To put things in perspective in relation to the pathetic and sordid trivial gossip of those whom I affectionately call: “The phallic-worshipping accursed children of the apostasy,” by far the worst, most problem-filled congregation that has ever existed, anywhere, anytime, was the Corinthian congregation.
You name the problem---they had it. You want shocking salacious sexual scandal? You bet. And not just your run-of-the-mill teenage flame-up stuff. Not even some married elder running off with his pioneer honey could compare with what was going on in Corinth. No, the Corinthians put up with some guy who was shacking up with his stepmother! And everyone in the community apparently knew about it! Great stuff, eh?
Then there was dissension. Unbelievable. You want to talk about “Society men”? Corinth had ‘em. Some claimed to belong to Apollos. Others claimed to be followers of Paul. Still, other men claimed Peter as their guru. No one agreed on anything, except those few that followed Christ. Sadly, some were so spiritually weak in that congregation that they didn’t even believe in the resurrection. Man, you have to wonder why they even let some of those clowns get baptized in the first place. No wonder the CO counseled them about bad associations.
And the meetings were a joke. They were disorderly chaotic affairs that never started or ended on time. Half the time you couldn’t even follow what was going on, as you would have two or three brothers and sisters all commenting at the same time in different languages! It was ridiculous. Finally, when Paul made his last visit on his circuit tour at least he was able to put a stop to that nonsense and restore some dignity to the meetings.
But, that’s not the half of it. Then you had the rich sisters strutting around the hall like they were on a runway modeling the latest Corinthian leather fashion, while the rest of the poorer sister would come to the meetings wearing burlap. Some sisters even opened and closed the meeting with prayer while the elders were away from the meetings or dozing off.
The worst though, by far, was that out of all that mess you had the most treacherous and arrogant Bozos of all, the forerunner of today’s apostate evil slave, those whom Paul dubbed the “superfine apostles.” Talk about being puffed up with themselves. They figured that because they knew Greek philosophy and could quote Plato just as easily as Isaiah that they were a notch above the rest of the dumb pubs in the congregation. These guys slandered and ragged on Paul behind his back all the time. They had the goods on him, or so they thought, and they were determined to undermine his influence in the congregation, but of course not to his face. They set themselves up as the go-to guys in the congregation and slithered around criticizing Paul in his absence as one having a weak spiritual presence, and being a horrible public speaker. Paul though handled them beautifully. Although he was forced to become somewhat boastful and unreasonable, by his own admission, in recounting the proof of his apostleship and in unmasking his opponents as agents and ministers of the Devil who were operating right inside of the congregation and who were like a thorn continually jabbing Paul in his side.
The rest of the elders and ministerial servants who weren’t apostate, nonetheless, were completely incompetent and had it in their heads that they were on easy street as if they were already ruling as kings in the kingdom. And yet they couldn’t seem to muster enough authority to act as judges and set things straight between brothers. So, there were numerous lawsuits between bickering friends that were taken to the local magistrate. Can you imagine? How embarrassing these things were for the whole congregation when they went out in field service and there, the householder, who knew a little bit about some of the scandal wracking the brothers, brought up all this stuff. The numbers really started falling off after awhile.
The worst thing though about this congregation is that on Memorial night everyone partook of the emblems, including the apostate elders and those that didn’t even believe that Christ had been resurrected. And half of the congregation was tipsy from Passover wine before the celebration of the Lord’s meal even began. What a disgrace.
Don’t get me wrong though, not everyone in the Corinthian congregation was a loser. There was Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus. They were wonderfully spiritual people. But given all the problems in the congregation it’s understandable why Paul closed his first letter saying: “If anyone has no affection for the Lord, let him be accursed. O Lord, come!”
/ You Know