“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”Read the surrounding chapter
Time, place, and setting
- Time
- Paul wrote from Ephesus, probably in AD 54 or 55; the exact year is reconstructed. 5
- Place
- The letter addresses Corinth in Achaia. Ephesus, Macedonia and Jerusalem belong to its network of ministry, travel and relief. 1
- Setting
- Reports of division and a letter of questions prompt instruction about Christ, holiness, marriage, meals, worship, spiritual gifts and resurrection. 1
1 Corinthians 1:18 to 31 and 2:1 to 16
The word of the cross is the controlling announcement of this passage. Paul does not replace the crucified Christ with an impressive teacher’s reputation. God’s action challenges boasting in wisdom, strength and status, and Christ becomes wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption for those who belong to him. Chapter 2 recalls Paul’s weak presence and reliance on the Spirit before describing the wisdom God reveals. The statement about what eye has not seen must be followed by verse 10, where the Spirit’s revelation is explicitly named. The paragraph is about receiving God’s saving wisdom, not simply postponing all knowledge until heaven. 1
The cross challenges the superiority attached to cultural prestige. 15 The correction also has a pastoral voice that complicates opponent theories. 7 Paul’s point can be understood without inventing a single secret group behind every Corinthian question. Isaiah 29:14, Isaiah 40:13 and Jeremiah 9:23 to 24 supply important scriptural contexts. The continuation in chapter 3 brings the Spirit discussion into envy and strife, demonstrating that knowledge must be heard alongside the way people treat one another. The gospel gives a different basis for confidence and a different pattern for the church’s relationships. 1
1 Corinthians 3:5 to 17 and 6:9 to 20
Planting, watering and building describe work under God’s care. Christ alone is the foundation, and the quality of a worker’s construction is tested. The congregation is then named as God’s temple, with a plural address identifying their shared life. The corporate holiness theme carries into chapter 5. 17 Chapter 6 separately speaks of the body’s belonging to Christ and the Spirit’s indwelling in a discussion of sexual conduct. These images have related concerns but different immediate subjects. Reading the transitions helps preserve both responsibility for the church and the value of bodily life. 1
The reminder that the Corinthians were washed, sanctified and justified is essential to the moral appeal. Paul names the Lord Jesus and the Spirit rather than presenting changed conduct as a purchase of divine acceptance. The Spirit’s ethical work accompanies his empowering gifts. 9 Romans 6 and 8 and Galatians 5 help explain that Christian connection. God raised the Lord and will raise believers, so the body is not disposable. Holiness is expressed in allegiance, truthful relationships and the honour given to persons who belong to Christ, with grace sustaining the call to change. 1
1 Corinthians 7:1 to 16 and 25 to 40
The opening makes marital responsibilities mutual and describes temporary abstinence through agreement and prayer. Paul also speaks to unmarried people, widows, separating spouses and believers whose partners do not share their faith. His wish for singleness is qualified by differing gifts. 8 The chapter’s advice concerning present distress belongs beside its explicit affirmation that marrying is not sin. Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 19 and Mark 10 provides the Gospel context for the instruction Paul attributes to the Lord, while Paul identifies his counsel for other cases rather than pretending that each situation had been separately addressed by Jesus. 1
Contract language illuminates the binding seriousness of marriage. 20 Interpretations of release in verse 15 and of the virgin relationship in verses 36 to 38 differ, so the full argument should remain audible. The chapter repeatedly aims at peace, faithfulness and devoted service to the Lord. Those aims make room for married and unmarried believers without measuring one against an invented universal life sequence. The repeated references to calling also belong to the community’s actual social conditions. They deserve careful interpretation alongside Paul’s statement that people were bought with a price and belong to Christ. 1
1 Corinthians 8:1 to 13 and 10:14 to 33
Knowledge that there is one God does not remove the responsibility to care for a person whose conscience is vulnerable. Paul names that person as a brother for whom Christ died. His own restraint of apostolic rights in chapter 9 supplies an example before chapter 10 turns to Israel’s wilderness failures. The food and leader arguments share a pattern of humble imitation. 14 The cup and bread then express communion with Christ and the one body, making the cultic table question an issue of allegiance rather than a discussion of food chemistry. 1
Inscription evidence supports the ordinary Corinthian meat market. 10 Paul permits market buying without an investigation of every purchase, while identified sacrificial food in a neighbour’s home raises a question about the other person’s conscience. His concluding aim is another person’s good and salvation, with everything done to God’s glory. Romans 14 and 15 provide a related complete Christian context for food, welcome and edification. The passages honour conscience while refusing to turn knowledge and liberty into tools of contempt. They make Christian freedom concrete in the patience and restraint exercised around a shared table. 1
