Now that we have a basic understanding of the online world and how it both impacts and is being impacted by our society, we will consider Paul's leadership and communication with the church in Corinth in the first century.

The church framework developed by Paul in his two letters to the church in Corinth is, of course, limited to the particular issues and context into which Paul was writing, and we should be careful in our interpretation to recognize those limits. A full Pauline ecclesiology is beyond the scope of this series, but a careful consideration of these two letters will give us enough detail to sketch a basic church model.

In this post, we will discuss the basic posture of the church as united in the wisdom of God and the mission of the cross. In the next post, we will outline a simple model of sacramentality in worship and then consider Paul’s methods for the church’s continuing growth and faithfulness.

Paul's Method(s) of Communication

For Paul, letter-writing was a long-distance replacement for oral communication—an attempt “to accomplish what would otherwise be done in person,”—and he intended his letters to be read aloud to the congregation by his messenger. The messenger was probably coached by Paul to convey the tones (like sarcasm and irony) and theology of his letters and to be able to expound upon their messages in response to questions and challenges.

Because Paul synthesized oral and written communication this way, it is impossible to separate his use of the written word from his use of oral rhetoric. Our analysis must take a balanced approach of considering the impact of the medium, his rhetorical methods for navigating relational difficulties, and his theological positions regarding group dynamics.

All of this must be understood within the social context of the church in first-century Corinth before we can interpret it into the twenty-first century context. We will examine the concept of Christian cruciformity in his communication with the Corinthians, a concept that also pervades Paul’s letters to other churches, as well as Paul’s emphasis on the wisdom of God as a specific message tailored to the believers in Corinth.

The Potential of the Church

When the apostle Paul looked at the city of Corinth, he saw a place of incredible potential for believers to embody the cruciform gospel of Christ.

When he wrote to the church there, he was not doing so as an outsider to the community. He had been involved in the church from its very beginning; he saw them as his family, repeatedly referring to the members of its community as “brothers and sisters” and considering himself the “father” of the community. According to the account in the book of Acts, Paul lived in Corinth for eighteen months as he founded the church there, actively shaping its community and theological development while working as a tentmaker to support his ministry (Acts 18:1–4, 11).

At the time Paul was in Corinth, around 51 ᴄᴇ, the city was a young, vibrant place of economic opportunity and, as N. T. Wright describes, was “excessively proud of its Romanitas, it’s ‘Romanness.’”

Corinth: A City Destroyed and Rebuilt

About two hundred years before (in 146 ʙᴄᴇ), the city had been destroyed by a Roman army and had lain desolate for over a hundred years. Then, in 44 ʙᴄᴇ, because of the city’s location along an important shipping trade route, Julius Caesar had made it a Roman colony and imported freed slaves and other members of lower classes to populate it. These lower classes were excited with their freedom and were eager for this opportunity to enhance their social standing.

Over the next few generations, the city flourished under the ambitions of its inhabitants, who quickly formed a fluid social stratification that was somewhat unique in the Roman world—there was a thriving upper class, as well as a significant lower class who were, in spite of their economic status, offered opportunities to rise in the city’s social hierarchy.