Pauline Epistles · New Testament
1 Corinthians
c. AD 55
- Section
- Pauline Epistles · New Testament
- Events span
- c. AD 55
- Written
- c. AD 55, from Ephesus
- Author
- Paul the Apostle
Paul writes to a gifted but divided and immoral church in Corinth, addressing their factions, a case of incest, lawsuits, sexual ethics, marriage, food offered to idols, order in worship, spiritual gifts, and the resurrection — anchoring it all in the cross and in love.
Key themes
- Unity in the church
- The cross and true wisdom
- Sexual purity
- Love (1 Corinthians 13)
- The resurrection of the dead
The letter's message
- Paul pleads for unity and boasts only in Christ crucified, not human wisdom
- He rebukes their tolerance of sexual immorality and lawsuits among believers
- Guidance on marriage, singleness, and food offered to idols
- Order in worship and the right practice of the Lord's Supper
- Spiritual gifts are given to serve the one body of Christ
- "The greatest of these is charity" — the supremacy of love
- The reality of the resurrection: "in Christ shall all be made alive"
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”