One of the Apostle Paul’s main themes in his letters is that believers obtain righteousness and salvation through faith and not by works. Read Romans 4, Galatians 3, and Ephesians 2:1-10.  If one is saved through faith, what is the role of works / good deeds in the life of the Christian?  

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c h a p t e r 1 4

Unity, Freedom, and Christ’s Return
Paul’s Letters to Thessalonica and Corinth

The time we live in will not last long. . . . For the whole frame
of this world is passing away. 1 Corinthians 7:29, 31

Paul’s early letters are dominated by his escha-
tology. Convinced that the Messiah’s death and
resurrection have inaugurated End time, Paul
strives to achieve several related goals. Traveling
from city to city, he establishes small cells of be-
lievers whom he calls to a “new life in Christ.” He
argues that Jesus’ crucifi xion has brought free-
dom from both Torah observance and the power
of sin, and he emphasizes the necessity of
leading an ethically pure life while awaiting
Christ’s return. In his letters to the young Greek
churches at Thessalonica and Corinth, Paul un-
derscores the nearness of the Parousia —the

Second Coming—an event that he believes to
be imminent. Much of Paul’s advice to these
congregations is based on his desire that they
achieve unity and purity before Christ reappears.
While he is attempting to keep believers
faithful to the high ideals of Christian practice,
Paul also fi nds himself battling opponents who
question the correctness of his teaching and/or
his apostolic authority. According to Luke, an
apostle was one whom Jesus had personally
called to follow him and who had witnessed the
Resurrection (Acts 1:21–22). Not only had Paul
not known the earthly Jesus; he had cruelly

Key Topics/Themes The dominant theme of
Paul’s letters to Thessalonica and Corinth is that
the eschaton is near: Paul expects to witness
Jesus’ return and the resurrection of the dead in
his lifetime (1 Thess . 4:13–18). However, believers
must not waste time speculating about the
projected date of the Parousia (1 Thess . 5:1–3).
Paul’s letters to Corinth are aimed at
healing serious divisions in the newly founded
church there. Paul urges members to give up
their destructive competitiveness and work
toward unity of belief and purpose. Their
cooperation is essential because the remaining

time is so short. His most important topics
include (1) differences between human and
divinely revealed wisdom (1:10–3:23), (2)
Christian ethics and responsibilities (5:1–11:1),
(3) behavior at the communion meal (11:17–34),
valuing gifts of the Spirit ( chs . 12–14), and
(4) the resurrection of the dead ( ch . 15).
A composite work composed of several
letters or letter fragments, 2 Corinthians
shows Paul defending his apostolic authority
(2  Cor . 10–13); chapters 1–9, apparently written
after chapters 10–13, describe his reconciliation
with the church at Corinth.

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Paul makes the imminence of Jesus’ return his
central message (1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:13–18; 5:1–11).
The Thessalonians, he says, have become
a shining example to other Greek churches
because they have

turned from idols to be servants of the true and
living God, . . . to wait expectantly for his Son
from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
Jesus our deliverer from the retribution to come.

(1 Thess. 1:10)

This passage may, in fact, epitomize the princi-
pal themes of Paul’s oral gospel, the kerygma he
preached in urban marketplaces, shops, and pri-
vate homes. In general content, it resembles the
more elaborate proclamation that Luke placed
on Paul’s lips when he spoke to the Athenians
(Acts 17: 22–31). Urging the Greeks to forsake
lifeless idols for the “living God” of Judaism, Paul
presents Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as in-
troducing history’s climactic moment: his im-
pending descent from heaven to rescue his
followers from catastrophic divine judgment.
For Paul, the implications of the coming
apocalypse are clear: The Thessalonians must
reform their typically lenient Gentile attitudes
toward sexual activity. They have already made
progress in living “to please God,” but they can
do better, abstaining from “fornication,” be-
coming “holy,” living “quietly,” and showing
love to all (4:1–12).
Although the Thessalonians do not exhibit
the kind of opposition Paul describes in letters
to the Corinthians and Galatians, he devotes
considerable space to self-justifi cation, empha-
sizing how nurturing, altruistic, and hard-
working he was when in their company (2:1–12).
In particular, he emphasizes the fact that he re-
mained fi nancially independent of the people

