1 Corinthians 1:1-3
1 From Paul, who was called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes—
2 To the church of God which is in Corinth, to all who are called to be God's holy people, who belong to him in union with Christ Jesus, together with all people everywhere who worship our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:
3 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
Today we are starting a new book in our devotional which is a letter written from Paul, the early Christian Missionary to Christians living in the Greek city of Corinth. And my first question when I read this is… who is Sosthenes?
A quick search on Google shows that his names is in the Bible twice. Here and in Acts 18
They all grabbed Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the court. But that did not bother Gallio a bit.
Acts 18:17
Paul had been in Corinth having meetings and trying to convince as many people as he could to believe in Jesus. He got so much push back and abuse from the Jews that he gave up trying to lead them to faith and shouted ‘your blood be on your hands.’ He decided from that moment that he would focus his ministry on trying to reach the gentiles. The caused a rift in his relationship with the Jews which increased as he lived and worked and started the church in Corinth.
One day everything came to a head. The Jews decided to deal with Paul once and for all and they dragged him to the local court complaining to the leader, Gallio, that Paul was trying to make people worship God in an unholy way. The judge was not interested and threw them out. It was at this moment that the crowd turned and ‘grabbed Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the court.’
So in short Sosthenes was a man who tried to get Paul arrested, or even killed. He was a bitter enemy of Paul and in his attempt to arrest him, he gets beaten by the crowd.
Now, we do not know what happened between Acts 18 and 1 Corinthians but we find ourselves here at the start of the letter with Paul giving Sosthenes credit as a co-author or scribe in his letter. It is clear that their relationship has shifted and Paul’s bitter enemy has now become his friend.
We don’t know what happened or how they got there but it is clear that the Gospel can turn enemies into friends. That people who are against you, can become your greatest allies.
love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Matt 5:44
