WWUTT 1401 Introduction to 1 Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1:1)

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The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to a church in Corinth that was guilty of a lot of sins. We would have said to this church, hey, close your doors, you're no longer a church.

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But Paul was merciful to them and called them to repentance when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of, well, the Bible. Today we start a new study, moving on to the next book.

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It's 1 Corinthians. If you wanna open up your Bible and join with me there, today we'll do our introduction to the book of 1

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Corinthians. A little bit of an overview, the occasion for Paul writing this letter to the church in Corinth, some of the themes that we'll see, so on and so forth.

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I'm gonna open by reading Paul's greeting here at the start of this letter. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 1, verses one through three.

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The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother

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Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is a much shorter introduction to this letter than we read at the start of the book of Romans, right?

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And that's Paul's longest introduction to a letter. But even though this introduction, this greeting is not as long as Paul's greeting to the

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Romans, there's still some depth, some richness even to these words, starting

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Paul's epistle to the church in Corinth. We'll talk about some of those things as we go. First of all, let's do a quick overview of this letter.

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Who is the author? Well, it's Paul or the Bible is lying. Very first word we see at the start of this letter is the author identifying himself,

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Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle. So this is the apostle

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Paul. And he's writing to, as it says in verse two, the church of God that is in Corinth.

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Now, where is Corinth? Well, this was a city in Achaia or the Southern end of Greece.

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We talked about this a little bit even when we were going through Romans for Paul was in Corinth when he wrote his letter to the

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Romans. But this would have come after this letter that Paul is writing to the Corinthians.

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If you were to lay all of Paul's letters out in a chronological order, first Corinthians would actually come before Romans.

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So would second Corinthians, in fact. According to most biblical scholars, it's believed that first and second

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Thessalonians are the first two letters that Paul wrote. And then his third letter, at least according to what we have in the canon of scripture, would have been first Corinthians.

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Then between first and second Corinthians, Paul wrote to the Galatians. Then we have the second letter to the

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Corinthians. And then Romans would have been after that. Now, the events that are chronicled in the book of Acts come to a conclusion before we have any of Paul's other letters.

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You have Paul under house arrest in Rome when you finish Acts. And it's during that time that he is in chains in Rome that he writes

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Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. After serving his time in prison in Rome, Paul gets out and he journeys west towards Spain.

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And we talked about that toward the end of our study in Romans. And it was during that missionary journey, none of that is written down in scripture.

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Again, that just kind of comes back to us according to things that have been written in church history. But it was during that missionary journey that he wrote first Timothy and Titus and then he was imprisoned again, his second imprisonment in Rome that would end with his martyrdom.

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But during that imprisonment, he wrote the final letter of his that we have in canon. And that is his second letter to Timothy.

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So there's your chronology of Paul's letters. And first Corinthians is technically not the first letter that Paul wrote to the

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Corinthians for he makes a reference to a previous letter. In first Corinthians 5 .9, he says,

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I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. So there was another letter before this one.

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We don't know how many, there could have been other letters, more than just one that Paul had written to this church and many other churches.

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All of those letters have been lost to time. It was the will of the Holy Spirit of God that we have these books chronicled for us in scripture or canonized for us in the

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Bible. The church did not create this canon, it rather discovered this canon.

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And it was by the Holy Spirit's providence that these would be the books that we would have that compiled the

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New Testament for us. So there's a reference to a zero Corinthians, like the prequel to first Corinthians, but I do believe that letter will never surface.

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We'll never find it. It's not God's will that it would appear or be included in canon.

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So this is Paul's first letter to the Corinthians as far as we have it canonized in scripture.

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Now, coming back to the city of Corinth, it sits higher up on what is referred to as the

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Peloponnesian Peninsula, right on the isthmus of Corinth. When you think about a peninsula, to my

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United States friends, you're probably thinking of Florida, right? And that's the famous peninsula in North America, the state of Florida.

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But there's more land joining Florida to the rest of the United States than there was land joining

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Achaia to the mainland, the northern part of which we refer to as Macedonia.

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So it's just a little sliver of land and Corinth sits right on that isthmus.

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To the north of that is the Gulf of Corinth and then to the east of that is the

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Aegean Sea. Sincreia is just a few miles to the east of Corinth. It's practically like a suburb and then 20 to 30 miles east of there is

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Athens, the capital city of Greece. That's how close Corinth was to Athens.

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Corinth was a major port city. Athens, of course, was a major port city. So this was a place of a lot of trade and a lot of paganism on top of that.

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Generally, those cities where you have a lot of trade, a lot of commerce coming in and out of there also tends to be a city heavily saturated with a lot of paganism.

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You would have a lot of temples to false gods. There's a lot of Corinth in this area, a lot of things named

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Corinth, right? You have the city of Corinth. It's on the isthmus of Corinth, which the widest part of this strip of land is only 3 .7

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miles wide or six kilometers for those of you who like the metric system, that's it.

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Corinth is just a little bit to the west of there. So it stretches out a little bit bigger than just 3 .7 miles, but that's how narrow that little strip of land was there.