persecuted the disciples. Paul’s sole claim to ap-
ostolic status was his private revelation of the
risen Lord, a claim others repeatedly challenged.
To achieve the goal of guiding his fl ock through
End time, Paul must ensure that his apostolic
credentials are fully recognized (1 Cor . 15:9–10;
2 Cor . 11:1–13:10).
To appreciate the urgency of Paul’s fi rst
letters, we must approach them from the writ-
er’s historical perspective: The Messiah’s com-
ing spelled an end to the old world. The New
Age—entailing the Final Judgment on all na-
tions, a universal resurrection of the dead, and
the ultimate fulfi llment of God’s purpose—was
then in the process of materializing. Paul writes
as a parent anxious that those in his care survive
the apocalyptic ordeal just ahead and attain the
saints’ reward of eternal life.

First Letter to the
Thessalonians

The oldest surviving Christian document, 1
Thessalonians preserves our earliest glimpse
of  how the new religion was established in
Gentile territory. Capital of the Roman prov-
ince of  Macedonia, Thessalonica (now called
Thessaloniki ) (see Fig ure 14.1) was a bustling
port city located on the Via Egnatia , the major
highway linking Rome with the East. According
to the Book of Acts, Paul spent only three weeks
there, preaching mainly in the local synagogue
to generally unreceptive Jews, who soon drove
him out of town (17:1–18:5).
Paul’s letter to the newly founded Thessa-
lonian congregation, however, paints a different
picture, making no reference to a synagogue
ministry and implying that his converts were
largely Gentile (1 Thess . 1:9). Probably written
in Corinth about 50 ce, a scant twenty years after
the Crucifi xion, 1 Thessalonians is remarkable
in showing how quickly essential Christian ideas
had developed and how thoroughly apocalyptic
Paul’s message was. Referring to the Parousia in
no fewer than six different passages, at least
once in each of the letter’s fi ve brief chapters,

First Thessalonians

Author: Paul, missionary Apostle to the Gentiles.
Date: About 50 ce.
Place of composition: Probably Corinth.
Audience: Mostly Gentile members of a newly
founded congregation in Thessalonica, Greece.

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less than “the breath of life” to him, Paul offers a
fervent prayer that the Thessalonians remain
“holy and faultless,” acceptable to “our God and
Father” at Jesus’ return (3:7–13).

The Parousia and the Resurrection

Having demonstrated the importance—to both
the congregation collectively and the apostle
individually—of their leading ethically unblem-
ished lives until the Parousia , Paul then previews
events that will take place when Jesus reappears
in glory. Apparently, some Thessalonians be-
lieved that Jesus’ return would occur so swiftly
that all persons converted to Christianity would
live to see the Second Coming. That belief was
shaken when some believers died before Jesus
had reappeared. What would become of them?
Had the dead missed their opportunity to join
Christ in ruling over the world?

he taught, working “night and day” to be self-sup-
porting (2:9). Some commentators have sug-
gested that Paul set up a leather goods shop,
where he preached to customers and passersby.
The passage in which he suddenly departs from
praising his healthy relationship with the
Thessalonians to castigate his fellow Jews, refer-
ring to the “retribution” infl icted on them, may
have been inserted by a later copyist after Rome’s
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 ce (2:13–16).
Chapter 2 concludes with an insight into the
source of Paul’s concern for the Thessalonians’
good behavior: Their ethical purity will provide
validation for him when “we stand before our
Lord Jesus at his coming.” If they maintain their
righteous conduct until the Parousia , their loyalty
to his teaching will be a “crown of pride” for him,
showing that Paul has properly discharged his ob-
ligation to God, his patron and divine benefactor
(2:19–20). Declaring that their faithfulness is no

f i g u r e 1 4 . 1 Paul’s churches. Paul established largely Gentile churches in the northeastern
Mediterranean region at Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea , and Corinth. Paul’s teaching was also infl uential in the
Asia Minor city of Ephesus, where he lived for at least two years. The sites of some other Christian centers are also given.

