Were it not for problems in the church at Corinth, we might never have had Paul's teaching on marriage and celibacy, supernatural gifts, the resurrection and, above all, his sublime description of Christian love. We have just two of the four letters he wrote to them. They reveal his major concerns for his converts - to see them mature as individuals and to integrate them properly into Spirit-filled fellowships. Follow-up was essential to New Testament evangelism. In the second, Paul reveals more than ever of his personal experience, his constant perils, his feelings (delight and disappointment), his reactions to rivals, his humiliations and his boasting - in short, the inner life of the apostle.
