1 Corinthians
Dealing with sin in the church in the light of the lordship of Christ: correction for a gifted but carnal congregation.
Corinth was a wealthy commercial city on the isthmus between mainland Greece and the Peloponnese, famous for its temple of Aphrodite and its immorality. Paul founded the church there on his second journey and stayed eighteen months (Acts 18). A few years later, from Ephesus, he received disturbing reports and a letter of questions from the church, and he wrote this epistle in response.
The problems were many. The church was divided into factions following Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ. A man was living with his father’s wife, and the church was proud rather than mourning. Believers went to court against each other before pagan judges. Questions about marriage, food offered to idols, head coverings, the Lord’s supper, spiritual gifts, and the resurrection all needed answers.
Paul answers each problem by bringing it back to Christ. Against factions he preaches Christ crucified, the wisdom and power of God. Against immorality, he reminds them that their bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, bought with a price. Against confusion about gifts, he sets out the more excellent way of charity. Against denial of the resurrection, he writes the greatest chapter on the resurrection in the Bible.
Writer: Paul
Written: From Ephesus about AD 56, before Pentecost (16:8).
Name: The first canonical letter to the believers in Corinth.
Title and authorship
The first epistle to the Corinthians. The church at Corinth was saved out of one of the most corrupt cities of the Roman world; “to Corinthianize” was a byword for immorality.
Paul wrote the epistle (1:1; 16:21), with Sosthenes, probably the former chief ruler of the synagogue at Corinth who had been beaten before Gallio (Acts 18:17) and was later saved.
Historical background
Written from Ephesus during Paul’s three-year ministry there (16:8; Acts 19–20), about AD 55–56, before Pentecost.
The church of God at Corinth, “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,” and all who call upon the name of Jesus Christ (1:2).
Corinth
Rebuilt as a Roman colony by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, Corinth was the capital of the province of Achaia and a hub of trade between east and west. It hosted the Isthmian Games, which lie behind Paul’s illustrations of running and boxing (9:24–27). The temple of Aphrodite on the Acrocorinth was notorious.
Meat offered to idols
Much meat sold in the market came from animals sacrificed in pagan temples, and social meals were often held in temple dining rooms. The question of whether a believer could eat such meat was a practical daily issue (8; 10).
The Lord’s supper and the love feast
The Corinthians ate a common meal with the Lord’s supper, but the wealthy ate their own food first while the poor went hungry, and some were drunk (11:20–22). Paul reminded them of the Lord’s words and warned that some were sick and some had died for partaking unworthily.
Key passages
1 Corinthians 1:18
The preaching of the cross is foolishness to them that perish, but to us which are saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 6:19–20
Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost; ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 15:3–4
The gospel: Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day.
1 Corinthians 1:30–31
Christ is the believer’s wisdom and righteousness, excluding self-glory.
1 Corinthians 10:31
Every part of life is to be directed to God’s glory.
Outline
1–4 · Division and human wisdom
The cross corrects party spirit and boasting in men.
5–7 · Holiness and relationships
Church discipline, personal purity, and marriage require obedience to Christ.
8–10 · Liberty governed by love
Rights are surrendered where their use would harm others or hinder the gospel.
11–14 · Order in the assembly
The Lord’s supper and spiritual gifts must edify the church.
15–16 · Resurrection and responsibility
Future bodily resurrection supports present steadfastness and practical giving.
Original language
σαρκικός (sarkikos, G4559) — “carnal”
Fleshly, governed by the flesh. Paul could not speak to the Corinthians as spiritual but as carnal, babes in Christ, because of envying and strife (3:1–3). A believer can be saved and still carnal.
ἀγάπη (agape, G26) — “charity”
Self-giving love that seeks the good of another. The King James “charity” (from the Latin caritas) conveys love in action. It suffers long, is kind, envies not, and never fails (13:4–8).
