586 1 Corinthians in Context 3: Factions & Status at Corinth

Now that we’ve familiarized ourselves with the city of Corinth and Paul’s missionary activity there, we’re ready to dive into 1 Corinthians. As I mentioned previously, my strategy for this class is to focus on the major themes rather than covering every verse. Our first theme is the issue of divisiveness among the Christians at Corinth, which spans the first four chapters of the letter. In this episode we’ll look at the factions in the church in light of two major contributing background forces: imperial celebrity culture and competition for status among Corinth’s elite. By situating ourselves firmly within the context of first-century Roman Corinth, we’ll see that worldly pride, ambition, and sectarianism infiltrated the church and how Paul inverted their sense of status by pointing to his message about Christ’s crucifixion.

Scriptures Covered: 1 Corinthians 1:1-3, 10-13; 26-29; 3:5-9; 4:1, 7-13; 6:9-11

  Listen on Spotify

  Listen on Apple Podcasts

—— Links ——

• See all the episodes in this class: 1 Corinthians in Context
• Check out Sean’s other classes here
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here
• Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.