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The situation, context, problems, and the
answers given in this letter of Paul's are relevant to the
Church in every age. But it could be no more pertinent for
the people of God than at a time when the Church is being renewed
in the midst of contemporary paganization.
Corinth was the most cosmopolitan of the cities
of the Mediterranean, with the possible exception of Rome itself.
It was an immigrant population without the deep roots of tradition
and more ready to partake of the vices rather than the virtues
of their adoption. The Jews, it seems, were only a minority.
There was no Old Testament background to build upon, so that
it did not have the accepted authority which it would have
had in a place like Beroea with its more solidly Jewish community
(Acts 17:11).
No common habit of thought gave the Christian
group stability, coherence, and a form of unity. Speculation,
debate, conjecture were rife. This letter deals with a situation
which has much to show us in our modern world of pluralism,
remissiveness and confusion over authority. |
