1 Corinthians

About 1 Corinthians

First Corinthians is Paul's letter to a young, gifted, and deeply divided church in the port city of Corinth. He wrote to answer their questions and to correct real problems: rival factions, immorality, lawsuits, confusion in worship, and doubts about the resurrection. The letter shows what it looks like for the message of the cross to reshape everyday life in a messy city church, and it gives us the Bible's famous chapters on love and on the resurrection of the dead.

Written by

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, and his authorship is not seriously disputed.

When

It was written around AD 53-55, while Paul was working in Ephesus.

Themes

• Unity in the church
• Love above every gift
• Holiness in daily life
• Worship and spiritual gifts
• The resurrection hope

Key verses

• 1 Corinthians 1:18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
• 1 Corinthians 13:4-7Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
• 1 Corinthians 15:3-4For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,