Corinth

Corinth is the city of Achaia named in the New Testament as the seat of one of Paul's most extensively addressed congregations in the surviving correspondence. It is identified by the salutations of his two letters as "the church of God which is at Corinth" (1Co 1:2; 2Co 1:1), and the surviving correspondence exhibits the city's congregation under almost every kind of pastoral pressure: factions, immorality, lawsuits, disordered worship, false apostles, and a long-running quarrel over Paul's own credentials.

Location and Standing of the Church

The two opening salutations fix Corinth on the map of Paul's mission. To the first letter he writes "to the church of God which is at Corinth, [even] those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, [the] called saints" (1Co 1:2). The second is addressed "to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia" (2Co 1:1), so that the city stands not only as the named location of a body but as a regional anchor for fellow saints across the surrounding province. Within his closing words to the same congregation, Paul confirms his own settled relation to them: "For we write no other things to you, than what you read or even acknowledge, and I hope you will acknowledge to the end" (2Co 1:13).

Paul's Travel and Visits

Paul's letters track repeated travel toward and through Corinth. He plans to come "after I have passed through Macedonia," with the possibility of staying or wintering with them, "if the Lord permits" (1Co 16:5-7), and earlier he had outlined a route "by you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and of you to be set forward on my journey to Judea" (2Co 1:16). By the time of 2 Corinthians the visit ahead of him is the third: "Look, this is the third time I am ready to come to you" (2Co 12:14), and again, "This is the third time I am coming to you. At the mouth of two witnesses or three will every word be established" (2Co 13:1).

Apollos, Titus, and Erastus

The same correspondence names other workers tied to Corinth. Apollos appears in the disputed slogans of the congregation (1Co 1:12; 1Co 3:4). Titus is dispatched to the city as Paul's emissary: "But thanks be to God, who put the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus. For he accepted indeed our exhortation; but being himself very earnest, he went forth to you of his own accord" (2Co 8:16-17), and Paul recalls, "I exhorted Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you?" (2Co 12:18). Erastus is identified twice with the city: in the closing greetings of Romans, "Erastus the treasurer of the city greets you" (Ro 16:23), and in 2 Timothy at the end of Paul's career, "Erastus stayed at Corinth: but Trophimus I left at Miletus sick" (2Ti 4:20).

Factions and Parties

Paul's first concern in his earlier letter is partisan slogans within the assembly. He reports, "each of you says, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ" (1Co 1:12), and pairs that with the charge, "For when one says, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are you not men?" (1Co 3:4). The same fractioning is echoed in his observation that, in their assemblies, "divisions exist among you" (1Co 11:18).

Sexual Immorality

The congregation tolerates a case of sexual sin that even pagan Corinth would not produce: "It is actually reported that there is whoring among you, and such whoring as is not even among the Gentiles, that one [of you] has his father's wife" (1Co 5:1). Their response compounds the offense: "And you are puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he who had participated in this deed might be taken away from among you" (1Co 5:2). Paul widens the rule to all who claim the name brother: "I wrote to you not to associate with any man who is named a brother if he is a whore, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; do not even eat with such a one" (1Co 5:11).

Lawsuits

Members of the church are pursuing one another in the civic courts. "Dare any of you, having a matter against the other, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?" (1Co 6:1). The very practice, Paul says, is itself the wound: "Therefore already it is altogether a defect in you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?" (1Co 6:7).

Marriage and Singleness

The opening of 1 Corinthians 7 indicates that the Corinthians had written to Paul on this subject directly. He responds: "Now concerning the things of which you wrote: It is good for a man not to have any sex with a woman" (1Co 7:1). A footnote in UPDV preserves the literal sense, "touch a woman," with Septuagint parallels at Genesis 20:4, 20:6, and Proverbs 6:29.

The Lord's Supper

Their assemblies are so disordered that what they keep is no longer the meal at all: "When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not possible to eat the Lord's supper: for in your eating each takes before [another] his own supper; and one is hungry, and another is drunk" (1Co 11:20-21). Paul's rebuke is sharp: "What, don't you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise the church of God, and put them to shame who do not have? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not praise you" (1Co 11:22). His correction is plain: "Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait one for another" (1Co 11:33).

Charismatic Gifts and Order in Worship

The Corinthian assembly is awash in spiritual contributions but lacks order. Paul describes it in their own terms: "When you come together, each has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done to edifying" (1Co 14:26). He grounds the corrective in the character of God himself: "for God is not [a God] of confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints" (1Co 14:33). The summary rule for Corinthian worship is, "But let all things be done decently and in order" (1Co 14:40).

The Resurrection

Among the Corinthians a doctrine has surfaced that denies the resurrection of the dead. Paul confronts it directly: "Now if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some say among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" (1Co 15:12).

The Collection

The same congregation is at the center of Paul's gathered relief for Jerusalem. He writes that, "as concerning the service to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you: for I know your readiness, of which I glory on your behalf to them of Macedonia, that Achaia has been prepared for a year past; and your zeal has stirred up very many of them" (2Co 9:1-2). The principle he urges is not amount but disposition: "[Let] each [do] according to as he has purposed in his heart: not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver" (2Co 9:7).

Alienation, False Apostles, and Paul's Apostleship

By the time of 2 Corinthians, rivals at Corinth have called Paul's authority into question. He answers them in person: "Now I Paul myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am of good courage toward you" (2Co 10:1), refusing to "walk according to the flesh" (2Co 10:2). He cites the Corinthians' own complaint against him: "His letters, they say, are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account" (2Co 10:10). Behind that complaint stand other preachers. Paul fears, "as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different good news which you did not accept, you endure well" (2Co 11:3-4). His verdict on those rivals is sharp: "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ" (2Co 11:13).

Closing Salutation

The first letter ends in Paul's own hand: "The salutation of me Paul with my own hand. If any man does not love the Lord, let him be accursed. Maranatha. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus" (1Co 16:21-24).