matters that are not present. The overt paganism Paul worries about in the letter surfaces in the matter of food offered to idols (8:1–11:1), but we do not have the same evidence that the Corinthians were compromising with the imperial cult. What we do see is that the Corinthians were inclined to throw in their lot with the values and culture of secular society.11 For instance, the church was divided over various ministers (1:10–4:21) since they had imbibed the values of the Graeco-Roman world where
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