1st Corinthians Lesson 2

Introduction, Part 2

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Listen to Lesson Audio:

---

Lesson Transcript

Introduction

Welcome to our second lesson on 1 Corinthians. We’re still in the introduction, but feel free to flip over to 1 Corinthians. We’re eventually going to make it to chapter 1. Probably not tonight, though.

Last week, we looked at a number of things. We started off by looking at the question: why did God convey His Word to us with letters, with epistles in the New Testament? And we discussed that question. And then we looked at the city of Corinth and looked at its location, particularly with regard to why Corinth became such an important city and why it became such a wicked city. And we looked at Corinth and said some things about that.

Tonight, I want to continue that discussion looking at Corinth, but I want to look at it from a couple of other different angles. And the first thing I want to do is to take a much wider view of Corinth and look at Corinth as it was situated in the Roman Empire.

Rome in God’s Plan

Because it’s very important that we remember that Corinth was part of the Roman Empire. Rome played a very important part in God’s plan to bless the world. In fact, if you go back to the book of Daniel, and look in Daniel chapter 2, you will see Daniel telling us about four kingdoms that would come.

In fact, one was there already: the Chaldeans, and then the Persians, and then the Greeks, and then the Romans. Daniel lived to see two of those, the Chaldeans and the Persians. And then came the Greeks with Alexander the Great, and then the Roman Empire. Those had been prophesied by God all the way back in the days of Daniel, which was many, many centuries before, for instance, Rome came to be such a world power.

The Prophecies of Daniel

In fact, Daniel is a fascinating study. I’ve taught that book several times, and I would love to teach it again. Hint, hint. But it’s a fascinating book. And one thing that’s so fascinating about it are the intricate historical predictive prophecies in the book of Daniel. I mean, the details are astonishing.

And it marches through history from the time of Daniel to the time of the first century with the Roman Empire. And you think, well, you know, maybe the liberal theologians will say, well, Daniel was written much later and they must have known about it. Did you know copies of Daniel have been dug up with the Dead Sea Scrolls? We can point to copies of Daniel that predate some of the prophecies in that book. A wonderful testimony to God’s inspired word.

Any event, if we look at Daniel, we will see Rome discussed in the book of Daniel. That tells us that Rome was part of God’s plan. As he was marching through, bringing in various kingdoms to make the place for Jesus, the perfect time and setting in which Jesus could come into this world.

God’s Hand in Roman History

And in fact, if we look at the history, we can see God’s hand in it. There’s no other explanation for it. How else can you explain the rise of Greece under Alexander the Great, for example? But particularly when you look at Rome.

Like many of you, I have a very long commute. And so what I do on my commute is I listen to audio books and things. And there’s this company that will sell you these courses, and you can listen to these like historical courses. And one of them I was listening to is a history of Rome. Secular historian, nothing religious at all about it.

And I was astonished by the number of times a secular historian would say, “and no one knows how X happened. No one knows what caused this to happen. There’s no explanation for how Rome got out of this. There’s no explanation.” And I’m thinking to myself, there’s an explanation, all right. Look at Daniel chapter 2. God had said that Rome would be there.

In fact, in Daniel, not only does he say that, he tells us about the Roman emperors. And Daniel. It was all laid out. There’s no doubt about why it happened. We knew it was going to happen. Daniel knew it was going to happen.

Let me read you one sentence or two from a book that I have called “Rome and Her Enemies.” Again, secular historian. Nothing religious about this book. He says, “lying at its heart is a mystery as profound as any in the records of human civilization. How on earth did the Romans do it? How did a single city, one that began as a small community of cattle rustlers, camped out among marshes and hills, end up ruling an empire that stretched from the moors of Scotland to the deserts of Iraq?”

Answer: God had said it would happen in Daniel chapter 2. That’s why it happened.

Greek Culture and Roman Power

It’s very interesting to study also the interplay between Greek and Roman culture at the time of Christ. As Horace famously stated, “Rome may have conquered Greece, but Greek culture conquered Rome.” The combination of Greek culture with Roman might and power made the perfect cradle for the coming of Jesus Christ into this world. And it was not an accident. It was not an accident.

The Greeks brought reason, rationality, logic, language. Rome brought peace, roads, trade, law, communication. You put those things together, you have the perfect cradle for the church, for Christ to come into this world, and for his gospel to spread.

