Book of 1 Corinthians Quiz: Church, Wisdom, and Spiritual Gifts

1. What was the primary presenting problem in the Corinthian church that drives the whole letter?

1. The Corinthians had stopped meeting together and Paul urges them to resume weekly assembly as the solution to all their problems
2. The Corinthians were denying the deity of Christ and Paul corrects this with a Christological argument in chapters 1–2
3. The Corinthians were denying the physical resurrection, which Paul addresses exclusively in chapter 15
4. The Corinthians were divided into personality factions — 'I follow Paul,' 'I follow Apollos,' 'I follow Cephas,' 'I follow Christ.' Paul argues that the cross-centred gospel demolishes all human boasting and that no leader should be the basis of Christian identity

2. What does Paul say about wisdom in 1 Corinthians 1–2, and how does it contrast with the world's wisdom?

1. 'My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.' Paul deliberately came without rhetorical eloquence to ensure faith rested on the Spirit alone
2. Paul argues that Greek philosophy is compatible with the gospel — the Corinthians should combine both to reach educated audiences
3. Paul condemns all intellectual activity and urges the Corinthians to adopt a simple, uneducated faith as the ideal
4. Paul says wisdom is the highest spiritual gift — the Corinthians should pursue wisdom above all else, including love

3. What does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 3 about being 'God's co-workers' and building on the right foundation?

1. 'I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow... For we are co-workers in God's service... By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ'
2. Paul argues only apostles are co-workers with God — the Corinthians are spectators, not participants, in God's work
3. Paul argues the foundation of the church is the apostolic letters — the 'gold' represents the Pauline correspondence
4. Paul says Apollos was a flawed builder and only Paul's work was reliable — all subsequent ministry needed Paul's authentication

4. How does Paul address the case of sexual immorality in the Corinthian church in chapter 5?

1. 'Hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.' Paul urges the church to exclude the immoral believer and not associate with those who claim to be believers but live in ongoing unrepentant sin
2. Paul recommends gentle rehabilitation — the man living with his stepmother should be counselled toward repentance gradually over a year
3. Paul recommends the church pray for the man but not confront him — God alone is the judge of sexual behaviour
4. Paul says the man's sexual sin was not the church's business — believers should not judge one another's private lives

5. What does Paul say about lawsuits between believers in chapter 6?

1. 'If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord's people?... Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? Instead, one brother takes another to court — and this in front of unbelievers! The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated'
2. Paul addresses only property lawsuits — disputes about honour or doctrine should still go to civic courts
3. Paul encourages believers to use the secular court system — God has established government courts for dispute resolution
4. Paul rules lawsuits are acceptable when the amount disputed exceeds a significant financial threshold

6. What does Paul teach about marriage and celibacy in 1 Corinthians 7?

1. 'Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: it is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.' Paul values celibacy as freeing one for undivided devotion to the Lord, but does not denigrate marriage
2. Paul commands all believers to marry to reflect the covenant relationship between Christ and the church
3. Paul says divorce is permitted for any reason — the new covenant supersedes the Mosaic concession to hardness of heart
4. Paul says marriage is the Christian ideal and celibacy is only for those with damaged family backgrounds

7. What does 1 Corinthians 8–10 teach about food offered to idols and the limits of Christian freedom?

1. 'Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak... Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.' Knowledge without love destroys; love for the weak limits the use of rights
2. Paul permits eating idol food privately but forbids it in public — the appearance of participation in idol worship is the only real concern
3. Paul says all food offered to idols is permanently off-limits — eating it is equivalent to worshipping demons and no Christian should ever touch it
4. Paul says food offered to idols is always permissible — since idols are nothing, there can be no spiritual contamination from any food

8. What does Paul say about his apostolic rights in 1 Corinthians 9, and why does he mention waiving them?

1. 'Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?... Don't we have the right to food and drink?... But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.' Paul waives his rights as a model of how love limits freedom — the point being made in chs.8–10 about idol food
2. Paul argues he has no apostolic rights because he persecuted the church — he works for free as penance for his past
3. Paul insists on his rights being respected — he rebukes the Corinthians for not supporting him financially and demands they rectify this immediately
4. Paul waives his rights because the Corinthians are too poor to support him — he does not want to burden a struggling community

9. What does Paul say about the body as a temple in 1 Corinthians 6?

1. 'Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!'
2. 'Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies'
3. 'The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body' — this is Paul's only statement about the body in chapter 6
4. 'Your body is a temporary dwelling — the soul's eternal home is heaven. The body's needs are therefore morally neutral and below spiritual concern'

10. What does Paul say about the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11, and why was it being abused at Corinth?

