David M Pearce
Paul did not rest long at Antioch before the call of duty launched him on his third great preaching tour. This time he travelled overland for another visit to his old friends in Galatia, and then headed southwest towards fresh pastures at Ephesus in the Roman province of Asia. It was while he was busy there that disturbing news came through. Paul had spent the last 18 months of his previous trip at Corinth. It had been the big success of his second tour. Although the Jews of that city had made life uncomfortable for him at first, the Lord Jesus had appeared to Paul in a vision, and encouraged him to press on. "Do not be afraid" he said, "but speak and do not be silent … for I have much people in this city" (Acts 18:9, 10). For the first time great numbers of genuine Greeks had flocked to hear Paul, people with no background in the Law of Moses and no knowledge of the Bible. It was a case of starting from scratch. Many of his converts had come from the worship of gods and goddesses in heathen temples, and he had to teach them to follow Jesus, the Son of the one true God, the great creator. Many of them had been social outcasts and worse. Immoral, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, drunkards, revilers and robbers – all these he writes "were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:10, 11).
It had been a tremendous step for people with this sort of background to leave their old life behind, and start again as children of God. Paul was justly proud of his role in that great work. "I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel" he reminded them (1 Corinthians 4:15). Any residual Jewish prejudice he might have had against Gentiles was left light–years behind as he warmed to them and their families, encouraging them by word and by his own example.
In the months after his return to Antioch, Paul had been anxious to know how his "children" were progressing. There is a clue in 1 Corinthians 5:9 that he wrote a letter to them, giving them counsel and warning. But now a visitor from across the Aegean Sea had come to Ephesus with a report that left the apostle distinctly worried. It seems likely that by the hand of the same messenger he received an 'official' letter from the Corinthian church elders. This letter contained a number of urgent questions upon which they sought an authoritative ruling, in order to restore peace and harmony in the Corinthian church or ecclesia.
Characteristically, the apostle at once dictated a reply, which dealt first with the problems "reported to me by Chloe's people" (1 Corinthians1:11) and then with the questions the Corinthians had raised in their letter. The First Epistle to the Corinthians (the first, that is, in our Bible, for he had already written an earlier letter from Antioch) is a perfect example of Paul's style. On one page he tells them firmly what they should do, and on another he writes with tears in his eyes to persuade them to come back to the truth he had taught them. His affection for them, his concern, his urgent desire to lift them up from sin and strife to Christ's standards of truth and peace, comes tumbling out of these chapters. That is why we feel it would be good to take a quick look at this important epistle, to get the feel of what living the gospel meant to first century disciples in a city of idolaters, and an insight into the character of the apostle himself.
We have only to read a few verses into the epistle to find out the first heartache that the Corinthians were causing Paul. The infant congregation, within months of his leaving, was already dividing itself into rival groups, each following one prominent Christian leader. "Each one of you says 'I belong to Paul'" he laments, "or 'I belong to Apollos' or 'I belong to Cephas' or 'I belong to Christ'" (1 Corinthians1:12). Apollos was an earnest disciple and a powerful orator who had just come to Corinth, and Cephas is another name for the apostle Peter. To make Peter and Apollos equal to Jesus was to tragically misunderstand the supreme position of Christ in the plan of salvation. He hastens to put them right. It is easy to be impressed by a vibrant, outgoing personality, or a man with a razor intellect able to grapple with the abstractions of philosophy, but in the end being saved from death is independent of any human leader. "Jews demand signs" he tells them "and Greeks wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians1: 22–24). Unfortunately people today still fall into the same trap. Dozens of rival religions fill the world, each based on the teaching of one particular leader. They run right through the spectrum from the Roman Catholics with the Pope, the Muslims who follow Mahomet, the Mormons with their Joseph Smith, the Christian Scientists with Mary Baker Eddy, and the Unification Church of Mr. Moon. In contrast, the structure of the first century church was devastatingly simple. Jesus was the only leader, in heaven. Each church, or ecclesia had a small group of elders to give guidance and advice, and that was it. No vicars, no archbishops, no hierarchy, no stifling bureaucracy. The elders are sometimes called 'bishops' in our New Testament translations, although each congregations had not one, but several of them. They had no power to insist on obedience from those in their care. "Tend the flock of God … " Peter exhorts elders everywhere "not domineering those in your charge, but being examples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:2, 3). If you are looking for a community that claims to have the truth at heart, check out its organisation first. Paul allowed no hero worship at Corinth. "The head of every man is Christ" was his motto (1 Corinthians 11: 3).