Paul's ministry in Corinth and for its church (Review on Acts 18 and 1&2 Corinthians)

1.       The ministry’s chronological overview

As we know, the first missionary journey was limited to the five cities around Phrygia and Lycaonia. The second mission was totally different. His travel spanned over a thousand miles on foot, crossing the Taurus Mountains, and passing through dry deserts and rough terrains.  They were eager to go to Asia but was not allowed. Eventually, they ended in Troas. There receiving a vision for Macedonia, his mission team moved on to Macedonia. Starting at Philippi, he moved on from one city to the other over 5 cities. In each city, he started preaching at a Synagogue, and as soon as persecution arose he escaped and moved on to the next city. It seems that he spent less than one month in each city (Philippi-several days; Thessalonica 3 weeks). So I would call this ‘hit and run’ ministries. When he got to Corinth, his frame of mind on the ministry was well-formed through these ‘hit-and-run’ ministries. As he faced the persecution again as he had on all the previous cities, he decided to run again. But God spoke to him not to be silent for He was with Paul and no one was going to attack and harm him. So he stayed for one and a half years in preaching the words of God. One of the key features of this ministry was moving from a synagogue to the next house and there he taught ‘those who were in wants’, i.e. the seekers of the truth from the Gospel message. In this way, his ministry was changed from the style of ‘hit-and-run’ to ‘stay-put’. This stay-put ministry bore tremendous fruits.

a.       Paul owed to his own people, the chosen by God, for the truth of salvation. This drove him to preach from one place to the other in synagogues first. This indebtedness, not only to his people but also to God, was so strong enough to risk his lives again and again. If I were him, I would have changed the way how to approach a mission after two or three failures or the dismal outcomes or such intense persecutions for I would not want to risk my life again and again. I thought about how much I owe and to whom I owe the truth of the Gospel. In examining what happened in these five cities, I felt that Paul was ready to exhaust his life until finishing preaching all the cities where Jews were. The outcome was remarkable. The entire region of Macedonia came to face the message of the Gospel, especially to the Jews.

b.      Paul ran whenever there was a threat to his life. God did not stop it and let him run whenever he faced such a threat. But when he faced a similar situation in Corinth, God spoke to him with a clear message on the protection and to preach. City Corinth was the third-largest city in Roman Empire and was very affluent. People were well educated, cosmopolitan, and infested with so many ‘sinfulness’ as the word ‘corinthianize’ indicates. Also, it had a direct connection to Emperor Claudius for calling Gallio ‘my friend’, he appointed Gallio, the brother of Seneca, then a famous philosopher, to the Roman proconsul of Achaia.  The experiences in Corinth would have greatly enriched his understanding of how to go by in Rome.  As the problem in Corinth was about to be resolved, Paul wrote Romans in Corinth while he was staying there for three months as the last leg of his third missionary journey.

2.       Key observations

One and half years of stay-put ministry bore tremendous fruit, drawing so many people that the Jews became so jealous, though most of the coverts were the Gentiles. In one word, the power of the Gospel was fully known to the entire people of the city. As we noted in the letter, first Corinthians, so many different people came to believe with such a very diverse background. At the same time, the depth and width of sin in the Church was as egregious as the people of the city itself was. There were two reports of problems from the church to Paul while he was at Ephesus. Paul wrote four letters to them, of which we only know two, first and second Corinthians. He sent Timothy and then Titus to resolve the problems. The initial problem they faced was how to solve ‘sinful activities of the members of the Church’. But as Paul wrote a harsh letter to rectify the situation, this problem spewed into Paul’s personal life by attacks on Paul’s personal character and his ministry. In addition, as the church grew in size, Christian Judaizers sneaked in and planted a new seed of the different gospel, creating great confusion and discrediting Paul and his ministry. While he was serving the mission work in Ephesus, he had to struggle to solve the problem in Corinth.  In other words, over a period of five years (he left Corinth in AD 52; the final visit was in AD 57, see some resolution of the problem in this visit), he served the church in Corinth. 

In some sense the people of the city Corinth was a representation of the people of the entire Roman world as much as the problems in the Corinthian Church were the representation of the problems of the churches in this world. While the hit-and-run ministry is necessary to spread the Gospel horizontally, the stay-put ministry is a must in order to bear fruit. It takes time to plant the words of God deeply into the depth of human minds strong enough to uproot the old and to replace it with the truth and power of the Gospel.   Only then, the power of the Gospel can overwhelm the power of the world ridden with human will in sinfulness.

It is worthy to compare the ministry in Corinth with the one in Ephesus. On the third mission journey, Paul did not do much in any other cities. Instead, he almost directly went to Ephesus and there he spent three years, though God did not reveal to a new direction. So I cannot think of anything but the influence of what happened in Corinth on Paul’s decision and direction of the next ministry, i.e., Ephesus. The followings are the similarities

a.       Both were stay-put ministry; one and a half years in Corinth and three years in Ephesus. As I mentioned, Paul went directly into the ‘stay-put’ ministry in Ephesus on his third missionary journey (so we may call it the mission in Ephesus rather than a journey).

b.      In both ministries, Paul focused on those who wanted to hear the Gospel as the Jews rejected it. To them, he spent most of the time teaching the Gospel. In other words, he spent much time teaching the same people until they were changed by the power of the Gospel. They became the nidus for the knowledge of the Gospel and for the power for the ministry of the entire region and the power of God and the Holy Spirit became evident.  It is good to notice that though both were the stay-put ministry, Paul spent more time in Ephesus, and unlike in Corinth, there were so much power of God and its power overwhelmed the entire region, for great power than that we noticed in Corinth.

