land between the Corinthian Gulf and the Saronic Gulf, and this strategic location insured the commercial prosperity of the city.

Merchant seamen preferred to send their cargoes across the isthmus to making the long and perilous journey around the tip of Greece. James Orr Grand Rapids: Wm. Eerdmans Publishing Co. The larger vessels which could not be handled in this manner were unloaded, and the merchandise was transferred to other ships across the isthmus. The new city was a Roman colony; and its inhabitants were Romans, both veterans and freedmen.

Commercial prosperity had attracted Orientals in considerable numbers, and the city was truly cosmopolitan. Enough Jews were present to justify a synagogue. The exact population cannot be determined; estimates run from , to , It was a teeming city made up of permanent residents of many nationalities; in addition there were always present large numbers of sailors and merchants from all over the Roman Empire. Corinth never became the intellectual center that Athens was, but it had distinguishing characteristics of its own.

Just outside the city the Isthmian Games were conducted every two years. Athletes from distant parts were attracted to these games, which were conducted even during the century that the city lay in ruins. Corinth was strategically located. It was a hub whose spokes radiated in every direction. Any movement which gained a footing here could be assured of a hearing in surrounding districts. Leon Morris has described this important city as intellectually alert, materially prosperous, and morally corrupt.

A church will inevitably reflect to some extent the society in which it exists. This reflection need not necessarily be in direct proportion; indeed, it dare not be. The redemptive fellowship known as a New Testament church possesses a dimension unknown to the world; consequently, the church must not be conformed to its environment. But those redeemed ones who comprise a church are taken from the world whose influence is so often evil, and this influence continues to be felt after conversion.

The church in Corinth existed in a grossly sinful atmosphere which continued to make its mark on the church. Many of the problems of the church found their basis in the life of the city. Perhaps the most significant of the factors which comprised the atmosphere of Corinth was gross, unashamed immorality. Both the old city and the Roman colony were known far and wide for their sexual looseness.

The most prominent site was the Acrocorinth, a sharp projection which rose to a height of 1, feet. On the summit of this steep mountain stood the temple of Aphrodite, a symbol of the lust which pervaded the mind of the city.

The worship of this goddess was not Greek in origin but Oriental; it had been imported from the Phoenician cult of Astarte. In old Corinth the temple maintained a thousand priestesses who amounted to no more than common prostitutes.

The attitude of the city toward immorality involved no condemnation whatever; on the contrary, it was considered to be a normal part of life. The same loose attitude was often reflected in the church. The case of incest and the question about the Christian view of marriage had their roots in the immoral mind of the city.

Most of the members of the church were Gentiles, and the strict morality characteristic of the Jews was foreign to them. They found it difficult to understand that what they once considered virtue was now sin. Idolatry is another feature of the city which was closely linked to its immorality.

In addition to the temple of Aphrodite, there were numerous others, and the worship in these temples was popular among the residents. These idol temples played a significant role in both economic and social life.

The economic factor arose from the practice of sacrificing animals to the idols. Some of the meat sacrificed was consumed in the sacrifice, some of it was eaten by the priests, and some of it was sold in the markets of the city.

Accurate identification of this meat was often impossible, and a customer would have no way of knowing whether his meat had come from the altar of some pagan temple. When a citizen went to dine with a friend, there was no way of knowing whether the meat served him had come from the worship of an idol.

The church in Corinth had a great problem at this point; some felt that there was no harm whatever in eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols while others felt that they were participating in idolatry when they did so. On the more distinctly social side, there was the problem of whether to attend feasts given in the idol temples.

These feasts were outstanding social events, and many of the converted Gentiles continued to receive invitations. Could they in good faith attend on the assurance that an idol was nothing and that they were simply maintaining normal social intercourse?

The factions which existed in the church at Corinth are in part explained by the factious spirit of the city. The population consisted of Romans, Greeks, Orientals, and men of adventure from all over the world. The absence of an established aristocracy tended to make the people democratic and intolerant of control. This independent spirit carried over into the church, and there was displayed the tendency for each member to line up behind his favorite leader in competition with all others.

This factious spirit was also revealed in the attempt of women to be as independent as possible in the congregation ; and in the insistence of those with spiritual gifts on displaying them publicly without regard to the edification of the church chaps.