California’s New Serious Threat to Marriage

[Hemidakota]

My advise after checking one of your quote reference (1 Corith chapter 6:19) is not correct. If you had met Paul personally, he would admonished any person who sins and would not tolerate any degree of sin. Changing the meaning of one passage for the sake of the sinner just doesn't cut it.

[Hemidakota]

This was from David R. Seely concerning the historical background into the Church at Corinth -

Historical Background

The ancient Greek city-state of Corinth was strategically located in the center of the isthmus joining northern Greece to the Peloponnesus on the south, and controlled the port to the west on the Corinthian Gulf and the port to the east on the Saronic Gulf. Because of its location, it was inseparably connected with the sea and derived its wealth primarily from shipping and trade. The isthmus was so narrow that small ships or cargoes headed west were often unloaded and dragged across the isthmus to continue their journey, thus avoiding the long journey around the Peloponnesus. Corinth heroically stood alongside her sister states of Athens and Sparta against the invasion from the east in the Persian Wars (490-478 B.C.); opposed the ensuing Athenian imperialism that resulted in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.); and, once again allied with her Greek sister city-states against the Spartan hegemony in the Corinthian War (395-387 B.C.). It is not surprising that eventually Corinth became the leader of the Achaian Confederacy, which came into conflict in the second century B.C. with the expanding military might of Rome. As a result of Roman supremacy and of Corinth's leading role in opposition, the Greek city was captured and burned by Rome in 146 B.C. and its citizens either killed or sold into slavery.

Therefore the Corinth of Paul's time was not the ancient Greek city but rather a Roman colony founded by decree of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. on the ancient site, which had lain virtually desolate for more than a century. Its new population initially consisted of freedmen from Italy who were soon joined by Greeks and other foreigners, including many Jews, from the East. As in the past, Corinth quickly became an important center of industry and commerce, a center that in A.D. 27 became the capital of the Roman province of Achaia. Like any port city in ancient or modern times, Corinth at the time of Paul had the reputation of being cosmopolitan, worldly, and promiscuous—full of both philosophies and practices from every corner of the world. In fact, in Koine Greek "the verb korinthiazein, 'to live like a Corinthian' came to mean 'to live a dissolute life.'"

Chapter 18 of the book of Acts narrates Paul's founding of the first Christian community in Corinth. In the year A.D. 50, Paul left Athens, near the end of his missionary journey, and traveled to Corinth, where he stayed for a year and a half. (Acts 18:11.) 3 At Corinth he met two Jewish converts, Aquila and his wife, Priscilla, who had recently been forced to leave Rome. 4 Because they were tentmakers like himself, Paul moved in with them and presumably worked with them in their business while he pursued his missionary efforts there. While Acts 18:4 records that as he taught in the synagogue he "persuaded the Jews and the Greeks," it also implies that his message was more readily accepted by the Gentiles. (Acts 18:5-8.) 5 Nevertheless, the mixture of Jews and Gentiles may have been a factor in the contentions that soon arose within the church at Corinth. After Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul moved in with a Gentile named Justus, and many Corinthians believed in his words and were baptized, including Crispus, the "chief ruler of the synagogue." (18:8.)

The social conditions at Corinth were volatile even during Paul's ministry there, and we can only imagine some of the circumstances faced by the early saints in the fledgling church after he left. When Gallio was made "deputy of Achaia" (A.D. 51-52), many of the Corinthian Jews, enraged at Paul for "persuad[ing] men to worship God contrary to the law" (18:13), took him before Gallio for judgment. Gallio refused to get involved and sent the people away, implying that it was not his duty to get involved in a religious squabble. (18:14-16.) Shortly thereafter Paul left with Priscilla and Aquila and went to Ephesus, then continued alone to Antioch and eventually Jerusalem. (18:21.) While he was in Jerusalem, "a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus." (18:24.) After Aquila and Priscilla had "expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly" (18:26), Apollos was sent to Corinth with recommendations from "the brethren . . . exhorting the disciples there to receive him, . . . for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ" (18:27-28).

Within a relatively short time, news came to Paul of moral laxity among the Corinthian saints. He refers in 1 Corinthians 5:9 to a letter, no longer extant, that he had written previously advising them "not to company with fornicators." Further disturbing news of dissension among the saints came by way of messengers from the house of Chloe (1 Cor. 1:11) and a later delegation (1 Cor. 16:17), as well as by way of a letter from the church at Corinth asking his counsel on several of the divisive issues involved (1 Cor. 7:1). These reports provided the impetus for the writing of 1 Corinthians in which Paul addressed the issue of dissension as well as answered the doctrinal questions. He wrote 1 Corinthians in the early summer of A.D. 57, shortly before Pentecost (1 Cor. 16:8); and as a follow-up to this letter, he sent Timothy to see that his counsel was heeded and that the situation in Corinth improved (1 Cor. 16:10-11). The evidence in 2 Corinthians suggests, however, that things got worse before they got better. There are allusions in 2 Corinthians (2:1; 12:14; and 13:1-2) to a "second visit" by Paul, calling the members of the church to repentance, and to a harsh letter (possibly a reference to 1 Corinthians) that finally brought some results. Probably in the fall of A.D. 57, Paul got word that many at Corinth, humbled by his concern through his letters, had repented. He responded by writing the letter preserved in 2 Corinthians to further express his love for the Corinthian saints, his joy that many had responded to his rebuke, and his continued concern for those who still remained rebellious.

We have only a portion of one side of the correspondence between Paul and the saints at Corinth. But from these two letters we can learn much about the challenges faced by the small community of early saints as they sought to learn their identity as Christians in the most worldly of worlds at Corinth. It is not surprising that these letters contain much of value for saints in the latter days as well: faced with many of the same challenges, learning to accept and to love one another and seeking to come out from Babylon to build up Zion.