Doubleday Bible Commentary: 1 Corinthians

Two of the most powerful chapters in all of Scripture are found in 1 Corinthians, St. Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth. Chapter 13 contains an incomparable description of true love: "Love is patient and kind...bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things...So, faith, hope, love abide; but the greatest of these is love." In Chapter 15, St. Paul offers the hope of resurrection with words Handel used in his "Messiah" and that give comfort at funerals: "This mortal body must put on immortality."

St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians to address problems they were facing as a young church--sins and conflicts familiar to Christians today. What he gave them were solutions and ways to change, so that the Church, the body of Christ, would grow and build itself up in love. Commentator and internationally recognized Bible scholar Jerome Murphy-O'Connor relates Paul's advice--about "the Lord's supper," spiritual maturity and spiritual gifts, church life and life in the world--to our world. His penetrating insights into 1 Corinthians bring the Bible alive for modern readers.