M E D I T E R R A N E A N

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Corinth
Athens

Beroea
PhilippiThessalonica

Ephesus

Troas

Miletus

� Church locations 0 100 200 Miles

0 100 200 Kilometers

Sardis Smyrna

Thyatira

Pergamum

Myra

Attalia
Perga

Patara

Mitylene

Cnidus

CHIOS

LESBOS

SAMOS

Lasae

B L A C K

S E A

A
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A D R I A T I C

S E A

Colossae

A S I A

M A
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ACHAIA

ITALY

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Paul’s allusion to a “trumpet” (Greek, salpinx )
sounding probably also refers to trumpets used
in Jewish worship, such as the playing of a “ram’s
horn” (Hebrew, shophar ) announcing the Day of
Atonement (Lev. 25:9; cf. Num. 10:2, 10). (In his
description of the Parousia , Matthew mentions a
similar eschatological trumpet call [Matt.
24:31].) Paul’s immediate purpose, however,
is  to assure his Thessalonian friends that in
both  life and death the believer remains with
Jesus (4:13–18). (Compare 1 Thessalonians with
Paul’s more elaborate discussion of the resurrec-
tion in 1 Corinthians 15, a passage in which he
reaffi rms his hope to be alive at Jesus’ Parousia .)

On Not Calculating “Dates and Times”

Although he eagerly expects Jesus’ reappear-
ance “soon,” Paul has no patience with those
who try to predict the exact date of the Parousia .
He discourages speculation and notes that cal-
culating “dates and times” is futile because the
world’s fi nal day will come as quietly as a thief
at midnight. Emphasizing the unexpectedness
of the Parousia , Paul declares that it will occur
while men proclaim “peace and security” (a
common political theme in Roman times, as
well as today). Disaster will strike the nations
suddenly, as labor pains strike a woman without
warning (5:1–3).
In the Hebrew Bible, the “Day of the Lord”
was the time of Yahweh’s intervention into hu-
man history, his visitation of earth to judge all
nations and to impose his universal rule (Amos
5:18; Joel 2:14–15). In Paul’s apocalyptic vi-
sion, Jesus is the divinely appointed agent of
eschaton . As the eschatological Judge, Jesus
serves a double function: He brings punish-
ment to the disobedient (“the terrors of judg-
ment”) but vindication and deliverance to the
faithful. Paul’s cosmic Jesus is paradoxical: He
dies to save believers from the negative judg-
ment that his return imposes on unregenerate
humanity. Returning to his main theme, Paul
concludes that “we, awake [living] or asleep
[dead]” live in permanent association with
Christ (5:4–11).

Paul explains that the recently dead are
not lost but will share in the glory of Christ’s
return. To denote the exalted Jesus’ arrival
from heaven, Paul uses the term Parousia , a
Greek word meaning “presence” or “coming”
(the same word that the authors of the Synoptic
Gospels later adopt to designate Jesus’ return
to earth [see Chapters 7–9]). In employing this
word, Paul refers to an impressive public cere-
mony with which his audience in Thessalonica
would have been familiar—the actions accom-
panying the formal entrance of a Roman
emperor or other high offi cial into some
provincial city. As the visiting dignitary
approached the city gates, a trumpet blast
announced his appearance, at which sound the
inhabitants were expected to drop everything
they were doing and rush outside the city walls
to greet the important visitor. Gathering along
the main roadway, the crowds then followed the
offi cial as he moved into the city. Paul’s vision of
Jesus’ imminent Parousia , his coming in super-
natural glory, not only draws on this common
Roman political spectacle but also shows that he
fully expects to be alive when Jesus reappears:

[W]e who are left alive until the Lord comes
shall not forestall those who have died;
because at the word of command, at the sound
of the archangel’s voice and God’s trumpet
call, the Lord himself will descend from
heaven; fi rst the Christian dead will rise, then
we who are left alive shall join them, caught
up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

