New Testament
1 Corinthians
Paul wrote to a young, gifted, quarrelling church in the port city of Corinth, sorting out their divisions, their freedoms and their worship. It is where we find the great chapter on love, words read at countless weddings and meant for every ordinary day.
1 Corinthians 1
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- 1 Corinthians 1:2
to the assembly of God which is at Corinth, those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours:
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 1:11-13
For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions amongst you. Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” and, “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptised into the name of Paul?
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 1:18
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 1:26
For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble;
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 1:26-29
For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble; but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the things that are strong. God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that don’t exist, that he might bring to nothing the things that exist, that no flesh should boast before God.
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1 Corinthians 3
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- 1 Corinthians 3:1-2
Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, you aren’t ready even now,
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 3:2
I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, you aren’t ready even now,
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 3:11
For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 3:16
Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
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1 Corinthians 4
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- 1 Corinthians 4:6
Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to think beyond the things which are written, that none of you be puffed up against one another.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 4:8
You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you!
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 4:18-19
Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing. And I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.
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1 Corinthians 5
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- 1 Corinthians 5:2
You are arrogant, and didn’t mourn instead, that he who had done this deed might be removed from amongst you.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 5:6-8
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump? Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place. Therefore let’s keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
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1 Corinthians 6
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- 1 Corinthians 6:1-8
Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbour, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly? I say this to move you to shame. Isn’t there even one wise man amongst you who would be able to decide between his brothers? But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers! Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 6:12
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are expedient. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 6:13
“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 6:14
Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 6:16-17
Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
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1 Corinthians 7
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- 1 Corinthians 7:10-11
But to the married I command, not I, but the Lord, that the wife not leave her husband (but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 7:15
Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 7:21
Were you called being a bondservant? Don’t let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 7:23
You were bought with a price. Don’t become bondservants of men.
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1 Corinthians 8
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- 1 Corinthians 8:1
Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
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1 Corinthians 9
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- 1 Corinthians 9:5
Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 9:24
Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, so that you may win.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 9:24-25
Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, so that you may win. Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.
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1 Corinthians 10
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- 1 Corinthians 10:4
and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 10:31
Whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
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1 Corinthians 11
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- 1 Corinthians 11:17-22
But in giving you this command I don’t praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist amongst you, and I partly believe it. For there also must be factions amongst you, that those who are approved may be revealed amongst you. When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken. What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 11:21
For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 11:28
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
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1 Corinthians 13
Faith That Can Move Mountains
“If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13:4Love Is Patient
“Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7Love Is Patient And Kind
“Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:7Love Endures All Things
“bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:11I Put The Ways of Childhood Behind Me
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.”
1 Corinthians 13:13Faith Hope Love
“But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three. The greatest of these is love.”
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- 1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
Read the passage article - 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;
Read the passage article - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Read the passage article - 1 Corinthians 13:5
doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;
Read the passage article - 1 Corinthians 13:7
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Read the passage article - 1 Corinthians 13:8
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 13:8-9
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 13:11-12
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 13:13
But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three. The greatest of these is love.
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1 Corinthians 15
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- 1 Corinthians 15:7
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 15:37
That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 15:42-44
So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 15:54
But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
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1 Corinthians 16
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- 1 Corinthians 16:13
Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!
Discussed in: - 1 Corinthians 16:21
This greeting is by me, Paul, with my own hand.
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More about 1 Corinthians
First Corinthians is Paul writing to a church he knew and loved, and worried about. Corinth was a busy port city, wealthy, cosmopolitan and morally loose, and the young church there had soaked up a fair amount of its surroundings. They were gifted people, genuinely so, but they were also quarrelling, splitting into factions, arguing over leaders and freedoms and the right way to worship. Paul does not write them off. He rolls up his sleeves and works through their problems one by one, and in doing so he leaves us a letter that is wonderfully practical about what it actually means to live as the church in a messy world.
Much of the letter is Paul answering specific questions they had sent him, which gives it a back-and-forth feel, almost like reading one side of a long correspondence. He tackles their divisions, their lawsuits, their confusion about marriage and singleness, about food and conscience, about order in their gatherings. Along the way he reminds them that their very bodies matter to God, that each believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit and was bought at a price (6:19-20). It is a striking thing to say to people in a culture that treated the body casually, and it still cuts against the grain today.
Then, right in the middle of all this troubleshooting, Paul lifts his eyes and writes the chapter that has been read at countless weddings ever since. He has just been talking about spiritual gifts, and he stops to say that without love they amount to nothing. You could have faith enough to move mountains, but without love you are nothing (13:2). Then comes the description so many of us half know by heart: love is patient, love is kind (13:4), it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (13:7). It is not a sentimental passage. Set against the bickering of Corinth, it is a quiet rebuke and a high and beautiful calling.
The chapter ends by setting love above even the greatest virtues. Faith, hope and love remain, Paul writes, and the greatest of these is love (13:13). He has just said that we now see only in part, as in a dim mirror, and that one day we will see fully; for now, he urges them to put childish ways behind them (13:11) and grow up into love. If your church or your family feels more like Corinth than you would like, take heart. Paul wrote this letter for exactly that situation. He did not give up on them, and the way forward he points to is not cleverness or strength but love, patiently practised, day after ordinary day.
Questions about 1 Corinthians
- Why did Paul write 1 Corinthians?
- Paul founded the church in Corinth and then moved on, and while he was away he heard troubling reports about it and also received a letter with questions. First Corinthians is his reply. The church was divided into factions, tolerating serious moral problems, suing one another, and confused about marriage, worship and spiritual gifts. So the letter is largely Paul addressing real, specific problems in a young and struggling congregation. That is what makes it so useful. It shows us early Christians who were far from perfect, and a pastor who loved them enough to be honest, patient and clear about how they ought to live.
- Is 1 Corinthians 13 only about romantic love?
- It is read at so many weddings that many assume so, but no. Paul wrote chapter thirteen to a quarrelling church, right in the middle of a discussion about spiritual gifts. The love he describes, patient, kind, not envious or proud, bearing and enduring all things, is the love that ought to hold a community together. It applies beautifully to marriage, of course, but its first home is the church and indeed any relationship. Set against the rivalry and pride of Corinth, the chapter is a challenge as much as a comfort. It tells us that without love, even our most impressive gifts count for nothing.
- What does it mean that the body is a temple in 1 Corinthians 6?
- In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Paul tells the Corinthians that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who lives in them, and that they are not their own, for they were bought at a price. He is writing to people in a culture that treated the body as something to be used however one pleased. Paul says the opposite: the body matters, because God's own Spirit dwells there. It is a call to live with self-respect and reverence rather than carelessness. The point is not that the body is shameful but that it is sacred, belonging to the God who redeemed the whole of us, body included.
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