1 Corinthians 11:17 to 34
Paul begins with the gathering’s divisions and the humiliation of those who have little. He then recounts the tradition of the Lord Jesus taking bread and the cup on the night he was betrayed. Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22 give the named Gospel supper contexts. In First Corinthians, proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes belongs beside examining oneself and discerning the body. The severe warning concerns the congregation’s abusive manner of sharing this meal. It calls them to face the wrong they are doing rather than simply to decide whether they feel spiritually impressive. 1
Earlier correspondence helps explain Paul’s continuing pastoral engagement. 6 His stated goal at the meal includes receiving one another and resolving the conduct that brings judgment. The passage names weakness, sickness and death in this specific situation; it does not provide a universal diagnosis of everyone who is ill. Its practical force is serious: people celebrating Christ’s self giving death must attend to those being shamed in their midst. Second Corinthians 8 and 9 and James 2 provide explicit contexts for material help, willing generosity and rejection of partiality toward the wealthy. 1
1 Corinthians 12:12 to 31 and 13:1 to 13
The body image answers rivalry by insisting that differing members belong together. The apparently weaker members are necessary, and their suffering or honour concerns the whole body. Paul’s questions about whether all possess the same public ministries protect the body’s diversity. Chapter 13 then makes love indispensable to every impressive gift. Charity here is wider than financial giving. 3 The patient and kind character described in verses 4 to 7 must be read with its delight in truth and refusal to rejoice in wrongdoing. It is the manner in which the members are to live together. 1
The love chapter advances the exhortation about gifts. 13 Paul contrasts partial prophecy and knowing with face to face fullness, giving present believers humility and future hope. The passage’s enduring love should not be separated from the next chapter’s command to desire spiritual gifts. For Pentecostal readers, healing, prophecy and tongues are sought within this loving body rather than used to rank people. Romans 12 and Ephesians 4 provide companion contexts for differing ministries, mutual service and growth in love. The gospel’s grace gives the gifts their source and love gives their exercise a recognisable shape. 1
1 Corinthians 14:1 to 5 and 26 to 40
Prophecy is described through edification, exhortation and comfort. The Greek building up term is repeated in the chapter’s general rule for all contributions. Public tongues need interpretation so other people can understand; prophetic speech is weighed, and speakers yield space to one another. Order makes shared learning and encouragement possible. 4 Paul’s final appeal both desires prophecy and refuses to forbid tongues. Acts 2, 10 and 19 and First Thessalonians 5 make the Christian context of empowered speech and discernment explicit. The Spirit’s activity is welcomed with responsibility for its communal use. 1
The women’s speech directions must also hear chapter 11’s prayer and prophecy. Marital context is one proposed explanation of the restriction. 12 Ancient public conventions provide a further disputed interpretive comparison. 18 Neither reconstruction supplies every missing detail of the Corinthian gathering. The recurring aim remains clear across the instructions: speech should honour God, strengthen people and allow the congregation to hear and respond. The invitation to learn and be comforted belongs with the Spirit’s diverse gifts and the love commanded in chapter 13, not with a competition over who can dominate the meeting. 1
1 Corinthians 15:1 to 28 and 35 to 58
Paul recounts Christ’s death for sins, burial, resurrection and appearances before answering the denial of resurrection among some Corinthians. His last appearance and least status are different statements. 19 Grace explains his changed life and labour. If Christ has not been raised, the proclamation and faith collapse; if he has, his resurrection is the firstfruits of those who belong to him. The firstfruits image has festival associations. 16 The argument moves toward the destruction of death, using Psalms 8 and 110 to speak of Christ’s reign. 1
The seed and bodily comparisons answer how resurrection can involve transformation. Spiritual body describes the raised body within Paul’s contrast with present mortality, not an abandonment of bodily hope. Christ’s saving history grounds the future expectation. 11 Genesis 2, Isaiah 25 and Hosea 13 give context to the Adam, death and victory language. The final thanks names victory through Jesus Christ, followed immediately by a call to steadfast work. Chapter 16’s relief collection shows one practical expression of that work, while its concluding love command gathers the same communal purpose heard throughout the letter. 1
Sources
Numbered references support the material above. Scripture quotations use the KJV.
