A Year in 1 Corinthians

The modern world moves at 100 mph. We have no shortage of commotion or controversies. And Christians are not immune. Perhaps now more than ever, it’s so easy for believers to feel increasing tensions and friction, even within the family of God.

At the Great Commission, Jesus gave simple marching orders. Go, preach the good news, multiply disciples. Inherent to his call is the notion of “spread out and share.” While he expected his disciples to scatter, his message was never, “be divided.”

In the 1st century, the Apostle Paul helped to plant numerous churches and worked to keep many others on the right path. In the city of Corinth, the Lord had done an amazing work (see Acts 18). The gospel had saved many, and an adolescent church was taking form. Yet, just like today, the cares of the world ran deep. The Christians in Corinth had been sealed with a new love. Yet, they needed help living out their new affections. 

To help the growing church in Corinth, God inspired Paul to write the letter now known as 1 Corinthians. In its pages, Paul addresses very specific issues plaguing the Christians in the ancient metropolis. He cites factions, hero worship, sexual sins, lawsuits, eating food offered to idols, head coverings, speaking in tongues, and uttering prophecies—just to name a few!

The beauty of the letter is that even though Paul speaks directly to the Corinthian issues, every generation of the church should listen up. 1 Corinthians contains at least two primary themes that we’ll unpack this year at Crosspoint.

First, an exhortation and then an exclamation.

Labor in Love

Throughout the letter, Paul calls the church to love one another. Whereas we see the importance of love elsewhere in the New Testament, here Paul is burdened by the Corinthians’ unloving behavior. As gentle as he can be, Paul rebukes how they’ve begun to turn against one another. Instead of being a compelling community for Christ, they’re modeling the judgment, comparison, and infighting of the pagan world around them. 

What is Paul’s exhortation? As brothers and sisters in Christ, we must labor together in love. 

In contrast to other religions, Christianity is built on sacrificial love. In John 3, we read that God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to take the penalty for our sin. In turn, if we trust in the finished work of Christ, our lives should be marked by a love for God (2:9, 8:3) and a love for His people (13:1-13, 16:14). 

The Christian life is defined by love, and the church should be the love-epicenter for each of us. As we model His love within the family of God, we then extend His love to the world. Christ’s sacrifice demands that we prioritize one another above ourselves, and His Great Commission requires us to work together for a common purpose. His sacrifice becomes our sacrifice. His identity, our identity.

Undergirding all of this is the heartbeat of the gospel. After addressing matters of Christian behavior and church life in the first part of 1 Corinthians, Paul turns his attention to that which matters most. What is his strongest exclamation? It’s the resurrection of Christ. 

What Matters Most

Beginning in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul explains how all our hope is anchored in Christ’s resurrection. Hope for today, hope for tomorrow. Hope as we now share in the fruits of His resurrection, hope that we too will one day be raised, and hope that the resurrected Savior will return soon to redeem all things. 1 Corinthians 15 is a call to confidence and courage. Simply put, amid the fog of this world and the pressures of the Christian life, the resurrection is what matters most.

How often do distractions cloud our decisions, or disputes dampen our joy? In the modern church, we can wrestle with our purpose, whether we are doing church the right way. We can become consumed with pragmatics and doctrines over which we can agree to disagree.

Yet, 1 Corinthians aims to cut through the vines, take hold of our hearts, and recalibrate our priorities. The resurrection is everything. It’s in the resurrection that we find the substance of our faith and the strength of our unity. As Paul says, it is the only matter “of first importance” (15:3) and the central thrust of our lives (15:56-58). And as the church, it is the resurrection that directs and grounds our gathering and our scattering.

Two thousand years removed, we still need the encouragement in these pages. Join us this semester as we study this ancient, yet timeless letter together.

Beginning Sunday, September 6, we’ll unpack 1 Corinthians 1-8, “Labor in Love.” And then beginning in January 2027, we’ll consider “What Matters Most” as we continue with 1 Corinthians 9-16.

To go deeper into 1 Corinthians, please see the resources below and follow our reading plan highlighted above.