Corinth was undoubtedly the most important of the Gentile cities that Paul visited on his evangelistic campaigns. Now, eventually he got to Rome and Rome was the city but Paul's evangelistic campaigns there were very limited because he was in prison (or he was under house arrest might be a better way of putting it) for two years while he was there and then he was released and apparently went on to other places. During his first imprisonment there, he did not do anything except see people at home. The next time he was there, he was put to death. So Corinth stands as the most important city that the apostle Paul ever went to, to conduct any of his evangelistic campaigns.
You might remember in the vision back there in chapter 16 that he was directed to go to Macedon, but he went there and things did not go too well. In Philippi, he was beaten and jailed and he had to leave the city. In Thessalonica he left the people in trouble. He did not get beaten there or anything but Jason had to post a bond for him. And so he left the church there in trouble. In Berea, the next stop, he had to leave because things were beginning to heat up because the people, the Jews, had arrived from the Thessalonica. Then in Athens, maybe the most difficult of all to take because he was treated there with scorn and contempt and just given a polite dismissal from the city. He did not even have the opportunity to do much preaching there.
And I would say that the apostle Paul, by the time he got to Corinth, was pretty dejected. That is why I read that there. He came in weakness, with fear and trembling. Undoubtedly, here he was going to one of the greatest cities of the Roman Empire, and he was wondering what worse thing could happen here. Everything is going bad. Why had God allowed matters to fall out so badly? He was undoubtedly sick, emotionally sick with anxiety and depression.
Now, in addition to that, he was probably still suffering from the effects of the beating that he took in Philippi and this also could have contributed to his depression. And it might have been that it was here that he was praying so fervently that God would remove the thorn in his flesh because that too was written to the Corinthians in II Corinthians 12.
So that is the background. You have a man for whom everything seems to be going wrong and he is on the verge of preaching in the most important city that he has been to yet. Anxiety, depression, feelings of weakness. How are things going to turn out here?
He is continuing south. He went from Philippi down to Thessalonica, from Thessalonica to Berea, from Berea to Athens; and now he is going to Corinth.
