We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, we have just completed a study in Matthew. Our Sunday morning reading is in Genesis. We're in Ephesus in the preaching hour. We're on 1 Samuel, in 1 Samuel on Wednesday night, and Judy and I are teaching Zechariah on Monday night. So sometimes I get confused about what days we're actually in. However, we are beginning this morning to go into the study of 1 Corinthians. One of the concepts of Bible study that anybody who is studying inductively knows about, the rule of context. What is the rule of context? Context rules. Context in its simplest form is simply that which goes with the text. So, what we want to look at this morning is some of the elements that surround Paul's writings to the church at Corinthians. So as we study 1 Corinthians, it becomes important that we understand, as I said, those elements that surround his writing. So this morning it's going to be more or less in an outline form. I'm going to talk a lot, I'm going to lecture, which is typically not how I teach, but due to the material, that's what we're going to do this morning. So as there's going to be an outline, we're going to paint with a broad brush. And we're going to go in a hurry. So all of these details will be fleshed out as we as we move through the various portions of the book. So here we go. It's generally thought that Paul founded the Corinthian church in about 49 or 50 AD. We know that he stayed in Corinth for about 18 months, then he moved on, ultimately winding up in Ephesus. He wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus. and he wrote 1 Corinthians in about 49 or 50. No, he founded the church in 49 or 50. He wrote 1 Corinthians in 53 or 54. He wrote a second letter to the Corinthians in 55 or 56. And we have evidence that he wrote a third letter, which has been lost. We don't know when he wrote it, or from where, we would assume it was still from Ephesus, but we don't know. So to begin to try to understand the context in which he wrote, we would want to know several things. We would want to know something about the city, where they were. We would want to know something about Paul, or more particularly, something about his writing. and we would want to know something about who he was writing to. So let's start with the city itself. Corinth was located on the Palo Peninsula, say that three times, and it overlooked a major trade route from east to west by sea. Therefore, they had two harbors, one on the east coast, one on the west coast. We'll come back to that again in a minute. The reason those ports or those harbors became so important is that the sea captains, the guys who steered the ships, did not like to go around the southern tip of this peninsula because it was an additional 200 miles and they had a lot of storms. So they would lose ships, they would lose their cargo. So what they would do is they would land in one of these ports on either side of the peninsula and then transport their goods across. That becomes important because Corinth made lots of money from the taxes and tariffs from where they transported their goods. We know that Corinth was a very old city. It appears in Homer's Iliad, therefore it dates back to at least two millenniums before Christ. In the 7th century, this is 7th century BC, It gained a lot of importance, a lot of power because of this commercial appeal, because of these two ports. Now during the Peloponnesian War, this was between Athens and Sparta, 431 to 404, Corinth sided with Athens. And the war so weakened both Athens and Corinth that Corinth was captured by Philip II of Macedonia. He subjugated Corinth in 338. Now his son, anybody remember who Philip II's son was? I know you know. You know. It was Alexander the Great who conquered the whole world at that point in time. And he kind of took charge of Corinth. He used it as a commercial center and a tourist attraction. The tourist attraction we'll find out a little bit more later. Now after he died in 323, Corinth got kind of a sense of independence, and they became a leader among the Greek city-states. And they did that for some 50 years until 196. Then the Romans captured Greece, and they again gave Corinth a kind of a sense of independence, They gave Corinth the right to be a leader of the League of City-States in Acacia. That went on for about another 50 years, and Corinth revolted. Doesn't seem to me to make a lot of sense if everything was going well for them, but they did. And the Romans destroyed both the city and both harbors. So the city lay in waste, in ruins, for approximately a hundred years until Julius Caesar rebuilt it in 44 BC. He rebuilt the city and both ports. And, and this is important, at that point in time Corinth became a Roman colony. at which point it prospered again, became a trading and commercial center, and it attracted peoples from all over the world. So we would want to know something about the city, we would want to know something about these people that it attracted. Regarding going back to the city, since it was a Roman colony, it was subject to Roman law, and had a government much like Rome. The official language was Latin, but most people spoke, what, what would you guess? Huh? No, the official language was Latin. What do people speak? Koine Greek, yeah. So you've got the official language and you've got what most people speak. We've got official English and then we've got Southern. Yeah, probably should. We get some indication of that in Paul's writings, again, as