Deliver us from Evil excerpt by Ravi Zacharias

Atop a hill just on Corinth's outskirts sit the remains of the temple of Aphrodite. Aphrodite was thought to be the goddess who, living in continual infidelity to her husband, symbolized promiscuity. Finally he was able to set a trap for her that revealed her wretchedness to all. In Greek mythology we are told that when she was thus exposed, she fled, covering her face in shame. But out of her illicit relationships were born two children, Eros and Phobos, from which we derive the words eroticism and fear--- one an insantiable appetite, the other a paralyzing emotion. How articulate is the past, once again, in its stones and in its lessons.

The Temple of Aphrodite housed a thousand prostitutes who descended into the streets of Corinth at night to market themselves to the Corinthian passions. This was Corinth. This was her lewd worship. It is quite an experience to stand there today and remember what the apostle Paul said to the Corinthians when he first arrived. He had just come from Athens, where he had dealt with the questions of the intellect. Here in Corinth, he dealt with the passions of the body. For both, it was the mind that needed renewal. In delineating Corinth's catalog of vices, he graciously added the words, "And as such were some of you." The gospel had changed many a Corinthian, and we can now so clearly understand why it was to then he penned his greatest treatise on the purity of love. Those words stand etched in marble in Corinth to remind the tourist of Paul's text on God's love, which had such transforming power in a context so debauched by erotic love:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails...
Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:4-7,13)

Source:

Deliver us from Evil. Ravi Zacharias pg161-162, Thomas Nelson Publishing 1997.