The Chapters – Quick Access
Basics
BOOK: 1 Corinthians
Description: A long letter written by the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth, responding to various difficulties they were having.
Author: The apostle Paul
Date written: Probably about 55AD
Chapters: 16
Brief Synopsis
- Paul visited this place at least twice, if not three times (2 Cor 13:1). On his first visit (Acts 18:1) he had stayed for a year and a half (Acts 18:11) and having preached the gospel and raised up the church there, he saw himself as their spiritual father (1 Cor 4:15)
- In reality this is probably at least the second letter he had written to this church (see 5:9,10) and he has received information about them (1:11) and indeed they had previously written to him with questions (see 7:1, 8:1, 12:1, 16:1)
- From the main headings in the Outline below it is clear that he writes to deal with specific problems that were occurring in the church there – divisions, sexual immorality, marriage difficulties, questionable practices, unruly worship and concerns about the resurrection.
Why read 1 Corinthians
Paul had been to Corinth and stayed with them for over a year and a half (see Acts 18:11) and thus had poured a tremendous amount of teaching into them. The life and the power of the Holy Spirit had clearly been with him with the result that the church was alive with that same power and presence of the Lord. However, that doesn’t stop people being people, and as the history of revivals shows, the work of the power and presence of God can be spoilt by people being people! He wrote from Ephesus (see 16:8) and referred back to his time with them. But he’s heard things about them through the apostolic grapevine and they are things that concern him, and he needs to address them. So, he
- addresses the problem of disunity (ch.1-4) adding a spiritual dimension,
- deals with things he’s heard about immorality and disputes in the church (ch.5,6)
- expounds on Christian marriage in difficult circumstances (ch.7),
- challenges them about their attitudes about food (ch.8)
- teaches about freedom and self-discipline (ch.9 & 10) reminding them of Israel’s history,
- challenges them on how they meet together (ch.11)
- goes on to teach about the right way to administer spiritual gifts (ch.12-14)
- teaches on the realities of resurrection (ch.15).
He concludes with matters of taking regular collections and then speaks about his travel plans and some final ‘in house’ directions.
We thus see a church that in many ways appears to put many modern churches to shame in the way it exercises gifts of the Spirit, but then spoils that reputation with a lot of very human failures. It thus acts as a strong reminder that spirituality is to be combined with righteousness and very practical holy living. The detail of ch.12-14 on good administration of Holy Spirit life in the church is unique in the New Testament and his teaching on practical issues is instructive while his chapter 15 on resurrection is again unique in the Bible. The reminder in that chapter that Jesus IS reigning in this world (v.25,26) and that, set against the context of the rest of the letter, reminds us that although he reigns over all, he does give us individual autonomy over how we will live out his commands and that thus challenges us to check how we are living. A lengthy but challenging book that is well worth reading.
Outline
- 1:1-9 Introduction
- 1:10-4:21 Divisions in the Church
- 1:10-17 The Fact of the Divisions
- 1:18-4:13 The Causes of the Division
- 1:18-3:4 A wrong conception of the Christian message
- 3:5-4:5 A wrong conception of Christian ministry and ministers
- 4:6-13 A wrong conception of the Christian
- 4:14-21 The Exhortation to End the Divisions
- Ch.5-6 Moral and Ethical Disorders in the Life of the Church
- Ch.5 Laxity in Church Discipline
- 6:1-11 Lawsuits before Non-Christian Judges
- 6:12-20 Licentiousness or Sexual Immorality
- Ch.7 Instruction on Marriage
- 7:1-7 The Prologue: General Principles
- 7:8-24 The Problems of the Married
- 7:25-40 The Problems of the Unmarried
- 8:1-11:1 Instruction on Christian Freedom
- Ch.8 Food sacrificed to Idols
- Ch.9 The Rights of one serving the Lord
- 10:1-13 A Warning from the History of Israel
- 10:14-22 Idol Feasts & the Lord’s Supper
- 10:23-11:1 The Believer’s Freedom
- 11:2-14:40 Instruction on Public Worship
- 11:2-16 Propriety in Worship
- 11:17-34 The Lord’s Supper
- Ch.12-14 Spiritual Gifts
- 12:1-3 The test of the gifts
- 12:4-11 The unity of the gifts
- 12:12-31 The diversity of the gifts
- Ch.13 The Primacy of love
- 14:1-25 The superiority of prophecy over tongues
- 14:26-40 Rules governing public worship
- Ch.15 Instruction on the Resurrection
- 15:1-34 The Certainty of the Resurrection
- 15:35-57 The Consideration of Certain Objections
- 15:58 The Concluding Appeal
- Ch.16 Conclusion: Practical and Personal Matters
Concluding Comments
Thus we see that this is a pastoral epistle, from the father of the church there in Corinth, while he was in Ephesus, to address a variety of problems that had been drawn to his attention. Perhaps we may see the difficulties we have observed as follows:
i) Attitudinal (behavioral) problems
- Divisions
- Disputes
- Lack of care at the Lord’s Supper
ii) Moral or ethical problems
- Sexual immorality
iii) Practical wisdom difficulties pertinent to that day
- Eating food given to idols
- Marrying in a day of harsh persecution
- Propriety in worship in the light of the culture of the day
iv) Administrative difficulties
- Administering spiritual gifts
v) Theological difficulties
- Resurrection of the dead