we begin to think about how this influences what he wrote. In his letter, he uses Latin names, he uses Jewish names, and he also talks about Roman military officials and civil officials. So all of this amalgam, all of this group is residing together in Corinth, as well as other settlers, ex-soldiers, former slaves. There were also merchants, craftsmen, artisans, philosophers, teachers, laborers from many countries that bordered the Mediterranean. So, You can see this is an amalgamation of people from lots of different backgrounds, lots of different professions. Also, there were a number of Jews. They were there from Israel, they were native Greeks, and as I said earlier, displaced persons and slaves. So we begin to get a sense of what the population of the city was. So all these people lived and worked in Corinth or one of its two ports. They increased the population of Corinth. They added to its diversity and strengthened its economy. At the time of Paul's writing, the city was a manufacturing center. It had these two harbors and became a hub for world or at that time international trade. So in short, At the time of Paul's writing, Corinth enjoyed international, to the known world at that point, recognition. So it's important. It's a rich Roman colony. Now as we think about that culture, now any of y'all sociology majors, you understand when I say culture? It's the sum total of a lot of things, but it's how the society worked. And we know that religion is one of the institutions that significantly affects the culture. We also know that in some sense, culture affects religion. I chew on that one for a while. So religion and culture are interrelated. And the culture in Corinth at that time had a significant effect, or not effect, but it was significantly indicated in Paul's writings. And we'll see that again in a minute. Their reputation, Corinth's reputation, the Greek and Roman authors had for centuries before the rise of Christianity often referred to Corinth as a city of fornication and prostitution. The Greeks actually had coined a phrase that literally translates to live a Corinthian life to describe the city's immorality. So we begin to get a sense of what the city and its general populace is like, and then that relates directly to Paul's writings to the church. Probably not. Well, that could be too. I'll put a parenthesis around this at this point. Given the problems the church had, and I'm going to come back to that in a minute, but given the problems that church had, I'm not sure I would name my church the Church at Corinth. I'm digressing here, but the entire, not the entire, but the bulk of the substance of his writing is to the church, or more specifically to the people in the church, about difficulties they're having. You know, you got a whole chapter that's devoted to that, and you're going to name your church that? Probably not. Thank you. Appreciate it. So coming back to Corinth's reputation, if you please, a part of that was all of these religious sects, religious factions that were there. Remember, it had two harbors, two ports. Harbors and ports attract who? Ships. Sailors. Huh? Yeah, drunken sailors. And what do we know about sailors? Typically. What's their reputation? They're a rowdy bunch. They're not the most moral people in the world. So. So. It attracted it, the port cities attracted a group of sailors, merchants. Merchants are not also not necessarily the most moral people in the world. Some are, some are not. Soldiers, think about soldiers in that day and age. Again, not the most upstanding citizens. So Corinth at that point was probably not the most moral society in existence. In addition to that, and we'll detail this again in a minute, there was an infamous temple in Corinth at that point in time dedicated to the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, who had a from antiquity had a reputation for immorality. So Corinth was probably not known as a place for credible morals. And there was a distinct impression that promiscuity was not uncommon in the city. Now remember, this is a city Paul went to, founded a church, accumulated, so to speak, many of these folks. Against that background, kind of keep that in mind. The Corinthians allowed many other religious groups. They allowed them to practice their faith. Besides worshiping Aphrodite, they worshiped Eclipsus, Apollo, Poseidon. There were altars and temples for the Greek deities of Athena and Hermes. There were shrines for the worship of Egyptian gods, which is kind of interesting, Isis and Serapis. So, In addition to all of these, there were also Jews. The emperors, Julius Caesar, Tiberius, and later on, lost my reference, Claudius, had allowed the Jews to practice their faith, practice their religion, as long as they didn't interfere with Rome. If they weren't causing troubles for Rome, they let them along. And we know that also from Israel and from Jerusalem. So the Jews were able to practice their, quote, religion freely, and in fact, built a synagogue. You got all these shrines, you got all these temples, the Jews have got their synagogue. Now this is the place they invited Paul to speak. and then pretty immediately threw him out. I'm sorry? Hebraic? Probably, I can't document that. Yeah. Yeah, remember, this is a lot of Greek influence. Again, I can't document that, but probably. Good, that answers your question. Yeah, mostly. Okay. So given all of these various religious sects, all of this, you know, we might say all this tolerance for these