Sovereign work of God, establishing the Everlasting Kingdom, Whose King and Savior is Jesus Christ.
- Supernatural, radically transformative, good and gracious work of God (Author), that He, by His methods and in His time, faithfully superintends to completion (Finisher), to His great glory alone.
- God, through the Apostle Paul, to the Church at Corinth, first, then to all of us believers in all places and in all times since.
- God’s wisdom for His Church, which lived(es) amidst a prosperous, arrogant and aggressively rebellious culture, yet is commanded by God to become and remain holy (moral and separate).
- Chronology
- ~50-52 A.D. – founding of the church at Corinth
- 1 ½ + years of intensive discipleship of the Corinthian church; Acts 18:11 & 18 – by God through His Apostle Paul
- Paul’s “prior letter”: 1 Corinthians 5:9 – to the best of our knowledge no longer in existence
- Corinthian church’s “letter to Paul”: 1 Corinthians 7:1 – to the best of our knowledge no longer in existence
- ~55 A.D. – 1 Corinthians
- Paul’s quick visit made in sorrow
- Paul’s “severe letter”: 2 Corinthians 2:3-4 & 7:8-9
- ~56 A.D. – 2 Corinthians
- ~57 A.D. – Paul arrives at Corinth for 3 month visit
- Acts 18:1-18a
After these things he left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working, for by trade they were tent-makers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” Then he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized. And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.” And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.” But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrong or of vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you; but if there are questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters.” And he drove them away from the judgment seat. And they all took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment seat. But Gallio was not concerned about any of these things. Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila.