When asked for their favourite Pauline letter, most people take Romans or Ephesians to the ball. My heart will always be with Corinth.
The breadth and scope of 1 Corinthians are breathtaking. It is the most wide-ranging and complete letter Paul wrote; readers who are used to Paul taking several chapters of careful argument to make one or two points—like Gentiles and Jews should eat together (Galatians) or even thanks for the gift (Philippians)—will be amazed at the sheer variety of subjects that Paul tackles and the punchy clarity with which he speaks.
Here are four reasons why I love this letter:
The cross: “We preach Christ crucified” (1:23).
Grace: “What do you have that you did not receive?” (4:7).
God: “There is one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ” (8:6).
Mission: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some” (9:22).
Love: “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (13:13, ESV).
The gospel: “... that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (15:3-4, ESV).
Hope: “The last enemy to be de- stroyed is death” (15:26). It is a pithy, profound and quotable epistle.
Without 1 Corinthians it would be hard to imagine how church services actually worked in the New Testament. We would know next to nothing about the Lord’s Supper in these first-generation churches. We would have no idea how spiritual gifts are supposed to function in Christian worship. Thanks to the chaos in Corinth and Paul’s response to it, we have plenty of guidance on both counts.
The people in my community, like the people in Corinth, worship lots of different gods and have sex with lots of different people. This letter helps me think through how to help them, with specifics on practical application—sexuality, idolatry, food, divorce, remarriage, singleness, adultery, church discipline and even incest—that I would not find anywhere else.
It is vital that we think about grace, and talk about grace, but sometimes we just need to see grace. Sometimes we need to watch an exasperated apostle talking to a rebellious and divisive church with tenderness and affection and with a faith that believes in the transformation that can only come from the power of the Spirit, the example of Christ and the faithfulness of God. That’s what this letter puts so richly on display. It brings hope to “Corinthians” everywhere, including me.
Andrew Wilson is the author of 1 Corinthians For You, the latest edition to our God’s Word For You Series—expository guides by trusted Bible teachers that walk you through books of the Bible verse-by-verse in an accessible and applied way. These flexible resources can be read cover-to-cover, used in personal devotions, used to lead small group studies, or used for sermon preparation
Andrew is Teaching Pastor at King's Church London. He is the author of several books, including God of All Things, 1 Corinthians For You and Spirit and Sacrament, and is a columnist for Christianity Today. Andrew is married to Rachel and they have three children.
