CLARITY EDITION · NEW TESTAMENT · PAUL'S LETTERS
1 Corinthians
16 chapters · Written to a troubled church in Corinth
1 Corinthians — at a glance
Who’s in 1 Corinthians
The story of 1 Corinthians
Written by the apostle Paul around 55 AD to the church he founded in the cosmopolitan Greek city of Corinth, this letter addresses a community plagued by divisions, moral failures, and theological confusion. Paul responds to reports of quarreling, sexual immorality, lawsuits among believers, and disputes over spiritual gifts, marriage, and the resurrection. Far from a detached theological treatise, 1 Corinthians is a pastoral masterwork that grounds practical church life in the reality of Christ crucified and risen, culminating in the magnificent love chapter and the most detailed New Testament teaching on the bodily resurrection.
1 Corinthians at a glance
Chapters 1–2 Greeting and Thanksgiving
Paul opens with a greeting and thanksgiving before confronting the central crisis in Corinth: the church has fractured into rival factions, each claiming allegiance to a different leader.
Read chapter 1 →Chapters 3–4 Spiritual Immaturity and Division
Paul rebukes the Corinthians for their spiritual immaturity, compares church leaders to laborers in God's field and builders on God's foundation, and warns that each person's work will be tested by fire. He concludes by declaring that the believers themselves are God's temple.
Read chapter 3 →Chapters 5–6 Confronting Immorality in the Church
Paul confronts a shocking case of sexual immorality in the Corinthian church and commands the congregation to remove the unrepentant offender, using the imagery of Passover leaven to explain why tolerating sin corrupts the entire community.
Read chapter 5 →Chapters 7–8 Marriage and Marital Duties
Responding to the Corinthians' written questions, Paul provides extensive teaching on marriage, singleness, divorce, and remaining in one's calling. He affirms both marriage and celibacy as gifts from God while emphasizing the urgency of living in light of the shortness of time.
Read chapter 7 →Chapters 9–10 The Rights of an Apostle
Paul uses his own example as an apostle who voluntarily surrenders his rights to illustrate the principle of self-denial for the gospel's sake. He becomes all things to all people and disciplines himself like an athlete pursuing an imperishable crown.
Read chapter 9 →Chapters 11–12 Head Coverings in Worship
Paul addresses two issues of proper worship: the practice of head coverings as a sign of order and respect during prayer and prophecy, and the serious abuses occurring at the Lord's Supper, where he recounts the institution of communion and warns against partaking in an unworthy manner.
Read chapter 11 →Chapters 13–14 The Necessity of Love
In what is perhaps the most famous chapter in all of Paul's letters, he describes love as the supreme virtue that gives meaning to every spiritual gift, defines love's characteristics in unforgettable terms, and declares that when all else passes away, love will remain alongside faith and hope as the greatest of the three.
Read chapter 13 →Chapters 15–16 The Gospel of the Resurrection
Paul delivers the most comprehensive teaching on the resurrection in the entire New Testament. He recounts the historical evidence for Christ's resurrection, argues that denying the resurrection undermines the entire gospel, explains the nature of the resurrection body, and proclaims the ultimate victory over death through Christ.
Read chapter 15 →Five themes that reveal 1 Corinthians’s deeper meaning
Unity in Christ
Paul appeals for unity, reporting that Chloe's household has informed him of quarrels. The Corinthians have splintered into factions claiming to follow Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or Christ.
The foolishness of the cross as divine wisdom
Paul contrasts worldly wisdom with the message of the cross, which appears as foolishness to the perishing but is the power of God to those being saved. He quotes Isaiah's warning about destroying the wisdom of the wise and declares that God has made the world's wisdom foolish.
Human divisions versus divine purpose
Paul identifies himself as an apostle called by God's will and addresses the Corinthian believers as those sanctified in Christ Jesus. He thanks God for the grace given to them, noting their enrichment in speech and knowledge, and affirms that God will keep them blameless until the day of Christ.
God's choice of the humble and weak
Paul reminds the Corinthians of their own humble origins: not many were wise, powerful, or of noble birth by worldly standards. God intentionally chose the foolish, weak, and despised to nullify what the world considers great, so that no human being can boast before him.
Boasting only in the Lord
Paul opens with a greeting and thanksgiving before confronting the central crisis in Corinth: the church has fractured into rival factions, each claiming allegiance to a different leader.
Essential verses from 1 Corinthians
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,”
“Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy. Love does not boast. It is not puffed up.”
Paul provides a portrait of love in action through fifteen characteristics: love is patient and kind; it does not envy, boast, or act proud; it is not rude, self-seeking, or easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in evil but rejoices in truth.
“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
“O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?”
Paul reveals a mystery: not all will sleep in death, but all will be changed in an instant, at the last trumpet. The perishable must put on the imperishable, and the mortal must put on immortality. When this happens, the prophetic words will be fulfilled: death has been swallowed up in victory.
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
Paul recounts how all the Israelites experienced God's miraculous provision in the exodus: the cloud, the sea, the spiritual food and drink from the Rock that was Christ. Yet despite these privileges, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
“Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
Paul refutes the Corinthian slogan that all things are permissible by insisting that not all things are beneficial, and he will not be mastered by anything. The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord.
“Let all your things be done with charity.”
“Let all that you do be done in love.”
Paul commends Timothy, asking the Corinthians to put him at ease and not look down on him since he is doing the Lord's work. He mentions that he urged Apollos to visit them, though Apollos was not willing at the present time.
How 1 Corinthians points to Christ
Paul quotes Isaiah's prophecy about God speaking to his people through foreign tongues and strange lips, originally referring to the Assyrian invasion as a sign of judgment, and applies it to the gift of tongues as a sign for unbelievers. Paul's taunt against death, asking where its sting and victory have gone, draws on Hosea's prophecy where God challenges death and the grave, transforming a passage of judgment into a song of triumph through Christ's resurrection. Jesus' words over the cup declaring the new covenant in his blood directly fulfill Jeremiah's prophecy of a new covenant that God would make with his people, replacing the old Mosaic covenant with one written on their hearts. The quotation about eating and drinking for tomorrow we die comes from Isaiah's description of Jerusalem's reckless response to impending judgment, which Paul uses to show the nihilistic outcome of denying the resurrection. Paul quotes the creation account that the first man Adam became a living being and contrasts it with Christ, the last Adam, who became a life-giving spirit, establishing the typological connection between Adam and Christ. Paul draws on the messianic psalm in which the Lord says to David's Lord to sit at his right hand until his enemies are made a footstool, applying it to Christ's reign until all enemies, including death, are subdued.
How to apply 1 Corinthians to your life
First Corinthians 13 isn't just for weddings — it's the ultimate diagnostic for every relationship in your life. 'Love is patient.' Are you? 'Love is kind.' Are you? 'Love does not envy, does not boast, is not proud.' Run your behavior through that checklist and you'll find your growth areas fast. But here's what people miss: chapter 13 sits between chapters 12 and 14, which are about spiritual gifts. Paul's point is that the most powerful gift in the universe is love. You can speak in tongues, prophesy, move mountains — without love, it's all noise. And 1 Corinthians 15:58 closes the book with this charge: 'Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.' Not in vain. Every prayer, every sacrifice, every late night, every tear — none of it is wasted. Keep going. The finish line rewards those who don't quit.
Common questions about 1 Corinthians
What is 1 Corinthians 13?
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