If you ever got the idea that the
early Churches of God ran like clockwork then you would be absolutely right.
Unlike quartz timepieces, they needed a lot of maintenance and attention, were
prone to coming to a complete halt and were even at risk of total
breakdown! There’s no better case study
of it than the Church of God in Corinth, especially as it shows that the
apostle Paul wasn’t shock-proof either.
First century Corinth was a ready-made seed bed for church conflict. It
was even the scene of a mythical territorial dispute between Poseidon, the god
of the sea, and Helios, the god of the sun, which was resolved by allocating
half of Corinth to one and half to the other.
Cultural conflict was exacerbated by Corinth being both very cosmopolitan
and, in relative terms, very modern.
Julius Caesar had only re-formed Corinth as a Roman colony less than a
century before the Church was planted and it was populated mainly by indigenous
Greeks, “invading” Romans and fleeing Jews (like Priscilla and Aquila) from
persecution at home. Each brought their
own religions, languages, traditions and very different ways of thinking to the
melting pot.
An analysis of the membership of the Corinthian church reflects this
diversity. Of the seventeen saints we
know of, eight, like Gaius, have Latin names, Apollos and Crispus were Jews
while Stephanas and his family were Greek.
It’s not hard to imagine that this would have contributed to conflict at
times.
Corinth was a major urban centre on the trade route in Greece and was known
for being much more liberal culturally than the old-fashioned villages around
it. Space was at a premium with density
estimated to be on a par with shanty towns in Rio or Delhi today – most people
lived quite literally on top of each other in apartments above shops. Riots spread like wildfire more than once. It had also a reputation for being very
expensive – the poet Horace (famous for the phrase “carpe diem”) said that
"not everyone is able to go to Corinth". Gaius must have been a
wealthy man indeed to own a home large enough for the entire church to meet in.
Religion was definitely a huge
cultural issue. It was common in
worshiping certain Greek gods to invite friends to eat some of the meat
sacrificed to the idol at a banquet, often in the god’s temple (think of it as
a first century business lunch.) This
situation was reflected in 1 Corinthians 8:10.
Although the saints now knew that idol worship was strictly prohibited, there
was a temptation to continue a basic part of the social life that they had enjoyed
pre-conversion. Some had no problem with it but others certainly did. Paul had to advise very carefully on how best
to deal with these sensitivities.
And, though we might be shocked
to think of a saint being drunk when attending the Lord’s Supper, (see 1 Cor
11:21) this wasn’t unusual. Drunkenness was
sometimes considered a part of a religious rite, especially in the worship of
Dionysus, the discoverer of wine. But this
was in direct conflict with their new way of life and, as Paul made clear, it
had to be dispensed with.
Each age and society has its
distinct culture to be grappled with and if we’re not conscious of a personal
struggle then alarm bells should be ringing. Our response to it should be
fashioned by the unchanging Word of God and not the other way around. Even so, what response is appropriate may not
always be immediately apparent and so lengthy and prayerful consideration and
taking advice from experienced brothers and sisters is always a good approach.
There are at least three courses
of action available to us:
·
Abandon - some cultural baggage may be best left
abandoned entirely to better embrace the new culture of Christ or simply to
avoid the risk of seriously stumbling a fellow saint.
·
Accept – it would be premature to conclude that
everything in the world is automatically bad for us. God has provided many things for us to enjoy
and to rule out harmless activities could hamper our testimony.
·
Adapt – some culture can be adapted or harnessed
to make it palatable and it can, with some finesse, even be turned into a
witness opportunity.
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