Sermon Tone Analysis

*1 CORINTHIANS 1:1-3*

 

It has been proposed that the greatest problem facing the church today is people who unsay with their lives, what they say with their mouths

 

Many people read their Bibles and the demands it makes on their lives, but they cannot seem to live out what it says

1.     they never separate themselves from the world

2.     they never deal with the attitudes that stand behind their actions.

*In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul instructs the Corinthian church to deal seriously with the sin in their midst by forsaking the worldly selfishness and pride their actions reflect*

 

*1.

**Location*

 

The city of Corinth

 

Ø Corinth sat beneath a rocky edifice which rose some 1800 feet above the city

·        plateau about ½ mile square

·        b~/c of protection this isolated mountain provided, a settlement at Corinth was begun early

·        It was one of the first regions of Greece to be inhabited

 

 

 

 

 

Ø Romans captured Greece (about 147 BC)

·        it was plundered of its treasures and destroyed

·        It lay in ruins for about 100 years

·        until Julius Caesar was compelled by the beauty of the place to resettle it

·        rebuilt in 47 BC

·        Consequently, when Paul came to the renewed city, it was less than 100 years old.

·        Augustus Caesar made Corinth the capital of Achaia, and the city flourished under the favor of Rome

 

Ø Corinth had quite an international flavor

·        near the southern end of a narrow isthmus that connected the Grecian Peninsula (Peloponnesus) with the continent

·        This position gave it command over two different streams of commerce

–       The land route

–       The sea route between Asia and Italy

 

Ø the journey around the Cape Malea

·        the southernmost promontory of Greece

·        was a detour of two hundred miles and a perilous adventure

·        merchants unloaded their goods at one of the Corinthian ports.

–       cargoes were carried across

–       ships were drug across

 

this kind of trade explains why

Homer spoke of the city as “wealthy Corinth”

 

*2.

**Culture*

 

Ø b~/c of its seaport many classes and nationalities mingled in Corinth

·        its streets were full of travelers and traders and agents

·        At the time of Paul’s visit to the city its population was somewhere between 600,000 and 700,000 (of whom approximately two-thirds were slaves)

 

\\ “At night its streets were hideous with the brawls and lewd songs of drunken revelry.

In the daytime its market and squares swarmed with Jewish peddlers, foreign traders, sailors, soldiers, athletes in training, boxers, wrestlers, charioteers, racing-men, betting-men, courtesans, slaves, idlers and parasites of every description – a veritable pandemonium” (R. D. Shaw, as cited in Hiebert, 105).

Ø Corinth was about 45 miles southwest of Athens

·        on the eastern horizon the Acropolis of rival Athens was clearly visible

·        there was a constant rivalry with Athens

 

1.     the games (Olympian & Isthmian)

2.     the arts (philosophy & sculpture)

·        although Corinth never produced many philosophers, they prided themselves on their interest in “knowledge” and philosophical pursuits.

3.

religion (both had their own acropolis)

·        worship of the goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love à immorality

·        the temple to Aphrodite was at the top of the mountain which stood above Corinth

·        The temple normally housed some one thousand priestesses, ritual prostitutes

·        “each night would come down into Corinth and ply their trade among the many foreign travelers and the local men”

·        The orgies of this temple became notorious throughout the Greek-speaking world.

Ø Corinth was a wicked city, even as large cities in the Empire went

·        In the Greek plays Corinthians were usually represented as drunkards

·        in classical Greek */corinthiazesthai/* (“to behave like a Corinthian”) came to represent gross immorality and drunken debauchery

·        The name of the city became synonymous with moral depravity

·        In this letter to the church there, Paul lists some of the city’s characteristic sins – */fornication /*(porneia, for which comes our term pornography), */idolatry, adultery, effeminacy, homosexuality, stealing, covetousness, drunkenness, reviling (abusive speech), and swindling/* (6:9-10)

·        Some of the Corinthian believers had been guilty of practicing those sins before their conversion (6:11)

·        Others still lived in even worse sin than those outside the church did (5:1)

 

“It was while at Corinth, during the third missionary journey, that he painted the dark picture of paganism found in the first chapters of Romans” (Hiebert, 107).

·        All of this paganism took its toll on the Corinthian church.

·        Some of the immoral habits of their environment crept into the church.

*3.

**Paul’s Contact*

Ø Paul as founder

Ø After not too successful time in Athens

Ø Met Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth

Ø Paul, at first considered his stay in Corinth only temporary

Ø While there, he made use of his time in the Synagogue

Ø Soon Silas and Timothy came

Ø Once they arrived, Paul “began devoting himself completely to the word” (Acts 18:5) – beginning an intensive, full-time ministry

Ø Paul’s intense efforts at preaching the Word of God resulted in fierce opposition from the Jews

Ø Moved to the house of Titus Justus

Ø Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, was converted

Ø Jews tried to take Paul to court

Ø The governor refused to hear the case – wound up beating the new leader of the synagogue (Sosthenes)

Ø Paul wound up staying at least 1 ½ yrs – possibly 2 ½ years in Corinth

 

The Corinthian church was not made up of the nobility,

·        but those from the stockyards

·        the shipyards

·        the poor shopkeepers

·        and the various motley crowds of Corinth (cf.

1:26-31).

*4.

**Occasion*

 

We possess more detailed information about the actual condition within the church at Corinth than about any other church in the New Testament

 

As I mentioned earlier…

Ø the Corinthian believers had great difficulty in not mimicking the unbelieving and corrupt society around them

·        They usually managed to stay a little higher than the world morally

·        but they were moving downward, in the same direction as the world

·        They wanted to be in God’s kingdom while keeping one foot in the kingdom of this world

·        The wanted to have the blessings of the new life but hang on to the pleasures of the old

·        Paul plainly warned them that that was impossible

 

Paul had returned several times to visit Corinth

·        This visit gave him an insight into tendencies in the church.

·        received information from members of the household of Chloe about factions

–       This information added to his concerns

·        He had also received a letter from them with several questions about the church

!!!!

All of this prompted him to write 1 Corinthians

 

 

 

 

*5.

**Greeting*

 

1.

Rather than placing names at the end of a letter, as in modern custom, ancient Greeks *put their names at the beginning*, allowing readers to immediately identify the author.

2.

In a joint letter, *the names of the others involved in sending* the message were also given

3.     Next was given *the name of the addressee*, the person or persons to whom the letter was sent, which for the present letter was ‘the church of God which is at Corinth

4.     Then words of *greeting or blessing* were often given, as in v. 3

* *

*A.   **Author*