Luke 6:48-49 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on a rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.
Ephesus was center of a lot of spiritual traditions and Christ moved powerfully turning magicians and sorcerers to him through Paul’s ministry. Because of Christ’ movement, Paul was a spiritual target once again faced persecution. It is then that Paul first hears about problems in the Corinthian church and writes 1 Corinithians. He soon decides to visit Corinth as he received word from Timothy his letter had little effect. Upon returning, he writes another letter addresses his apostolic authority (2 Cor 10-13). He was kicked out of Ephesus and moved on to Macedonia.
A person could decide to take getting kicked out of a city personally. But Paul realized though that people rejected Jesus and not necessarily him. From what I can see he was a man focussed on God’s kingdom and following his will first and foremost.
Corith was a huge cosmopolitian society. The church was under a great deal of confusion on many issues and Paul attempts to address them in 1Corinithians. These issues include: theology divisions, marriage, civil law, purchase and consumption of meat, and worship.
Four main theology-based divisions arose regarding whom people proclaimed to follow. The Paul party=took the idea of freedom overboard and thought that Christians didn’t have to abide by any rules. The Cephas party= strict observers of Jewish rituals and laws, amongst them were members of the synagogue. The Apollos party= classical Greek culture
Christ party= people moving from believing in mystery religion and filling Jesus in as a new mystery god bringing mystical experiences. These different views and confusion were the beginnings of second century Gnosticism.
I find it amazing how with one message expressed so many divisions and interpretations were made. This is applicable to our scripture interpretation as it requires discernment and wisdom before making conclusions. Paul’s response to divisions was focussed on the church establishing a firm foundation on Jesus.
When Paul wrote about marriage he seeking to address the main underlying problem: that people were putting marriages and wedding events before their relationship with Christ. Other issues were based on the Corinthian churches lack of respect for either their own culture, people of lesser fortune or of other Christians.
Similar to the Corith Church charisma views are held in the modern church. I greatly appreciated Drane emphasizing the importance and reasoning of 1Cor 14:33. Our God is a god of peace and not of chaos. Awesome!
How difficult it would be to be investing so passionately into a people and then they become convinced that your words and actions are out of poor motivation and false wisdom. The Corinthian people thought that Paul was unstable and weak with his words (in person), making huge judgement calls on his character and discernment in the Holy Spirit. They probably wanted/expected a charismatic teacher whom displayed many ‘gifts of the Spirit’. 2 Corinithians is a response from Paul regarding his apostlitic authority and his intimacy with Jesus.
Before visiting the church in Rome, Paul strategically sent a letter in order to establish his position in Christ and his personal beliefs. In this letter his seeks to clearly explain different theological foundations.
