God's Church
SINNERS IN THE CHURCH
God's Church
SINNERS IN THE CHURCH
What does the Christian faith have to say to one of the world’s largest cities? How does Christ relate to a flourishing commercial, industrial, and transportation center? Is there a place for Christ at the crossroads of world business? Can one effectively live the Christian life in the most immoral town of the day? What distinguishes Christianity from the idolatry of contemporary life? Who is the God of the Bible, especially in view of man's almost numberless false gods?
The city is Corinth, the fourth most important town in Christ’s time. To this powerful, throbbing city “the message of the cross” was preached (1 Corinthians 1:18). To the political and intellectual leaders, the Apostle Paul asked, “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20). “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God,” is what the Christian faith offered this urban complex (1 Corinthians 1:24b).
Why this kind of message; about a cross; about the death that only criminals die; about the foolishness of man’s greatest wisdom? “Because,” as Paul says, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25).
Corinth – hub of all east-west shipping and the crossroads for all north-south travel into Europe. “The twain” did meet in this famous city. Christ came to Corinth’s flourishing commerce, industry, and transportation with this challenge: “not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called…and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are, 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” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).
What? All this empire building, all this conglomerate effort, all this wealth isn’t what life means? But the question is almost immediately lost in the strain of the day’s deal, the rush to put out to sea or the thrill of a ship just in port.
As a city stained with moral and spiritual corruption, Corinth was at the top of the list. During his stay there, the Apostle Paul described Corinth’s pagan society as idolatrous, lustful, perverted, violent, and rebellious (Romans 1:18-32). In his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul mentioned that “. . . neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, not thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners . . .” had become Christians (6:9-11). He then reminds these Corinthian church members: “But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (6:11).
How does a Christian live in an immoral city like Corinth? First, remember that you are “joined to the Lord” and that no member of Christ can become a partner of a prostitute (1 Corinthians 6:16, 17). Yet, according to Paul, this is what happens in illicit sexual conduct. Second, remember that the Christian’s body “is the temple of the Holy Spirit” given by God when one is redeemed by the blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). This means that the Christian, whether living in Corinth, San Francisco, Boston, New York, London, Hong Kong, Rome, or Paris, glorifies God with his life, with his physical body, with his entire being (1 Corinthians 6:20).
Corinth also ranked as a leading city of pagan worship. Temples of false gods abounded throughout the city. Thousands of idols represented the decaying mythology of the Greeks and the Romans. Egyptian divinities, Phrygian goddesses, Syrian and Egyptian gods, coupled with the infamous temple of Aphrodite and the great temple of Apollo, made Corinth a metropolitan pantheon. Can Christianity be distinguished from these gods and goddesses? Is there anything significant about what or whom the Christian serves in worship and life? To Corinthian Christians Paul wrote: “we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no other God but one” (1 Corinthians 8:4b). This, however, did not change the fact that men and women by the thousands, as in our day, recognized false gods. Paul explained it in this way: “For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:5, 6).
Take a city like ancient Corinth , so typical of today’s urban centers; add the presence of dedicated Christians who are called “the church of God which is at Corinth”; mix in a one and one-half year stay in Corinth by an Apostle; and the basis for Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is formed.
How does a Christian respond to one of the largest, busiest, wealthiest, most immoral and spiritual-confused cities of the day? The question required an answer of Paul and other first- century Christians just like the cities of our time demand a response from contemporary disciples of Christ.
First, the key to wisdom and power, not otherwise available, was shown to be Jesus Christ. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Who can know Christ as “the power of God and the wisdom of God”? – “both Jews and Greeks” (1 Corinthians 1:24); all who answer God’s call.
Second, the Christian response to urban life pointed to a kind of life that transcends travel on the high seas, revelry in the temples, and materialistic pleasure in the cities. Paul explained: “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption …” (1 Corinthians 1:30, NIV). This is real freedom that eliminates license and motivates the highest form of service to others in praise of God. This spiritual freedom insures righteous living, wise thought and action – the guiding principle of Christ’s love for needy men.
