Book of 1 Corinthians
Addressing church problems and teaching about love and spiritual gifts.
About the Book of 1 Corinthians
Paul's first letter to the Corinthians is the most wide-ranging of all his letters, addressing a church plagued by divisions, immorality, confusion about spiritual gifts, and misunderstanding of the resurrection. Yet it also contains some of the most sublime passages in the New Testament.
Chapter 13, the "love chapter," has been read at more weddings than perhaps any other passage in history: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud." But in context, Paul writes it about the proper use of spiritual gifts in community — the greatest of all gifts is love, which outlasts prophecy, tongues, and knowledge. Chapter 15 is a sustained, brilliant defense of the bodily resurrection: if Christ was not raised, our faith is futile. But Christ has indeed been raised, and "the last enemy to be destroyed is death."
First Corinthians also gives us the earliest written account of the Last Supper (chapter 11) and lays out the theology of the church as the "body of Christ" — different members with different gifts, all necessary, all valuable. For anyone navigating real conflict in Christian community, Paul's pastoral wisdom remains fresh and applicable.