Genesis 13:10 - Meaning and Application

1. Corinth was a major city in Greece, in the region called Achaia. It stood on the narrow strip of land that joined Peloponnesus to the rest of Greece. Because it had two ports, one toward Italy and the west and the other toward Asia, it became a busy center of trade and wealth.

2. But wealth often brings luxury and moral decay, and Corinth was famous for that too. It was especially known for sexual sin, so much so that “a Corinthian woman” became a common saying for a prostitute. Even in that corrupt city, Paul, by God’s blessing on his work, planted a Christian church, mostly among Gentiles, that is, non-Jews, though some Jewish believers were likely there as well (Acts 18:1-18; 1 Corinthians 12:2; Acts 18:8).

3. Paul stayed in Corinth for nearly two years and labored there with much success (Acts 18:11, 18). God even encouraged him with a vision, telling him that many people in that city belonged to him (Acts 18:9-10). Paul did not usually remain long in a place unless his ministry was being accepted and blessed.

4. After he left, he wrote this letter to strengthen what he had planted and to correct serious problems that had grown up during his absence. Some of those problems came from false teachers who had gained influence there. Others came from old habits and values that had not been fully cleansed by the Christian life they had embraced.

5. It is easy to see how their wealth had helped to corrupt their behavior. Paul reproved them for pride, greed, luxury, and lust, all of which grow naturally from a worldly and sinful heart. Their pride showed itself in divisions and factions, and in the disorder they brought into the use of spiritual gifts.

6. This pride was fed not only by wealth, but also by their learning in Greek philosophy. The city had many rhetoricians and philosophers, and such men were often full of self-confidence. They tended to despise the plain teaching of the gospel because it did not satisfy a curious mind or impress the ear with polished speech and fine words.

7. Their greed showed itself in their lawsuits and disputes over what was mine and yours, which they carried before pagan judges. Their love of ease and pleasure appeared in their dress and in the wrong way they treated the Lord’s Supper. The rich, who were most guilty in this matter, also showed proud and shameful contempt for their poorer brothers and sisters.

8. Their lust appeared in a shocking case of sexual sin, something not even commonly spoken of among the Gentiles without horror: a man living with his father’s wife, either as his own wife or in open fornication with her. This seems to have been the fault of one man in particular. Yet the whole church was guilty for not hating the sin more strongly and for tolerating such corrupt behavior among them.

9. Their blame was even greater if, as some ancient writers say, they were proud of this man’s learning and eloquence. Other parts of the letter show that they were still too close to their old sinful ways and needed strong warnings against sexual sin (1 Corinthians 6:9-20). Their pride in learning also carried many of them so far as to deny or argue against the doctrine of the resurrection.

10. They may have treated the resurrection as a problem to debate, the way philosophers debated many questions. Instead of receiving the truth with humility, they tried to test it by arguing for and against it.

It is clear from this situation that there was much in this church that deserved correction. Under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, the apostle, Paul, addresses both their errors and their needs with wisdom, faithfulness, tenderness, and authority, fitting for his high office in the church.

After a brief opening, he first rebukes them for their divisions and factions. He traces those problems to their source and shows how pride, vanity, and a love of human wisdom, learning, and eloquence, encouraged by false teachers, led to a shameful split. He then points them to humility and to submission to God’s instruction, both through outward revelation and inward enlightenment by the Spirit, as the cure for the evils among them. He also shows the emptiness of their claimed wisdom and eloquence in several ways, and he does this through the first four chapters.

In the fifth chapter, he deals with the case of the man living in incest, and commands that he be removed from their fellowship. It is not unlikely, as the older writers say, that this man was highly regarded and was at least the leader of one of their parties. Paul seems to rebuke them for being proud of him, (1 Corinthians 5:2).

In the sixth chapter, he reproves them for bringing lawsuits before pagan judges, when their disputes over property should have been settled peacefully among themselves. At the end of the chapter, he also warns them against sexual sin and supports that warning with several reasons.

In the seventh chapter, he answers a question of conscience that some in the church had written to him about, concerning marriage. He shows that marriage was appointed by God as a safeguard against sexual sin, and that its bond was not broken when one spouse became a Christian and the other remained a pagan. In short, he teaches that becoming a Christian does not change a person’s civil status and relationships. He also gives directions about virgins, probably in answer to more questions from the Corinthians.

In the eighth chapter, he gives guidance about food offered to idols, and warns them not to misuse their Christian freedom. From that subject, he also takes the opportunity in the ninth chapter to speak about his own use of freedom. Though he had the right to receive support from the churches where he served, he gave up that right so that he could preach the gospel free of charge. In other matters too, he adapted himself to the temper and circumstances of those among whom he worked, always for their good.

In the tenth chapter, he warns them, using the example of the Jews, not to have fellowship with idolaters by eating their sacrifices. They could not be partakers of both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Yet they were not required to investigate whether meat sold in the marketplace, or served at the table of an unbeliever, had come from idol sacrifices. In such cases, they were free to eat without asking questions.

In the eleventh chapter, he gives directions about their dress and appearance in public worship. He rebukes their serious disorder and shameful misuse of the Lord’s Supper, and he solemnly warns them against treating so holy an institution lightly.

In the twelfth chapter, he begins to deal with spiritual gifts, which were given in great abundance to this church and had made them rather proud. He tells them that all these gifts come from the same source and are meant for the same purpose. They all come from one Spirit and are intended for the good of the church, so they are misused when they do not serve that end.

Near the end of that chapter, he reminds them that these gifts are valuable, but says he can point them to something far better. That leads him, in the thirteenth chapter, into his great praise of love, or charity, meaning Christian love that acts for another’s good. Then, in the fourteenth chapter, he teaches them how to keep decency and order in the church when using their spiritual gifts, since they had been very disorderly through pride and a desire to display their gifts.

The fifteenth chapter is devoted to confirming and explaining the great doctrine of the resurrection. The last chapter contains some personal instructions and greetings, and with that the epistle comes to a close.