The Letters Of Saint Paul, I Corinthians

When you hear “What happens in _____ stays in _____,” your mind probably fills in the blanks with Vegas. That slogan was created in 2003 by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to promote Las Vegas as a destination where—by implication—anything goes, with no accountability when you leave. That ethos is also why Las Vegas is often referred to as “Sin City.”

If that advertising slogan had been around in the 1st Century Roman Empire, the place name in the blanks would have been Corinth.

From antiquity, Corinth had been a large and important Greek city state. However, the Roman Empire destroyed Greek Corinth in 146 B.C., and Julius Caesar built a Roman colony there a century later. By Paul’s day, many of Corinth’s inhabitants were veterans from the Roman armies, former slaves, merchants, and a significant number of Jews. The Edict of Claudius sometime around A.D. 49 had expelled all Jews from Rome, and many—such as Aquila and Priscilla—had emigrated to Corinth (Acts 18:1-2). Jews, therefore, made up just one of the many cultures in Corinth.

Situated on the Isthmus of Corinth, the city had two prosperous harbors, one on the eastern sea and one on the west. Commerce from all areas of the Roman world resulted in many different cultural influences. A variety of languages, religions, and customs were influential; and Corinthian society therefore had no social consensus about morality, religious beliefs, or worldview. Composed of people originally from many different nationalities, belief systems, and civilizations, Corinthian society was widely permissive of all types of behavior.

Although most of the larger cities of the Roman Empire were places of general immorality, Corinth was particularly known for its depravity. In the Roman Empire, to call someone a Corinthian was an insult, meaning that he was a degenerate. The verb corinthianize was slang that meant to patronize a prostitute. The Temple of Aphrodite was in Corinth, and allegedly had a thousand female slaves who served as prostitutes. Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans from Corinth, and Romans 1:22-32 could very well be used to describe the pervasive immorality he witnessed in Corinth.

It was in this environment that God used Paul to establish a Christian congregation. Paul successfully worked among the Corinthians, both Jews and Gentiles, for a year and a half before leaving to continue his missionary work elsewhere. After his departure, however, errorists in their midst—as well as the pervasive influence of Corinthian society—adversely affected the congregation. Especially troublesome was the divisiveness and disunity among the members. Luther writes, “[Errorists] broke up the unity of the doctrine and caused division among the believers. One claimed to belong to Paul, the other to Apollos; one to Peter, the other to Christ. One wanted circumcision, the other not; one wanted marriage, the other not; one wanted to eat food offered to idols, the other not. Some wanted to be outwardly free . . . and so on. They went so far that one man abused his liberty and married his father’s wife, some did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, and some thought lightly of the sacrament. . . . Meanwhile they let the main thing drop—namely, that Christ is our salvation, righteousness, and redemption.”

Today we see many of the ungodly characteristics of ancient Corinth here in America. Our society in general cares little for God and His precepts. The upholding of truth and righteousness is mocked and scorned. Even some Christian denominations (thankfully, not the CLC) are permissive or indifferent in both doctrine and practice instead of faithfully proclaiming and practicing the whole counsel of God.

May our gracious God grant that in our “Corinthian America,” we uncompromisingly proclaim His Word alone, and may He strengthen in us unity and hope based solely on Jesus Christ, His son, our Savior. Amen.