religious sects, it's not unusual that both the Jews, and then more specifically Christianity, was accepted. Christianity was perceived as a variant of Jewish religion or faith, and because of that and because of all these other sects, it wasn't objectionable to the general populace. So they were pretty much okay. And the Corinthian Gentiles more readily accepted Christianity than they did Jewish faith. So because God had put so many people in this city with so many diverse backgrounds, and some of those were attracted to the church, the church began to grow, began to increase, as did the city. And in contrast to the Jews who practiced in their synagogues, the Christians met in homes. Again, a kind of cultural, societal differentiation. And we might, as we thought about Paul and his writings, we might wonder, you know, why he would write, why he would go to Corinth to establish a church. Why would he preach in Corinth? And we know from other places that he liked to preach in major centers, cities, capitals, if you please, provincial capitals. We know that he preached in Thessalonia and Macedonia, and then here in Corinth and Acacia. He considered capitals to be strategic centers where, in some cases, land traffic met sea traffic. So they're cosmopolitan. They're metropolitan, if you please. Lots of people. Lots of opportunity. Lots of crime. Lots of immorality. And that was in fact the case from Corinth. The gospel ultimately spread to the surrounding rural villages and cities and to many parts of the Mediterranean world. As thinking about the church, more than any of the churches that he founded, he gave more of his talent, his time, and in some cases, tears, to the Corinthian congregation. We know that they got three visits. After he left, he came back three times. That's in 2 Corinthians 13, chapter 1. He also gave them counsel, lengthy letters, of which 1 and 2 Corinthians are one, and perpetual prayer. Now, we might tend to think in a more circumscribed way, we may begin to think that his writings was limited to that church, which it was. Not limited, but it was written to that church. But as we begin to unpack that entire book, we discover that it has universal applications, that it applies His advice applies to the church universal. And so his epistle or his letter is addressed to every believer of every age in every location. Now we think about the letter itself, the message contained in the letter itself. It was occasioned, if you please, by a report brought to Paul from members of Chloe's household. We'll unpack all that. I think Casey will begin to unpack some of that in a couple of weeks. That's in chapter 1, verse 11. It came from a letter from the Corinthians, chapter 7, verse 1, and by the arrival of a delegation from the church at Corinth, chapter 16, verse 17. The report that came from Chloe's household concerned factions that were springing up in the church and they were undermining the unity of the church. Now again, remember the context, remember the culture out of which these folks are coming. The letter he received from Corinth was asking questions about marriage, chapter 7, verse 1, virgins, chapter 7, verse 25, food sacrifice to idols, chapter 8, verse 1, spiritual gifts, chapter 12, verse 1, and then later on the collection of the saints in Jerusalem, chapter 16, verse 1, and Apollos, chapter 16, verse 12. There were a number of practical problems that had beset, if you please, this fledgling Corinthian congregation. And Paul, as the father of that church, and we see that from chapter 4, verse 15, He began to tell or to teach these folks how to deal with their difficulties. Among those difficulties, there were leadership problems. Now, again, think about the society from which this church was gathering its folks. And also think about the fact that Paul was only there for 18 months. How would you like to teach this kind of populace what they need to know in 18 months? Tall order. So he's got these folks from all these varied backgrounds, all these various experiences, and he's trying to give them these basics. But because of their diversity, as I said, it gave rise to a lot of problems, leadership problems. There were Jewish Christians, we know from Acts that there were Jews who converted and left the synagogue, who were probably familiar, at least with the Old Testament teachings. There's another group known as God-fearers who were Gentiles who converted, and then there were new converts, and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. But at any rate, there were, within the church, there's leadership problems from all these various and sundry opinions and whatever. There were also moral problems. Remember chapter five? You guys that are students of First Corinthians, what happened in chapter five? Absolutely, our immorality in the church. There were practices going on that Paul says even the Gentiles didn't do. So we had that. There were also in that same chapter, I'm sorry, in chapter six, where, lost my words, litiginous cases were coming before Gentile judges. And again, that's chapter six, verse one. There were other social problems that pertained to married couples Divorced or separated individuals, unmarried people, and widows. So he covers the entire spectrum. There were cultural and religious problems. In terms of his writings, the next issue that he confronts where they were asking advice was in response to the Gentile practice of eating meat sacrificed to idols, chapter 8, verse 1. There were church