Roman Religious Tolerance

Now, Rome, the Roman religion, certainly later brought persecution with the rise of emperor worship, but that was later. That was later. Initially, it was open and it was tolerant, particularly at this time when Christianity was seen as just another Jewish sect. They didn’t see it as anything different from Judaism.

And Judaism, however, already had the ability to worship and to carry on their religion in the Roman Empire. They’d already received this ability, and Christianity initially was just seen as part of Judaism. Isn’t that what we see in Corinth?

Paul’s Experience with Gallio

Flip over to Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18 tells us about Paul’s visit to Corinth. And what happened there? And if you look down at starting at verse 12 in Acts chapter 18, we find a very interesting discussion about what happened to Paul in Corinth.

“And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat, saying, ‘This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.’ And when Paul was now about to open his mouth”—hadn’t he said anything yet?—“Gallio said unto the Jews, ‘If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O you Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it’s a question of just words and names and of your laws, you look into it, for I’m not going to be a judge of such matters.’ And he drove them all from the judgment seat.”

The Significance of Gallio’s Decision

This judgment by Gallio was crucial to Paul’s missionary work. Gallio was a very influential person. In fact, he was related to Seneca, who was the tutor of the Emperor Nero. And the fact that he came out and saw Christianity, the church, is just another part of the Jewish religion. In other words, it was already under the Jewish umbrella, so to speak.

And he wasn’t going to separate it out at this point. And he said, “fine, they can do their missionary work and they can do their work, but it’s just all part of Judaism. You all take care of it.” If he had instead come out and said, “oh no, new religion, illegal, you know, start persecuting,” that all would have started much, much earlier in the church’s life, in the church’s history.

So it’s very important that Gallio said this. Again, I think we see the hand of God in that. But this influential governor could have seriously handicapped Paul’s work. Well, why didn’t he? Because Christianity at this time was seen as part of Judaism.

Why This Would Change

Now that was going to change pretty quickly. Why? Well, for starters, Paul was out converting Gentiles. And when you get a bunch of Gentiles in the church, it’s very hard to say you’re all just Jews. So that was certainly going to change.

And also, it was going to change as Roman emperor worship rose. We talked in the introduction to 1 Peter about the persecution that followed from Nero when he used Christianity as a scapegoat after he set the city on fire.

Now, this early situation in Rome allowed Paul to do what he did. It allowed Christianity to spread beyond Jerusalem into the entire known world. That situation, we said, would change eventually as Roman persecution increased. But at this time, Paul was able to do his missionary work without that type of state persecution. He certainly faced persecution. But a lot of it was from the Jews as opposed to the Romans at this time.

The Pax Romana and Greek Language

The importance of the Roman peace, the Pax Romana, you can’t overstate that. I mean, that was the main thing that Rome brought into the picture here. The Greeks, what was their hobby? The Greeks’ hobby was war, battles. They fought constantly among each other and outside. That’s all they did.

Can you imagine Paul trying to spread the gospel in that situation? But that wasn’t the situation when the gospel is being spread. Why? Because Rome had defeated Greece and had brought the Roman peace to the known world. And that was not an accident. That was part of God’s plan. And we see that all the way back in Daniel chapter 2.

Another factor was the Greek language. You got the Roman peace over here, you got the Greek language over here on the other side. It had been around since 800 BC. Had twice the vocabulary of Latin. Greek was the perfect language to use in explaining the gospel and giving us the New Testament.

Christianity and Intellectualism

You know, those who tell us today, and many do, that Christianity is anti-intellectual, not rational, illogical, they should remember that Christianity began at a time of Greek intellectualism and rationality. And again, that was no accident. It was no accident that the church was established not in some time of superstition, but in a time of rational inquiry that the Greeks had brought. That was not an accident.

Greek thought is admired even to this very day. In fact, it’s been said that the Greek contribution to Western philosophy was Western philosophy. It was not an accident that the church came at the time of the Romans and after the Greeks, and we know it. Because Daniel told us exactly what was going to happen.

And in that perfect setting, we find Corinth.

Corinth as a Roman City

Let’s look a little closer at Corinth, at the people of Corinth. We need to read the book of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. I’m assuming we’re going to continue on into 2 Corinthians. I hope so. 2 Corinthians is another wonderful book. We should read that book against the background of Corinth first.

