What can turn a struggling church around? What can help a church which has sold out to the culture; which is riven by division; which is dominated by me-first materialism; and which is uncertain about the gospel itself?

“Be on your guard”, wrote one church planter to just such a church. “Stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.
“Do everything in love.”

So wrote the apostle Paul to the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 16
v 13-14). This was a congregation which seemed to have lost its way. But Paul did not give up on them. He encouraged them to love their church.

And, in the second half of his first letter to them, he showed them how to do this—how to love each other as Christ had loved them.

This was the love that could turn the Corinthian church around. And this is the love that all our local churches need. These eight studies in 1 Corinthians 10 – 16 will enable, motivate and challenge you to “do everything in love”, individually and collectively.

Table of contents

Introduction
Why study 1 Corinthians 10-16?
Timeline
1. Keep on running - 1 Cor 9 v 24 - 10 v 13
2. Love, liberty and legalism - 1 Cor 10 v 14 - 11 v 1
3. Loving authority - 1 Cor 11 v 2-16
4. Thoughtful unity - 1 Cor 11 v 17-34
5. Your gifts, their good - 1 Cor 12 v 1-31a
6. The most excellent way - 1 Cor 12 v 31b - 14 v 40
7. Resurrection: hold on - 1 Cor 15
8. Good examples - 1 Cor 16

This eight-study guide will take you back to first-century Corinth, and to a struggling, failing church. You'll see Paul encouraging its members not to give up or to give in, but to love their church. And you'll be motivated and challenged to do the same: to be a loving church.

1 Corinthians 10 -16 : Loving Church by Mark Dever ; Carl Laferton was published by The Good Book Company in January 2013