1Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ. 2I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, you aren’t ready even now, 3for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men? 4For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly?
5Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed, and each as the Lord gave to him? 6I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase. 7So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.
10According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it. 11For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is. 14If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward. 15If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.
16Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.
18Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.” 20And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.” 21Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, 23and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
The Apostle Paul identifies himself as the writer of 1 Corinthians twice within the epistle (1:1-2; 16:21). Pauline authorship of 1 Corinthians is almost unanimously accepted throughout Biblical scholarship. Clement of Rome (ca. A.D. 95), one of the earliest Church Fathers, confirmed Paul's authorship in his To the Corinthians (ch. 47). Pauline authorship was also confirmed by Polycarp, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian. 1 Corinthians was one of the most quoted of Paul's epistles in the writings of the early Church Fathers.
Paul probably wrote 1 Corinthians while ministering at Ephesus during his third missionary journey. In 1 Corinthians 16:8 Paul says that he would remain in Ephesus until Pentecost. This, coupled with Acts 20:31, indicates that the time of writing was in the last year of his three-year stay in Ephesus. That would place the date of the epistle in the spring of A.D. 55/56. Most likely, Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus carried the epistle from Ephesus to Corinth (see 1 Cor 16:18). The church would have been about four to five years old when they received the first Corinthian letter (see "Church at Corinth" for founding date).
Paul had left Corinth with Aquilla and Priscilla in the spring A.D. 53 to continue his second missionary journey. On his third journey, during his stay at Ephesus, he received word from the Corinthian believers. Paul's main purpose in this first letter to the Corinthians was to respond to the two pieces of correspondence he had received from the people of Chloe's house and from the church.
First, Paul had received a disturbing report from the household of Chloe (1:11). The report centered on divisions and on immorality in the church. These problems arose because the young Corinthian church had failed to protect itself from the decadent culture of the city. The immaturity of the Corinthians had given way to sectarian divisions. Believers rallied under the names of men in factions rather than uniting under the name of Christ (3:1-9). The pride that characterized Corinth had seeped into the church and divided it because men and their wisdom had been exalted over God's (3:18-23).
Chloe's household had also reported to Paul that the Corinthian believers were dragging each other into the pagan courts to settle their disputes (6:1). The arguments grew from their immature divisive spirits, while their desire to settle differences in pagan courts instead of the church illustrated their inflated estimation of human wisdom. Paul also confronted the sexual immorality that had grown in the church. Paul in a previous letter (not preserved by God for the church) had warned the believers to deal strongly with fornicators in their midst (5:9-11), but evidently the church had not corrected their negligence.
Second, Paul answered inquiries delivered from Corinth by Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus (16:15-18). The believers had questions concerning several practical issues and on proper worship. Paul first dealt with obligations of marriage and singleness (7:1-40). He emphasized the importance of each one being content to live in the state that God had called them. Paul then developed a lengthy section (8:1-11:1) to answer concerns about Christian liberty in a depraved culture. Paul purposed not to strangle their liberty, but to protect them from falling back into idolatry. His guiding principle for liberty was God's glory. “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (10:31).
Following this, Paul gave the Corinthians principles for orderly worship. Paul taught the believers concerning women's decorum in worship services whenever they would participate in public prophesying and praying (11:2-16) and then reminds his readers of the solemnity which ought to characterize the observance of the Lord's supper (11:17-34). Paul closes the section with an extended discourse on the place of spiritual gifts in the church. Though the church had been considerably gifted, their immaturity and pride caused many abuses of their gifts. Paul reminds them that their spiritual gifts came from God (12:11) and that they ought to serve to unify and edify His body (12:24-25; 14:1-4). Within this section, Paul wrote the great love chapter (ch. 13). The attitude behind the exercising of spiritual gifts was to be love, the fruit of the Spirit, which, in turn, was generated by the filling of the Spirit.
Before Paul closed his letter, he corrected a doctrinal matter within the church by writing the most detailed New Testament apologetic for the resurrection of Christ and Christians (15:1-58). To a church shot through with problems, this chapter became a fountain of encouragement bursting forth from the victory wrought by God through the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ (15:57).
The major purpose of 1 Corinthians was the correction of Christian conduct. Paul's eighteen months of intense labor and his deep compassion for the Corinthian church moved him to answer the reported problems quickly. He purposed to rebuke the immature pride that had caused the divisions, litigations and abuse of spiritual gifts. He sought also to instruct his readers in relationships, in Christian freedoms, in worship and in the doctrine of the resurrection.