Third, to Corinth Paul and other Christians held out a transcendent hope – founded in the crucifixion of Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:2). When Paul spoke of Christ, he did not employ, “persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4, 5). Human wisdom builds a city. But there is a higher wisdom, a more permanent basis for life. Paul and other Christians taught that Jesus Christ is the key to a spiritually meaningful life.
Fourth, a city full of pagan gods and false religion heard Christians confess, “Yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:6). Firm but open, honest but loving men who believed in Jesus spoke of their faith in the confusing clash of a multitude of pagan beliefs.
Fifth, Corinth attracted all kinds of people, very few of whom could harmoniously relate to one another. Women lost respect for themselves, men robbed each other, and murder became commonplace, human dignity lost its meaning in social and sexual perversion (1 Corinthians 6:9- 11). But Christians in Corinth participated in “the one body” or “the one Spirit” as it was called by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:12, 13. God, Himself, places in the body those converted (1 Corinthians 12:18). Just like a physical body has many members with different functions, Paul explained that the body of Christ was a unified group of believers with varying abilities and opportunities to serve. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).
Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, by which men are saved, given new life and victory over death and sin, constituted the “gospel” or the “good news” presented to Corinth by first-century Christians (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
One problem among the Christians at Corinth was the clash of cultural and religious backgrounds. They came from everywhere out of all kinds of situations to answer Christ’s call. It is important to keep in mind that Paul urged unity in the church. “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10).
The first four chapters of this letter explain how to avoid disharmony and confusion.
The flagrant immorality in the city of Corinth affected the church. Many Christians formerly lived immorally (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Men and women had come to Christ out of all kinds of former conditions – causing some difficulty living a meaningful Christian life. Paul urges swift but loving action regarding a church member involved in sexual immorality with his step-mother (1 Corinthians 5:1-8). Other members did not take seriously Christ’s demands for personal morality (1 Corinthians 5:9-11). Paul urged them to remember their redemptive union with Christ in baptism (1 Corinthians 6:15, 20). Furthermore, the Holy Spirit lived in every Christian, making it doubly serious for the Christian either to misuse his own body or refuse the Holy Spirit’s control of that body (1 Corinthians 6:19; Galatians 5:16-26). Marriage and family life were definitely weakened by the social and spiritual conditions in Corinth. So, Paul told these Christians that it was better not to marry under such prevailing circumstances (1 Corinthians 7:1-6). Marriage, however, was preferable over sexual misconduct (1 Corinthians 7:2, 8, 9). Christians who did marry were under obligation to keep their homes and marriages intact (1 Corinthians 7:10, 11, 39).
This letter answers the question, “How does the Christian live in a secular world, in a secular city?” We encourage those who believe that Christ speaks to today’s world – those honestly concerned about the plight of our cities, to read and study the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.
Conclusion: What is the object of our worship? For what are we living? To whom do we look for direction? Why do we live as we do? True Christians confess one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, as motives for life and service (1 Corinthians 8:5, 6).
The Christian in a secular city realizes the importance of maintaining faith-commitment to Christ. When Paul preached “the message of the cross”, we are told by Luke in Acts 18:8 that: “many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.” Once “born again”, we stay close to Jesus – especially in a pagan, hostile environment.
The Christian responds to a secular world by appreciating and utilizing his privileges as a citizen of God’s kingdom. Here we find the power of God for meaningful life (1 Corinthians 2:15).
The resurrection of Christ and the life God gives through it, provide another powerful principle by which we can successfully maintain a Christian testimony in a city like Corinth. The entire fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians reveals the certainty and confidence every Christian experiences in Christ’s resurrection.
Men are dying in our time for lack of life-giving faith in God (John 3:16). Human society decays with the dry-rot of rebellion against God our Creator. We must repudiate this unbelief as our principle of life (Luke 13:3).
With faith in one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, we fight against the secular spirit of the 21st century and its pantheon of false gods (1 Corinthians 8:5, 6; Romans 10:9). Your baptismal union with Christ speaks of your unwillingness to allow sin to dominate your life and signals your participation in Christ’s resurrection and life (John 11:25; Romans 6:1-7). Through Christ we have the power and wisdom to live meaningfully either in ancient or modern cities.
(Bible text is the New King James Version. Renderings from other translations are so noted.)