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Corinth is just to the south of the Gulf of Corinth and the city sat at the base of a big mountain that was called the

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Acrocorinth. It was a small mountain, but very steep. It ascended up to 1 ,886 feet, or again, for those of you using the metric system would have been 575 meters high on the

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Peloponnesian Peninsula there in Southern Greece. Corinth was right there at the mountain's foot.

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As somebody came up on that straight of Corinth, or sorry, the isthmus of Corinth, they tried to put a straight in there at one point.

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A straight is where they'll try to dig through an isthmus so they can connect two bodies of water.

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In this case, would have been connecting the Aegean Sea with the Gulf of Corinth, but it didn't work out.

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I'd never read much about that, but I know it didn't work. It was actually a colossal failure.

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So you still had that strip of land that would have connected the Peloponnesian Peninsula with the other part of Achaia.

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And because of that little narrow strip of land, that also brought a lot of commerce through that area, not just the

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Lechion port that was right there with Corinth and Sencria, but also being on an isthmus.

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And again, being a trade city like that, being a place of a lot of commerce and a booming economy, made it a place of a lot of paganism as well.

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For the Romans and for the Greeks, the worship of false gods was tied to their expectations of fortune.

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And so in Corinth, you had many shrines, you had many temples to false gods.

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One of them was the Temple of Apollo. You had the Temple of Octavia.

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There was a Hellenistic era temple of Aphrodite that was right on top of the

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Acrocorinth. So at the very peak of this mountain that you would see coming up on the

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Lechion port, you would see the big mountain, you knew that landmark.

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It would be the first thing that a sailor would see or a traveler that was coming that way to Corinth.

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They would see the Acrocorinth long before they ever got to the city. You would see the mountain and you would know the city was at the base of the mountain.

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Right at the top of that mountain was the Temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

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It was a very famous temple. And in fact, Strabo, the Greek philosopher and historian, he wrote that at one point that temple employed 1 ,000 priestess prostitutes.

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Now, what does that mean for a temple to employ priestess prostitutes? It means when a person went into that temple to sacrifice to that false

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God, they would have sex with one of those priestess prostitutes on an altar to Aphrodite.

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This was a very common practice among the Corinthian people, not necessarily in Paul's day.

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It would have been before the time that Paul wrote this letter, but still Corinth was a place of a lot of wanton sexuality at the time that Paul wrote this.

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There was a war in which Corinth was overthrown by the Romans in 146

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BC. And it was probably around that time that that level of pagan worship at the

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Temple of Aphrodite would have come to an end. There still would have been priestess prostitutes there, but it wouldn't have been 1 ,000 of them by the time

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Paul wrote to the Corinthians. Still we know there was a lot of sexuality that was going on there.

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Corinth was known for that. People would go to Corinth for that, but it was also known for artistry and bronze, a lot of wealth, some great architecture.

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And with these pagan temples also came a lot of other kinds of sacrifices, not just that kind of sacrifice in the

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Temple of Aphrodite, but you would also see some of these temples turned into meat markets.

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And that's gonna come into play with some of the instructions that Paul gives to the

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Corinthians in this particular letter. We talked about a few of those things when we were in Romans chapter 14, and we'll come into them again in our study of this letter.

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Now, when did Paul write this letter? He first went to Corinth and preached there in the year 50, but this letter wasn't written until 53, 54, or 55.

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Why those three years? Because those were the three years that Paul was in Ephesus, and he says in 1

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Corinthians 16, eight, I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost. So that was where Paul was writing this letter from, and that would have put the writing of this letter in one of those three years, wherever it would have been that he wrote this.

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It was near the end of his three -year ministry in Ephesus. Why did

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Paul write this letter? Well, there's a couple of reasons for that. Number one, it's because Paul is answering some questions that the

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Corinthians have asked him. And it's likely that members of the household of Chloe have come to Paul with a letter from the

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Corinthians asking his apostolic teaching on various subject matters.

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Because some of the things that Paul talks about in this letter sounds like he is answering a question or he is responding to something that has been asked of him by the church there in Corinth.

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That's one reason why Paul is writing. The second reason why he's writing is because Chloe's people have reported to Paul about some of the things that are going on there to the church in Corinth.

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They're in that church. It's possible that the church wanted to inquire of Paul about certain things because they were bickering and arguing, there was some strife going on in the church concerning certain matters.

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So they're going, okay, let's find out what the apostle says about this. So they jot those questions down.

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It's sent with Chloe's people to Paul who is in Ephesus. And you know, it would not have been difficult for them to find where he was, even though this isn't the age of the internet.

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It's not even the age of the telephone. Nobody can just ring up somebody in Ephesus and say, hey, is Paul there? But remember wherever Paul went, he was performing incredible miracles and Ephesus was no exception.

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He did incredible miracles there in Ephesus. So that word of Paul spread far and wide. So word gets back to Corinth that the apostle

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Paul is in Ephesus and he's doing miraculous things. They know he's there. Other members of the church probably reported regarding his ministry there as well, because the churches everywhere were praying for the apostolic ministry as the gospel was spreading around the world.

