St. Paul’s Corinthian Correspondence
Join Dr. Bill Creasy and Logos Bible Study each Monday morning (from July 10 to Sept. 11) after the 8:30 Mass for this new in-depth study of St. Paul’s Corinthian Correspondence. You may join the class at any time. All are welcome!
For more information about Dr. Creasy visit Logos Bible Study.
If you can’t attend the live classes, you may still attend class “remotely.” Just register as a “remote student” at http://logosbiblestudy.com/live-classes. You will receive Dr. Creasy’s audio lessons week-by-week online, accompanied by Power Points, satellite imagery maps and photos taken onsite.
Description:
Located on the isthmus that links the Peloponnesian Peninsula to mainland Greece, Corinth was a double seaport town, one of the largest, most cosmopolitan cities in Greece, and home of the Temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of erotic love!
On his 2nd missionary journey, A.D. 50-52, St. Paul visited Corinth and he founded a church there. Of all the churches St. Paul founded, the church at Corinth proved to be the most difficult. Although St. Paul had been “beaten up, thrown in jail and run out of town” in many of the places he visited (and he was even stoned and left for dead in Lystra!), St. Paul genuinely feared for his life in Corinth. In total, St. Paul spent 18 months teaching and preaching there.
When he arrived in Ephesus on his 3rd missionary journey, A.D. 54-57, a delegation arrived from Corinth with bad news: the church at Corinth was having terrible problems: there were factions and divisions forming; believers were suing one another in the secular courts; and there was rampant sexual immorality among the church members! In addition, the new leader of the church at Corinth had a series of pastoral questions for St. Paul. In I Corinthians St. Paul addresses these very practical issues.
After receiving 1 Corinthians, the church at Corinth sent a scathing letter to St. Paul (which we do not have, but St. Paul refers to it). St. Paul was so incensed when he received the letter, that he got onboard ship, sailed straight to Corinth, and made what he refers to in 2 Corinthians as a “short, but painful visit.” After he returning to Ephesus, St. Paul has second thoughts, and he writes 2 Corinthians to smooth things over with the church. Nonetheless, in 2 Corinthians St. Paul addresses directly and bluntly the Corinthian’s accusation that he is not really an Apostle, and that he had stolen money from the collection he had taken up in Corinth for the church in Jerusalem.
1 & 2 Corinthians are not heavy theological arguments, like his epistle to the Romans; rather, they address very practical issues regarding day-today life in the church, issues that every church community faces at one time or another.
Dr. Creasy’s series on St. Paul’s Corinthian Correspondence highlights St. Paul’s full immersion in the life of a very troubled church—lessons we can all learn from today!
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