Before we dive further into 1 Corinthians, let’s pause and get our bearings. Letters are always written to a specific person or people in a certain time and setting. In order to best understand a letter, we have to know its author, audience, and occasion.
Author and Occasion
Paul the apostle wrote 1 Corinthians to a church he planted during his second missionary journey. You can read Acts 18:1–17 to learn more about Paul’s experience in Corinth.
Paul left the church after a year and a half of ministry. Before writing 1 Corinthians, Paul had written another letter to the church to address some other issues. Paul references that letter in 1 Corinthians because the people didn’t listen the first time.
Flip over to 1 Corinthians 1:11 – While in Ephesus on his third missionary journey, Paul heard that the church in Corinth wasn’t doing well. He also received a letter from the Corinthians with questions for him. Paul decided it was time to write the Corinthian church to speak to the issues they brought up and the ones reported to him by other church members.
Audience
Corinth was one of the richest city-states in the Roman Empire. The city had temples to many gods, the most prominent being the temple to Aphrodite, which was known for its prostitutes.
Paul wrote to people who lived much different lives than we do today—and yet they weren’t that much different from us in a lot of ways. Corinth was a place of wealth, sex, and power. And, as we’ll see throughout 1 Corinthians, the church let the culture influence it in more ways than one.
Now, it’s important to note that culture isn’t always bad. Sometimes it can be a source of good. But in the case of the Corinthians, they selfishly held onto the godless pieces of their culture, wealth, and status to such a degree that it caused division in the church.
We’ll see throughout this study that the Christian life is not without sacrifice— giving up the things that keep us self-focused instead of Jesus-and-others- focused. Sacrifice is the hardest part of following Jesus, and it starts with recognizing what we’re afraid to give up.
To finish off today’s session, take a few minutes to think about the culture you live in and the way it affects you. Look around you. In what ways are you a product of your culture? What’ve you come to rely on in your culture? What would be difficult to give up to follow Jesus?
Text your response to the above prompting questions to your group and/or share it as a comment below
When I think about our culture today I think about words like fast paced, at the touch of a button, entertainment, latest trends, and definitely, social media. There are good things about our culture, but we can definitely be distracted and led astray. We need to be careful and mindful of how we spend our time, energy, and resources. Sometimes it’s hard to hear God beyond all the noise. It’s essential to our faith journey that we tune our hearts to His Word daily. We need to set side time and space to come and connect with Him daily.