Paul addresses divisions and disputes in a fractious young church.
First Corinthians responds to reports and questions from a congregation in the Greek port city of Corinth, working through a series of practical conflicts over leadership, sex, worship, and belief.
Paul confronts a community split into factions attached to different leaders, and members taking each other to court. He argues that such rivalry misunderstands the message and the people who deliver it, who are only servants of a shared task.
The middle chapters address questions the Corinthians had raised: marriage and singleness, whether to eat meat associated with temples, disorder at their common meal, and competition over dramatic spiritual gifts. Paul's chapter on love sits at the center of this discussion.
Some in Corinth apparently denied a future resurrection of the dead. Paul argues that this belief cannot be separated from the claim that Jesus was raised, and closes with an extended reflection on what a resurrected body might mean.