HPT-04 Paul and the Corinthians

Many of us are familiar with the fables attributed to an ancient Greek named Aesop. In one of those fables, “The Tortoise and the Hare,” a hare constantly boasted that he was the fastest of all the animals. So, tiring of the hare’s arrogance, a tortoise challenged him to a foot race. Now, the hare clearly could have won, but because he was so certain of his victory, so full of pride in his great abilities, he took a nap in the middle of the race. And while the hare was sleeping, the tortoise crossed the finish line ahead of him.

In certain ways, many Christians living in the city of Corinth during the first century were like the hare of Aesop’s fable. Just as the hare counted himself the winner before the race was over, many in the Corinthian church thought of themselves as winners before the race of their Christian lives was over. Their earthly prosperity, their status in society and their special spiritual gifts deluded them into believing that the Lord had made them superior to everyone else. They thought that God had blessed them with the gifts of his kingdom far more than he had blessed other Christians who had fewer earthly treasures, less social status and less spectacular gifts. And the apostle Paul warned them that they were in danger of losing the race of the Christian life.

This is the fourth lesson in our series, The Heart of Paul’s Theology. And we’ve entitled it, “Paul and the Corinthians.” In this lesson, we’ll see how Paul addressed these proud Christians in his letters, now known as 1 and 2 Corinthians. Although Paul addressed many specific problems in the church at Corinth, he did so by calling attention to the main source of their many problems: the false belief that some of them had already crossed the finish line of the Christian life, while in reality the race was still on.

You’ll remember that, earlier in this series, we learned that the heart of Paul’s theology was his eschatology. Paul taught that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah and that he had brought the latter days, or the last days of God’s kingdom on earth. Faithful Jews in Paul’s day believed that when the Messiah came, he would fulfill all of God’s purposes for his creation by bringing in the fullness of the last days. But Paul followed Jesus’ teaching and believed that, in his first advent, Christ had only inaugurated the last days. The last days in Christ would continue throughout the history of the church, and they would finally come to their fullness at the consummation of the kingdom in his second advent.