problems, the ones we alluded to a minute ago. He devotes three entire chapters to this, chapters 11 through 14, related to questions pertaining to worship services. praying and prophesying, prophesying and speaking in tongues, and he ties those two together. The celebration of the Lord's Supper, spiritual gifts, the meaning of love, and orderly worship. I don't know that I'll get that pericope or not, but we spend a lot of time on that one. There were doctrinal problems. There's no indication that they had asked him specifically about the doctrine of the resurrection. But there is indication that there were some in the church that denied that there was a resurrection. Chapter 15, verse 12. And as I said, in Mendigo, by kind of reading it, I hate to say this, but reading between the lines, we get some sense of the folks that were recipients. Like I said, they had the Jews who had converted, we had the God-fearers, and then the others. It would be analogous to trying to teach a class that was comprised of seminary professors, folks who'd been in the church for a hundred years, and new converts. Now that's not a task I would want to undertake, but that's essentially what Paul is writing to. was because Paul doesn't list all the people in the church, you do have to, I think, in a large measure from history, from what we find in the internal evidence of the church itself, we do have to kind of read between the lines when we are trying to determine the historical setting and the people that were there and what was going on. But I think, and I think you would agree with this, the teachings that are given to those particular groups of people in this book and in 2 Corinthians are clear. We don't have to read between the lines. Yeah, not on the teaching, no. Right, and I know you didn't mean that. As we come to Paul's admonition to not go beyond about the historicity of it. They were bringing them into the church, their backgrounds. They were bringing into the church the things that they had been doing. And it wasn't malicious, they didn't know anything. And so there is a portion where Paul is saying, look, these things that God wants you to know that you don't have to read between the lines on, that distinction as we go through this? Yeah, to separate the cultural influences from his clear teaching and then also remember that his teachings are universal. They were for the Corinthians but they're also for the church universal. So we got converted Jews, we've got God-fearers, we've got new converts, and then there's a fourth group, the Romans. Remember that we said that as long as they weren't causing trouble for Rome, they pretty much let religious groups alone. So it's not likely that they were involved in the church per se, but Corinth had been a Roman colony since 44 BC. So there was a lot of people who settled there that were military, administrative folks, released slaves. And a lot of what they did had been enculturated, if you please, into the society. The Roman culture influenced Corinthian society and some of his customs had become a part of daily life. Now part of that Paul also addresses. We know from reading, my sources said epistles, but I'm gonna change that, from reading his letter, we know that there are many times where he talks about or alludes to being opposed. to opponents. And it's interesting that they don't always present a unified front. They come from various and sundry different directions. They seem to champion an individual cause and oppose Paul on that basis. He talks about Jews demanding miraculous signs. He talks about Greeks seeking wisdom. He confronted members who had an incorrect view of Christian faith, among whom there were those who taught there is no resurrection. That's a biggie. That's chapter 15. There were those who were influenced by Greek philosophy. Again, some denied the resurrection altogether. There were others who were enamored with the oratory of Greek philosophers, and those folks attracted a lot of followers. And then toward the end of the book, we know that Paulus was admired and Paul was despised by some of the Corinthians. So he got opposition, but it came from a lot of different directions. Okay, if we think about, just in general terms, the theology of this book, Paul addresses it in two or three, maybe four different directions. You'll notice in the reading of the letter, he does not, not verbally, but in his writing, he doesn't talk a lot about God per se. So although he repeats the name Christ Jesus, he presents Christ in relation to God. So he's, again I hate to say this, but he's kind of going at it back door. He's going to the doctrine of God through Christ. The second part is Christ himself. Therefore Paul and the recipients of his letter Christ is the central figure in the entire letter. Believers are sanctified in his name, called on his name, receive his grace, and are enriched. All things to all people. Yeah. Okay. And then the third piece, and this is the Trinity, obviously, is the Holy Spirit. He references the Spirit of God. but he predominantly ascribes an instrumental role to the third person of the Trinity. Bet y'all didn't know there was all that stuff in First Corinthians, did you? He also talks about, and I use this term generally, the doctrines of the church. Remember, he's writing because of difficulties in the church, so he talks about the doctrine of the church, And of all the letters he wrote, he uses the word church most often in his Corinthian correspondence, both