As a Roman city with Roman cultural values. Corinth was a colony. It had been rebuilt by Rome for the purpose of spreading Roman values, and spreading Roman culture, and spreading Roman religion. Inscriptions and coins that we find at the time in Corinth are all written in Latin. This was a Roman city. We’ve already talked about the strong commercial link between Rome and Corinth.

Wealth and Status in Corinth

Many citizens of Corinth became so wealthy that they put on great ostentatious displays of their wealth. They tried to outdo each other. It was kind of keeping up with the Joneses, times a million. I mean, that’s what we see in the city of Corinth.

They were in stark contrast, though, to the surrounding areas, which was still very poverty-stricken. So you had a very rich, wealthy Roman colony surrounded by poverty-stricken Greek areas. The Roman Corinth brought in new attitudes and new Roman values, and they were surrounded by the old Greek ways of life. They were geographically in Greece, but they were culturally Roman. And as we study this book, we’re going to see that.

Commercial Focus and Its Effects

We’ve also talked about the background of Corinth as a mercantile, a trading society. Also, we need to keep that context in mind as we study this book. It was focused on trade. It was focused on business. It was focused on success. And that focus, as it so often does, led them to focus on status and honor and power, earthly power.

Corinth, one commentator wrote, says, “seems to have been a city designed for those who were preoccupied with the marks of social status.” And later, we’re going to see Paul talking about the haves and the have-nots, not just in Corinth, but in the church in Corinth.

As we study these letters, we’re going to see how these attitudes percolated into the church at Corinth, threatening to destroy their community based on love and unity and selflessness and equal worth of every member. Those ran counter to the culture of Corinth. And we see that struggle between the two in these letters.

Competitive Individualism in the Church

Corinthian society was riddled with competitive individualism. And I think we see that spilling over into the church in Corinth. Self-important members seem to have sought dominance in the group, and I think we see that spilling over as they looked down on those they saw as of a lower social standing.

It seemed like they were trying to preserve the social barriers and the class and the status that was outside the church. Looks like they were trying to preserve that inside the church. For some, sadly, at Corinth, it looks like the church had become just another arena in which they could compete. We’re going to see that as we study these letters.

Examples in 1 Corinthians

Think about what I’ve just said about the Roman and commercial background as you think about some of the problems that are addressed in the book of 1 Corinthians, the letter. Remember chapter five with the church remaining silent while a member lived with his father’s wife? Remember in chapter six, those pursuing lawsuits against their fellow Christians?

Remember chapters eight through eleven, people trying to justify eating meat offered to idols in idol temples? Remember chapters 12 through 14, some trying to vaunt their spiritual gifts over others that they thought lack those gifts? Remember chapter 11, where Paul pictured the church as divided into the haves and the have-nots?

These are those Corinthian Roman values seeping into the church.

Teacher-Student Relationships in Corinth

You know, another important context, I think, where we see that, and we’re going to see that in the very first chapter, which we’re going to get to eventually, is the relationship in Corinth between teacher and pupil. The Greek word for disciple had been around long before it was applied to the disciples of Christ, and it had long been applied to pupils of secular teachers.

And in fact, the term sophist, which is kind of used today in a pejorative sense, was at that time used to talk about these virtuoso orators who had these large public followings and would come out into the city of Corinth and amaze them with their wonderful speeches and all of their great performances. And they would charge a fee for that. And they would run these expensive schools.

Paul and the Debaters

I think Paul was referring to those people in chapter 1, verse 20, when he talks about the debaters of this age. They were surrounded by the debaters. You had to pay a fee to go hear the debaters of this age if you lived in Corinth. And the students who enrolled in their schools were called disciples.

And why? Well, because they learned there, and they modeled themselves after these teachers. In fact, not only did they imitate the teachers’ oratorical style, the way they talked, they would imitate the way the teacher dressed and the way the teacher walked. They would mimic everything about this teacher.

Remember what the Corinthians had said about Paul in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 10? “For his letters, say they are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, his speech contemptible.” They were treating him just like one of these teachers. Like, “well, these teachers are better because they’ve got a much better speech and they’ve got this great bodily presence. And look at Paul.” They were comparing Paul to the debaters of this age.

Competition Among Teachers

These first century teachers competed with each other. It was a very lucrative market for these students, and they got big fees. So they would compete with each other for students and disciples. Another word used to describe their students in the writing of the time was not just disciple, but was zealot. Another word we know from the New Testament.

