Corinthians

Corinth was the capital of the province of Achaia and it was positioned with seaports on both the Aegean and Adriatic Seas. It was a city of 700,000, two-thirds of which were slaves. It was also a city where debauchery and prostitution were rampant, so much so that the phrase "to act like a Corinthian" meant that one was wildly involved with immoral behavior. Acts 18 tells a bit about Paul's time ministering there.

While in Ephesus on his third journey he received a letter about the Corinthian believers. I Corinthians addresses the many problematic issues that had sprung up there:

divisions
lawsuits
incest
abuse of the Lord's Supper
immature stewardship of spiritual gifts
denials of the resurrection

The most problematic issue of all was that these situations were tolerated. Those involved in these practices were not opposed and were not repentant.

While we could easily become entangled in thinking about the specific problems of the Corinthian believers, a more general lesson is important for us today. As fellow believers in the body of Christ we are responsible to each other and need to speak God's truth to each other when it seems one is wandering away from God.

Possibly later in the year Timothy and Titus met up with Paul in Phillipi in Macedonia and let him know that some of those issues had cleared up - but not all. Thus, II Corinthians continues to address some of those issues, but also focuses on giving.

The fact that these New Testament letters show the churches repeated wandering from God's way after the miracle of Christ's resurrection is an intriguing parallel to the wanderings of Israel after their miraculous liberation from Egypt in the Old Testament.