The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

1 Corinthians is one of the most gripping books in the Bible. In this letter, Paul, the complicated, layered apostle, writes to the people trying a wild new social experiment known as a Christian community. Not unlike the church today, this community dealt with factions, sexual immorality, gender issues, money issues, theological questions, lawsuits, problems in worship, and problems in leadership. In 1 Corinthians: Searching the Depths of God, Jaime Clark-Soles explores these topics and the awe inspiring, breathtaking world of the first-century church. Examining the teachings of Paul, she addresses church history, the logic of the cross, spiritual gifts, death, afterlife and the resurrection, human sexuality, and the joys and challenges of living in community. Participants will learn to look at 1 Corinthians from a variety of viewpoints and apply its lessons to their own faith. The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.

Applied expository guide to 1 Corinthians, showing how grace looks in the heart of every Christian and how it can shape every church.

This careful, sometimes innovative, mid-level commentary touches on an astonishingly wide swath of important, sensitive issues - theological and pastoral - that have urgent resonances in twenty-first-century life. This thorough commentary presents a coherent reading of 1 Corinthians, taking full account of its Old Testament and Jewish roots and demonstrating Paula's primary concern for the unity and purity of the church and the glory of God. Those who preach and teach 1 Corinthians will be grateful to Ciampa and Rosner for years to come and scholars will be challenged to see this letter with fresh eyes.

Finding Peace and Harmony When You Disagree.

First Corinthians offers readers a window into the social life and setting of an early Christ-movement congregation. The Apostle Paul’s practical guidance to the Corinthians living in a Roman colony overlaps with many contemporary concerns: identity, leadership, sexuality, gender, diversity, worship, theology, and economics. All too often, however, the letter is read in an individualistic and supersessionistic way. Furthermore, parts of the letter are lifted out of their original context and applied in ways foreign to that setting. This book reads the letter through the lens of social identity theory, a leading social scientific method for understanding the New Testament. This reading strategy is supported by a post-supersessionist perspective in which the church is not thought to replace Israel as God’s people. The aim of this book is to introduce non-specialists to this fascinating letter in a way that highlights the current research into the social context of Corinth. It offers relevant discussion questions and an identity-critical reading of 1 Corinthians that shows Paul's interest in three key themes: identity, ethics, and ethos.

In First Corinthians, Paul writes to a troubled church at Corinth, urging its members to live a life distinct from the ways of others, governed by the law of love, and affirming of the tenets of the faith. His direct responses to their shortcomings provide us a window into daily church life in the first century. But this letter also paints a vivid picture of what any church can become by the grace of God. Interpretation Bible Studies (IBS) offers solid biblical content in a creative study format. Forged in the tradition of the celebrated Interpretation commentary series, IBS makes the same depth of biblical insight available in a dynamic, flexible, and user-friendly resource. Designed for adults and older youth, Interpretation Bible Studies can be used in small groups, in church school classes, in large group presentations, or in personal study.