When the Apostle Paul preached at Corinth, a luxurious and profligate city, his exposition of the new doctrine of the Messiah was not kindly received by the Jews. On the contrary, it resulted in his expulsion from the synagogue. Consequently, those who were in sympathy with his open declarations in regard to the Christ joined him in the formation of a Christian society spoken of in the epistles as "the church of God which is at Corinth." Of the widely divergent classes of people in this city, one and another heard gladly the "apostle of the Gentiles." Roman freedmen became interested; pagan Greeks found their opportunity; the hopes of a few Jews were fulfilled—and Gentiles predominated in the congregation. After preaching there for a year and a half Paul probably felt that the church was well enough established for him to go farther afield in his apostolic work. But without the experienced apostle who could speak with authority, and to whom they had been wont to defer, differences appeared among the membership in the guise of cliques. Soon the church was split into factions openly opposing one another. Paul had already learned what these members still needed to learn, that peace could concur among all races of men only as human contentions gave way before the spiritual understanding of God.
Paul, endeavoring to meet the need for harmony, sent messages of instruction, as the best means at hand to heal the mistaken partisan sense and to pacify the overt animosities. The bitter experience and defeat of the zealous prosecuting Saul had taught him that to labor with God is to prove that in reality there is no race but the race of the sons of God, having one aim.
Sons even from a human standpoint often have equal privilege. The motives and methods of ambition should be shorn, by the laws of equalization, of their zeal to claim a few as superior, or to force arrogant demands, or to belittle any so-called inferiors. To be healed of the fear of being inferior or of human superiority, by demonstrating equal intelligence is to root out the source of envy. To puncture personal ambition is to deflate greed. To obey the supreme power of God by reflecting God's activity, causes the repressive concentration of human willfulness to let go of domination, and to have it disintegrate and disappear.
