1 Corinthians
King James Version · 16 chapters · 437 verses · New Testament
A letter to a church in a mess
Corinth was a wealthy port city and the church there had absorbed a great deal of it. Paul writes about factions forming around favourite preachers, a lawsuit between believers, sexual immorality the members were proud of tolerating, disorder at the Lord's table, and arguments over which spiritual gifts made you important. He answers each in turn, patiently and without pretending it is fine. And then, in the middle of the argument about gifts, he stops and writes chapter 13, on the love the King James calls charity. Near the end comes the longest treatment of the resurrection anywhere: if Christ is not raised, nothing here matters.