But it was applied to these disciples. Why? Because they were required to show exclusive loyalty to their teacher, to defend him, to promote him, and to do so zealously. In fact, sometimes a student of one teacher would follow another teacher around just to ridicule him. And every time he made a mistake, he’d shout out about the mistake he made.

In fact, one of the commentaries I read said one time that guy got killed. The other students killed him because he did that. That’s the kind of competitive nature they had here among these teachers. It was just a competitive free-for-all.

Paul’s Response

1 Corinthians 3:3, “are you yet carnal? There’s envying, strife, division. Are you not carnal? And walk as men?” Paul said. In other words, Paul saying, “Are you just living like all the other Corinthians out there? Carnal, competitive, envying, full of strife, full of division?”

When we study chapter 1, I think we’re going to see right from the very beginning how these worldly attitudes had spilled over into the church. And we’re going to see how Paul dealt with that problem. For starters, Paul would remind them that Paul himself and Apollos and the other teachers were themselves disciples. They were all disciples, disciples of Jesus. And that made Paul and Apollos and others very different from those puffed up, self important teachers who were the debaters of this age in the city of Corinth.

The Church’s Relationship with Outsiders

One other, I think, important context we need to look at before we launch into the book of 1 Corinthians is the relation between the church in Corinth and those outside the church at Corinth, the outsiders. What was the relation between the two?

You know, in other letters, I’m thinking, for instance, of Thessalonians, we see painful conflict between the church and those outside the church. There’s a sense of alienation within the church and hostility from the outside world. But that really doesn’t seem to have been the case in Corinth, does it?

Paul, in fact, contrasts the affliction and the dishonor of the apostles with the relative tranquility of the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4:10. Paul writes, “We’re fools for Christ’s sake. But you’re wise in Christ. We’re weak, but you’re strong. You’re honorable. We’re despised.”

Signs of Accommodation

The Corinthians seem to have been getting along pretty well with the outside world. In fact, in chapter 8, we see them participating in pagan feasts and pagan temples. Chapter 10, we see them being invited to share meals in the home of unbelievers. Chapter 14, we see unbelievers dropping into their worship assemblies. Chapter 6, we see Christians making use of the civil court system.

And yet in chapter 15, we’re going to see Paul reminding them that bad company corrupts good morals. What we don’t really see very much of in Corinth is this countercultural impact that the church must have, wherever it is. We’re the salt of the earth. We’re the light of the world. You can’t just blend in. But it looks like they may have been blending in, doesn’t it?

For some, it seems like their faith had really created very little significant social or moral realignment of their lives. I like what one person once said. He said, describing someone, he said, “that guy’s religion is so private he doesn’t really even impose it on himself.” Maybe that’s Corinth.

The Real Problem

The Corinthians maybe were glad to participate in church as kind of one segment of their lives. They have a lot of other segments, but “I’m willing to do this church thing over here, but I’ve got all this other stuff going on. So, you know, it’s not like I’m going to seek it first or anything.”

The problem, and we’ve talked about how wicked Corinth was, and it was, very wicked. But the problem was not that the church was in Corinth. The problem was that Corinth was in the church.

Modern Parallels

Can’t we see many parallels between Corinth and the modern church that we have here in our world today? We also live in a culture filled with anti-Christian values. They did. We do too. We also live in a culture focused on commerce, focused on status. They did. We do too. We also live in a competitive dog-eat-dog world. They did. We do too.

Many congregations today seem to have the same kind of preacheritis that seemed to have troubled them in the first chapter. In fact, you know what, I drive every day I drive in, I pass the Oasis of Love on my left on the Fifty Nine, and I see the big sign with Joel Osteen’s name on it. I don’t see Jesus’ name anywhere on that sign.

Lack of External Pressure

And we also face little pressure from the outside world, don’t we? Really? They didn’t. We don’t either. And sadly, I think for many congregations, that lack of external pressure has led to internal strife. It’s almost like, “well, if we can’t fight with them, we’re just going to fight with each other.”

You know, if we don’t have external pressure coming in at us, that’s a wonderful opportunity for us, isn’t it? To show the unity of Christ and show the unity of the church. Do our mission and spread the word and spread the gospel message. We should take that as an open door, which it is, one that may close some day. And if you don’t think that door can close, you haven’t been reading the newspapers, have you? That door can close.

