1 Corinthians Introduction

Book of 1 Corinthians Introduction:

We are beginning one of the most important letters that Paul wrote to the churches he had begun. The church at Corinth had been established on one of Paul's missionary journeys.
The city of Corinth was believed to be a city of about 600,000 people when this was written to them. One of the outskirts of Corinth was Cenchera, which was a seaport. This was a thriving city with much evil. They were thought of as being one of the wealthiest cities of the area. There was a mixture of nationalities here. Greeks and Romans made up the majority of the people.
This city had many false gods and goddesses. The most prominent of the false worship was of Aprodite. There were over 1000 prostitutes working to win converts to this very sensual religion. This was a very evil city. The democratic way of life was foremost here, and debates were allowed on all subjects. This, perhaps, was the reason Paul had an easy time being heard at first.
The most serious problem of the Corinthian church was worldliness, an unwillingness to divorce the culture around them. Most of the believers could not consistently separate themselves from their old, selfish, immoral, and pagan ways.
We will find in this book, as we do in many of Paul's writings that he deals with them within the confines of their customs. He does not try to change their life style. He shows them that Christianity is for all people. We will get into this a little more as we go along. One thing that we must remember from the outset: There were no iron clad doctrines that were to be used in all of these churches. We will see Paul trying to establish rules and regulations for each church that they could live with in the light of their customs.
In one way or another, wrong living always stems from wrong belief such as sexual sins including divorce, are inevitably related to lack of belief or trust in God’s plan for marriage and the family (7: 1-40)
Before, Paul had written the church other correspondence, (see 5:9) which was also corrective in nature. Because a copy of that letter has never been discovered, it has been referred to as “the lost epistle”. There was another non-canonical letter after 1 Corinthians, usually call “the sever letter” (2 Cor. 2:4). The introductions to Paul’s letters are frequently seedbeds for issues expanded on later; his prefatory words in 1 Corinthians are no exception. He touched on his calling to be an apostle, the Corinthians’ calling to be saints, and the unity which is theirs in Christ.