(1 Thess . 4:15–17)

Jesus’ followers, in joyous acclamation, will
then accompany their Master—humanity’s true
king—as he revisits the earth to begin his active
rule as Israel’s Messiah. After his Parousia , Jesus
at last will reign, not only over a redeemed
Israel but over the entire cosmos. In thus liken-
ing Jesus’ Parousia to an emperor’s display of
power, Paul implies that Christ is clearly supe-
rior to an earthly sovereign (see Malina and
Pilch in “Recommended Reading”).
Although he depicts Jesus’ triumphant re-
turn by analogy to a Roman imperial custom,

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with any single church group in the New
Testament. Whereas 1 Corinthians is a single doc-
ument, scholars believe that 2 Corinthians is a
patchwork of several Pauline letters or parts of
letters written at different times that an editor
later combined.
Paul’s correspondence with the Corinthian
church was not a one-way affair, for the
Corinthians also wrote to the apostle (1 Cor . 7:1).
Delegations from Corinth also kept Paul in touch
with the group (1:11; 16:15–18; 2 Cor . 7:5–7, 13).
Preserving a comprehensive picture of the diver-
sity of ideas and behavior of a youthful Jewish and
Gentile church, the Corinthian letters give us an
unrivaled sociological study of early Christianity.

The City and Its People

The emperor Augustus made Corinth, the richest
and most populous city in Greece, the Greek cap-
ital in 27 bce (see Figure 14.2). In Paul’s day,
Corinth was famous for its prosperity, trade, and
materialism. As a busy seaport, it was also notori-
ous for its legions of prostitutes, who entertained
sailors from every part of the Greco-Roman world.
With Aphrodite—supreme goddess of love and
fertility—as its patron deity, Corinth enjoyed a
reputation for luxury and licentiousness remark-
able even in pagan society. Given this libertine
environment, it is not surprising that Paul devotes
more space to setting forth principles of sexual
ethics to the Corinthians than he does in letters to
any other churches (1 Cor . 5:1–13; 7:1–40).
Recent sociological studies of early Christi-
anity indicate that the Corinthian group may
have been typical of Gentile churches in many
parts of the Roman Empire. In the past, many
historians thought that the fi rst Christians
largely belonged to the lower socioeconomic
ranks of Greco-Roman society. Recent analyses
of Paul’s letters to Rome and Corinth, however,
suggest that early Christians came from many
different social classes and represented a verita-
ble cross section of the Hellenistic world.
Paul’s statement that “few” members of the
Corinthian congregation were highborn, wealthy,
or politically infl uential (1 Cor . 1:26–28) implies

The Role of the Spirit

With anticipation of Jesus’ speedy return a living
reality, Paul reminds the Thessalonians that the
Holy Spirit’s visible activity among them is also ev-
idence of the world’s impending transformation.
As noted in Acts, the Spirit motivating believers to
prophesy, heal, or speak in tongues was taken as
evidence of God’s active presence. Thus, Paul tells
his readers not to “stifl e inspiration” or otherwise
discourage believers from prophesying. Christian
prophets, inspired by the Spirit, play a major role
in Pauline churches, but Paul is aware that enthu-
siastic visionaries can cause trouble. Believers are
to distinguish between “good” and “bad” inspira-
tions, avoiding the latter, but they are not to in-
hibit charismatic behavior. Besides providing
evidence that the End is near, the Spirit’s pres-
ence also validates the Christian message (Joel
2:28–32; Acts 2:1–21; 1  Cor . 2:9–16; 12–14).
(A disputed letter, 2 Thessalonians is dis-
cussed in Chapter 17.)

First Corinthians

Author: Paul.
Date: Early 50s ce.
Place of composition: Ephesus.
Audience: Members of the newly established
church at Corinth, Greece.