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So a letter is sent with Chloe's people to Paul to ask him to give some apostolic teaching on certain things that the church was bickering over.

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And then Chloe's people give a report to Paul about the source of this strife.

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And it's not just the things that they're asking questions about. There's also all kinds of things that are dividing the people in the church, misusing the

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Lord's supper, sexual immorality, a misunderstanding of the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ.

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There were even people in the church that were denying that the resurrection had actually happened. You had some that were swearing loyalty to this apostle or that apostle or that teacher.

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We're gonna see some of that right at the very beginning of this particular book. You had division over spiritual gifts.

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You had division over a separation of classes. There are all kinds of things were breaking up this body and this grieved

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Paul's heart. And he writes this very stern letter to the Corinthians, rebuking them for many of these things that they're doing.

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There are certain places where Paul praises their good work. He's clearly thankful for this church body, but this is a, we generally consider this a pretty rebuking letter.

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First Corinthians, Second Corinthians, and Galatians are all very strong letters right back to back with one another.

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It's not just that they appear close together in canon. They were also close together in Paul's writing.

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First Corinthians became, of course, was written first. Then you had Galatians and then Second Corinthians was written.

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So the apostle Paul rebuking this church and doing so in love. This is very pastoral in his appeal.

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It's very apostolic. He uses his authority and calls them to attention over some of the things that are going on in this church, begging them to repent, to take care of even the sin that is going on in their midst.

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Word has come to Paul that some of them are misusing the Lord's table and as a result have gotten sick and died.

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Chloe's people have talked to him about that. And we'll see that address when we get to chapter 11.

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So here's kind of our outline of the book of Corinth. Instead of going down just kind of a long list of things that Paul has to confront here, we begin with this greeting.

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We'll come back to it again tomorrow and look at the depth of some of this text. You have an expression of thanksgiving even at the very beginning.

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Though Paul has to be rebuking and admonishing, reproving of this church, he's nevertheless thankful for them.

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First Corinthians 1 .4, I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.

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It's amazing some of the things this church is guilty of. And yet Paul doesn't say to this church, hey, you guys are so bad, close your doors.

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You're no longer a church. Rather in love, he rebukes this church. And if the

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Holy Spirit truly is working in the hearts of these believers, then they're gonna be convicted of their sin and they are going to repent and restore the body to righteousness.

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So we go on to the next point is regarding divisions over various preachers of the gospel, some of whom are apostles.

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In the case of Apollos, he wasn't an apostle. He was just a great speaker, but some of the body was divided over their loyalties to various preachers.

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And it's there that Paul says that God's wisdom is the answer to this particular problem. It's not about the wisdom of man, it's the wisdom of God.

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And all of us preachers are after the same thing. So you as the church need to be as well. There's a report of sexual immorality that's going on in the church.

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Paul confronts that in chapter five. You have even a confrontation of the fact that some of the

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Christians there in the church were suing one another. That's when we get to chapter six. And then he continues emphatically to say there in chapter six, to flee from sexual immorality.

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We have one of the strongest appeals in the New Testament to have nothing to do with sexual immorality.

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That's in first Corinthians chapters five and six. You have questions about marriage and divorce in chapter seven, and then food offered to idols.

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As I mentioned, that's in chapters eight, nine, and 10. Then when we get to chapter 11, we read about head coverings.

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There's that famous section regarding head coverings and worship in chapter 11, verses two through 16.

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You have the issues that are happening at the Lord's table there in Corinth, which is the latter part of chapter 11.

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Then we get into the talk about spiritual gifts, and that's chapters 12 through 14.

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Right in the middle of that is first Corinthians 13, the most famous chapter of the two letters that Paul writes to the

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Corinthians. Out of first and second Corinthians, it's first Corinthians 13 that is most definitely the most famous chapter.

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That's what we refer to as the love chapter. We'll get there and put it into its proper context.

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And then when you get to chapter 15, you've got one of the most beautiful apologetic arguments laid out regarding the resurrection of the

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Lord Jesus Christ and why this is such an essential doctrine. That's a beautiful chapter. We'll spend plenty of time there.

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And then you have at the conclusion of the letter, chapter 16, calling for the collection for the saints to benefit

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Christians in other parts of the world. Paul's intention to travel and continue with the spread of the gospel.

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He closes with further admonition and his final greeting. So there you go. There's the outline to the letter, some of the things that we're gonna see as we go through this particular study.

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And we will come back to first Corinthians chapter one verses one through three tomorrow.

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Let's conclude with prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this time. And I pray that as we come into this letter and study these things, we see that this is the

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Holy Spirit of God moving through these words, inspiring these words that Paul wrote to this church.

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And though it has a very specific context, an apostle writing to a first century

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Greek church where there was a lot of idolatry and a lot of sexual immorality, yet we see some proper application for our world today that the

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Holy Spirit is still speaking to us today through these words. And even through this wonderful letter, calling us to repentance and pointing us to Jesus Christ.

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And I pray that is our desire as we come into this study that we may know Christ more and we would pursue him and desire to be like him more and more every day as we continue in our sanctification in Christ Jesus.

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It's in his name that we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt

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.com and click on the give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our