trial. Chap. 7:1. The occasion, then,
of writing this epistle, which gives also its _scope_ and _office_, was
to correct the above named errors and abuses, of which he had received
accurate information, and also to answer the inquiries of the
Corinthians in their letter. In this work the apostle employs now sharp
rebuke, now tender expostulation, and now earnest and impassioned
argument. The party strifes among the Corinthians he meets by showing
that Christ himself is the only head of the church, that all gifts are
from him, and are to be used to his glory in the edification of
believers. Chaps. 1:13, 14, 30, 31; 3:5-23. The vain-glorious boasting
of their leaders he exposes by showing the emptiness and impotence of
their pretended wisdom in comparison with the doctrine of Christ
crucified, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God for the
salvation of all that believe, without regard to the distinctions of
worldly rank. Chaps. 1:18-2:16; 3:18-20. The abuses and disorders that
had crept into the church he rebukes with apostolical severity; and in
correcting them, as well as in answering the questions of the
Corinthians, he makes an application of the general principles of the
gospel to the several cases before him which is full of practical
wisdom--the incestuous person (chap. 5:8), companionship with the
vicious (chap. 5:9-13), litigation among brethren (chap. 6:1-8), fleshly
indulgence (chap. 6:9-20), the inquiries of the Christians in respect to
marriage (chap. 7), meats offered to idols and sundry questions
connected with them (chaps. 8, 10), disorders in the public assemblies
(chap. 11), spiritual gifts with a beautiful eulogy on love (chaps.
12-14), the doctrine of the resurrection (chap. 15). He also defends his
apostolical character and standing against his opposers, though by no
means so earnestly and fully as in the following epistle. Chaps. 4, 9.
Thus it comes to pass that the present epistle contains a remarkable
variety of topics, and gives us a fuller and clearer insight into the
practical working of Christianity in the primitive apostolic churches
than that furnished by any other of Paul's epistles, or, indeed, any
other book of the New Testament. The great principles, moreover, which
he lays down in meeting the particular wants of the Corinthian church
remain valid for all time; shedding from age to age a clear and steady
light, by which every tempest-tossed church may, God helping it by his
grace, s