Friday: Further Thought – Paul’s Ministry in Corinth
Daily Lesson for Friday 3rd of July 2026
Further Thought:
Read Ellen G. White, “Corinth,” Pages 243–254, in The Acts of the Apostles.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
“In preaching the gospel in Corinth, the apostle followed a course different from that which had marked his labors at Athens. . . . He determined to avoid elaborate arguments and discussions, and ‘not to know anything’ among the Corinthians ‘save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.’ ”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 244.
“Paul had a measure of success,” but he “doubted the wisdom of building up a church from the material he found there. He considered Corinth a very questionable field of labor, and determined to leave it. . . .
“As he was contemplating leaving the city for a more promising field, . . . the Lord appeared to him in a vision of the night, and said, ‘Be not afraid, but speak, . . . for I have much people in this city.’ Paul understood this to be a command to remain in Corinth, and a guarantee that the Lord would give increase to the seed sown. . . . A large church was enrolled under the banner of Jesus Christ.”—Ellen G. White, Sketches From the Life of Paul, Pages 106, 107.
“It is recorded that Paul labored a year and six months in Corinth. His efforts, however, were not exclusively confined to that city. . . . He made Corinth his headquarters. . . . Several churches were thus raised up. . . . The absence of Paul from the churches of his care was partially supplied by communications weighty and powerful, which were received generally as the word of God. . . . These epistles were read in the churches.”—Ellen G. White, Sketches From the Life of Paul, p. 109.
Discussion Questions
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Paul’s passion and purpose was to preach the gospel, and he remained steadfast in that calling regardless of changing circumstances. He was not a social reformer, but a preacher committed to proclaiming Christ “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). His life reflected single-minded pursuit of God’s calling: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead” (Philippians 3:13–14). Even as he cared deeply for the physical and spiritual well-being of believers, his focus never shifted from pressing toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul’s journey was marked by intense suffering—beatings, imprisonments, shipwrecks, and constant danger—yet he did not lose heart (2 Corinthians 11:24–28). Though he faced suffering and emotional strain from the brokenness around him, he held fast to the promises of God and the hope of eternal glory. His endurance was anchored in the assurance that present afflictions were temporary compared to what awaited him: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). It was this hope of Christ and the promise of eternity that sustained him and kept him faithful to the end.
I grew up in the “Dead Men do Tell Tales” era of Adventist evangelism (People my age will know what I am talking about), and that experience has flavoured a fair bit of my thinking and attitude towards others. We thought that preaching Adventism’s distinctiveness with a coherent argument grounded in Bible texts would convince others that we were right. In doing so, I think I lost sight of the Christ-centredness of the Gospel. Somewhere on my journey, I saw the futility of winning arguments but failing to show the love of Jesus to those around me.
Paul’s experience is empowering:
I suspect we may need to revisit this passage several times during this study as we remind ourselves where our focus should be.
Great reminder. Though sometimes there is a danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater (and I know this is not what you are doing here).
Truth is a rational – because God is rational. Truth includes concepts that are sometimes but erroneously depicted in tension including; grace and law, love and justice, faith and works. Jesus – who IS Truth, is the ideal blend of all dimensions that sometimes appear in tension to us.
A focus on only one dimension (or one side of all dimensions) without appropriate reference to the other leaves us with a Christless Christ who is either a stern judge or a soft, slightly senile grandfather.
I think the following statement was an attempt to correct this imbalance.
“Let Daniel speak, let Revelation speak, and tell what is truth. But whatever phase of the subject is presented, uplift Jesus as the center of all hope, ‘the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright and morning Star.’” (TM, 118)
HALLELUJAH!!!
Identity directs our actions and purposes. Who we are determines to a larger extent what we do. That’s why in Paul’s letters, he introduces himself by emphasizing his connection to and mission for God through Christ. To Paul, his identity in Christ was his strength and compass.
Very unlucky and funny it is to some as I may say,you attempt proclaiming the gospel to some individual in a certain mode, after him (recipient) not accepting your say/ package ,you give up, move on, am not saying that you shouldn’t coz we see Paul” shook his garments and said to them your blood be upon your own, Acts 18:6″ but rather change, go back ,revise your approach and persist. From Paul’s reasoning with them in the synagogues and marketplaces as to win arguments and discussions of who knows more (Acts 17:17,19), to rather showing the love of Christ in his preaching, writing them letters.
Let’s revise the safest and suitable mode of proclaiming/ witnessing our Christ’s love to our neighbours with persistence and not judgemental and trying to win arguments. 🙏🙏🙏
There is no other way to be successful in anything without practice! Practice can make things look perfect, as long as there is dedication to the tests! Tests serve to develop abilities! Have a great Sabbath!
We have spent a lot of time analyzing and discussing the problems in Corinth. And yes we did spend time on learning about the geography and the social, ethnical, mixture of back grounds of the people of Corinth, yet the story that enthralled me is the ruler of the Greek Synagogue.
“Crispus, the leader of the local synagogue, was another who, together with his whole family, believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Soon many people in Corinth, after hearing the good news of salvation, also believed and were baptized.” Acts 18:8
Thus opened up his ministry for the next 18 months in Corinth, after shaking the dust off his feet and leaving the Jews behind because they still had animosity towards Christ.
The lesson asks, “What are ways that our church is being influenced negatively by the surrounding culture?”
I’d like to instead ask, “Are there positive aspects from our surrounding culture that should influence the church more?”
Why are we so afraid of the “surrounding culture”?
I feel every culture has good, bad, and neutral elements. The challenge is to figure out what these are. It can be hard to objectively look at one’s own culture.
I think the problem too is that we tend to equate culture with “pop culture” (ie. movies, music and so on) which often we react to negatively. But actually the most significant part of cultures are its values. We often ignore these things, but they are insidious. For example, the Western world values status and power and unfortunately I think we do too in the church much too often, but we often don’t seem to see it because we spiritualize it.
Parts of cultures have been shaped either directly or indirectly by God’s word and we should embrace those aspects. That doesn’t mean they can’t be distorted but we should acknowledge the good, as you say.