The Book of 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians is written to a gifted, divided, and compromised church in one of the most immoral cities of the empire. The Corinthians boasted in factions, tolerated sin the pagans blushed at, sued one another, confused liberty with licence, and disordered the Lord's Supper and the gathered assembly. Paul answers every problem the same way: he takes the church back to the cross, 'for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.'

The letter contains the great chapters on love and on the resurrection, without which faith is vain and we are still in our sins. These chapter-by-chapter commentaries trace the wisdom of the cross applied to division, immorality, worship, and hope, in a church that could be Corinth or could be ours.