1 Corinthians

What This Book Is

Paul answering a long list of problems and questions from a church that was talented, divided, and behaving badly.

Overview

This is the most practical letter in the New Testament, because Paul is working through an actual list. Some of it came from a report by Chloe's household, and some from questions the Corinthians had written to him.

The problems are specific. The church has split into factions around personalities. A man is sleeping with his stepmother and the church is proud of its tolerance. Believers are suing each other in public courts. Some are visiting prostitutes and arguing that the body does not matter. There are questions about marriage and singleness, about meat sold in temples, about head coverings, about spiritual gifts, and about the resurrection.

What holds the letter together is Paul's method. He keeps returning to the cross, which he calls foolishness to those who are perishing, and using it to dismantle the status competition underneath each problem. The Corinthians love wisdom, eloquence, and visible gifting; Paul insists God chose what is weak and low.

The communion chapter is a rebuke: they gather for a meal where the rich eat first and the poor go hungry, and Paul says that in doing so they are not really eating the Lord's supper at all.

Chapter 13, read at countless weddings, was written into an argument about spiritual gifts. Love is placed against tongues, prophecy, knowledge, and even martyrdom, and it wins every comparison.

Chapter 15 is the earliest written account of the resurrection, quoting a creed older than the letter itself.

Structure

• Chapters 1 to 4: DivisionsFactions around leaders, and the foolishness of the cross.
• Chapters 5 to 7: Bodies and relationshipsScandal, lawsuits, sexuality, marriage, and singleness.
• Chapters 8 to 10: Freedom and loveFood sacrificed to idols, and rights willingly surrendered.
• Chapters 11 to 14: WorshipThe Lord's supper, spiritual gifts, and love as the measure.
• Chapters 15 to 16: ResurrectionThe earliest written resurrection account, and closing instructions.

Themes

Why It Matters

1 Corinthians shows a church that is a mess and a letter that neither abandons it nor flatters it. That is enormously useful for anyone disillusioned by church life. Its resurrection chapter is the New Testament's fullest argument that the Christian hope is bodily, and its love chapter, read in its actual context, is far more demanding than its wedding use suggests.

How to Read It

• Read chapter 13 in context, as part of the argument in chapters 12 to 14.
• Read chapter 11:17-34 and ask what the meal is supposed to look like.
• Notice how often Paul answers a behaviour question by pointing at the cross.
• Read chapter 15 slowly if you have wondered what Christians actually hope for.

Key Verse

Did You Know?

• The creed Paul quotes in chapter 15:3-5 is generally thought to predate the letter by two decades or more.
• Paul mentions an earlier letter to Corinth that has not survived, so this is at least his second.
• Corinth sat on a narrow isthmus and was a hub of trade, which shaped the church's diversity and its problems.

Where to Start Reading