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THE KING’S BUSINESS
It is possible that, shortly after the visit of Apollos to Corinth, Paul made a second visit (cf. v. 9; 2 Corinthians ii. 1; xii. 14, 21; xiii. 1, 2). Condition of the Corinthian Church Considering the heterogeneous nature of its membership, we are not surprised to find existing just such difficulties as are set forth in the epistle. Four general con ditions in the life of the church are worthy of consideration here in order to an intel ligent understanding of the epistle: The Existence of a Party Spirit (i. 10-16). Certain Forms of Impurity Existent in the Church (v. 1, ff). In judging the eth ical condition of the Corinthians, we must remember the state of civilization and morality at that time. It would be unfair for us to judge them by the moral stand ards of today. Some of the sins of impur ity so strongly denounced in this epistle had for centuries been associated with the religious ceremonies of these people, and consequently did not have the immoral significance we would suppose, but rather had come to be looked upon as a sacred part of heathen religion. ■ Questions Regarding the Eating of Meat Offered to Idols (v-iii. 1, ff). It was a conscientious conviction among some of the Corinthian Christians that to eat meat that had been offered in sacrifice to idols was a sin. Other members of. the church looked upon such an attitude as foolish and an abuse of the doctrine of true lib erty in Christ, with the result that they not only ate meat that had been offered in sacrifice to idols, but also attended feasts in the idols’ temples, thus causing offense to those members of the Corinth ian church, both Jews and Gentiles, who regarded such conduct as identification with idolatry and as resulting in spiritual contamination because of such identifica tion. The same question arose in the church at Rome, and one entire chapter (chap, xiv) 'of the epistle to the Romans is devoted to the discussion of the true
relation of the believer to this serious ques tion of matters and conscience—not one’s own so much as the conscience of another. Abuse in connection with Christian Wor ship (xi. 2; xii. 1). Various phases of such abuse are herein set forth, as, for example, the wrong use of the Lord’s Sup per ; the ignoring of public sentiment with regard to the attitude of women in pub lic; the exercise of spiritual gifts as min istering to pride rather than to edifica tion. All these things were causing seri ous harm to the spiritual life of the Cor inthian church. These conditions give us a picture of Christianity in conflict with paganism, gross and refined, in one of the most flourishing churches of the apos tolic age—a picture drawn by the apostle himself, a friend and not an enemy of the church. We should remember these facts when we are tempted to become exasper ated and critical concerning the low spir itual condition of the church of the pres ent day. The cry, “Back to the early church,” should be accepted with some degree of allowance, for the early church was by no means a model which the mod ern church should follow in every partic ular. It had its grievous moral and spirit ual faults and failings just as the modern church has. The early church fell far below its ideal standard of Christian liv ing just as the church of today falls below The name of Sosthenes is mentioned by way of courtesy, his name being omitted after i. 3, the apostle using the personal pronoun “I” thereafter. This courtesy of including others with him was occasionally indulged in by Paul. In other of his epistles (1 and 2 Thessalonians, e.g.) Paul associated Silvanus and Timothy with hiniT self in the authorship, while, in reality, Paul himself is the author. The Date of Writing. It is difficult to determine the exact date of the writing of this epistle. It was probably at the close of the apostle’s stay at Ephesus, about five its divinely given standard. The Writer— Paul (i. 1 ).
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