1 Corinthians

The More Excellent Way

If you have ever thought your church had problems, read 1 Corinthians. The believers in Corinth were split into factions over their favorite preachers. A man was living with his father’s wife, and the church was proud of how tolerant it was. Members were suing each other in pagan courts. Some got drunk at the Lord’s Supper while others went home hungry. Their worship services were chaotic, and some of them were saying there is no resurrection of the dead.

And yet Paul opens by calling them “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1:2), and thanking God for them. That is the gospel at work. God does not wait for a church to be fixed before He calls it His. Out of this messy congregation came some of the most treasured chapters in the Bible: the foolishness of the cross, the body with many members, the love chapter, and the great resurrection chapter that ends in shouting at death itself.

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Authorship & Setting

Corinth sat on the narrow isthmus between mainland Greece and the Peloponnese, with a harbor on each side, so trade from east and west passed through it. The Romans destroyed the old Greek city in 146 BC, and Julius Caesar refounded it as a Roman colony in 44 BC. By Paul’s day it was wealthy, crowded, proud, and known for its immorality. Above the city, on the hill called Acrocorinth, stood a temple of Aphrodite. Long before Paul, the Greeks had coined a verb, “to Corinthianize,” meaning to live immorally.

Paul founded the church on his second missionary journey and stayed eighteen months (Acts 18:11), working as a tentmaker with Priscilla and Aquila. A few years later, while ministering in Ephesus (16:8), he received bad reports from “them which are of the house of Chloe” (1:11) and a letter from the church asking questions. He answers the reports first, then works through their letter, often starting a new topic with “Now concerning” (7:1; 8:1; 12:1; 16:1). He mentions an earlier letter that we no longer have (5:9). 1 Corinthians was written around AD 53–55.

The co-sender is “Sosthenes our brother” (1:1). He may be the same Sosthenes who, as ruler of the Corinthian synagogue, was beaten in front of the governor Gallio (Acts 18:17). If so, the man who once led the opposition was now standing with Paul.

Key Figures

• Paul — the church’s spiritual father, who planted it (3:6) and wrote to it “as my beloved sons” (4:14).
• Apollos — an eloquent teacher from Alexandria who watered what Paul had planted. Paul never treats him as a rival, only as a fellow servant (3:5–9; 16:12).
• Cephas (Peter) — named as one of the leaders the factions rallied around, and as a witness of the risen Christ (1:12; 15:5).
• Chloe’s household — the people who reported the divisions to Paul (1:11).
• Sosthenes — Paul’s co-sender, possibly the former synagogue ruler of Corinth.
• The immoral man — a church member living with his father’s wife, whom Paul tells the church to put out, for the saving of his spirit (5:1–5).
• Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus — members who came to Paul and refreshed his spirit. Stephanas’s household was the first fruits of Achaia and had “addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints” (16:15–17).

Greek Word Study

σχίσμα · schisma

“Division,” a tear or rip, like a tear in a garment. “I beseech you… that there be no divisions among you” (1:10). Paul uses it again for the divisions at the Lord’s table (11:18) and in the body (12:25). It is the word our “schism” comes from. Factions tear the body of Christ.

χάρισμα · charisma

“Gift of grace,” a gift freely given. It comes from charis, grace. Paul uses it for the spiritual gifts in chapter 12. The point is in the word itself: these are gifts, not achievements. Nobody earned a charisma, so nobody can boast in one.

ἀγάπη · agapē

“Love,” translated “charity” in the KJV of chapter 13. It is the self-giving love that seeks another’s good at its own cost. The Corinthians prized knowledge, eloquence, and spectacular gifts. Paul says without agapē they are nothing more than noise. “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (8:1).

ἀνάστασις · anastasis

“Resurrection,” literally a standing up again. Some in Corinth taught “that there is no resurrection of the dead” (15:12). Paul answers with the longest teaching on the resurrection in the Bible. Christianity does not stand without it.

Eight-Movement Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

Divided Over Preachers (1:1–4:21)

“Every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided?” (1:12–13). The Corinthians were treating preachers like philosophers to follow. Paul answers with the cross: “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God”(1:18). God chose the foolish, the weak, and the despised, “That no flesh should glory in his presence” (1:29). Paul came “determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (2:2). “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (3:6). “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (3:11), and every man’s work will be tested by fire.

MOVEMENT TWO

Purge Out the Old Leaven (5:1–6:20)

The church is tolerating sexual immorality that even pagans condemned, and they are puffed up about it. Paul tells them to remove the man so that he might be brought to repentance, and to clean out the old leaven: “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (5:7). Believers are taking each other to court before unbelievers. Then Paul gives a list of sins that exclude people from God’s kingdom, and follows it with grace: “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus” (6:11). The body matters to God. “Ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (6:19–20).

MOVEMENT THREE

Marriage and Singleness (7:1–40)

Answering their letter, Paul teaches that husband and wife belong to each other and should not deprive one another. Believers should not leave their marriages, even to unbelieving spouses, if the unbeliever is willing to stay. Each person should serve God in the situation where He called them. Paul also commends singleness as a gift that frees a person for undivided devotion to the Lord, while saying clearly that marriage is no sin. “But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that” (7:7). And over it all: “the time is short” (7:29).