1. Paul criticises the use of wine in the Lord's Supper and recommends replacing it with water to avoid drunkenness among the poorer members
2. Paul praises the Corinthian practice — the Lord's Supper was the only aspect of their worship needing no correction
3. Paul says the Lord's Supper was being neglected entirely — the Corinthians had replaced it with philosophical discussions
4. The wealthy arrived early and ate their own food while the poor went hungry — the common meal had become an expression of social division. Paul gives the earliest written account of the Supper tradition and warns that eating 'in an unworthy manner' is eating and drinking judgment on oneself

11. What does Paul teach in 1 Corinthians 12 about the diversity of spiritual gifts and the unity of the body?

1. 'Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good... There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them... Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ'
2. Paul teaches every Christian should seek and develop all spiritual gifts — diversity comes from different levels of spiritual maturity
3. Paul teaches spiritual gifts are distributed randomly — neither faith nor prayer plays any role in which gifts a believer receives
4. Paul teaches that only apostles and prophets have genuine spiritual gifts — the rest of the Corinthians had self-deceptive imitations

12. What does the 'love chapter' (1 Corinthians 13) declare about love in relation to spiritual gifts?

1. 'If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal... Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud... Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away'
2. Love is the greatest spiritual gift — superior to tongues, prophecy, and knowledge, to be sought above all other gifts
3. Love is the motivation behind spiritual gifts — without love the gifts are still valid and effective, but love improves how they are exercised
4. Love replaces spiritual gifts in the mature church — once love is perfected, the miraculous gifts become unnecessary

13. What does 1 Corinthians teach about the use of tongues and prophecy in public worship?

1. 'In the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue... Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.' Prophecy is preferred over tongues in public worship because it edifies the community; tongues without interpretation edifies only the individual
2. Paul abolishes all spiritual gifts for public worship — only Scripture reading and preaching are appropriate in gathered worship
3. Paul endorses unregulated use of all spiritual gifts in worship — the Corinthians were wrong to impose any order on the Spirit's movements
4. Paul says tongues are the highest gift and the Corinthians were right to prioritise it, but needed to do so more reverently

14. What is Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrection, and what are his key logical steps?

1. 'If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins... But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep... The last enemy to be destroyed is death.' Paul grounds everything in the historical resurrection and argues Christ's resurrection guarantees the future bodily resurrection of believers
2. Paul argues resurrection has already occurred for all believers — there is no future resurrection because the spiritual resurrection at conversion is the full reality
3. Paul argues resurrection is a metaphor for the quality of abundant life available to believers now, not a literal future event
4. Paul argues resurrection is spiritual only — the body dies and the spirit is released to eternal life without any bodily return

15. What does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 15:9-10 about himself and the grace of God?

1. 'For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me'
2. Paul apologises for persecuting the church and says this disqualifies him from full apostolic authority — he is only an apostle 'as one abnormally born' with reduced standing
3. Paul boasts that he is the greatest apostle — his suffering credentials exceed those of Peter and James combined
4. Paul says he is equal to the Twelve — his Damascus road encounter gives him precisely the same authority as those who walked with Jesus during his ministry

16. What does 1 Corinthians teach about marriage to an unbeliever and the 'sanctification' of the household?

1. 'If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her... For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband.' The believer's presence makes the whole household clean enough to remain together
2. Paul commands immediate separation from unbelieving spouses — the 'do not be yoked with unbelievers' principle applies to marriage above all else
3. Paul rules that children of mixed marriages are not Christians — they must make their own profession of faith before they can be considered part of the covenant community
4. Paul says believers married to unbelievers are in ongoing sin and should seek annulment as soon as possible

17. What does 1 Corinthians 10:13 say about temptation and God's faithfulness?

1. 'Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him'
2. 'God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it'
3. 'Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you'
4. 'The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one'

18. What does Paul mean in 1 Corinthians 9:22 by 'I have become all things to all people'?

1. 'To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law... To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel'
2. Paul is admitting inconsistency and asking the Corinthians to forgive his lack of a coherent personal identity across his letters
3. Paul means he can perform any spiritual gift — he has received all the gifts listed in chapter 12 so that he can meet any need in any congregation
4. Paul means he has no settled convictions — he adapts his theology to whatever his audience wants to hear

19. What does 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 address about head coverings, and what is its central concern?

1. Paul abolishes all gender distinctions in worship — the passage argues that men and women should dress identically in Christian assemblies
2. Paul addresses the Corinthian practice of head coverings in worship as a matter of order reflecting the creation order of God-Christ-man-woman — he is concerned that the Corinthian gatherings not dishonour these distinctions, even if the exact cultural application has been debated since
3. Paul establishes a universal dress code for all Christians — head coverings must be worn in all worship everywhere and in every century
4. Paul is addressing only the behaviour of pagan converts — former temple prostitutes who had shaved heads needed instructions on appropriate Christian worship attire

20. How does Paul conclude 1 Corinthians 16, and what practical instruction does he give about the collection for Jerusalem?

1. 'On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.' Paul plans to visit, endorse chosen representatives, and send them with the gift to Jerusalem. He closes: 'Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love'
2. Paul commands the Corinthians to send the collection immediately by courier — he gives the name of the specific banker in Jerusalem to whom it should be delivered
3. Paul instructs the collection be taken up only once, at Pentecost, in a special ceremony that mirrors the firstfruits offering of the Mosaic law
4. Paul says the collection is optional — only those who feel moved by the Spirit should contribute, and no amount is specified