The Church at Corinth

The Church at Corinth By Fr. Steven Kostoff To Go to Part 2: “The Struggle for Church Unity- in Corinth and Today" Click here Part 1 Lessons in Tru...
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The Church at Corinth By Fr. Steven Kostoff

To Go to Part 2: “The Struggle for Church Unity- in Corinth and Today" Click here

Part 1

Lessons in True Pastoral Guidance of a Parish The Apostle Paul did not simply establish a network of churches in the major urban areas of the Greco-Roman world, then leaving them to the care of local ministers of the Gospel who would guide the internal life of these “parishes.” Rather, St. Paul would expend great care, tender concern “I recall Fr. Thomas Hopko once saying something to and seemingly inexhaustible energy in keeping in the effect that Pilate got into the Creed the same close contact with these churches: “For I way that Corinth got into the Bible!” became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (I COR. 4:15). This was accomplished through the labors of his co-workers in the spreading of the Gospel - “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (I COR. 4:1), such as St. Timothy and St. Titus. But most importantly, through his correspondence with these communities in the form of his epistles. And these epistles are now a major part of the New Testament canon, and thus received, revered and read as sacred Scripture. These epistles of the Apostle Paul contain an almost perfect balance between theology and pastoral care. The two cannot be artificially separated as though they were two autonomous spheres of interest. What St. Paul created from the beginning was a pastoral theology that remains the model for any theologian and pastor to this day. St. Paul’s theological insights into the mystery of Christ had to have direct impact on the lives of the Christian men and women who were the flesh and blood members of the Body of Christ. Only then could these local churches begin to grow and mature in the formative years of the apostle’s ministry. The best of contemporary Orthodox theology will always bear this pastoral dimension in mind, as we hope the Church will grow and mature here in North America and elsewhere.

The Tensions in Corinth are Experienced Today St. Paul’s pastoral theology is nowhere more apparent than in his correspondence with the local church in Corinth or, as he wrote to them:

To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. (I COR. 1:2) These two lengthy epistles were meant to resolve some real tensions in the Corinthian community, and to provide theological insight and pastoral guidance in response to moral, intellectual and religious questions that were troubling the Corinthian Christians – including the types of questions and issues that may trouble us today. We can now look back at the local church in Corinth and see its resemblance to our contemporary parishes. It was relatively small and socially diverse. The early Christians there found themselves living in an environment that was either hostile or indifferent to them. It was a pagan world that had a system of “values” that often clashed with the moral, ethical and spiritual imperatives of the Gospel. Corinth even had a reputation for immoral and riotous living. The Corinthians often seemed beset by the temptation of reverting to these pagan ways at the expense of personal salvation and church unity.

A Need for Strong Affirmative Teaching The fact is, Corinth was very far from being an “ideal parish.” I recall Fr. Thomas Hopko once saying something to the effect that Pilate got into the Creed the same way that Corinth got into the Bible! There has never been a “golden age” in which the Church found itself living in peaceful serenity devoid of tension and conflicts. And that is just as true of the Apostolic Age as it is of the Church in the contemporary world. Being pastoral, the Apostle Paul realized that the Corinthians needed strong and affirmative teaching in his correspondence with them, a correspondence that was often filled with chastisement and correction. At times, he was clearly angry and employed more than a little bit of calculated irony and even sarcasm. Is it any wonder that he had more than his share of detractors and even enemies? Yet, he never lost sight of his burning desire that the Christians of Corinth manifest the new life to which they were called and into which they were baptized when they received the Gospel. For this reason, he labored and struggled to properly articulate a sound understanding of such seemingly disparate themes as the resurrection of the dead and a Christ-centered sexual morality. We can only believe him when he assured the Corinthians that he wrote to them in tears, fearing for their salvation as he begged them to repent of their sins. The apostle who himself was the astonished recipient of the unmerited forgiveness of God, was convinced that the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit” (II COR. 13:14) were able to transform a wayward community so that it would truly be the “church of God” residing in Corinth - or Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Chicago - or wherever God is pleased to raise up a people to the glory of His Name.

Lack of Unity There was a clear lack of unity in the Corinthian parish, a lack of unity that created a real factionalism (I COR. 1:12). There was a developing spiritual elitism that led to unsound doctrinal speculation (I

COR. 1-4). There was the scandal of sexual immorality - incest and intercourse with prostitutes! (I COR. 5-6) Disorder at the eucharistic assembly further troubled the community. Also, a profound misunderstanding concerning the relationship of the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the dead (I COR. 15). Our own parishes are starting to look good at this point! Perhaps, according to St. John Chrysostom, what ultimately was lacking in Corinth was a spirit of love, so beautifully addressed by the Apostle Paul in his great hymn to love in I COR. 13. In a passage from his commentary on I Corinthians, St. John summarizes the connection between a troubled community and the missing ingredient of love in the following manner: If love had been present, the Corinthians would not have been puffed up, they would not have divided into factions, they would not have gone to law before the heathens, or indeed at all. If there had been love in the church, that notorious person would not have taken his father’s wife, they would not have looked down on their weaker brethren, and they would not have boasted of their spiritual gifts. (Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians 44.2)

