CHAPTER IX. THE COMMUNITY AT CORINTH AND THE LETTER TO ROME. ACTS XIX. 21, 22, XX. 1-6. XVIII. 24-28; 1 CORINTHIANS; 2 CORINTHIANS; ROMANS. HORTLY after the event we have just recorded, Paul SHO called the Christians of Ephesus together to take leave of them. Independently of this riot he had already resolved to quit Ephesus and Asia for Macedonia and Achaia. A variety of motives, some of them connected with far-reaching projects to which we shall presently return, had combined to dictate this resolution. The community at Corinth was the object of the Apostle's special concern, and he longed to be with the brethren there once more. If, as we have supposed, he had paid them a visit from Ephesus, some time before, it can only have been a short one; and, in consequence of the misconduct of some of the Christians and the severity with which he had been compelled to chastise them, it had left a painful impression behind it. He had also sent a letter to Corinth; but it is now lost, and we only know that it contained the injunction to avoid intercourse with immoral persons. Paul meant immoral members of the community; but the Corinthians understood his expression generally, and this made the injunction absolutely impossible to comply with, and therefore foolish. He was thus compelled to return to the same point afterwards and explain that the judgment of the heathen must be left with God; but that if a Christian became guilty of unchastity, drunkenness, idolatry, or extortion, he must be excluded from the tables of the brethren. Immorality, sometimes of a very gross description, still disgraced the community, and was but too readily condoned; and Paul demanded that a certain notorious offender should be punished with extreme severity, by being solemnly given up to Satan, the god of the heathen world, by the curse of excommunication. But there were other matters also in which this church gave Paul occasion for anxiety and sorrow. 1 1 Corinthians xvi. 5-9. 1 Corinthians v. 9-13. 2 2 Corinthians xiii. 1, 2, ii. 1, xii. 14, 21. 4 1 Corinthians v. 1 ff. There was much, however, in which he could heartily rejoice, and with this we will begin. The community had been greatly strengthened and extended, especially by the preaching of a certain Apollos, a Jew of Alexandria, well skilled in the symbolical interpretation of the Scripture, which flourished in that city. Arriving at Ephesus in Paul's absence, he had been won for the Pauline gospel by Aquila and Priscilla, had come over with letters of commendation to Achaia, and had labored with great success. All this is told us in the book of Acts and is indirectly confirmed by Paul himself; for he speaks of Apollos as a fellow-worker of one mind with him, who had great influence at Corinth, and had watered what he himself had sown. We also read in Acts that Apollos taught Christianity and preached about Jesus before he had received the instructions of Aquila and Priscilla, although, like the twelve disciples of whom we heard just now,1 he only knew the baptism of John; and further, that at Corinth he busied himself exclusively with the refutation of the Jews. may go for what it is worth. All this The community at Corinth not only grew but was also marked by great wealth of spiritual gifts. It could boast of many preachers, many members distinguished by their keenness of spiritual vision, besides prophets, ordinary teachers, deacons and deaconesses who looked after the poor and sick; others who by prayer and the laying on of hands, or by the application of special remedies, healed the sick or did other deeds of power. Parallels to these phenomena may be found elsewhere, in times and amidst circles where great spiritual excitement has prevailed. Above all, there were great numbers who spoke in tongues. They all looked forward to the return of the Christ with a longing so intense that some of them, perceiving that their beloved relatives who had died unbaptized would be excluded from the blessings of the Golden Age, had themselves baptized for them in hopes of its being accepted on their behalf." This practice, however superstitious, did no great harm; but the self-exaltation of which the brethren were guilty did great harm indeed. They were so wise in their own eyes that they cared for nothing and for nobody, and considered themselves qualified to pass sentence from above upon every one, including Paul himself. The arrogance of some of them was simply unbounded. Connected with all this was a spirit of 1 See pp. 588, 589. 8 1 Corinthians xv. 29. 21 Corinthians i. 5, 7, xii. 4-11, 28. 4 1 Corinthians iii. 18, iv. 3, 7 ff., 18. sectarianism which wofully divided the community. A Jewish-Christian party had been formed here also. It appealed, and must have had some right or some reason in its appeal, to the authority of Cephas (Peter) the Apostle of the Jews; it called itself after him, and denied or detracted from the apostolic dignity of Paul.1 The liberal party called themselves followers of Paul in distinction from the others. But here the matter did not rest. There were some of the liberals who had perhaps been converted by Apollos and felt warmly attached to him; or perhaps they had learned to look down upon Paul's simple teaching when they had come under the spell of the Alexandrian's brilliant gifts, his eloquent address, his speculative profundity, and his symbolical interpretation of the Scriptures. Be this as it may, they called themselves after Apollos. Again, there was a section of the orthodox party that raised another cry. They had probably come from Jerusalem 2 provided with letters of commendation; and by way of throwing Paul (who had never been in any personal relations with the Christ) into the shade, and so excluding him and all his party, they hit upon the idea of calling the nselves and their followers the adherents of Christ, on the ground that they had known the Christ themselves, or at any rate were in close relations with his genuine Apostles. 