Paul first went to Corinth on his second missionary journey (AD 50 – AD 53). Corinth was in the Roman province of Achaia (southern Greece). He went there after preaching in Athens (Acts 18), and in Corinth he first met Aquila and Prescilla. Therefore, we see that Paul wrote these letters some four years after he first visited Corinth.
Although we have two Corinthians letters, there was a previous one which sadly is lost. The first of the two letters to which we have access was written in response to two letters which had been received. As we noted, Paul left Aquila and Prescilla in charge at Corinth when he continued his second missionary journey. He received the letters concerning the church in Corinth whilst he was on his third missionary journey (AD 53 – AD 57), during his extended stay in Ephesus in the Roman province of Asia (i.e., Asia Minor – Turkey).
The first letter, Paul received, came from “Chloe’s household” and it indicated that the church was in trouble. The second letter received was a set of questions on doctrine (concerning marriage, singleness and Christian liberty) brought from Corinth by Stephanos, Fortunatus and Archeus (Acts 16: 15 – 16). Paul wrote 1 Corinthians to answer these letters. 2 Corinthians was written shortly thereafter from Phillipi (Macedonia).
In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes the most detailed explanation of the Resurrection of the Lord in order to correct doctrinal errors (15: 1 – 58). In this letter, he was certainly critical of the Corinthians’ practice: their need to recognise God’s holy character; the solemnity of the Lord’s supper; the need for decorum in worship; the correct place of spiritual gifts; and godly living based on sound doctrine. Paul referred to them as carnal and proud, and in particular took them to task over a member who was behaving immorally and had not been disciplined.
Before writing 2 Corinthians, Paul wanted to know how they had responded to his previous letter. He sent Titus to monitor their response. His report was generally favourable. So, in 2 Corinthians, Paul pours out his heart as a pastor as well as giving additional doctrinal teaching.
But even in 1 Corinthians, and despite the problems in the church, Paul was able to end this largely confrontational letter with a note of hope. The Corinthians could have assurance of victory over sin and death because the Lord Yeshua in His death and resurrection had already decisively obtained it for them.
However, as well as reporting positively on such matters as the disciplining of the member involved in immoral conduct, Titus had to warn Paul that false teachers were coming into the church and trying to undermine his work.
They were accusing Paul of walking according to the flesh; intimidating the church with his letters; unjustly treating someone to the point of ruining them; and defrauding people (saying he was raising money to enrich himself).
So, a main purpose of 2 Corinthians was Paul’s desire to defend his ministry. He wrote to prove that his ministry was sincere and genuine, and to reassert his authority as an apostle. He was concerned for the Corinthian church and wanted to offer further instruction concerning the repentant offender as well as the collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem.
In 2 Corinthians Paul writes about the tri-une godhead; the deity of the Lord Yeshua; the humanity of the Lord Yeshua; and His death and resurrection. He reaffirms that all believers have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. The believing Corinthians are in the Lord Yeshua and the Lord is in them. They will be resurrected and evaluated at the judgment seat of the Lord where they will be either ashamed or rewarded.
Paul points out that part of the reasons for the Corinthians difficulties is Satan’s opposition to the church. He blinds unbelievers to the truth and uses every opportunity to divide believers. That is why Paul exhorts the Corinthians to live holy lives, to repent the sins of the past, and be reconciled to each other. The essence of faith in the Lord Yeshua should touch every facet of the believer’s life.
2 Corinthians presents the clearest summary of the substitutional atonement of the Lord, and the nature of the New Covenant receives its fullest exposition outside of the Book of Hebrews.
So, the trouble which the church at Corinth was experiencing led to Paul’s response in these two letters and provided for us a superb doctrinal legacy.
The main problem for the church at Corinth was that Corinth was a pagan and notoriously immoral city with a decadent culture epitomised by selfishness and contentiousness. Sadly, the Corinthian believers were failing to keep these attitudes out of the church.
The church was infected with the culture of the city. Sexual immorality had come into the church. They were splitting into factions. They were suing each other over various contentions. Worship was crippled by the abuse of spiritual gifts for reasons of pride.
They were true believers in Corinth, but they had a good deal of growing up to do. Paul’s letters are very practical and therefore provide a treasure trove of good teaching concerning conduct in the faith.
Sadly, we cannot examine the letters in their totality here, but we can choose certain extracts as typical.
As we have already noted, Paul was only too aware of the impact of the culture of Corinth on the believers there and that it was corrupting the fellowship. He urges the Corinthians to rely not on the world around them, but on the wisdom and power of God made available through the Lord Yeshua.
“For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Most of the Corinthian believers came from the lower classes and they had been drawn to the gospel simply presented to them; not by clever philosophical argument. Paul asked them to look around at their fellow believers – “not many” of those esteemed by the world are to be found among their number. But God chose them! So why were they placing a premium on human wisdom and exalting preachers who were seeking the make the message of the gospel palatable to the worldly-wise!
If men were responsible for the building of the church, they would go after the most prominent members of the community (“the wise”, “the mighty” and “the noble”). But God disdains human wisdom; not only by disallowing it as a means of knowing Him but also by choosing to save the lowly. God calls to salvation those considered nothing by the elite of society, if they trust in their Lord and Saviour. They may seem to be nothing in the eyes of the world, but they have found grace in the eyes of God!
God uses what is considered foolish and despised in the eyes of the world. So that He alone will receive the glory – trumpets were used to bring down the walls of Jericho, Gideon’s army was reduced to 300 soldiers, and Samson used the jawbone of a donkey to defeat an army.