There are many similarities between Corinth and Houston, Corinth and Katie. And we need to read these letters, understand those similarities, and look for what Paul’s message is to that church. Because it’s a message to us.

Introduction to Paul

And speaking of Paul, I want to talk a little bit about Paul. You know, I once had someone ask, I forget where I saw it, they said, “well, you know, I think the question was, who would you most like to go back and meet in the Bible except Jesus.” You know, they said, “except Jesus, who would you like to most go…” I mean, I don’t have to think about that one. It’d be Paul. Absolutely. Absolutely. Apostle Paul.

Christianity’s Early Challenge

When Christianity began, it faced a very, very difficult problem. The message of Christianity was meant for all of mankind. Yet Christianity was cradled in Judaism. From a human perspective, no message meant for the entire world could have found a more unfortunate cradle. Sadly.

And it wasn’t a failure of God’s word, of course. It was a failure of the Jews and their understanding of God’s word and that He was going to bring a blessing to the entire world. And instead, the Jews, as one writer wrote, were involved in a double hatred. They hated the world, and the world hated them. And it was in that cradle that Christianity was to proclaim a message of blessing to the entire world.

Jewish-Gentile Relations

No nation was ever more bitterly hated than the Jews. Cicero called the Jewish religion a barbarous superstition. Tacitus called the Jewish people the vilest of people. And yet no nation ever hated other nations as the Jews of that day did.

It’s true that some Jews, as we know, understood that Jesus was to be a blessing for the entire world and a light to the Gentiles, but most Jews were convinced that since they were the chosen nation, all other nations had been rejected. Some said the Gentiles were created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell.

It was forbidden to give a Gentile mother any help when it was time to deliver her child, since to do so would only bring another Gentile into this world. Many Jews would refuse to offer any help to the Gentiles, even refusing to give them directions on the road. Think that made them loved?

Rumors among the Gentiles of the time were that the Jews had taken an oath never to show any kindness to a Gentile. And even Josephus mentions the rumor that the Jewish religious ceremonies began each year with a sacrifice of a Gentile. One author of the day wrote that the Jews alone of all other nations refused all fellowship and intercourse with other nations and suppose all men to be enemies.

The Need for a Bridge

Christianity had a problem. It had a message for all men, and yet in the eyes of the world it was a Jewish thing, and the Jews were bitterly hated. What was needed was a man who could bridge the Jewish world and the Gentile world. And God chose Paul to be that man. Why?

Well, first, let’s consider the Jewishness of Paul. To the end of his life, Paul was proudly, stubbornly, unalterably a Jew. 2 Corinthians 11:22. “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.”

Paul’s Jewish Credentials

When he was claiming to be a Hebrew, he was saying that unlike the other Jews, he had not forgotten his heritage. He had not forgotten his native language. He still spoke Hebrew. When he claimed to be an Israelite, he was saying, “I’m a member of the nation that first received the covenants of God.” When he claimed to be the seed of Abraham, he was claiming absolute pure racial purity as a Jew.

He made similar claims, Philippians 3:4 through 6, Romans 11:1. There he reminded his readers he was the tribe of Benjamin. Why was that important? Benjamin was the tribe from which the first king of Israel came. Benjamin and Judah were the only two tribes that stood true to Rehoboam when the kingdom split. Benjamin was the only son of Jacob that was born in the land of promise. When Israel went to battle, the tribe of Benjamin held a post of honor, Judges 5:14.

Paul was not just a Jew, he was of the aristocracy of the Jews. Hebrew of the Hebrews. In fact, Paul was a Pharisee. Philippians 3:5, Acts 23:6. No Jewish critic of Paul could ever criticize his Jewishness. No one could say that Paul had abandoned Judaism because he really didn’t understand it, because he really never was part of them. That’s why he left. They could never say that about Paul.

No one could say that Paul misunderstood Judaism or knew it only from the outside, looking in. Like an insider who writes a telltale memoir about some event. Paul knew Judaism inside and out, and he gained instant respect in that regard. No one could criticize Paul’s Jewishness.

Paul’s Other Side

And yet, when we start looking at Paul next week, we’re going to see Paul had another side. Somehow, this Hebrew of the Hebrews, this Pharisee, was steeped in Greek culture and understanding. And we’ll start next week by looking at that side of Paul.

Thank you so much for your attention here tonight.