Try to visualize yourself on the way to church. Not too difficult? Let's make it a little harder. Imagine that the year is 55 A.D. and that the place is the city of Corinth in Roman Greece. You are a member of the thriving church that has grown up there and you are on your way to a meeting at the house of Gaius. Lots of people will be gathering both from the church that usually meets at the house of Gaius and also from the churches that meet in the houses of several other Christians. News has been passed around that a letter has come from Paul and everyone is eager to hear what Paul will have to say about the things that are going on in the church.

It is late afternoon and you are walking from your house on the edge of the city nearest to the harbor to the house of a prominent citizen nea…