μυστήριον (musterion, G3466) — “mystery”
A truth once hidden and now revealed by God. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (15:51)—the change of living saints at the Lord’s coming.
ἀπαρχή (aparche, G536) — “firstfruits”
The first sheaf of the harvest, offered to God as a pledge of the whole. “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (15:20).
γλῶσσα (glossa, G1100) — “tongue”
The tongue or a language. The tongues of Acts 2 were known languages. Paul says tongues are a sign to unbelievers (14:22) and that they “shall cease” (13:8).
Doctrinal study
The resurrection
Chapter 15 sets out the gospel, the witnesses of Christ’s resurrection, the consequences if Christ is not raised, the order of resurrection (Christ the firstfruits, then they that are Christ’s at His coming), the nature of the resurrection body, and the change of the living saints “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”
The judgment seat and rewards
Every man’s work will be made manifest by fire. Work built on the foundation of Christ with gold, silver, and precious stones will receive a reward; wood, hay, and stubble will burn, “but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (3:11–15). Salvation is secure; rewards are at stake.
Gifts and their purpose
The Spirit distributes gifts for the profit of the whole body (12:7). The sign gifts—tongues, prophecy, knowledge—belonged to a partial, transitional period and “shall cease” when “that which is perfect is come” (13:8–10). Charity abides.
Commentary notes
Disorders and cures
Personal disorder (1–4): following men; cure, exalt Christ (1:30). Moral disorder (5–6): yielding to the flesh; cure, remember you belong to Christ (6:15). Home disorder (7): wrong ideas; cure, due benevolence (7:3). Social disorder (8–10): misused liberty; cure, do all to the glory of God (10:31). Church disorder (11–14): misconduct in worship; cure, decency and order (14:40). Doctrinal disorder (15): denial of the resurrection; cure, the risen Christ (15:20). Financial disorder (16): cure, systematic giving (16:2).
Laws of liberty
Before doing a doubtful thing, ask: Will it enslave me? (6:12) Will it build up others? (10:23) Can I set a good example doing it? (8:7–13) Could it help me win someone to Christ? (10:31–33) Does it violate my conscience? A believer’s liberty is limited by love.
Rich and yet poor
“Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us” (4:8). It is possible to think you are rich when you are bankrupt—the same condition Christ rebukes in Laodicea (Revelation 3:17).
Christ in the book
- Christ crucified, the power and wisdom of God (1:23–24)
- The only foundation (3:11)
- Christ our passover (5:7)
- The spiritual Rock that followed Israel (10:4)
- The last Adam, a quickening spirit (15:45)
Applications
Historical
- Paul deals with reported carnality in the church at Corinth and with the false spirituality that had developed there, answering the questions they had written to him.
- Paul addresses reported problems and questions arising in a young church situated within a strongly pagan culture.
- The letter belongs to his ministry at Ephesus; its plans connect with the journeys recorded in Acts.
Doctrinal
- The epistle of correction. Every New Testament church must regularly examine this letter if it is to avoid the lukewarm condition of the Laodicean age. It also gives the doctrine of the resurrection body and the catching away of living saints (15:51–52).
- Christ’s lordship governs the church’s doctrine, discipline, worship, and conduct.
- Bodily resurrection is essential to Christian hope; it cannot be removed without emptying the gospel of its meaning.
Devotional
- There is seemingly no end to the depths the flesh can take believers who focus on themselves. A church can lose its purpose, follow the wisdom of man instead of the power of God, and become no different from a social club.
- Test a permitted activity by its effect on self-control, conscience, others’ growth, and gospel witness.
- Love is a necessary measure of maturity. Possessing knowledge or a prominent gift does not excuse pride or disregard for others.
Answering the critics
Even radical critics accept Paul’s authorship of 1 Corinthians; scholars praise its genuineness and harmony.
It is striking that one of the most doctrinally controversial books in the New Testament is universally accepted as Paul’s. The critics accept the letter while resisting its teaching on sin, gifts, and the resurrection.