20 - The Epistles to Corinth and Rome -The Itineraries Of Paul
The Epistles to Corinth and Rome We saw that Pricilla and Aquila were with Paul in Asia from the first epistle to the Corinthians. We saw that Timothy was being sent to Macedonia. This parallels the time in Acts 19 when Paul was with Pricilla and Aquila before they went to Rome and when Timothy was about to go on his venture. Acts 19:22: So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. It’s around this time when I Corinthians was written. That would be approximately in the summer of fall of that last year he was at Ephesus that he wrote that epistle. If Galatians, as we saw from the other evidence, was written shortly before I Corinthians then it may have been written in the spring or summer of that same year. You have the approximate time those two epistles were written, Galatians first and then I Corinthians. During those three years that Paul spent at Ephesus, was the time that the Word went over all of Asia and then it says, “So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed.” The Word was prevailing in Asia. Paul was really teaching his heart out there. People were out witnessing all over Asia and all Asia heard the Word in those two years and three months and then the mop-up that followed so that the Word prevailed in Asia. Then word reaches his ears. It could have been somebody like Gaius from Derbe, over in the Galatia area. It may have been somebody else that reported to Paul that the Galatians were accepting other doctrines contrary to what he had taught them. Then word comes over from Corinth, “They’re starting to practice error.” He writes the epistle to correct that practical error and he sends Timothy and Erastus over there. Soon word reaches that they still haven’t corrected it and so he sends Titus over there. All this is happening while he’s in Asia were the Word prevailed. You might be sitting in a place where the Word is really moving and Satan is working overtime in so
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your love, and of our boasting on your behalf. Do the other 1 %. He’s sending Titus back. Paul starts his trip from Ephesus, goes up to Troas: no Titus. He gets over to Macedonia, here comes Titus, “Paul their doing great down there in Corinth except one thing; no abundant sharing. I’ve been teaching it but no manifestation of it.” Paul says, “Titus, you go back and you finish the work you started there. Take an abundant sharing offering.” It could be that Titus even carried this epistle back with him. This is all in the area of Macedonia, before he gets to Corinth because he hasn’t been there a second time yet. He’s only been there once, so it has to be in this area while he’s in Macedonia. I’ll show you what happened. Do you think that when Paul wrote this epistle, it was just air that went over their heads? Or do you think it produced results? 227 The Epistles to Corinth and Rome Roma