1 Corinthians 1:1 “Paul, called by the will of
God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sos'thenes”
Who
is Sos’thenes? The short answer is
we don’t know. However, it’s
possible to make some informed guesses about this mystery man. The first thing we can say is that
Sos’thenes is part of a very select company. There are only three people whose names are mentioned by
Paul in the greetings of his letters: Timothy is mentioned six times, Silva’nus
is mentioned twice, and our man Sos’thenes is mentioned once. We know quite a bit about Timothy. We know that Timothy was one of Paul’s
closest associates in the work of spreading the gospel and a prominent leader
in the early church. Paul mentions
Silva’nus several times in his letters allowing us to discover that he also was
one of Paul’s close coworkers and a preacher of the gospel. Since Sos’thenes is mentioned in the
same context as these others, it’s reasonable to assume that he also was a
partner with Paul in the spreading of the gospel.
The
name Sos’thenes is also found in the book of Acts. We can’t prove beyond all doubt that the Sos’thenes
mentioned in Acts is the same man mentioned in 1 Corinthians but there are some
good reasons to think he might be.
The first reason is that Sos’thenes lived in Corinth and so it makes
sense that Paul would mention his name when he writes a letter to the
Corinthian church.
Luke
records the story of Paul’s first visit to Corinth in Acts 18. Following his usual custom, Paul began
his work in the city by arguing in the synagogue every sabbath. He had some success and persuaded both
Jews and Greeks. Even “Crispus,
the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with all his
household; and many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized”.
Eventually though a majority of the Corinthian Jews rejected Paul’s message and
“opposed and reviled him”. So Paul
stopped going to the Synagogue but continued preaching in the house of a man
named Titius Justus who lived next door to the synagogue. Since Crispus, the ruler of the
Synagogue, had gone with Paul, the members of the Synagogue elected a new
leader - Sos'thenes. Eventually the Jews, lead by
Sos’thenes, made a united attack upon Paul and brought him before Gallio, the Roman
governor of that area. The governor however refused to even hear the case
and threw them out of the courtroom. The Jews were
outraged at their treatment by the governor and by the failure of their
plan. Wanting a scapegoat on which
to focus their anger, they started blaming their leader for this disaster. Right there on the street, in front of
the governor’s court they seized Sos'thenes, the ruler of the synagogue,
and began beating him. Poor
Sos’thenes was helpless against the angry mob. Even the governor ignored the situation and refused to break
up the riot.
Since
Sos’thenes was elected leader of the synagogue after opposition to Paul and the
gospel coalesced among the Jews, he obviously was prominent among those who
rejected the gospel. He was no
doubt an outspoken critic of Paul and determined to keep people from listening
to this man whom he considered to be a heretic and liar. He certainly was also a capable man who
attracted the respect of others since he was made the leader.
It’s
interested to note that Sos’thenes was a lot like Paul. Paul also had been a bitter opponent of
the gospel and a leader in the effort to stamp out the Christian message. Paul’s life was transformed when Jesus
appeared to him, knocked him on the ground and blinded him with the dazzling
light of his glorious presence. Sos’thenes
followed a similar pattern. He was
the leader of the opposition to the gospel in Corinth, and he suffered a crisis
when he was rejected and beaten by his own people. If my guess is correct, he is the one Paul refers to in his
letter who was a coworker with Paul in spreading the gospel and establishing
the church.
Both
Paul and Sos’thenes are case studies in the power of a crisis to transform our
lives in a good way. We often know
what we ought to do but we can’t bring ourselves to do it until some crisis
provides the motivation necessary to take action. This is what the writer to the Hebrews meant when he wrote
about discipline:
Hebrews
12:6 “For the Lord disciplines him whom he
loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." … 11 For
the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields
the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it”.
The discipline these people were
enduring was suffering at the hands of evil people. They were in the midst of a crisis, but it was all part of
God’s plan for their good. A
crisis does not automatically produce good in us. That’s why the writer exhorts them not to get discouraged
and give up. Suffering has the
power to make us either bitter or better.
It all depends on how we respond.
A certain politician recently quipped that it’s a shame to let a good
crisis go to waste. That’s good advice
for us. When hard times come our
way we should always see it as an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Sos’thenes. I’m sure he didn’t feel very good after
the mob finished kicking him around on the street in Corinth, but years later
he was probably able to thank God for that day. In the end the pain he endured was nothing compared to the eternal
weight of glory he is now enjoying forever.
