Paul lived in Ephesus for about 3 years.

During that time he wrote this letter to the Corinthian church in response to a letter the church had sent him through friends. The friends also brought news of the church to Paul. Both the letter and the stories his friends told him upset Paul. Some in the church were quarrelling when the church came together. Some were arguing about who should be their leaders. Some of the Corinthian followers of Christ were unhappy with Paul, who had moved on after he started and organized the church. Some moral problems had come up among the believers that caused concern. How should the church respond to sexual sin? Should the believers take each other to court to settle their disputes or should they handle their own together in the church? Some of the believers began to leave their marriages thinking such a change would lead to spiritual perfection. Some of the believers were slaves and thought they could only be fit for Gods service if they stopped being slaves. People in Corinth could only eat meat occassionally. It was a city where people worshipped many gods and delicious grilled meat and abundant wine was on the menu. Some believed that becoming vegetarians was the path to spiritual perfection. In Corinth, many in the church were fascinated with spiritual experience. The Holy Spirit had brough many new expressions of Gods grace in the form of gifts of spiritual experience like prophecy, speaking in tongues, healing and miracles. But the Corinthians loved speaking in tongues and thought it was the best gift. As a result, when outsiders came to their meetings they easily got the wrong impression that followers of Jesus were a bit crazy. Still others had heard Paul talk about the resurrection of the dead. They reasoned that the human body could not be a part of Gods plan for the future, because they believed it was inferior to the human soul or spirit. As a result of this way of thinking the came to the conclusion that talk about the resurrection of the dead was really about what happened to them when they became followers of Jesus. Almost all of these problems came from one source: a failure to understand the Good News about Jesus. Paul had assumed his friends in Corinth had understood, but many had not. The Good News was not about a new way for people to fulfill certain conditions to achieve spiritual perfection. Rather, the Good News told how God had entered into our messed up world and invited broken, sinful and weak people to receive Gods perfect gift of love in Christ. Gods plan was a true mystery. No one could anticipate it; no one could deverve it or achieve it. They could just accept it and share in itor not. And Gods message of love was best expressed in the willingness of Gods Son Jesus to die a shameful death on the Cross and his resurrection from the dead for all people. No one could do anything to be better than others, but everyone could imitate Jesus and love others like him. In fact, the best life is one that imitates Jesus and the apostles by embracing weakness and humility rather than power and strength. And the reason believers can practice such a lowly path is the hope that God would support them by his powerful Spirit and eventually raise them from death.