A Growing Humility

2 Corinthians 1:1-11

Corinth was a city of commerce, a place where geography made the town great.  It was a safe haven for ships.

You could take a massive short cut across from the Mediterranean Sea to the Aegean Sea.  You can see a great canal now carved out through which shipping moves.

As a town rich merchants and poor seaman passed through. It was a town offering the fast living things of life as well as many of the slaves to make all the back breaking labour possible.

A Roman writer of the time Strabo described Corinth as “Always great and wealthy”.

It was into this bustling town Paul arrived to plant a church.

·         AD 50-52 Paul in Corinth establishing the church for 1 ½ years

·         AD 55/56 Second Visit “Painful Visit” - emergency disciplinary problem in the Church

·         AD56/57 Third Visit – stays 3 months

Paul writes 2 Corinthians before coming for his third visit to Corinth.  In a way he was phasing himself out from the Churches he had established around the Aegean Sea.  Paul was looking to start a new ministry planting Churches in Spain.  Of all his churches, the Corinthian Church was the most demanding for Paul.  There were struggles with power, leadership tussles, slack moral standards, sex scandals, shady business deals, character assassinations, lawsuits, and unkindness to the less gifted and poorer members.

To a church caught up in the world they inhabited, the Corinthian Christians reflected more of a worldly flavour than it did of Jesus in what they believed and doubts about the coming resurrection of Jesus. It’s clear to say Paul had a rather turbulent relationship with this church.

All the way through his letter there is an edgy tone showing a passionate mutual lack of trust between Paul and the members of the Corinthian Church.  One thing above all stands out for Paul.  It is his intense identification with Christ his Lord, Paul has a passionate concern, to replicate Christ’s ministry. Writ large all over 2 Corinthians is the story about God, and his faithfulness and glory, as we read in 2 Corinthians 1:1-3.