- The Holy Bible, King James VersionKing James translators · 1611
1 Corinthians 1 to 16; Genesis 1, 2, 3; Exodus 12, 14, 16, 17, 32; Numbers 14, 16, 21, 25; Deuteronomy 22, 24, 25, 32; Job 5; Psalms 8, 24, 94, 110; Isaiah 25, 28, 29, 40, 64; Jeremiah 9; Hosea 13; Matthew 19, 26, 28; Mark 10, 14; Luke 22, 24; John 14, 15, 16, 20; Acts 2, 10, 15, 18, 19, 20; Romans 6, 8, 12, 14, 15; 2 Corinthians 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9; Galatians 3, 5; Ephesians 2, 4; 1 Thessalonians 4, 5; James 2, 5; Greek 1 Corinthians 14:3 and 14:26
View the source - A Greek English Lexicon of the New TestamentJoseph Henry Thayer
Complete historical entry 3619, edification and contextual uses in 1 Corinthians 14:3 and 14:26
View the source - The First Epistle to the Corinthians, Cambridge Bible for Schools and CollegesJ. J. Lias · 1896
Complete historical chapter 13 notes and host displayed stereotyped edition title 1896
View the source - Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New TestamentHeinrich August Wilhelm Meyer
Complete historical notes 1 Corinthians 14:26 to 33
View the source - Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Volume 15, 1 and 2 CorinthiansWilliam Baker; Ralph P. Martin with Carl N. Toney · 2009
Printed pages 3 to 7, introduction, author, dating and occasion; title and copyright, PDF pages 4 to 5, 2009 edition.
View the source - Paul, the Corinthians and the Birth of Christian HermeneuticsMargaret M. Mitchell · 2010
Printed 5 to 8 official licensed excerpt
View the source - Wisdom and Knowledge in 1 CorinthiansE. Earle Ellis · 1974
Printed 83 to 85
View the source - Secular and Christian Responses to Corinthian Famines; 1 Corinthians 7:6 to 7: A Caveat and a Framework for the Sayings in 7:8 to 24Bruce W. Winter · 1989
Printed 94 to 96 and 99 to 102; Printed 62 to 65 (1997)
View the source - The Spirit of Prophecy and Pauline PneumatologyArchie Hui · 1999
Printed 108 to 110
View the source - The Meat Market at Corinth, 1 Corinthians 10:25David W. J. Gill · 1992
Printed 390 to 393
View the source - On Raising Osiris in 1 Corinthians 15Nicholas Perrin · 2007
Printed 125 to 127
View the source - Gender Versus Marital Concerns: Does 1 Corinthians 11:2 to 16 Address the Issues of Male Female or Husband Wife?Preston T. Massey · 2013
Printed 252 to 255
View the source - Insights from Cicero on Paul’s Reasoning in 1 Corinthians 12 to 14: Love Sandwich or Five Course Meal?James Patrick · 2004
Printed 57 to 60
View the source - Divisions Over Leaders and Food Offered to Idols: The Parallel Thematic Structures of 1 Corinthians 4:6 to 21 and 8:1 to 11:1E. Coye Still III · 2004
Printed 36 to 39
View the source - Triune Beauty and the Ugly Cross: Towards a Theological AestheticJohn Mark Hart · 2015
Printed 297 to 299 and 302 to 304
View the source - Jewish Pilgrim Festivals and Calendar in Paul’s Ministry with the Gentile ChurchesJin K. Hwang · 2013
Printed 103 to 106
View the source - Temple and Holiness in 1 Corinthians 5Brian S. Rosner · 1991
Printed 141 to 144
View the source - Paul’s Conflicting Statements on Female Public Speaking, 1 Corinthians 11:5, and Silence, 1 Corinthians 14:34 to 35: A New SuggestionArmin D. Baum · 2014
Printed 248 to 250 and 271 to 273
View the source - 1 Corinthians 15:8: Paul the Last ApostlePeter R. Jones · 1985
Printed 7 to 9 and 11 to 14
View the source - 1 Corinthians 7 in the Light of the Graeco Roman Marriage and Divorce Papyri; 1 Corinthians 7 in the Light of the Jewish Greek and Aramaic Marriage and Divorce PapyriDavid Instone Brewer · 2001
Printed 103 to 105 and 113 to 115; Printed 240 to 242 (2001)
View the source