Corinth

Have you noticed that those first Christians the book of Acts describes seemed fearless in taking the Gospel wherever they could? To the city, to the country, among the privileged or the poor, the people of the Jesus Way were remarkably effective in relating the message and person of Jesus to all persons and cultures. The Christian Church, as we have said before, was trans-cultural, and because of that, soon became multicultural.

That doesn’t mean there were not frustrations and challenges. Take Corinth, for example. Here is a cosmopolitan city in Macedonia with a breadth of intellectual, spiritual, and cultural diversity. If Rome was our Washington D.C., seat of government and power in the Empire, and Athens was our New York, the center of intellectual life, then Corinth was our Los Angeles, a real melting pot of cultures from all over the Mediterranean basin, both beautiful and vulgar, aspiring and debased. The fact that Paul went there more than once and wrote to the believers there more than once tells us something. He obviously had a heart for the city. Maybe Paul saw these contradictions in the city, he saw the great potential for the Kingdom but also experienced real frustrations.

Remember, Paul is fresh from Athens, the scene of great oratory and, well, success. There were detractors in Athens, but for the most part, Paul and the message he preached were well received. Many converts were made. The impact of the Gospel, both relationally and philosophically, in Athens would be felt for not just years, but centuries.
By most any measure, Paul had to have been pleased by his time in Athens.

Then he gets to Corinth. Corinth had a reputation in its own time of a place of moral free-for-all where pagan religions had little to do with morality; where religious rituals sometimes involved fornication. There where over 1,000 temples devoted to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. These “love temples” were as common as our fast food chains. Maybe there were signs outside the temples that read “Over a billion served,” I don’t know. Some biblical scholars have suggested that maybe Corinth’s reputation for wickedness has been a bit overblown, as Paul Achtemeier puts it, “Corinth was probably no more or less virtuous than any other cosmopolitan port city of the Mediterranean in the first century.”

I call that damning with faint praise. I’ve been to Amsterdam in the late 20th century and that cosmopolitan port city is famous for its red light district. The spectacle of human beings for sale in store windows is one not easily forgotten. Corinth must have been like that, and more. Paul encountered all kinds of immorality in Corinth. Not just outside the church. One of the church leaders was having an affair with his stepmother. And you thought the church today was messed up! Paul probably was not used to this kind of culture. He was a church boy. He grew up at the feet of Rabbis, learning the scriptures and living a life devoted to God. What he saw in Corinth while he worked at his tent-making business must have shocked his sensibilities at least a little.

If that was not enough, his preaching and teaching in the Corinthian Jewish synagogues was not going well.

“When they opposed and reviled him, in protest he shook the dust from his clothes and said to them, ‘your blood be on your own heads! I am going to the Gentiles.’” Acts 18.6

I think I understand a little of what Paul must of felt at times. Did he ever ask himself, “Maybe this city and these people just won’t receive Jesus?”

We might ask the same question of our town or city. We might make excuses as to why we don’t witness to our faith or why our church doesn’t grow more than it does. We might resign ourselves to this – “These people that live and work around me, they don’t want to hear about Jesus. People never change.”

But then I hear this story from a friend. This is a true story about a guy in Altoona. He was living on the streets at one point, and in his own words, “God picked him up off the street and turned him around.” This man, I ‘ll call him Tom, had no home, no money, just the clothes on his back. The Salvation Army was the instrument God used to get him going in the right direction. The man has a steady job now. He still doesn’t have many clothes or anything else. Not because he doesn’t have money now, but because he saves his money for things that matter. He doesn’t need a lot to live on. He spends a lot of his time helping others. He is a ministry leader in his church. His pastor says that most of the good things happening inside and outside the church in that community have Tom’s imprint on them. Tom’s pastor cannot praise him enough for the depth of his Christian commitment. “He is constantly thinking through his life of what God calls him to be. He gets it.”

See, folks - Jesus still changes people. Jesus still changes people when people get the chance to hear about him and meet him for themselves.

We may get frustrated sometimes – and that’s okay. But despair or resignation is not an option for us, ever.

Paul seemed on the verge of giving up on Corinth. And then God speaks to Paul in a vision and says this:

“Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”

Notice what God says first. Do not be afraid. Fearful people express their fear through anger and through depression and resignation. That was Paul. Is that ever you or me? If it is, don’t despair. Remember that even as the disciples stood on the mountain with the resurrected Jesus, some of them are thinking, “I’m not sure about this.”

Secondly, and this is really interesting to me, God says, “I have people here.” Is God talking about the church that has problems like leaders sleeping with their stepmothers? Is God talking about the very recent converts Paul has made through his ministry that he is conveniently glossing over or forgetting about? Or is God talking about converts that will be made if Paul just stays the course and keeps on witnessing?

The answer is yes – all of the above. God is telling Paul, look, I’m working hard here too. You don’t see all that I’m doing, all that’s going on. You just stay faithful and keep working.


I grew up in a small city in Pennsylvania. It was no Corinth or New York, or even Pittsburgh, but it was a place where I felt at home on its streets. As soon as I became old enough I found freedom in riding my bike across the city, or taking a city bus to my after-school job or to the library. The city to me has always been a place of opportunity, a place of grace. When I did an internship in Chicago it was impressed upon me by a mission coordinator there that “God loves the city as much as he loves the country.” God wants to redeem the city. Why? Because God loves people. People are God’s treasure. I’m not an expert, but I’ve found that cities tend to have more people in them. That’s got to be attractive to us.

People of Hicks, what an opportunity we have to be here in Blair County among all these unchurched people! We know that God is working hard here. He has people working on his behalf besides us. He has more people that he sees coming to Him in the near future. But who will go witness to them?

We need to pray for opportunities. Maybe if our people talk to His people, we’ll save more people.

Someone in the church left this on my desk the other day:

“Seize the vision. If we reject the possibility that it may work, we may miss the opportunity. The success of a vision rests on the willingness of people to examine the vision’s potential.”

Do we have a vision for God using us to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus? Are we living this vision so that people will be changed by God’s power in us?

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”