Grab Your Passport | 10 | Corinth

“The City of Corinth” from the lesson series Grab Your Passport, April 2021

our Scripture

After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

Acts 18:1-17 ESV
Acts 18:1-17 NIV	Acts 18:1-17 NASB	Acts 18:1-17 NLT	Acts 18:1-17 MESSAGE

Other Scripture references:

Acts 19:1, 1 Corinthians 1:2, 1 Corinthians 4:18, 2 Corinthians 1:1

2 Corinthians 1:16, 2 Corinthians 1:23, 2 Corinthians 10:14, 2 Timothy 4:20

our City

our Lessons

If you pick up a Bible study or commentary on the book of 1 Corinthians, or if you listen to a sermon series studying through the book, you are most likely to hear that the church in Corinth was a problem church – a church that wasn’t very grounded in the faith, a church that had problems.

The church in Corinth had numerous spiritual problems …

The Christian Courier

The church in Corinth struggled with problems, sins affecting the church …

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Doctoral Dissertation

The Corinthian church was corroded with sin …

Charles Swindoll

The problems that he encountered in this place were more numerous than he had found in other cities …

Cliffs Notes

But the church in Corinth had the same beginnings, the same foundation that other churches started by Paul enjoyed. In some ways, they even had several advantages. Paul stayed in Corinth for an extended period of time. Aquila and Priscilla were left there to help the church grow and mature. Why did Corinth have problems that didn’t seem to surface in Ephesus, Philippi or Colossae?

Perhaps the church at Corinth wasn’t so much a problem church as it was a struggling church. It seems that a more appropriate observation about the church in Corinth would be that it was a church that was wrestling with what it meant to be the church – to be Christian – in a very urban, a very pluralistic, a very non-Christian culture. How can Christians stay Christian and not be influenced by the world around them?

Sound familiar?

Corinth and American Have Much in Common

In many ways the culture of first century Corinth shares some deep parallels with the culture of twenty-first century America. While technology and science have surely advanced the opportunities in this century, both first century Corinth and twenty-first century America are colored by a distinct worldview. Secular. Pluralistic. Political. Commercial. Transient. Sexual. Relative.

Today America’s church wrestles with the same questions. Has it become more difficult to be a Christian in today’s culture? Has Christianity become irrelevant and ineffective in changing the hearts of mankind? Can Christianity survive in a modern multi-cultural, atheistic community? A study of the book of First Corinthians answers a resounding “Yes!” but if the church is to stay true and faithful, distinct from the worldly culture, it is not going to be easy.

our Time in Corinth

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