8 The Jewish-Christian party showed its usual animosity against the Apostle of the heathen, as we may see from a single example. Paul's opponents managed to turn the very disinterestedness which formed so sharp a contrast with the conduct of the new Palestinian preachers into a weapon against him. They told the Corinthians that his settled principle of never receiving any thing from them showed that he was himself conscious that he had no real claim to the name of Apostle, and had not been sent by the Christ.* There is every indication that in Corinth even more than elsewhere the conflict took a personal character, to which the principles at issue were more or less subordinated. But the two aspects of the dispute were always closely connected together. The Jewish-Christian teachers, however, do not seem to have pitched their claims so high in Corinth as they had done in Galatia. Apparently they did not insist upon circumcision, the observance of Jewish rest-days, feasts, and fasts, or other such matters. Indeed, it would seem that 1 See p. 549. 2 2 Corinthians iii. 1, xi. 22. 81 Corinthians i. 12, ii. 4, iii. 4, 22; 2 Corinthians x. 7; compare p. 585. 4 1 Corinthians ix. 1 ff. 1 even in Galatia they had not demanded the strict observance of the whole Law; and we can therefore well believe that here, in the land of culture, they shrank from the insuperable difficulties of introducing the national usages that rendered them ridiculous in Grecian eyes. Finally, the love of argument and disputation so characteristic of the Greeks contributed powerfully towards the undesirable state of things at Corinth by making the Christians look upon the gospel as a matter of doctrine rather than life, and eagerly seek out points upon which they could argue with each other. Paul was further grieved by the want of love manifested in the fact that the Christians sometimes had lawsuits with each other rather than risk any loss or injustice; and even called cach other before the heathen judges instead of at any rate choosing brethren to act as arbitrators in their quarrels. And the same want of love was manifested at the brotherly meals of the faithful, consecrated to the united commemoration of the Lord; for the richer members had fallen into the evil habit of seizing with indecorous haste what they had brought themselves, instead of waiting till the food was served round and each could have his share, so that, while they were feasting themselves sometimes to excess, others who had not been able to bring any thing with them were obliged to look on in hunger, unless they happened to belong to their party or to be among their friends. The Apostle, regarding this as a slight to the community and an insult to the poor, held it an abuse of the institution of the common meal, and recognized the prevalence of sickness and death among the brethren as its punishment.* Yet, again, the confusion that prevailed in the meetings of the community was a source of pain to the Apostle. All strove to be first, and mutual service was regarded as humiliating. Women came forward at these meetings, which Paul regarded as very scandalous. They even led in prayer and prophecy with their heads unveiled. Sometimes every one attempted to prophesy at the same time, and all vied with each other for attention. Finally, speaking with tongues was carried to such an excess that a heathen casually entering the assembly would suppose that they were raving. 5 Paul had received some information on these points, es pecially about the sectarian jealousies, from the members of 1 Galatians vi. 13, v. 3. 2 1 Corinthians vii. 18. 31 Corinthians vi. 1 ff.; compare Matthew v. 39–41. 41 Corinthians xi. 17 ff. 5 1 Corinthians xi. 2 ff., xii. 1 ff., xiv. - a certain Cloe's household. Subsequently he had received a letter from the Corinthian community, - probably brought to him by Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, asking for instructions as to marriage and the unmarried state, the propriety of joining in sacrificial meals and eating the flesh of animals that had been sacrificed, the value of spiritual gifts, and other matters. The bearers of this letter gave him full information of the state of things at Corinth; and though he intended soon to go there himself and put the arrogant pretenders who had spoken so contemptuously of him to the test, he determined first to send Timothy, his beloved and trusted son in the Lord, to remind the Corinthians how he ordered his life as the messenger of Christ, and how he preached everywhere and in all the churches. Meanwhile he gave a second letter (1 Corinthians) to the three Corinthian delegates, who were now about to return, and would arrive at Corinth before Timothy who was travelling through Macedonia. In this letter he begged the community to receive Timothy, as a worthy preacher of the gospel, with friendship and respect, that he might not be too diffident; and then to escort him on his way back. Apollos was with Paul at Ephesus at this time, and not at Corinth; and Paul had en treated him, perhaps at the instance of the Corinthians, to accompany Stephanus and the other two to Corinth, and help, among other things, to check the party feeling. But Apollos had steadily declined, saying he could not go till it fell in with his plans to do so.2 The letter was written in Paul's own name and in that of Sosthenes, to whom, perhaps, he dictated it. This Sosthenes was one of the brethren held in high estimation at Corinth, and happened to be with Paul at the time. After a friendly introduction, the letter begins with a rebuke of sectarianism. As long as one says, "I am of Paul;" another, "I of Apollos; a third, "I of Cephas;" a fourth, "I of Christ," they all show that they are far from the spirituality of the gospel, and forget that all the preachers are but servants of God- -no more. Presently he begins to answer their specific questions: It is good to marry, but considering how near the world is to its end it is better still not to marry; but in this matter every one must be guided by his knowledge of himself, must act circumspectly, and must remember what is due to others. The use of meat from beasts that have been 1 1 Corinthians i. 11, vii. 1 ff., viii. 1 ff., xii. 1 ff., xv. 1 ff., xvi. 17. |