Paul in Corinth

Acts 18:1-4; I Corinthians 13

GOLDEN TEXT: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”—I Corinthians 13:13

PAUL came to Corinth from Athens, after delivering his famous discourse on Mars’ Hill in which he pointed out the hope of a coming day of righteous judgment which had been guaranteed by the death and resurrection of Jesus. (Acts 17:30,31) In Corinth he made his home with Aquila and his wife, Priscilla. They followed the trade of tentmaking, and as Paul was a tentmaker, they had this in common and worked together to provide temporal necessities.

Aquila and Priscilla had previously lived in Rome but had been driven from there by a decree of Claudius. As is always true with the Lord’s people, under divine supervision their severe trial resulted in rich blessings. Driven from their home in Rome, Aquila and Priscilla were placed in a position to co-operate with the Apostle Paul in the work of the ministry. It is a privilege to fellowship and work with any of the Lord’s people, and what a great honor it was to be associated with one of the chiefest apostles!

In Corinth Paul worked among both Jews and Greeks. His chief contact with the Jews seemed to be in the synagogue, and there he reasoned with his kinsmen according to the flesh sabbath after sabbath until persecution arose and he was obliged to change his field of activity. Meanwhile some of the Jews believed, and there were also Greek converts.

While Paul no longer witnessed in the synagogue, but devoted his time particularly to the Greeks, he didn’t forsake the interest that had been created but kept in close touch with it. The account says that he “entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.” (Acts 18:7) He knew he was no longer welcome in the synagogue, but he knew also that certain individuals who attended there had become interested in the message and he took this opportunity of being where he could contact them as they came and left the services. Paul believed, as Jesus taught, that workers in the Lord’s field should be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed. Doubtless Paul, while still working in the synagogue, noted the interest manifested by Crispus, but it was not until persecution made it wise for the apostle to work on the outside, that his interest crystallized into Christian belief. The family of Crispus also believed, and when the news spread “many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed, and were baptized.”—Verse 8

It would seem that at this juncture Paul may have concluded that for the present his work in Corinth was finished, but the Lord directed otherwise. In a vision, the apostle heard the Lord speaking to him with words of comfort, assuring him of divine protection and explaining that He had “much people” in Corinth yet to be reached. Paul was not one to disobey instructions, so he remained for “a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.”

But the “much people” who were reached by Paul’s ministry were not to be spared trials. A short time after he left Corinth, an eloquent Jew of Alexandria named Apollos, went there (Acts 19:1), and worked among the brethren. Being an eloquent speaker no doubt many others there became interested. Through the ministry of the various brethren, including Apollos—all of whom were probably somewhat immature in Christian growth—the church became divided in different groups, each faction following the lead of one or another of these leaders.

This tendency to follow a certain leadership in which confidence is invested is a trait of humanity in general and it has been no less apparent among the people of God. But this tendency of the fleshly mind was antagonistic to the truth as taught by the apostle and divided those brought together by his preaching. One group in the church, perhaps in an effort to get away from human leadership altogether, proclaimed themselves followers of Christ. That is the proper position for every Christian, but in this case it must have been adopted from a wrong motive, so that those in Corinth who said “I am of Christ,” were just as. sectarian as those who said, “I am, of Apollos,” “I am of Paul,” “I am of Cephas.”—I Cor. 1:12,19

To be free in Christ is the ideal condition for all of His followers, but at times those who loudly proclaim their liberty do so because they have made liberty their creed, and are so firmly bound by their liberty creed that they are sectarian and very intolerant toward those who do not subscribe to their creed. Something like this, occurred in Corinth, else the Apostle would not have condemned those who said “I am of Christ.”

Nor are we to conclude that loyalty to truth and practice as taught, us by those whom the Lord raises up for the purpose, is sectarianism. Paul wrote, “I beseech you, be ye followers of me.” (I Cor. 4:16) He had given the Corinthian brethren the truth. His example of righteousness and zeal was a true example. To continue in this way meant that they would be true followers of the Lord, and this is what he wanted them to be. It is this true Christian way of love and devotion that Paul outlines in I Corinthians 13. His reference in this chapter to speaking with the “tongues of men and of angels” may have been an allusion to the oratory of Apollos, and that it was more important to watch for the evidence of love in a brother, than to be overly impressed with the eloquence of his speech.

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