c.       Though many questioned if the letter to Ephesus was Paul’s and for the church in Ephesus if we take the both are true, then, the contents of the letters to these two churches are so remarkably different. If we look for the reason for the difference in the status of the believers in each of the two church, then, we have a glimpse of the idea; the ministry in Corinth (1.5 years) was short in comparison to the ministry in Ephesus (3 years), the ministry in Corinth, there was not much display of the power of God and the Holy Spirit as it was in Ephesus. Though it is of pure conjecture, it might be too far from the truth.     

d.      Both stay-put ministries brought forth strong resolutions in Paul’s heart. Both were visionary in nature and were about what to do next in terms of where and how. At the end of the ministry in Corinth, Paul resolved: Acts 18:18b Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken.   Soon after this resolution, he arrived in Ephesus and as he was leaving he said this; 18:21 But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus. In other words, there was a strong indication that the vow he made was something of the mission in Ephesus.
The end of his ministry in Ephesus noted this way; Acts 19: 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. Immediately after this came Paul’s decision: Acts 19:21 After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.” In other words, God gave Paul great confidence in the power of the Gospel through the two ‘stay-put’ ministry. Out of this power came the vision for the next mission. This makes a great contrast to the situation how he began the ministry in Corinth:  1 Corinthians 2:3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. What does this tell us? Stay-put ministry for the purpose of planting the words of God deeply into the spiritually hungry people may be the way of receiving the power of God and the way for the world mission.  The obstacle for this is the threats to our lives and how to handle them are of our will for God’s purposes.

3.       Paul’s letters to Corinth

The problems noted in the first letter to Corinth reflect the problems of the city of the time. These problems were brought to Paul twice by the members of the Church. As the Law of Moses is divided into two, on how to serve God and how to relate to each other, so were the problems of the church are prominent in these two areas. The solution was the Gospel from the beginning to end, including Jesus’ death for our sins in love for us sinners and his resurrection to impart his holiness and giving us hope for the kingdom of God. In answer to many problems, he reasoned with them in the Gospel truth and rebuked them for uncomplying for the newly learned truth, and cajoled them to and with the loves of Christ. He did this with a belief in a system, not fragmented answers to each or unconnected quick-fix ideas. In his answers, there was no pragmatism, in reasoning and in providing a solution. All of them were deeply rooted in the Gospel. To this end, without clear systematic thinking in the biblical truth and an ability to reason within the system of the biblical truth, it would have been impossible to such a great letter. So for us as leaders, we are to equip with such an in-depth understanding of the biblical truth in a system.   

The problem noted in the second letter to Corinth was a repercussion from his rebukes made in the previous letters. As he rebuked them for uncomplying for the Gospel truth, a sinful man challenged Paul’s integrity as a man of God and questioned his character and quality as an apostle. This was followed by the arrival of a group of super-apostles in Christ’s name. They, most likely Judaizers in clothes of Christianity, introduced a different gospel and demeaned the apostolate of Paul, insinuating an idea that Paul had an ungodly motive and was not fit for being a missionary or a title Apostle. In his defense, he revealed the many hardships that he never expressed anywhere else in his letters. He was living the Gospel as Jesus’ life itself was the Gospel. The central argument of him was not on who he was or what he believed or what did. His argument was on what the genuine Gospel was and how that Gospel was in his life or if the apostles' life reflects the Gospel truth. As to the eyes of unbelieving, the truth that Jesus embodied was not seen, so to these disbelieving Judaizers, the spirit of the Gospel living in Paul’s life was hidden. The argument of Paul was moving from what was visible in their eyes to what was invisible that was hidden inside of his heart that ran his life, the Spirit of the Gospel.  

In order to bring back the church as a whole to the Gospel, Paul sent four letters, dispatched two emissaries (Timothy and Titus), and visited the second time as the last leg of his third missionary journey. This is significant in that the third journey ended in Jerusalem, and from this point on he was under arrest. But the most of the third missionary journey was in Ephesus and at the end of his mission in Ephesus, his anxiety grew over the problems in the church Corinth and made two decisions; one to go through Macedonia on his way to the final destination, Jerusalem, and the other to send Timothy and Erastus to Macedonia ahead of him (Act 19:20-22). Here the main focus of this trip to Macedonia was Corinth, the biggest church and the church with problems that he had to solve.   

The world and its problems come into a church along with people. It is not a matter of if or maybe, but a certain outcome as the Gospel brings many people of the world to form a church. Paul endured and nurtured the church for 5 years even while he was intensely engaged in the ministry in Ephesus. Nevertheless, the experience in Ephesus gave Paul more insight, knowledge, and power in solving the problems in the Church in Corinth. I wonder if Paul could be so confident of his mission work, or what he did in Corinth if his ministry in Ephesus was not so successful and powerful.

I can say one thing; teach the words of God to those who are in want until the power of the Gospel is revealed in their lives, whether it is a ministry or a single person. What a wonderful platform of ministry that we have! The ministry rooted in the bible study that endures for years until Christ is formed in each person or each ministry.   In the teaching of the Bible, the power of the Gospel thrives and prevails over the power of the world. Amen.