The church – God’s family – exists to display the beauty of the gospel to a broken people. She exists to display the faithfulness of Christ to a fractured city. But the church in Corinth was divided, just like the city. This church was fracturing because she was shaped more by the culture, less by the gospel, so she had nothing beautiful to display to a broken city and a breaking people. That is tragic. And, that is why we have the letter we know as 1 Corinthians. The Apostle Paul wrote to help this young church become more gospel formed and less culture formed. His aim was to anchor them in the gospel, to point them back to Jesus, so that they would become who God said they were meant to be, a united family in a fractured city. This letter holds the same purpose for us today.
