1Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2Don’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? 3Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? 4If then you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly? 5I say this to move you to shame. Isn’t there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers? 6But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers! 7Therefore 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? 8No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers.
9Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, 10nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom. 11Some of you were such, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.
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. 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. 14Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power. 15Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.” 17But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. 18Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are 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.