What the Bible Says About Corinth: A Definition and Exploration

Scripture

¹ After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
² And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them,
³ and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.
⁴ And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.
⁵ When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
⁶ And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
⁷ And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue.
⁸ Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.
⁹ And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent,
¹⁰ for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.
¹¹ And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
¹² But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal,
¹³ saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.”
¹⁴ And when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint.
¹⁵ But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.”
¹⁶ And he drove them out of the tribunal.
¹⁷ And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.

Acts 18:1-17

1 Corinthians 1:1-9: ¹ Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,
² To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
⁴ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,
⁵ that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—
⁶ even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—
⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
⁸ who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

2 Corinthians 1:1-11: ¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
⁴ who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
⁵ For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
⁶ If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
⁷ and our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
⁸ For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.
⁹ Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.
¹⁰ He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
¹¹ You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

1 Corinthians 6:9-20: ⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
¹² “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
¹³ “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
¹⁴ And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!
¹⁶ Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”
¹⁷ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
²⁰ for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

2 Corinthians 12:14-21: ¹⁴ Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
¹⁵ I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.
¹⁶ But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit.
¹⁷ Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you?
¹⁸ I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?
¹⁹ Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved.
²⁰ For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.
²¹ I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.

1 Corinthians 8:1-13: ¹ Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
² If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
³ But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
⁴ Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
⁵ For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—
⁶ yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
⁷ However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
⁸ Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
⁹ But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
¹⁰ For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?
¹¹ And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.
¹² Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
¹³ Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

2 Corinthians 5:1-10: For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
² For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
³ if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
⁴ For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
⁵ He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
⁶ So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

1 Corinthians 10:1-13: ¹ For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
² and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
³ and all ate the same spiritual food,
⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
⁵ Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
⁶ Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
⁷ Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”
⁸ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.
⁹ We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents.
¹⁰ nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.
¹¹ Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
¹² Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
¹³ No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

2 Corinthians 11:1-15: I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me.
² I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
³ But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
⁴ For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
⁵ Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.
⁶ But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
⁷ Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached God’s gospel to you free of charge?
⁸ I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you.
⁹ And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way.
¹⁰ As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.
¹¹ Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
¹² And what I do I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do.
¹³ For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
¹⁴ And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
¹⁵ So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11: ¹ Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
² and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

2 Corinthians 7:2-16: ² Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.
³ I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.
⁴ I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.
⁵ For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within.
⁶ But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus,
⁷ and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.
⁸ For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while.
⁹ As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
¹⁰ For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
¹¹ For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.
¹² So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God.
¹³ Therefore we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.
¹⁴ For whatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true.
¹⁵ And his affection for you is even greater, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.
¹⁶ I rejoice, because I have complete confidence in you.

1 Corinthians 3:1-23: ³ But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
² I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
³ for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
⁴ For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
⁵ What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
⁷ So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
⁸ He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.
⁹ For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
¹⁰ According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.
¹¹ For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
¹² Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—
¹³ each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
¹⁴ If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
¹⁵ If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
¹⁶ Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”
²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
²¹ So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,
²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,
²³ and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

2 Corinthians 13:1-10: This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
² I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them—
³ since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me.
⁴ For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.
⁵ Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
⁶ But I hope that you will know that we are not failing.
⁷ But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed.
⁸ For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.
⁹ For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for.
¹⁰ For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.

1 Corinthians 4:1-21: ¹ This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
² Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.
³ But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.
⁴ For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
⁵ Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
⁶ I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.
⁷ For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
⁸ Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!
¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.
¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.
¹¹ To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless,
¹² and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;
¹² and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;
¹⁴ I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
¹⁵ For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
¹¹ To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless,
¹⁷ That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.
¹⁸ Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.
¹⁹ But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power.
²⁰ For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.
²¹ What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?

2 Corinthians 2:1-11: But I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you.
² For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained?
³ And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all.
⁴ For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
⁵ Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you.
⁶ For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough,
⁷ so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
⁸ So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.
⁹ For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.
¹⁰ Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ,
¹¹ so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.