1 Corinthians
Author: Paul
Paul always started off his epistles with his name.
Confirmed by Eusebius in Book 3, Chapter 25, Verse 2, of Ecclesiastical History.
Date: 56 A.D. (J.B. Phillips)(1)
Language: Greek
Place: Ephesus (J.B. Phillips)
Purpose: To inform the Corinthian church of their errors, and to give them Christian guidance. (J.B. Phillips)
What kind of book?: Epistle regarding a specific occasion.
Reflection: In the concise write-up regarding his theme of the epistle, J.B. Phillips discussed the 'incredible sexual promiscuity' taking place in Corinth. An issue that many do not like to talk about, yet which I think needs to be confronted, is the vast sexual promiscuity in our culture today. Being someone who has been single and celibate for years (and years) {and years} [and years], (O.K. I have never had had sex. Call me a loser, but I am waiting to make love), I am probably even more sensitive to it. There is much disregard for the standard held by Jesus that sex should solely be enjoyed in marriage. There is much disregard for His teaching not to commit adultery. The word adultery is even a term I do not hear much any more. Encouraged by the 'casual sex' carried out in movies and talked about on TV, sex outside of marriage is common. And Christians seem to be having less influence on the culture. Yet God continues to care just as He did in the time of the Corinth disaster. God does not want anyone engaging in sex outside of marriage, because God intended for sex to be an expression of romantic true love, and nothing less.
Now Christians are called by God to love everyone. Sex is for a special romantic love relationship, and it is for expressing love as much as receiving physical pleasure and having children. As someone who has waited a long time to be married and make love, enabled only by Jesus to wait so long I assure you, I am willing to say that the cultural acceptance of sex outside of marriage is wrong, and the blessing of making love in the commitment of marriage, God's plan, is good. I cannot wait to get there! :)
Hunter Irvine
(1) J.B. Phillips, Letters To Young Churches (New York: The Macmillian Company, 1947).
