Paul writes 1 Corinthians to a congregation whose life together has been damaged by rival loyalties. Some believers appeal to Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or Christ as though Christian identity could be organized around competing teachers. The question in 1 Corinthians 1:13 interrupts that pattern with three questions: whether Christ can be divided, whether Paul was crucified for them, and whether they were baptized in Paul’s name. Paul is not collecting information; he is exposing the contradiction between their confession and their behavior.
First Corinthians 6:19 appears in Paul’s response to sexual immorality within the Corinthian church. He has already argued that sexual sin is not merely a private act, because the believer’s body is joined to Christ. The verse asks whether the readers know that their bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in them and has been given by God. Paul’s question assumes that Christian faith concerns embodied life rather than only inward belief or religious ceremony.
First Corinthians 13:4 begins the famous description of love in the middle of Paul’s teaching about spiritual gifts and the gathered church. The Corinthians were eager to display gifts, yet their meetings were marked by rivalry, self-importance, and concern for status. Paul therefore shows that giftedness without love does not produce the Christian maturity the congregation needs. The chapter is not a detached meditation on romance; it explains the character that must govern the use of gifts for the good of the body.
LESSON 4
Resurrection Is Essential
Primary passage: 1 Corinthians 15:20
First Corinthians 15:20 stands at the turning point of Paul’s extended argument about resurrection. Some in Corinth were apparently denying or questioning the resurrection of the dead, and Paul has shown that such a denial would unravel the Christian message. If Christ was not raised, apostolic preaching is empty, faith is futile, and those who died trusting Christ have perished. After pressing those consequences, Paul announces that Christ has in fact been raised from the dead.
