How worldly were the Corinthian Christians when Paul first gathered them as a church?
The Corinthian believers were deeply worldly at the church’s beginning. Corinth was saturated in paganism and gross immorality, and these few dozen believers had only recently come out of that pagan background, so they did not instantly become spiritual giants and had many problems.
Les explains that Corinth was a city just saturated in paganism, and with the paganism came the gross immorality that went with it. The believers were so steeped in the things of the world that even as Paul had garnered this little group of believers, they were not like the huge megachurches of today; there were probably a few dozen at the most. These men and women had just recently come out of such a pagan background. It stands to reason, therefore, that they could not all of a sudden become spiritual giants. They had a lot of problems, and the Corinthian congregation actually sent Paul a letter with a whole series of questions, which he answers one by one.