1 Corinthians 1:1-17

is sport a contentious game for you to watch or play
how loud do you get watching your team go round
how hard do you play when you're out on the paddock

the team you back
Ever find yourself having to defend them
While at the same time pull them apart for lack of effort

Ever found yourself feeling the need to make excuses
when your team isn't doing so well

we all follow something like on another tack
What about an author
One you like reading,
or an actor who's movies
you'll try and watch when they come out?

No matter what the critics review says

We can do the same in church circles like have you got a favourite speaker
Someone you often listen on catch up
the last conference they last spoke at
or read a book they just published

what do you say when someone says something about them,
ever find yourself go into bat to defend them?

We are born worshippers
we all take our influences from all sorts of places good or bad

as we see in this day and age where it's all about
The latest guru, or the latest trend, or the latest approach

In our churches we can be made captive to the same things but this is not new
Just as the Corinthian Christians did
Where they were arguing that their spiritual leader
was better, more persuasive
and more influential than the other

What they did was turn following Jesus into a whole new form of contention

Trouble was it wasn't unifying
it was simply tearing their community life apart
Through a lack of love

They had made Jesus a contentious Christ and Paul had something plain to say into that mess

Before we get there but I want to back up a sec and recap on this letter to the Corinthian Church

There are some ancient things about this community that help us to see what was going on with the church family tensions

So Some background

Corinth was a sea state rebuilt under Julius Caesar
on a map it sits on the southern part of Greece
from Athens you can take a 1 hour train trip to get to it

Ancient Corinth is a small land bridge half way up
on the bottom part of Greece
So sea travelers and goods pass across it
as a strip of land it is only 8km wide from sea to sea

so slaves were used to unload the ships and ballast
pull the boat along a row of tree trunk runner along the 8km
to the other side and put everything back in the boat

it was labour intensive
but worth it for time and safety
that bottom part of Greece was dangerous to shipping

Corinth was a frontier town
Where the slaves outnumbered free men 10:1
so you can imagine it
this town was ruled with an iron fist

Corinth was also known as an exceptionally religious city
As a place where so many passed through
Traders & sailors, wealthy merchants and slaves

It had many shrines, temples and gods
Corinth was a town where religion and politics
were linked

like the meat you bought at the markets was sacrificed at the local temple

all the citizens of Corinth were expected to make sacrifices at the pagan temples dedicated to the Roman Emperor, it's also where you did business if you were a business man in town

only the Jews were exempt from having to do this

it's into this cosmopolitan
bustling port and it's vigorous cults and temples
Paul arrives to share the Good News about Jesus Christ

staying with Priscilla & Acquila local tent makers like Paul
Paul sets about preaching the gospel and many respond

so we read in Acts 18:8

"Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized."