Paul has written a letter in 1 Corinthians, chapter one, to a church he began on a small, 4 mile isthmus, connecting the north and south parts of Greece together. It was small in size, but Corinth had a big reputation for serving up a good time to rich merchants and sailors. Every nation in the civilized world, Arabia, Phoenicia, Libya, Babylonia, Cilicia, Lycao and Phrygia all had reason to visit this small, but very important piece of property, because it linked them to Rome. Instead of sailing around Italy, sailors saved 202 miles by hauling boats and their goods across Corinth, and launching them on the other side of the island. Corinth had much to offer a tired, hungry and lonely sailor. There was the temple of Aphrodite that loomed above Corinth, on the hill of the Acropolis, home to the goddess of love and her 1000 sacred prostitutes. But there was nothing sacred about their evening journey to work their sex trade on the streets of Corinth.
Paul is addressing certain actions that are everywhere evident in our culture today. I don’t know about your town, but we have more bars than grocery stores, only 50% of our teens graduate from high school (CASA 2010), and there are a host of habits and addictions keeping us from holy. I like the way Eugene Peterson decribes holy in Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, as something blazing - a community bonfire. But is there a desire to be holy in our culture today? We want heroes and idols, but do we want holy?
I can't think too much of the sad state of our society. My youngest adult child have compared it to the downfall of Rome. :(
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