Instead of giving HIs people a mighty king, He sent His Son to become a humble carpenter and to die in the most despicable way. The life and death of the Lord Yeshua reveals God and His wisdom.
Since He provides righteousness, sanctification and redemption, the believer has nothing to boast about but the Lord Yeshua.
The message of separation from the world is further expanded in Chapter 10 with emphasis on appropriate moral choices.
“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.”
In these verses, we see the use figuratively of the concepts of “the Lord’s cup” and “the Lord’s table” as symbols of communion, representing the unity of our fellowship with the Lord Yeshua. Being overly involved in the world, where Satan is dominant, is a violation of that unity. Given an opportunity, Satan’s agents will ruin our relationship with the Lord. We cannot enjoy all the blessings of the Lord without complete unity with Him.
Paul argues that it would be morally inconsistent to profess allegiance to the Lord and yet indulge in the ways of the world. It would be an act of treachery and disloyalty to the Lord. We would risk His righteous indignation and His disciplining judgment. God tolerates no rivals!
Paul writes “all things are lawful for me”. Of course, we cannot take this too literally. He is saying that he is free from human traditions not the Commandments of God. He is referring to things which are morally indifferent – e. g. how we use our spare time. Some things might be perfectly legitimate in themselves and yet for other reasons be unwise for the believer to participate in. We need to watch the cultural norms that surround us.
In all the decisions we make, we should not be thinking about what benefits us, but about its impact on others. We need to give thought to all apparently “neutral” things in our lives – what we wear; what we eat and drink; our lifestyle and the entertainments we participate in.
We said that 2 Corinthians had important theological themes; areas helpful to the Corinthians but equally vital to us.
Living in the light of the Lord’s judgment seat.
“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we are found to be naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but rather clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has also given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
Present sufferings and distress, bring Paul to think about the future glory which lies before him, and to think of death and the believer’s relationship to it.
Our present bodies, like a “tent”, are a temporary place of dwelling. Death is spoken of as our earthly house being “destroyed”; the tent is taken down and the body laid in the grave. But the spirit and soul of the believer go to be with the Lord, and the earthly house will be replaced by “a building from God, a house not made by hands.” Our present bodies are suited to life on earth, but our future glorified bodies will be of God’s creation, suitable for eternity with Him – no longer subject to disease, decay or death. At the time of the Lord’s return, the dead believers will be raised from the grave and God will provide a new glorified body which will be reunited with the spirit and soul. Between death and the Lord’s return, the believer might be said to be in a disembodied state, but of course fully conscious with all the glory and bliss of heaven.
In our present bodies we can “groan” because of the limitations it puts on us, and we can long for our glorified bodies.
When Paul speaks of “mortality swallowed up by life”, he is referring to the full experience of eternal life in the Lord. And we have a “guarantee” of this already in the Holy Spirit, giving us confidence, as we have already received from him a “down-payment”.
We can walk by faith although the Lord is not physically with us. But, because of our precious hope, we can walk on, confidently.
Paul weighs up the various futures which might happen to him. If he remains on earth, he can do the work which the Lord has given him to do. He could please God and that would be good. Or, if he died now, he would go to the Lord in spirit and soul. That would be better! Or, if he is taken to heaven at the rapture. He would immediately get his glorified body. That would be best of all!
By whatever means we get to heaven, all believers will “appear before the judgment seat of Christ” for reward, great or not so great, with our true characters revealed. Therefore, our aim should be always to be “well pleasing to Him.”
Paul wanted to reinforce to the Corinthians that they should recognise the Lord Yeshua’s love for them, His sacrifice for them and the opportunity He provided for them to be reconciled to God and to receive blessing.
“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus; that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Paul makes clear the motivation and strength of his desire to offer his life to the Lord Yeshua. It is the Lord’s love for humanity which led to His loving, substitutional death for sinners. The heart of the doctrine of salvation is that the Lord Yeshua took God’s wrath and paid the price of all sin; thus, satisfying God’s perfect justice.
Thus, believers should not evaluate the Lord Yeshua like anyone else, i.e., “according to the flesh”. The result of the Lord’s death for believers is the believer’s “death” with Him. Because believers are united with the Lord Yeshua both in His death and resurrection, they enjoy the benefits of being restored by the Lord to what God had originally created them to be.
“All things have become new”: a believer’s life should change because he/she is being transformed into the likeness of the Lord. Instead of living for himself, the believer lives for the Lord out of gratitude. A believer looks at the world through the eyes of faith, focused on eternity.
God can change His relationship towards us because our sins have been imputed to Messiah instead of to us. God counts the righteousness of the Lord as our righteousness.
“All things are of God”: all aspects related to someone’s conversion and newly transformed life in the Lord Yeshua, are accomplished sovereignly by God. Sinners on their own cannot decide to participate in these realities.
The “word of reconciliation” has been entrusted to us to tell people that God wants to restore them to a relationship with Him. This is the good news that everyone needs to hear. And we are “ambassadors”, representatives of the sovereign God, to serve Him in a world that is in rebellion, and to implore people to listen to God’s forgiving voice and to be reconciled.
Conclusion.
So, we began looking at the problems experienced by believers in Corinth all these years ago. Their principal difficulties arose from the fact that they lived in a decadent, sinful society from which they had difficulty shielding themselves and their life in fellowship.
We can certainly sympathise with the external environment they had to deal with. The solution for them, and for us, is to look to the Lord Yeshua and keep this present evil age outside the door of our homes and outside the door of our meeting hall.
I’m sorry for the problems the Corinthians faced, but Paul’s letters to them to address these issues, provide real doctrinal gold for us.
I commend to you further study of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians.
AMEN.