First Letter to the Corinthians

According to Acts (17:1–18:17), after establish-
ing churches at Philippi, Thessalonica, and
Beroea (all in northern Greece), Paul briefl y
visited Athens and then journeyed to Corinth,
where he remained for a year and a half (c. 50–
52 ce ). Accompanied by Prisca (Priscilla) and
Aquila , Jewish Christians exiled from Rome, he
subsequently sailed to Ephesus, from which city
he addressed several letters to the Corinthians.
The fi rst letter has been lost (1 Cor . 5:9), but the
books presently numbered 1 and 2 Corinthians
embody the most voluminous correspondence

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advocated a spiritual marriage in which sexual
union played no part; others visited prostitutes.
Some defrauded their fellow believers, causing
victims to seek restitution in the public courts.
Some, convinced of their Christian “freedom,”
not exist, dined at banquets in Greco-Roman
temples and attended religious ceremonies
there. Still others claimed a superior under-
standing of spiritual matters, viewed themselves
as already living in the kingdom, denied the
necessity of a bodily resurrection, or questioned
Paul’s right to dictate their behavior.
As the Corinthian correspondence shows,
Paul faced the almost impossible challenge of
bringing this divisive and quarrelsome group
into a working harmony of belief and purpose.
In reading Paul’s letters to Corinth, remember
that he is struggling to communicate his vision
of union with Christ to an infant church that
has apparently only begun to grasp the basic
principles of Christian life.

that some were. This inference is borne out by the
fact that some Corinthian believers apparently
held important positions in the city (see Figure
14.3). Acts identifi es the Crispus whom Paul bap-
tized (1 Cor . 1:14) as the leader of a local syna-
gogue, a function ordinarily given to persons rich
enough to maintain the building. Erastus , who
also seems to have belonged to the Corinthian
church, was the civic treasurer (Rom. 16:23).
A diverse assortment of Jews and Gentiles,
slaves and landowners, rich and poor, educated
and unlettered, the Corinthian group was ap-
parently divided by class distinctions and edu-
cational differences, as well as by varieties of
religious belief. Even in observing the commu-
nion ritual, members’ consciousness of differ-
ences in wealth and social status threatened to
splinter the membership (1 Cor . 11:17–34).
From Paul’s responses to their attitudes and
conduct, readers learn that the Corinthians in-
dividually promoted a wide range of ideas. Some

f i g u r e 1 4 . 2 View of Corinth. Once a prosperous commercial center, Corinth was dominated
by the Acrocorinth , the steep hill in the background. After the Romans destroyed the original
Greek city, it was refounded in 44 bce as a Roman colony. As Paul’s letters to the Corinthians
demonstrate, however, it soon became a Greek-speaking urban center, of which Aphrodite, goddess
of love, was the divine patron.

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objective—helping the church, split by rival-
ries and factions, attain the unity befitting a
Christian congregation. Here, Paul shows the
futility of false wisdom and human competitive-
ness and of attempts to demonstrate Christian
freedom by violating the sexual conventions
honored even by unbelievers. In the second
half ( chs . 7–15), he answers specifi c questions
that the Corinthians addressed to him. These
issues include marriage and divorce, the con-
sumption of meat previously sacrifi ced to
Greco-Roman gods, proper conduct during the
Lord’s Supper, and eschatology—the Final
Judgment and resurrection of the dead.

Paul’s Eschatological Urgency As in his letters to
the Thessalonians, Paul structures his advice to
the Corinthian church according to his escha-
tological convictions. The Parousia is immi-
nent: The Corinthians “wait expectantly for our
Lord Jesus to reveal himself,” for he will keep
them “fi rm to the end . . . on the Day of our
Lord Jesus” (1:7–8). Like the Thessalonians,
the recipients of Paul’s Corinthian letters ex-
pect to experience the Day of Judgment soon, a
belief that affects their entire way of life. Paul
advises single people to remain unmarried; nei-
ther slaves nor free citizens are to change their
status because “the time we live in will not last
long.” All emotions—from joy to grief—are
only temporary, as are ordinary human pur-
suits. “Buyers must not count on keeping what
they buy,” because “the whole frame of this
world is passing away” (7:29–31). Paul speaks
here not of the philosopher’s conventional
wisdom—that the wise person shuns life’s petty
goals to pursue eternal truths—but of the escha-
ton , the End of the familiar world.
In anticipating the coming resurrection,
Paul echoes his words in 1 Thessalonians
4:  When Judgment’s trumpet sounds, “we
[Christians then living] shall not all die, but
we shall all be changed in a fl ash, in the twin-
kling of an eye” (15:51–55). Such passages
reveal that Paul, along with his contemporaries,
expects to be alive when Christ returns to raise
the dead.

