Painting the background

Yesterday we discussed some facts about ancient Corinth. That may seem odd as we look at the book of 1 Corinthians, but we should read Paul's letter as it was written to that original audience.

In that case, we need to know what their world was like. They were like fish swimming in a sea of ideas and expectations. What were those?

Corinth was a large city, a busy cosmopolitan trading center which saw many merchants travel through. This brought wealth to the city as well as many different ideas and philosophies.

The people of Corinth were accustomed to hearing many ideas discussed openly and having the freedom to pick and choose from among them. They had no natural standard by which to judge which ideas might be more true than others.

In addition, they had a heritage of democracy, which had taught them that each person's opinion was equal to every one else's opinion. Again, this brought a vitality of thought but also implied that every idea was equal.

In this setting, the Christians in Corinth were inundated with philosophies and cultural ideas that were at odds with what Paul had taught them. He wrote 1 Corinthians to answer their questions and to correct some of the ideas that they were absorbing from the culture they were in.