1 Corinthians 1

Introduction

First Corinthians opens with Paul's greeting to the church he founded in Corinth and his thanksgiving for God's grace among them. But the warmth of the opening quickly yields to the letter's first urgent concern: the church is splintered into rival groups, each rallying around a preferred teacher, whether Paul, Apollos, Cephas (Peter), or even Christ. This is more than a matter of personality or taste. It is a distortion of the gospel, shaped in part by the Corinthians' attraction to Greek rhetorical culture, where eloquent teachers gathered loyal followings like rival philosophical schools.

Paul does not enter the competition or argue that one teacher is superior. He rejects the whole framework. He points instead to the cross — a symbol of shame and weakness in the ancient world — as the clearest revelation of God's wisdom and power. The cross overturns every human system of status. God did not choose the wise, powerful, or well-born to build His church, but the foolish and weak, so that no one could boast before Him. The chapter thus lays the theological foundation for the rest of the letter: Christ crucified redefines wisdom, strength, and significance.

Greeting (vv. 1–3)

Notes

• κλητὸς ἀπόστολος ("called apostle") — Paul begins by establishing his authority. The word klētos ("called") shows that his apostleship is not self-appointed but grounded in God's summons. That matters in a church divided over human leaders: Paul starts with God's initiative, not his own credentials.

• Σωσθένης ("Sosthenes") — This is likely the same Sosthenes named in Acts 18:17, the synagogue ruler in Corinth who was beaten before Gallio's tribunal. If so, he had since become a believer and was now with Paul in Ephesus, a living testimony to the gospel's power in Corinth.

• ἡγιασμένοις ("having been sanctified/made holy") — The perfect passive participle marks a completed action whose effects persist: the Corinthians have already been set apart by God's action in Christ, even though much of the letter will correct their behavior. Their holiness is first a reality God establishes, then a pattern they must live out.

• κλητοῖς ἁγίοις ("called saints/holy ones") — The same root, klētos ("called"), used of Paul's apostleship is now applied to all believers. Every Christian is called, not only apostles. The word hagiois ("saints, holy ones") does not describe a spiritual elite but all God's people, set apart for Him. The translation "called to be saints" preserves both present identity and ongoing vocation.

• Paul's address extends beyond Corinth to "all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place." This broadens the audience and shows that what he writes to Corinth has wider relevance. The phrase "call on the name" echoes Joel 2:32 (quoted by Peter in Acts 2:21), identifying Jesus with the LORD of the Old Testament.

Thanksgiving (vv. 4–9)

Notes

• χάριτι τοῦ Θεοῦ ("the grace of God") — Paul's thanksgiving centers on God's grace, not the Corinthians' achievements. Even his gratitude for their gifts points back to God as the source.

• ἐν παντὶ λόγῳ καὶ πάσῃ γνώσει ("in all speech and all knowledge") — The Corinthians were gifted in logos ("speech/word") and gnōsis ("knowledge"), the very areas fueling their divisions. Paul affirms these gifts as real while preparing his critique: they come from God and are meant to build up the church, not create rival camps.

• χαρίσματι ("gift of grace") — This comes from the same root as charis ("grace"). The translation "gift of grace" rather than simply "spiritual gift" preserves that connection. The Corinthians' gifts are not earned achievements but gracious endowments, a point Paul will develop at length in chapters 12-14.

• ἀποκάλυψιν ("revealing/revelation") — From apokalyptō ("to unveil, uncover"), this is the word behind "Apocalypse," the title of the book of Revelation. Here it refers to Christ's return, when what is now hidden will be fully disclosed.

• πιστὸς ὁ Θεός ("faithful is God") — Paul closes the thanksgiving by grounding everything in God's faithfulness, not the Corinthians' performance. The word pistos ("faithful, trustworthy") assures them that the God who called them will sustain them. This forms an inclusio with the opening: God called Paul (v. 1), God called the Corinthians (v. 2), and the God who called them is faithful (v. 9).

• κοινωνίαν ("fellowship/partnership/sharing") — This word carries more weight than casual social interaction. It describes a deep sharing of life and purpose: business partnership (Luke 5:10), participation in the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 10:16), sharing in suffering (Philippians 3:10). The Corinthians have been called into koinōnia with Christ Himself — which makes their divisions all the more scandalous.

Divisions in the Church (vv. 10–17)

Notes

• σχίσματα ("divisions/tears") — From schizō ("to tear, rip"), this is the source of the English word "schism." It originally described the tearing of cloth or the splitting of rock (Mark 15:38, where the temple curtain is "torn" with this root). Paul's image is vivid: the church, which should be one fabric, is being ripped apart.

• κατηρτισμένοι ("restored/put in order") — This participle comes from katartizō, a flexible word meaning "to mend, restore, make complete." It was used for mending fishing nets (Matthew 4:21) and, in medical literature, for setting broken bones. Paul is not asking for superficial agreement but for the church to be mended, its torn fabric stitched back together. "Restored to unity" conveys that reparative sense.

• τῶν Χλόης ("Chloe's [people]") — Chloe was likely a prominent woman, perhaps a business owner, whose household members or servants traveled between Corinth and Ephesus and brought Paul this report. She appears nowhere else in the New Testament. Paul's willingness to name his source suggests transparency and accountability.

• Ἐγὼ μέν εἰμι Παύλου ("I belong to Paul") — The Greek literally says, "I am of Paul," using a genitive of possession. The factions likely reflected real differences: Paul founded the church; Apollos was an eloquent Alexandrian teacher (Acts 18:24-28); Cephas (Peter) represented the original apostles and Jewish Christianity. The "I belong to Christ" party may have claimed direct spiritual authority and rejected all human teachers.

