1 Corinthians was written for the purpose of encouraging the Corinthian assembly to move carefully in their service for the Lord, and also for the generations that have followed to know what the Lord desires as we worship and minister to Him. The primary role of the assembly, like the tabernacle of old, is not for us to evangelize the world. It is that there might be a place where the will of God is carried out, and from which worship might ascend to God.

In the writer’s individual style, he divides the book into its main sections and sets before us truth relating to behaviour in the house of God; we cannot live as we like if we belong to Christ.