books, first and second. So he had a special interest in the spiritual welfare of the Corinthian church. He talks about the nature of the church. The congregation in Corinth exhibited a disregard for the unity of the local church, and by implication, the universal church. Now, parentheses, we don't have any disunity in our churches today, do we? Close parentheses continue. He compares the Corinthian church to the human body that consists of many parts that are fully dependent on one another, and these parts form one body harmoniously put together to function properly. That's the physical church, but this is also the spiritual body of Christ. This is chapter 12, verse 12 and 27. He addresses worship. When the members of the church regularly come together, they do so to worship their Lord. Now, you think this one's important? As I said a minute ago, he devotes three entire chapters to this. For those of you who write, particularly write technical stuff, if you're going to devote three chapters to something, it's important. He addresses gifts. Again, he diverts three chapters to this, chapter 12 through 14, which overlaps with one on worship. He talks about discipline. Again, kind of reading between the lines, there's indication of strained relationships between him and the church in most every one of the chapters. So he instructs people to enforce discipline Chapter 5, verse 5 and 13. Again, parentheses. I hate to ask this. I'm going to do it anyway. How many of you have been in a church where scriptural discipline was in place? Close parentheses. Okay. Present company excluded. Huh? Oh, yeah. Well, let me ask it this way. For those of y'all who are here who came out of other churches, how many of those did you see spiritual discipline exercised? Well, I know you did. You're an outlier, Lamar. Okay. Well, I might say that. Okay, moving on. He addressed discipline. He also addressed the resurrection. We've already talked about that a little bit. But of all of his writings, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 to 1 Corinthians stands out as a chapter about the resurrection. So we might, as we think about this letter, and we might begin to try to think about its purpose, why did he write it? Obviously to correct some of these problems. But we might summarize this way, that he sought to develop and promote a spirit of unity. What's happening? Oh, okay. Out of this concept of disunity, he's trying to promote a sense of unity in the local church. and at the same time show the readers that they are a part of the universal church. Now that's an aspect that I think we sometimes overlook or we miss. We tend to focus on the Corinthian church and we miss the concept that this also applies to the universal church. He tries to correct several erroneous tendencies in the Corinthian community. He answers questions that were submitted to him by a letter, chapter 7, and a delegation, chapter 16. And then he, in the end of the book, he instructs believers in Corinth to collect funds to aid needy saints in Jerusalem. Again, that's a very broad outline of what we're going to be looking at. over the next probably several months. And as we do that, pericope by pericope, we'll begin to unpack a lot of these details. The thing that has always been most interesting much like the modern church, especially as we see it today. And it has the same problems, it has the same, you know, makeup in terms of people from all different parts of the world, so you've got different ethnicities, you've got different cultural backgrounds, you've got people coming out of pure paganism into the church, while at the same time you've got people religious thought and seminarians, people who have studied, and so the modern church is so much study revelation and worry about what's coming at the end time, and see what the Bible tells us about what we ought to do. And again, with Paul saying that they shouldn't go beyond what is written, there's clear instruction for us that I think is going to be extremely beneficial as we go through this. This is us. I mean, to give a little bit of liberty, we might say that, change the name of the of the Church of Grace Covenant. Yeah. One of the sources that I use a lot is a guy named Roy Stedman. He wrote in the late 70s and early 80s. He said we might call these two books First and Second Californians. Plug in the name. That is true. I think sometimes when we see that, and I agree with you, is that we detach them. California is, what, a day and a half away? Yeah. A century. Yeah. What about right here? Yeah. Yeah. And that's the applicational piece. Again, I'm preaching to the choir, but you know the elements of inductive study. Observation. From correct observation comes interpretation. From interpretation comes application. So the applicational piece is that he's talking to us. We've met the enemy and he is us. Was that Pogo? Okay. All right. Next week, we're gonna start digging into this. Our first barocopy will be chapter one, verses one through nine. So if you get a chance, read through those. Notice a couple of three words. Notice the word apostle. Notice the word called. And notice the word sanctified. And we'll detail those. We will begin to talk about those next week. Okay. Thoughts, questions, comments, rebuttals? Okay. Thank you for listening to the history lesson. I love history. I should have been a history teacher. I wasn't, but I should have been. All right. Anything else? We'll take a break and get some coffee and get ready for our