Corinthians in New York state of mind

“Corinth (pop. 500,000) was what we would call a first-century laissez-faire society; their motto could have been ‘anything goes,’ and, it did,” writes Richard Ritenbaugh (www.bibletools.org) about what the port city was like at the time of Paul’s ministry there. “Even though Aphrodite was the leading deity in Corinth, Poseidon was the patron deity of Corinth, since it was right on the sea.

"Professional gamblers and athletes betting on the Isthmean Games took up residence here. Slaves, sometimes freed but with no place to go, roamed the streets day and night. And prostitutes, both male and female, were abundant . . . The temple of Aphrodite on the Acro-Corinthus, high point of Corinth, employed 1000 prostitutes alone . . . These were people who came out of a highly sexualized culture.

“People from Rome, the remainder of Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and indeed all the Mediterranean world relished the lack of standards, and freedom of thought which prevailed in that city. These were the people who eventually made up the Corinthian church. They had to learn to live together in harmony, although their national, social, economic, and religious backgrounds were very different.

“So, what we have is a first century version of New York City. Everybody tries to go there. There is vice. There is every kind of idea. You have actors, sports figures, financiers, business heads, great minds, artists, philosophers, all making their pilgrimage to a city where they know that they will have the freedom to do what they want to do. And this was known throughout the Mediterranean world. In fact, there was a word—to corinthianize—which means almost without restraint. It was tinged, of course, with sexual innuendo.”

*****

“The first six chapters of Corinthians are a scathing rebuke to those Corinthian Believers for their lackadaisical, unworthy, appalling lifestyle,” says Jordan. “They were fighting. They were suing each other. They were in some gross immorality.

“Paul tells them, ‘You’ve got such wickedness in your midst that it isn’t even named among the Gentiles.’ He’s telling them the unsaved Gentiles had better morals, more scruples and respect than they had. There was terrible wickedness openly in their midst.

“Do you think that was much of a testimony to the Jews whose Scripture would look at that and reason, ‘God says that kind of a person is an abomination to Him; God can’t be over there’?

“The Corinthian Believers needed, literally, the supernatural sign gifts that could not be gainsayed in their midst, not because of their spiritual condition, but because of the fact that they weren’t very spiritually minded.

“God is giving them a supernatural ministry IN SPITE of their lack of faith, lack of faithfulness and lack of a proper worthy walk. The 'sign gifts' were not given to the Corinthians because they sought it harder, prayed for it more earnestly, and deserved it more, in spite of all the stuff you hear today to the contrary.

“Those people were in a morally and spiritually lethargic and lecherous condition and God put the 'sign gifts' there sovereignly because of the need of the witness He was bearing to those Jews. And because He bore it there, that witness is recorded in Scripture for all time.

“Let me tell you, if there’s anything the grace message has contributed to understanding is that the ‘gift program’ is over and folks, when it’s over it’s over, and there are no gifts for you to seek today and you’re not a gifted person in the sense the Corinthians were.

“That’s the reason that verse in Ephesians 4 is in the PAST tense. Paul writes, [11] And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
[12] For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
[13] Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

“When the Word of God came there wasn’t a need any more for Him to supernaturally give it, because now we’ve got the doctrine in the written Word that we can put in our heart and be the motivator for us to then go do the things. Before the doctrine in the Word, they needed the gifts to motivate them to go do.”

(new article tomorrow)