Topics of Concern

Paul’s fi rst extant letter to the group is distin-
guished by some of his most memorable writing.
Two passages in particular, chapter 13 (on love)
and chapter 15 (on resurrection), are highlights
of Pauline thought and feeling. His praise of
love ( ch . 13) uses the Greek term agape-, “selfl ess
love,” as opposed to eros , the word denoting the
sexual passion associated with Aphrodite. This
may be an appropriate hint to those Corinthians
sexually involved with persons other than their
legal mates. Paul’s mystic vision of attaining im-
mortality ( ch . 15) is the most extensive commen-
tary on life after death in the New Testament . It
also contains the earliest account of Jesus’ pos t
re surrection appearances.

Organization The fi rst letter to the Corinthians
divides into two main sections. In the fi rst six
chapters, Paul directly addresses his principal

f i g u r e 1 4 . 3 Painting of a Roman couple. In this
portrait uncovered at Pompeii (buried by an eruption of
Mount Vesuvius in 79 ce ), Terentius Neo and his wife
proudly display the pen and wax tablets that advertise
their literary skills. Similar young Roman couples of the
professional classes undoubtedly were among the mem-
bers of Paul’s newly founded churches in Corinth and
other Greco-Roman cities.

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(Paul’s relative lack of success debating philoso-
phers in Athens just before coming to Corinth
[Acts 17] may have infl uenced his decision
to preach henceforth without any intellectual
pretensions.)
Paul’s weak and “foolish” proclamation of a
crucifi ed Messiah offends almost everyone. It is a
major obstacle to Jews, who look for a victorious
conqueror, not an executed criminal, and an ab-
surdity to the Greeks, who seek rational explana-
tions of the universe. To the believer, however,
the paradox of a crucifi ed Messiah represents
God’s omnipotent wisdom (1:22–24).
Paul’s argument (1:17–2:5) is sometimes
misused to justify an anti-intellectual approach to
religion, in which reason and faith are treated as
if they were mutually exclusive. The apostle’s at-
tack on “worldly wisdom” is not directed against
human reason, however. It is aimed instead at
individual Corinthians who boasted of possessing
special insights that gave them a “deeper” under-
standing than that granted their fellow Christians.
Such elitism led some persons to cultivate a false
sense of superiority that devalued less educated
believers, fragmenting the congregation into
groups of the “wise” and the “foolish.”
Paul seeks to place all believers on an equal
footing and allow them no cause for intellec-
tual competition. He reminds the Corinthians
that human reason by itself is not suffi cient to
know God, but that God revealed his saving
purpose through Christ as a free gift (1:21). No
one merits or earns the Christian revelation,
which comes through God’s unforeseen grace,
not through human effort. Because all are
equally recipients of the divine benefi ts, no be-
liever has the right to boast (1:21–31).
Paul does, however, teach a previously hid-
den wisdom to persons mature enough to appre-
ciate it. This wisdom is God’s revelation through
the Spirit (Greek, pneuma ) that now dwells in
the Christian community. The hitherto un-
known “mind” of God—the ultimate reality that
philosophers make the object of their search—is
unveiled through Christ (2:6–16). The divine
mystery, although inaccessible to rational in-
quiry, is fi nally made clear in the weakness and

The Necessity of Christian Unity

Paul’s fi rst objective is to halt the rivalries that
divide the Corinthians. Without imposing a
dogmatic conformity, he asks his readers to
work together cooperatively for their mutual
benefi t (1:8–10). Like all early Christian con-
gregations, that at Corinth met in a private
house large enough to accommodate the entire
group. Although membership was limited to
perhaps 50–100 persons, the group was …