Are Christian communities a reflection of culture as it is or are they an example of what the culture should be? This is an important question if we are to continue to claim that we are followers of Jesus Christ. To use the name Christian without being Christian is forgery. This is as true of a society large or small as it is of an individual.
     Certainly there are a number of signposts for gauging Christian behavior, such as that which Jesus outlined in the Beatitudes, but the umbrella under which they all fall is his commandment to love one another. This was the centerpiece of the blueprint Jesus gave us for our behavior. Perhaps this is why St. Paul got so upset with the Corinthians. When this man, who had been a persecutor of Christians, converted into the very faith community he had victimized, he went the entire distance. He took ownership of Christianity, and he identified with it.

A city divided

     Corinth was one of many communities to whom Paul took the message of Jesus, the message of love. In a sense, he had become their Godfather.
     Have you ever worked really hard to make something happen only to see it fall apart? If you have, then you might understand some of Paul’s frustration. He had given himself to these people and then, having left them in the hands of a very sincere believer by the name of Apollos, he found out that what he had done was coming undone. The Christian community was no longer a countersign to the Corinthian culture. Instead it had become a reflection of the worst of the wi

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