In the previous post in this series, we finished looking at Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth. As a quick review, he had sent them an initial letter (which we don’t have) and they sent emissaries to him in Ephesus along with a letter of their own with questions. These communications all transpired during his 3-year ministry in Ephesus. We learn a little about what happened next by combining information from Acts, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians.
“I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers.“
“Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, ‘After I have been there, I must also see Rome.’ And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.“
“For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced. This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them— since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you.“
2 Corinthians 1:15-16, 23 and 2:1-4
“I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea… But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.“
From these passages we can deduce that Paul sent 1 Corinthians to Corinth with Timothy and Erastus. Somehow he heard back a report that prompted him to leave Ephesus and cross the Aegean Sea to visit Corinth (his second time to be there). During this visit he issued some rather harsh commands directed at some who were openly living in sin and who required severe discipline. The visit left things strained between Paul and the church. He returned to Ephesus to figure out next steps. He contemplated making a third visit to Corinth but decided the relationships were too strained for that so he chose to write a second letter to the church instead. We don’t have this one.
The next thing to happen is recounted in Acts 19:23-41.
“About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.
When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’ So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s companions in travel. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’
And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, ‘Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky? Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.’ And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.“
Luke finishes this section of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus with “After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. (Acts 20:1)” We’ll pick up there the next time as we begin to look at the second letter of Paul’s (that we have) to the Corinthians. I’ll just throw in a footnote here to mention that while in Ephesus, one of Paul’s disciples/helpers went up the valley of the Lychus river east of Ephesus and worked to establish churches there, including churches in Hierapolis, Laodicea, and Colossae. We know this from Paul’s letter to Colossians, which is written a bit later in Paul’s life and we’ll study it when we get there.
The Watchmaker's Pulse 