What was the city of Corinth like when Paul came to it?
When Paul came to Corinth, the city was beset with idolatry, steeped in the mythological worship of the gods and goddesses, and characterized by gross immorality. Its moral condition was worse than today’s world, and Paul entered the very midst of that environment.
Les explains that just before Paul came to Corinth, Paul had been at Athens, the very seat of philosophical thinking. There the Athenian philosophers called him a babbler, but Les notes it was actually the other way around: Paul had the heavy stuff, while the philosophers had the babble. As Paul comes on the scene at Corinth, the city was beset with idolatry, steeped in the mythological worship of gods and goddesses, and marked by gross immorality. People may think today’s state is bad, but Corinth was worse. Into the very midst of all that came this apostle, as later seen in the first Corinthian letter.