• μεμέρισται ὁ Χριστός ("has Christ been divided?") — The perfect tense suggests an abiding state of division. Paul's rhetorical question cuts deep: in splitting into factions, they are treating Christ Himself as though He could be parceled out.

• σοφίᾳ λόγου ("wisdom of speech") — This phrase captures the Corinthian problem in miniature. Sophia ("wisdom") joined to logos ("speech/word") points to the Greek rhetorical ideal: persuasive, polished eloquence. Corinth admired skilled orators who gathered devoted followings. Paul insists that he was sent to preach the gospel, not perform as a rhetorician.

• κενωθῇ ὁ σταυρὸς ("the cross be emptied") — The verb kenoō means "to empty, make void, strip of power." If the gospel is packaged in impressive rhetoric, the cross loses its offense and, with it, its power. The cross is meant to shatter human pride; polished packaging risks domesticating it.

The Message of the Cross (vv. 18–25)

Notes

• ὁ λόγος ὁ τοῦ σταυροῦ ("the word of the cross") — Paul does not say merely "the message about the cross" but "the word of the cross," as though the cross itself speaks. The logos of the cross is not bare information about a past event but a proclamation that carries divine power. The genitive may be both subjective (the cross speaks) and objective (we proclaim the cross).

• μωρία ("foolishness/folly") — This is the root behind the English word "moron." In Greek philosophical culture, to be called mōros was a severe insult, implying intellectual worthlessness. Paul uses the term deliberately and provocatively: to those who are perishing, the cross appears to be mōria. The word appears five times in this chapter and the next, pressing the point.

• τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις ... τοῖς σῳζομένοις ("those who are perishing ... those who are being saved") — Both are present participles, stressing ongoing processes rather than fixed states. The same cross that is foolishness to one group is dynamis Theou ("the power of God") to the other. The difference lies not in the message but in the hearer.

• The quotation in verse 19 comes from Isaiah 29:14, where God announces judgment on Jerusalem's leaders for relying on their own clever strategies instead of trusting Him. Paul applies that text to the wider human attempt to reach salvation or the knowledge of God through intellectual effort.

• σοφός ... γραμματεύς ... συζητητής ("wise person ... scribe ... debater") — Paul's three rhetorical questions in verse 20 may point to three audiences: the Greek philosopher (sophos), the Jewish Torah scholar (grammateus), and the Greco-Roman debater (syzētētēs). The cross exposes the limits of all three.

• σκάνδαλον ("stumbling block/scandal") — Originally the trigger stick of a trap. A crucified Messiah was skandalon to Jews because Deuteronomy 21:23 says that anyone hung on a tree is under God's curse. The Messiah was expected to conquer, not die as a criminal. The English word "scandal" comes from this term.

• Χριστὸν ἐσταυρωμένον ("Christ crucified") — The perfect passive participle estaurōmenon points not only to a past event but to an abiding reality: Christ has been crucified and remains the crucified one. The crucifixion is not something Christ simply left behind at the resurrection; it permanently marks His identity. This is the heart of Paul's message.

• Verse 25 turns on ironic concession. "The foolishness of God" and "the weakness of God" do not suggest that God is actually foolish or weak. Paul's point is that even if one could call God's ways foolish or weak — an absurd premise — they would still surpass all human wisdom and strength. The comparative forms (sophōteron, "wiser than"; ischyroteron, "stronger than") are neuter, treating God's supposed "foolishness" and "weakness" as abstract realities that overwhelm everything human.

God Chose the Lowly (vv. 26–31)

Notes

• βλέπετε τὴν κλῆσιν ὑμῶν ("look at your calling") — The verb blepete means "look, consider, pay attention to." Paul tells the Corinthians to examine the evidence in their own congregation. The church's makeup itself displays God's upside-down wisdom. The word klēsis ("calling") echoes the klētos ("called") language from verses 1-2 and 9.

• οὐ πολλοί ("not many") — Paul says "not many," not "none." Some wealthy and influential people were present in Corinth, such as Crispus (a synagogue ruler, Acts 18:8), Gaius (wealthy enough to host the whole church, Romans 16:23), and Erastus (the city treasurer, Romans 16:23). But most came from lower social ranks. The social makeup of the church is itself a theological statement.

• τὰ ἀγενῆ ("the low-born/ignoble") — Literally, "those without genos" — without distinguished family lineage. In a society preoccupied with ancestry and status, this was a cutting description. Paired with τὰ ἐξουθενημένα ("the things treated with contempt/counted as nothing"), it depicts a church made up of people the world would discard.

• τὰ μὴ ὄντα ("the things that are not") — This is a loaded philosophical expression. In Greek thought, to "be" (einai) was to possess real existence and value. "The things that are not" are those who, in the world's judgment, simply do not count; they are socially invisible. God chose precisely such people to overthrow "the things that are," the existing power structures.

• ἐξ αὐτοῦ δὲ ὑμεῖς ἐστε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ("but from Him you are in Christ Jesus") — The emphatic ex autou ("from Him/by His doing") makes clear that the believers' place in Christ is entirely God's work — sourced in God, not in their own wisdom, effort, or status.

• δικαιοσύνη τε καὶ ἁγιασμὸς καὶ ἀπολύτρωσις ("righteousness and sanctification and redemption") — Paul unfolds Christ as wisdom in three dimensions: dikaiosynē (right standing before God), hagiasmos (being set apart for God), and apolytrōsis (liberation from bondage, a term drawn from the slave market for the price paid to free a slave). Christ is not merely a teacher of wisdom; He is our wisdom in these saving realities.

• The closing quotation comes from Jeremiah 9:23-24: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me." Paul's argument comes full circle: because calling, salvation, wisdom, and righteousness all come from God, the only fitting boast is in the Lord alone.