Book introduction
The book of 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians is Paul’s letter to a gifted, divided church. He answers their questions and corrects their problems: factions, lawsuits, sex, food offered to idols, worship, and the resurrection. In the middle is his poem on love.
Read 1 Corinthians 13Start at chapter 1
Who wrote 1 Corinthians?
Paul, with Sosthenes. Scholars agree it is Paul’s.
When was it written?
About AD 54–55, from Ephesus.
Main themes
- Christ crucified
- The cross looks foolish and is God’s wisdom.
- One body
- Many gifts, one Spirit, and every part needed.
- Love
- Chapter 13: without love, gifts are noise.
- The resurrection
- If Christ is not raised, faith is futile. But he is.
Outline of 1 Corinthians
Key verses
For 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.
No temptation has seized you except the kind that human beings commonly face. God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but along with the temptation he will also make the way out, so that you can bear up under it.
Love is patient; it is kind. Love does not envy; love does not brag; it is not puffed up. It does not behave disgracefully, it does not pursue its own advantage, it is not quick to anger, it does not keep an account of wrongs. It takes no delight in injustice, but shares the joy of the truth. It bears everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything.
For first and foremost I handed on to you what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in keeping with the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he has been raised on the third day in keeping with the Scriptures,
Quoted from the Lumin Translation.
Where to start
Read chapter 13, then chapter 15 on the resurrection.
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Questions about 1 Corinthians?
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