Readings:
2 Chronicles 11
Sirach 18
1 Corinthians 1

1 Corinthians 1

Unlike the last three books that we’ve read, this one has an author that identifies himself in the opening and the closing of his letter. Saint Paul is writing to this church in southern Greece about five years after he founded it, during one of his missions. He received word that there was a multitude of problems in Corinth, and the Corinthians themselves had sent him a letter asking for guidance on certain matters. Paul takes several of these and answers them in this book, but we don’t have the original letter that was sent to him, so we have no way of knowing how many questions they asked in total.

The letter is written in the mid 50s, probably during the early years of the reign of Nero, when Christian persecution was at a low. He is freely traveling through these regions, and the Romans considered Christianity at the time to be another sect inside of Judaism, which was a recognized religion in the empire and afforded certain privileges. The only real persecution at the time was from Jewish authorities, who had zero authority in Greece, and so most of the problems in Corinth were of their own doings and from their own sins.

He starts out by denouncing the factionalism that has risen in the church, where some are identifying more with the man who baptized them than with the God who came to save them. They were likely all true believers and well meaning, but to pit groups against each other when we should all be working in union us of the devil, not of God. This doesn’t mean we should put up with heresy or abuses, but that one group shouldn’t be at enmity with another inside the church for nothing more than personal reasons.

Readings:
2 Chronicles 12
Sirach 19
1 Corinthians 2