What did the ancient people live for?
Ancient people lived for whatever they could work and sweat and do to somehow appease their gods and goddesses. This was true not only in Corinth but throughout the whole ancient world, where goddess worship and gross immorality were part of everyday life.
Les explains that the ancient world, not just Corinth, lived for whatever work and sweat could accomplish in order to appease their gods and goddesses. The building involved slave labor hauling material to a temple for a female goddess, not a library or place of education. Along with goddess worship came gross immorality, part and parcel of everyday experience from the common people all the way to the top. Yet some Corinthians had been washed, and God’s grace is always greater for the individual who partakes of it.