Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
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Anger
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Bulletin Questions
What are some things we know about the city of Corinth?
Why does Paul write this letter to the Corinthian church?
Who are the “saints” that Paul addresses?
Why is Paul thankful for this church?
What can we learn from these opening verses about helping others?
Is there anything that surprises you in these verses?
Opening
Illustration:
Did you ever hear the phrase “Wait until your father gets home?” as a child?
I did.
What did it mean?
That I was going to pay for what I had been doing wrong.
Thinking about this, I have often thought, “What would it be like if Paul showed up at some of our churches today?”
Kind of a “Wait until Paul gets here!”
You’ve had it then!
Surely our churches have their problems
When we ask people why they do not attend church, it is often because they have become disappointed in their experience
They have been hurt
They have felt unimportant
They have had other ideas about certain things (disagreements)
Most of us have probably felt the same at one point or another
So, maybe we have also thought, “Man, I wish Paul were here right now to clean up this mess!”
What would he say to a troubled church?
How would he say it?
Well, if you have ever wondered what Paul would say/do, you are in luck, we have 1 Corinthians!
If there has ever been a church that had problems, it was the church at Corinth
A church that can only be described as “divided”
Divided by leader (Paul, Apollos, Jesus)
Divided by social class
Divided by spiritual giftedness
Divided by aceticism
Lawsuits against each other
What they should and should not eat
Even the Lord’s Supper!
And Paul does send them a letter!
Corinth
A map
Had two seaports, Lechaeum to the west and Cenchreae to the east
This tiny stretch of land connect the Aegean and Adriatic Seas
Ships preferred to avoid the open seas and would cart their goods from one port to the other
During this process, the sailors and passengers would enjoy a good time in Corinth!
Corinth was at a strategic point as a major trade route
Had an international flare
And a cultural openness
Two histories
As Rome was expanding its power and influence over Greece, Corinth resisted
In 146 BC, the city was reduced to ruins by the Romans
It was rebuilt nearly 100 years later by Julius Caesar as a Roman colony
By 44 BC the city was repopulated and had experienced tremendous growth
became the capital of the province of Achaia
By the time of Paul, it was a busy crossroads between Rome and Asia
When understanding the cultural background of Corinth, it is necessary to understand there are two histories
That before the destruction, which was Greek
That after the rebuild, which was Roman
Unfortunately, the two things often are blended together
An example is the of the cult to Aphrodite (Venus) in Corinth
Many commentators make mention of this cult
Speak of the city being a city of love
With a temple of Aphrodite and its 1000 temple prostitutes
You will find this spoken of in many NT commentaries on Corinthians
But that belonged to the pre-destruction Corinth (pre-146 BC)
There is no evidence of such a temple in the Roman period
Was the cult of Aphrodite still present in the region?
Yes, but not to the degree it once was.
Corinth, founded as a Roman city, reflected Roman culture
It was a culture fixed on individualism
Where power produced status
And power and status created the “haves” and the “have nots”
The drive for attaining status was often ruthless
There was frequent sexual abuse by the powerful against the powerless
The courts were rigged in favor of those with status
Not unlike our world today
The church reflected this culture as well, as we will see in the weeks ahead
Religion
Very open to multiple religions
Must be added to the Imperial Cult - the worship of Caesar
This is where Christianity caused problems
Only one Lord
It is Jesus Christ, not Caesar
Because Christians did not promote polytheism, they were labeled “atheists”!
The Corinthian Church
Paul writes this letter to the church to address the problems the church is facing
In fact, this is not the first letter Paul wrote to them (cf. )
This letter was in response to what the Corinthians had written to Paul (cf. )
Genre
So, we understand that this is a letter (epistle)
It is formatted in the same way that letters of that day would have been
Knowing this helps us interpret it correctly
We do not interpret it the same as we would poetry (Psalms) or Narrative (Genesis)
In a letter, we have half of the conversation
Like listening to someone talk on the phone
We only hear the one side
We have to try to understand the other side through historical and cultural understanding
As well as what we see elsewhere in this letter or other Scripture
So, how might we expect Paul to start off his letter?
The present situation
Blast away!
Let them have it, Paul!
Much like what we might envision if Paul went to a problem church today - he would set them straight, right?
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