Introduction

The church at Corinth was under heavy pagan practices due to their new converts from the mythological
background. The troubled state of the Christians at Corinth explains the need for such attention. Corinthian
city, the mixed and cross-cultural society encountered lot of problems in their faith and practices.
Paul is talking to a very troubled church, a church that exists in the midst of a very corrupt city and culture.
No other churches gave Paul as much as trouble and worries, as did Corinthian church. The Corinthians
letters inform us that the worldly fashions too easily and quickly find its way into the church. Here is a
church that seems almost beyond hope. There are divisions, immorality, and opposition to the apostle Paul
and to apostolic teaching. Was Paul discouraged? Does Paul give up hope? What attracts us is not so much
the errors that stole into the early church from time to time, but the way in which Paul answers them as a
pastor or servant of God.
Letter to the 1 Corinthians receives its unique importance to give us the picture of the Corinthian City and its
church because it is only here that Paul develops his theological ideas about Greek cultural and religious
values. These values include subjects such as formal, wisdom, and knowledge, that is, the experience of the
Christian faith as intellectual enlightenment and inspiration, including forms of state. In the practical area
Corinthian notions of freedom need to be redefined in terms of new forms of Christian communal and
individual life (6:12; 8:9; 9:19–23; 10:23–11:1).

The City of Corinth

In Paul’s day Corinth had a population of about 250,000 free people, plus as many as 400,000 slaves. In a
number of ways, the city of Corinth was known.

Its Commerce: Located just of the Corinthian isthmus, it was a crossroads for travelers and traders. It had
two harbors: (1) Cenchrea and Lechaion. Goods flowed across the isthmus on the Diolkos, a road by which
smaller ships could be hauled fully loaded across the isthmus, and by which cargoes of larger ships could be
transported by wagons from one side to the other. Good flowed through the city from Italy and Spain to the
west and from Asia Minor, Phoenicia and Egypt to the east.

Its Culture: Although Corinth was not a university town like Athens. It was characterized nevertheless by
typical Greek culture. Its people were interested in Greek philosophy and placed a high premium for
wisdom.

Its Religion: Corinth contained at least 12 temples. Whether they were all in use during Paul’s time is not
known for certain. One of the most infamous was the temple dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love,
whose worshipers practiced religious prostitution. About a fourth of a mile north of the theater stood the
temple of Asclepius, the god of healing and in the middle of the city the 6th Century BC temple of Apollo
was located. In addition, the Jews had established a synagogue; the inscribed lintel of it has been found and
placed in the museum at old Corinth.

Its immorality: Like any large commercial city, Corinth was a center for open and unbridled immorality. The
worship of Aphrodite fostered prostitution in the name of religion. At one time 1,000 sacred prostitutes
served her temple. So widely known did the immorality of Corinth become that the Greek verb “to
Corinthianize” came to mean “to practice sexual immorality”. In a setting like this it is no wonder that the
Corinthian church was plagued with numerous problems.

The Church at Corinth

The Corinthian church seems to have been fairly large (Acts 18:8, 10), and secure from the threat of
persecution (1 Cori. 4:10). There were some Jews in its membership (Acts 18:7, 8); but it was predominantly
gentile and ex-pagan in character and included many who had been rescued from the very dregs of society
(1 Cori. 6:9-11). Judaizing tendencies, which troubled other churches with Jewish members, seem to have
been only a minor problem in Corinth (1 Cori. 7:18). The ‘Super-apostles’ of 2 Corinthians with their “other
gospel” appear to be more concerned to undermine Paul’s authority tan to drag converts back into Jewish
practices. On the other hand, the pagan world blankets the whole of life in Corinth, and Paul has to deal
extensively with the practical problems the Corinthian Christians were meeting every day. Purity was an odd
(rare) novelty in the pagan world, and even more so in Corinth (I Cori. 5:9; 6:9-11, 15). Christians too had to
decide on their attitude towards pagan clubs (1 Cori. 8 and 10) and about such matters as invitations to dine
with pagan neighbors (1 Cori. 10:27).

Socially, the church ranged from the well-to-do city treasurer (Rom. 16:23) to Jewish refugees (Acts 18:2) and
former thugs (1 Cori. 6:10ff.). Not many in the church were cultured or clever (1 Cori. 1:26), and there was
some striving after airs and graces (1 Cori. 4:10). Many were delighting in cheap rhetoric (1 Cori. 1:20ff; 2:1ff.),
boasting about their teachers (1 Cori. 3:24), and even modifying some of Paul’s ‘cruder’ doctrines to make
them more ‘contemporary’ (1 Cori. 15:12).

The instability of the Corinthians is not surprising in view of the novel tensions to which their utterly anti-
Christian religious and moral environment exposed them, not to mention the multiracial character of the
church membership. Their lack of Old Testament background was another factor, although Apollos was able
to remedy this in some measure (Acts 18:27ff.), and Paul appreciated his efforts (1 Cori. 16:12). The divisions
in the church are marked by party-cries (1Cori. 1:12) and the existence of opposite perversions-witness the
attitude toward incest on the one hand (1 Cori. 5) and celibacy on the other (1 Cori. 7). Paul rarely suggests,
however, that the Corinthians were behaving ‘just like men of the world’ (1 Cori. 3:3, Philips). James Stalker
once said that Paul’s letters take the lid off the meeting-places of early Christians and let us look inside. This
is particularly Corinthian correspondence.

Author and Date

Letter by itself (1:1-2; 16:21) and early church fathers supports Paul’s authorship. It was attested by Clement
of Rome as early as possible as AD 96 and today most of the NT scholars support this view.
It was written c. 55 toward the close of Paul’s three-year residency in Ephesus (see 16:5-9; Acts 20:31). It is
clear from his reference to staying at Ephesus until Pentecost (16:8) that he intended to remain there
somewhat less than a year when he wrote 1Corinthians.

Themes
The letter revolves around the theme of problems in Christian Conduct in the church. It thus has to do with
progressive sanctification, the continuing development of holiness of character. Obviously, Paul was
personally concerned with the Corinthian’s problems, revealing a true pastor’s (shepherd’s) heart.

Relevance
This letter is timely for the church today, both to instruct and to inspire. Most of the questions and problems
that confronted the church at Corinth are still very much with us – problems like immorality, instability,
divisions, jealousy, and envy, lawsuits, marital difficulties, sexual immorality and misuse of spiritual gifts. Yet in
spite of this concentration on problems, the book contains some of the most familiar and beloved chapters
in the entire Bible – e.g., chapter 13 (on love) and chapter 15 (on resurrection).