1 Corinthians 1:1–3 (ESV)
Greeting
1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,
2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, both their Lord and ours:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We see that Paul wrote this around AD 55 before Pentecost. He refers to "our brother Sosthenes". Who is Sosthenes? We don't know much about him other than he was a synagogue
ruler in Corinth. We also know that he was beaten at Paul's trial as found in Acts 18:17:
"17 And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and
beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this."
We are living in times where we are seeing persecution rising against Christians.
I pray: O Lord, help us to walk according to your ways, and to keep focused on you during times of persecution. Amen.