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New Testament

1 Corinthians

16 chapters

Start reading: 1 Corinthians 1

About this book

First Corinthians is a pastoral letter to a lively, gifted and troubled church in a busy Greek port city. Paul writes to correct divisions, moral confusion and disorder in worship, and to answer questions the Corinthians had sent him. He argues that the cross overturns human ideas of status and wisdom, and that the church is one body in which every member matters. He addresses sexual ethics, marriage, food offered to idols, and the Lord's Supper. The famous chapter on love shows that spiritual gifts without love amount to nothing, and the long chapter on the resurrection insists that Christ's rising is the foundation of Christian hope. The letter closes with practical instructions about a collection for believers in Jerusalem. It is remarkably honest about how messy real churches can be, and it keeps pointing them back to Christ, to love and to the unity of his people. Christians still differ on how to apply some of its instructions on worship and gifts.

Author
The apostle Paul, writing with Sosthenes; authorship is widely accepted.
Date
About AD 53–55, probably written from Ephesus during Paul's third journey.
Audience
The church in Corinth, a mixed community of Jewish and Gentile believers, and all who call on Christ's name.

Themes

Unity in ChristThe wisdom of the crossLove above spiritual giftsOne body, many membersThe hope of the resurrection

Outline

  1. 1:1–4:21Divisions and the message of the cross
  2. 5:1–7:40Moral disorder and questions on marriage
  3. 8:1–11:1Freedom, idols and love for the weak
  4. 11:2–14:40Worship, the Lord's Supper, gifts and love
  5. 15:1–15:58The resurrection
  6. 16:1–16:24The collection and farewell

Key verses

1 Corinthians 1:181 Corinthians 12:12-141 Corinthians 13:1-31 Corinthians 15:3-5

Chapters of 1 Corinthians

  1. 11 Corinthians 1Paul greets the church in Corinth, thanks God for the gifts given to them, and then confronts their quarrels: some say they follow Paul, others Apollos, others Peter, others Christ.
  2. 21 Corinthians 2Paul recalls coming to Corinth with no polished rhetoric, choosing to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ crucified.
  3. 31 Corinthians 3Paul says he had to speak to the Corinthians as spiritual infants, because jealousy and rivalry showed they were still living by ordinary human standards.
  4. 41 Corinthians 4Paul asks to be seen as a servant of Christ and a steward of God's mysteries, someone whose main requirement is faithfulness.
  5. 51 Corinthians 5Paul is shocked that the church tolerates a case of sexual immorality that even outsiders would find scandalous, and that they are proud instead of grieving.
  6. 61 Corinthians 6Paul rebukes believers who take one another to secular courts, asking why the people who will one day judge the world cannot settle their own disputes; losing out is better than wronging a sibling in Christ.
  7. 71 Corinthians 7Answering questions the Corinthians wrote to him, Paul gives practical guidance on marriage, singleness and divorce.
  8. 81 Corinthians 8Paul addresses whether believers may eat meat that had been offered to idols.
  9. 91 Corinthians 9Paul defends his apostleship and explains that although he has the right to be supported by the churches, like other apostles and like ministers in Scripture, he has chosen not to use it, so that nothing hinders the gospel.
  10. 101 Corinthians 10Paul uses the story of Israel in the wilderness as a warning: they all shared the same spiritual blessings, yet many fell through idolatry, immorality and grumbling.
  11. 111 Corinthians 11Paul addresses two matters of worship in Corinth.
  12. 121 Corinthians 12Paul teaches about spiritual gifts, insisting that they all come from the same Spirit, the same Lord and the same God, and that they are given for the common good.
  13. 131 Corinthians 13Often read at weddings, this chapter was really written about life in a divided church.
  14. 141 Corinthians 14Paul urges the Corinthians to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, especially prophecy, because it builds up, encourages and comforts the whole church.
  15. 151 Corinthians 15Paul restates the heart of the gospel he received and passed on: Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised on the third day, and appeared to Peter, the Twelve, more than five hundred people and finally to Paul himself.
  16. 161 Corinthians 16Paul closes with practical matters.
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