MOVEMENT FOUR

Liberty and Love (8:1–11:1)

Can a Christian eat meat that was sacrificed to an idol? Paul agrees that idols are nothing, but “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (8:1). If my freedom wounds a weaker brother’s conscience, I sin against Christ. Paul himself gave up his rights for the gospel: “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (9:22). He disciplined his body like a runner going for the prize. Then he points to Israel in the wilderness, who all ate the manna and yet fell. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples” (10:11). “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” (10:13). “Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God”(10:31).

MOVEMENT FIVE

Order at the Lord’s Table (11:2–34)

Paul addresses head coverings in worship, a passage believers have long applied in different ways, but with a clear principle about honor and God’s order. Then he turns to something worse. At their shared meals, the wealthy were eating first and getting drunk while poorer members went hungry, and they were calling it the Lord’s Supper. Paul reminds them what Jesus did on the night He was betrayed: “this do in remembrance of me” (11:24). “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come” (11:26). A man should examine himself before he eats, and discern the Lord’s body.

MOVEMENT SIX

One Body, Many Members (12:1–31)

“Now concerning spiritual gifts.” There are diversities of gifts, administrations, and operations, but the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God. “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (12:7). The church is a body. The foot is not less a part of it because it is not a hand. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of thee.” “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him” (12:18). The members that seem weaker are necessary. When one member suffers, all suffer with it. Then Paul says, “and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way” (12:31).

MOVEMENT SEVEN

The More Excellent Way (13:1–14:40)

Tongues without love are noise. Prophecy, knowledge, mountain-moving faith, and even martyrdom without love are nothing. “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up” (13:4). Every gift the Corinthians bragged about will pass away. “Charity never faileth” (13:8). “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face” (13:12). “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity”(13:13). In chapter 14, Paul applies this to their worship. Every gift exercised in the assembly must build up the church. “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace” (14:33). “Let all things be done decently and in order” (14:40).

MOVEMENT EIGHT

If Christ Be Not Raised (15:1–16:24)

Paul gives the gospel he received: “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (15:3–4). He lists the witnesses, including more than five hundred at once, most still alive. “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (15:17). “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept”(15:20). “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (15:22). The body is sown in corruption and raised in incorruption. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump… the dead shall be raised incorruptible”(15:52). “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (15:55). So be steadfast, “forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (15:58). Paul closes with the collection, travel plans, and a word in Aramaic: “Maran-atha” (16:22), “Our Lord, come.”

Christ Typology

Christ Our Passover. At Passover, Israel had to remove every bit of leaven from their homes before the lamb was slain. Paul tells the Corinthians to clean out the old leaven of malice and wickedness, “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (5:7). The Lamb has already been slain, so the household should be clean. Holiness is not how we get the Lamb. It is how we live because the Lamb was given.

The Rock That Followed Them. Israel in the wilderness “did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (10:3–4). The rock Moses struck at Horeb poured out water for a thirsty nation (Exodus 17:6). Paul does not say it was merely a picture of Christ. He says Christ was there, supplying His people in the wilderness long before Bethlehem.

The Firstfruits. Under the law, on the day after the sabbath during the week of Unleavened Bread, Israel brought the first sheaf of the barley harvest and waved it before the LORD (Leviticus 23:10–11). It was the promise that the full harvest was coming. Jesus rose on that very day, the first day of the week after the Passover sabbath. Paul calls Him “the firstfruits of them that slept” (15:20). His resurrection is the first sheaf. Ours is the harvest.

The Foundation and the Temple. Paul calls Christ the only foundation (3:11), and then tells the church, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (3:16). The glory that once filled Solomon’s temple now dwells in a people built on Christ. That is why divisions, immorality, and lawsuits are so serious: they deface God’s dwelling place.

Maranatha. Paul ends with an Aramaic prayer that the earliest believers clearly used often enough that Gentile churches in Greece knew it: “Maran-atha,” “Our Lord, come.” It is the same longing that closes the whole Bible: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus”(Revelation 22:20). It is also the word that closes every post in this series.

Personal Application

Follow Christ, not personalities. The Corinthians were not following false teachers. Paul, Apollos, and Peter were all faithful men. The problem was that the people had made them into team captains. Gifted preachers are servants, “ministers by whom ye believed” (3:5). If your faith rises and falls with a particular leader, it is built on the wrong foundation.

Your body belongs to God. Corinth said what you do with your body doesn’t matter to your spirit. Paul said it matters a great deal: your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and it was bought with a price. Holiness is not just about what you believe. It is about what you do with your eyes, your hands, and your appetites.

Let love limit your liberty. You may be free to do something, and still choose not to do it because it would harm a weaker brother or sister. Mature believers measure their choices not only by “Is this allowed?” but by “Does this build up the people around me?”

You are needed in the body. If you have felt like a foot among hands, or a member nobody notices, Paul says God placed you exactly where it pleased Him. The church is not complete without you. And if you have been tempted to tell another member “I have no need of thee,” the same chapter answers you.

Your labor is not in vain. Every verse of the resurrection chapter leads to its last line. Because Christ is risen, nothing done for Him is wasted: not the prayers no one heard, not the service no one thanked you for, not the faithfulness no one saw. Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Maranatha.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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