The City Treasurer
by Patrick Henry Reardon
rom a worldly point of view, most Corinthian Christians hardly amounted to much. When St. Paul wrote to the congregation some six or so years after its founding, he mentioned that their number included "not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble" (1 Cor. 1:26).
Indeed, Paul went on to remark, in his own missionary efforts at Corinth he had deliberately refrained from using "persuasive words of human wisdom" (2:4), the sort that might appeal to the powerful and well-educated. He had intentionally directed his message, rather, to the city's lower, less seemly classes—drunkards, thieves, and sexual perverts—those social elements that respectable citizens might regard as the very dregs (6:9–11).
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Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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