What is the history and significance of the church in Corinth?

Capital of the province of Achaia. The city visited by Paul was founded by Julius Caesar about a century after the fall of a former Corinth on the same site. It was a great centre of commercial traffic on the route from Rome to the East. It was also rich and very profligate. Paul on his first visit remained there eighteen months (A.D. 52-3), and from thence wrote the two epistles to the Thessalonians. A church was gathered out, to which Paul wrote two epistles. In A.D. 58 he again visited Corinth, staying three months, Acts 20:2-3, during which time he wrote the Epistle to the Romans. The Jews plotted against his life, and he left the city. Acts 18:1, 11; Acts 19:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1, 23; 2 Tim. 4:20. It is now a mean village, called Gortho, with only relics here and there of its former greatness.

a) Formation and Development of the Assembly at Corinth

During his second missionary journey the Apostle Paul had come to Europe for the first time (around 51 – 54 AD). He also came to Corinth via Philippi, Thessalonica and Athens (Acts 18). There he remained for 18 months for the Lord “had much people in this city” (Acts 18:10). As usual Paul began his ministry of preaching the gospel in the synagogues of the Jews. Quite a few came to believe in the Lord Jesus. But when other Jews refused the message Paul withdraw from them and spoke to Greeks also. This is how a large assembly of Jews and Greeks came into existence in this city as a result of the apostle's activity (see 1 Cor. 4:15; Acts 18:4).

The Apostle Paul had been in Athens first and then came to Corinth (Acts 18:1). While the origin of the church in Rome is obscure, we know that the Corinthian assembly was founded by the Apostle. The record of it we find in Acts 18. He labored there under great blessing for a year and six months. Jews and Gentiles were saved, among the former was Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue. But the majority of those who believed were Gentiles, and these belonged to the poorer classes (1 Corinthians 1:26) with at least two exceptions, Erastus ,the chamberlain of the city, and Gaius, a wealthy man, whom Paul had baptized. The historical account of Paul's ministry in Corinth and what happened there should be carefully read, for it throws light upon the Epistles he sent to that church.

The assembly at Corinth was founded by Paul (1 Cor. 3:10; 1 Cor. 4:15) during his second missionary journey. At the outset of his labours there he met with great opposition from the Jews, but was especially encouraged by the Lord, who spake unto him at night in a vision, promising protection for his person, and assuring him of success in that city. So Paul continued to labour there for a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Opposition increasing on the part of the Jews, who led Paul to the judgment-seat of Gallio, the pro-consul, the Lord's promise to His servant was fulfilled: "I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee." Gallio declining to interfere, the attempt to stop the work failed, and Paul remained there some time longer. (Acts 18:1-18.) In these few verses is summed up all that we know of the work at Corinth, except that which Paul supplies by his remarks in the two epistles to the Corinthians.

To work in Corinth was evidently in Paul's eyes no ordinary task. It was highly civilized, noted for its wealth and commerce, and, as may be the case where civilization and wealth abound without the restraining power of the grace of God, it had earned a most unenviable reputation for licentiousness and all that ministers to the natural man. Into that city the apostle, led by the Holy Ghost, and knowing the character of the people, had determined from the outset, surely guided of God, as to the spirit in which he should there labour. Anything which would have pleased the natural man, and thus attracted people to hear him, he carefully avoided. We quote his own account of himself: "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (1 Cor. 2:1-5.) The results were great, and a special feature of God's work in the assembly there formed, was the rich endowment of spiritual gifts enjoyed by the converts. "In everything," writes Paul, "ye are enriched by Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony of the Christ was confirmed in you: so that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 1:6-8.)

WE NOW ENTER upon the epistle which above all others deals with matters concerning the local assembly, and the order which by Divine appointment should be observed in it. The church, or assembly, of God in Corinth was a large one, as we gather from Acts 18:10. It had within it some very unsatisfactory elements, as is not unusual in such a case, and these elements were introducing ways and habits and even doctrines, of a sort which were common enough in the Corinthian world, but which were absolutely foreign to the nature and spirit of the assembly of God. Partly perhaps it was due to the ignorance of the Corinthian saints, for they had written a letter of enquiry to the Apostle Paul, who had brought the Gospel to them, as to certain matters, as is indicated in 1 Cor. 7:1. Still Paul not only answered their questions but also brings home to them in most vigorous language their grievous errors both in behaviour and doctrine. This he did not in annoyance or anger or sarcasm, but, "out of much affliction and anguish of heart … with many tears" (2 Cor. 2:4). Hence the powerful effect which his letter produced, as evidenced in 2 Corinthians 7:8-11.