Part 2

The Struggle for Church Unity - in Corinth and Today As stated earlier, the Apostle Paul was compelled to write a series of letters to the newly established local church in Corinth, two of which have survived as I & II Corinthians. These letters are brimming with themes that are apparently as diverse as fornication and the resurrection of the dead. His profound and nuanced responses remain unrivalled as prototypical examples of a pastoral theology that never loses sight of the new life given in the Risen Lord, and the flesh and blood lives of ordinary human beings who have accepted this new life as a gift of grace “from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (I COR. 1:3) But perhaps these seemingly disparate themes are united on a deeper or more foundational level thought about, prayed over and articulated in writing by the inspired Apostle Paul. His ultimate concern is that of membership in the one Body of Christ, so that a union in Christ is both established and revealed that transcends any and all possible causes of division: those of gender, social and economic status, intellectual capacity, ethnic identity, personal attachments, etc. “God is faithful,” writes the Apostle, and the Corinthians “were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (I COR. 1:9) This fellowship is the beloved “koinonia of the Holy Spirit” that St. Paul uses elsewhere to describe a deep relationship of communion and love between believers in Christ. (II COR. 13:14)

Factionalism Develops So essential is this theme of unity in Christ, that St. Paul addresses it with a direct immediacy in the

opening chapter of I COR. Without first establishing the missing unity in the one Body of Christ at Corinth, the other teachings and admonitions of St. Paul would prove to be fruitless. After giving thanks for the grace of God revealed at work in the Corinthian community (1:4-9), he enumerates the parties and factions that have become the cause of numerous “dissensions.” We are given insight into these divisions when St. Paul recalls the various factions that had developed since his preaching of the Gospel there: “What I mean is that each one of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” (1:12) Calling on the Corinthians to abandon this party strife, he exhorts them “that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”(1:10) To the Apostle Paul’s great dismay and disappointment, he discovers “reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarrelling among you, my brethren.” (1:11) If the Corinthians are disunited in factionalism than how will they be able to understand his teaching on the other themes of his epistles? How will they be able to put into effect, as a body, and not just as individuals, the insights of his pastoral theology that presuppose a local church united in mind and heart and seeking to strengthen the bonds of fellowship in Christ? How long before an uneasy alliance of groups explodes into genuine schism?

All Were at Fault Employing a series of rhetorically effective questions that demand a resounding “NO!” in response, the Apostle Paul demonstrates the spiritual immaturity – if not absurdity - of such a situation: “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1:13) St. John Chrysostom even reveals the divisiveness of those who cried out as mentioned above: “I belong to Christ. The quarreling at Corinth was not over trivial matters but over something fundamental. Even those who said they were of Christ were at fault, because they were implicitly denying this to others and making Christ the head of a faction rather than the head of the whole church. (Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians 3.5)

Jesus Christ is the source of unity that breaks down any possible wall of division. In our own twenty first century North American parishes this issue of unity has to be one of the most challenging ones facing us today. The Apostle Paul further wrote these memorable words to the Corinthians: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (I COR. 2:2) “This is our starting point today in the formation of our own This is our starting point today in the parishes: faith in the crucified and risen Lord of glory… formation of our own parishes: faith in cliques, factions … “personality cults,” do nothing but the crucified and risen Lord of glory. undermine the integrity of the Body of Christ and keep a Clearly, any cliques, factions or, even parish in a condition of uneasy tensions below the surface more ominously, “personality cults,” do waiting to erupt in disunity and discord.” nothing but undermine the integrity of the Body of Christ and keep a parish in a condition of uneasy tensions below the surface waiting to erupt in disunity and discord.

Cultural and Economic Diversity: Corinth Resembles a Present Day Parish Although brought together within the walls of Corinth, we know that the city was the home of what we call today “cultural diversity.” These various ethnic types came to the thriving commercial port city of Corinth from throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. And we also now know that there was more social and economic diversity in Corinth than previously believed. In other words, this early local church resembled one of our present day North American parishes to a great degree! In fact, as we come

together in our contemporary parishes, we discover perhaps an even greater degree of ethnic and racial diversity. And thus we face the same challenge of establishing “diversity in unity,” and “unity in diversity” as set before the Corinthians at the dawn of the Christian era. Considering the centuries-long phenomenon of “ethnic Orthodoxy” that persists to this day and that practically “if our primary self-identification begins with “I belong to defines our Church to the rest of the the Greeks,” or “I belong to the Russians,” (or even “I world; we come to the sobering, belong to the Americans!”), then we need to further challenging and perhaps exhilarating assimilate the admonitions of the Apostle Paul toward conclusion that we are redefining that unity in Christ.” image in our parishes at this present moment in time. Our success in this ‘endeavor toward unity” will hopefully set the tone for generations to come. Contrarily, if our primary self-identification begins with “I belong to the Greeks,” or “I belong to the Russians,” (or even “I belong to the Americans!”), then we need to further assimilate the admonitions of the Apostle Paul toward unity in Christ. Another variation on this is the tendency to divide along socioeconomic lines. As Americans, we may pride ourselves on being a “classless society,” but is that really true upon closer inspection? Whatever such scrutiny may yield, our parishes must be spiritual centers of overcoming not only ethnic, racial and cultural divisions – not wholesome diversity - but socio-economic ones as well. As we slowly but assuredly continue the process of overcoming such ingrained “Orthodox” tendencies, then with open minds and hearts, we can strive for the unity “in Christ” that truly transcends all worldly boundaries, as the Apostle Paul so eloquently defended. Our goal is that through such liberation we will express the Church’s “catholic” nature both quantitatively and qualitatively. This unity in Christ is a gift of the Holy Spirit, but a gift that must be cultivated from our human perspective with love and care, opening up our minds and hearts in the process with the up building of the Church to the glory of God as our primary concern. The Apostle Paul would settle for nothing less and neither should we. Fr. Steven Kostoff is Rector of Christ the Savior-Holy Spirit Orthodox Church, Cincinnati, OH