Bible (New Testament): English Standard Version

First Corinthians, representing the first of two canonical letters of Paul to the Christian community in the Greek city of Corinth, shows Paul sending counsel and instruction to one of the churches he established on a prior missionary journey. As is the case in several of Paul’s letters, he assigns it not only to his own authorship, but as being co-authored by another member of his missionary team (in this case, Sosthenes). First Corinthians reveals that since Paul’s departure, the church has faced several challenges, including a tendency to splinter into cliques, an overly permissive view of sexual sin, and a disorderly style of worship. Factions had formed within the church, aligning themselves with certain Christian teachers, such as Paul, Peter, or Apollos, and those factions were taking pride in their own “wisdom” (a catchword of the cliquishness in Corinth) and looking down on their fellow Christians. Paul challenges these tendencies, pointing out that true Christian wisdom is rooted not in pride or division, but in the self-emptying “foolishness” of Christ’s sacrificial death. He also rebukes the church members for their permissiveness toward sexual immorality, which in some cases had even gone beyond what the surrounding pagan culture would approve. He argues that sexual licentiousness is not true freedom, but rather the self-destructive abuse of the body’s God-given holiness, which finds its highest expression in either the purity of celibacy or the faithfulness of marriage.

The church at Corinth was also struggling with how to live as Christians in a pagan society, which raised practical questions about whether to eat meat offered to idols, as was common practice. Paul warns them about the dangers of affirming idolatrous practices, but he also notes that all things properly belong to God, and so the real test of how to handle such situations comes down to whether your heart is directed toward God: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31). Paul also advises them on how to deal with spiritual gifts—callings and abilities empowered by the Holy Spirit—especially regarding their worship meetings. Certain ecstatic gifts, like speaking in tongues and prophesying, had apparently been given great attention by the Corinthians, and their unrestrained use in worship was leading to disorder in church gatherings. Paul reminds them that there are many spiritual gifts, both with and without ecstatic manifestations, but that the most important principle is not the exercise of spiritual gifts, but of love. This leads to his famous paean on love: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast […]. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor 13:4, 7). Paul closes his letter with a reminder of the central importance of the doctrine of the resurrection, noting that Jesus’s resurrection from the dead offers full assurance of each Christian’s future resurrection to eternal life.

Second Corinthians, like its predecessor, is a letter of Paul (along with his protégé Timothy) to the church in Corinth, and it shows that the troubled church has continued to deal with significant challenges. Foremost among these is the influence of other leaders, who have boasted about themselves as “super-apostles” (2 Cor 11:5; 12:11), and whose presence has cast Paul’s relationship with the church into tension. Much of the letter, then, constitutes a defense of Paul’s apostolic office and an explanation of his ministry.

Paul expresses his heartfelt concern for the Corinthian Christians and relates the suffering he has undergone for the sake of his missionary labors: “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. […] But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Cor 1:8-9). He describes himself as a jar made of clay, a simple vessel with no glory of its own, but which is made a vessel of the glory of God. Even while he expresses the weakness and frailty of his condition, he also reminds them that God has given him the authority of an apostolic office: “Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal through us” (2 Cor 5:20).

In the middle of the epistle (Chapters 8-9), Paul devotes attention to the practical matter of raising money for the church in Jerusalem, which was dealing with issues of persecution and famine. He encourages the Corinthians to give not out of sense of compulsion, but cheerfully and generously. The final chapters then return to Paul’s concern for the Corinthian church and a defense of his ministry on their behalf. He recounts all the sufferings he has undergone, contrasting his humble, self-sacrificial service with the boastful pretensions of the self-styled super-apostles: “[God] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor 12:9).

Many scholars hold that Galatians was likely the first of Paul’s epistles to be written. It was sent to a set of churches he had planted in the region of Galatia (central Asia Minor) during his missionary journeys. It reflects on the relationship between Jewish Christianity and the expectations placed on Gentile believers, which was one of the main debates in the early decades of Christian expansion. Paul’s epistle is prompted by his receiving word that the churches in Galatia have begun to follow a rival teaching that requires Gentile believers to follow major portions of the Old Testament law. “I am astonished,” Paul writes, “that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (Gal 1:6).

Paul begins with a defense of his own apostolic credentials to remind them of his authority to speak on these matters. He roots his apostolic office in the direct calling of God, but also notes that he was accepted and affirmed by the other apostles in Jerusalem. With those credentials established, Paul proceeds to his main theme: a rebuttal of the idea that Christians are justified by keeping the ritual commands of the Old Testament law. Paul builds his case on a biblical argument centered on the character of Abraham, from the Old Testament Book of Genesis. Abraham lived before the law of Moses was given, yet he was counted righteous based solely on his relationship of faith with God. Paul views the law as historically contingent, given by God to prepare his people for the coming of Jesus and to teach them about sin. Because Jesus has now dealt with the problem of sin, the purpose of the law has been fulfilled, so Christians can return to a free and unhindered relationship with God, as foreshadowed in God’s covenant with Abraham: “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian […]” (Gal 3:24-25). After expressing the joy of Christian freedom from sin and legalistic requirements, Paul ends with some practical exhortations for the life of faith, including his famous list of “the fruit of the Spirit”: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).