The same two lines of truth — the grace of God, and the government of God — which we have found in the book of Numbers are found also in the first Epistle to the Corinthians. The condition of the Assembly in Corinth was deplorable when Paul wrote his letter. Almost every form of evil was active there: party strife (1 Cor. 1; gross immorality (1 Cor. 5); litigation in the world's courts (1 Cor. 6); eating and drinking in the temples of idols (1 Cor. 10); gluttony at the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. 11); disorder in speaking (1 Cor. 14); and dangerous doctrines concerning the resurrection (1 Cor. 15). To all this must be added most improper feelings towards the devoted man who had led them to Christ. Yet with all these terrible evils present to his mind, the Apostle addressed them as "the Church of God which is in Corinth, them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling" (1 Cor. 1:2). Here we have the grace of God strongly expressed. In 1 Cor. 3:9 the Apostle adds: "Ye are God's husbandry (cultivated plot); ye are God's building" (His temple). These wonderful figures described the Corinthian brethren collectively. God had made them all this in His grace. The writer would not lessen the sense of it in their souls. What God had made true of them in virtue of Christ and His work formed the basis of his subsequent rebukes and appeals.

In 1 Cor. 6 the grace of God to the Corinthians individually is strikingly set forth. We must remember that the majority of the saints in the Assembly in Corinth were formerly heathen; Jews were not numerous amongst them. The Greeks of that day were undoubtedly polished and educated. Their works of art are the admiration of men still. But along with all this there was the deepest moral degradation, fruit of the idolatry which had covered the earth for ages. Paul was divinely encouraged to persevere in his work in Corinth, spite of opposition. The Lord said to him, "I have much people in this city" (Acts 18:10). Out of the terrible filth at Corinth he picked up pearls which will be the delight of his Lord for ever. But meantime things were not going well there. Paul had not felt led to build himself a house in Corinth, and settle down amongst the believers. He formed them into an Assembly, instructed them as to their new privileges and duties, and left them to their own responsibility, assured that the Holy Spirit would take care of them, if they would look to Him in faith. This they failed to do; hence the sorrow with which the Apostle addressed his first letter to them. Nevertheless, spite of their failure, he set forth the grace of God very strongly. In 1 Cor. 6:11, after mentioning some of the most abominable evils into which the Corinthian people in general had sunk, he said: "And such were some of you but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." Had the Corinthians been in the enjoyment of all this, they might well have burst forth into praise in some such words as these (happily familiar to many who will read these pages):

In the year of our Lord 59 Paul wrote his first letter to the church of God at Corinth. Five years previous to the writing of that letter he had laboured without ceasing for one year and a half in the city, "teaching the Word of God amongst them."

The Establishment of the Church at Corinth (Acts 18)

Before we begin to consider the first epistle to the Corinthians I would call to your remembrance Acts 18 where we find the founding of the testimony in the wicked city of Corinth. There Paul, Silas and Timothy, preached the gospel concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. Firstly to the Jews Paul preached that Jesus was the Christ, the anointed of God. They refused that testimony, they blasphemed and Paul turned to the Gentiles. However, we find that Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, and all his house and others did accept the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians that he and his colleagues preached “the Son of God, Jesus Christ” (1:19). In 1 Corinthians 15 he reminded the Corinthians of the gospel that he preached to them, “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (v.3), that He was buried and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, and in that faith they stood before God in grace.

In contrast to Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea and Athens, Corinth claimed a long protracted stay by Paul and his company. The Lord clearly ordered this, encouraging Paul in a vision to speak plainly, not holding back, promising His protecting hand over him to preserve him from violent persecution, saying that He had many people in that city.

Paul therefore continued eighteen months, teaching the Word of God there. There is no doubt the Corinthian assembly needed solid teaching, for their city was notorious for the careless, licentious living of its inhabitants, and even the assembly later needed the serious reproving and correcting of their condition by Paul's two letters (1st and 2nd Corinthians).

The connection of Corinth with the history, teaching, and writings of our apostle is almost as intimate and important as either Jerusalem or Antioch. It may be considered as his European centre. Here God had "much people;" and here Paul "continued a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." It was also when at Corinth that he wrote his first apostolic letters — The two Epistles to the Thessalonians.