A Little More Background

1 Corinthians seems to be the second letter that Paul actually wrote to this church (see 5:9). We don't have the first letter. It's fascinating to me to think that God intended 1 Corinthians to be preserved, but did not intend the previous letter to be preserved for all the churches. No doubt it was a good, godly letter, but I guess it wasn't meant to be inspired Scripture for all time.

Fee writes (p. 7) that 1 Corinthians was a response to a letter from the Corinthians to Paul, brought by Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus (see 16:15-17). Apparently, in this letter from the Corinthians, they were refuting or disobeying Paul's previous instructions in his (lost) first letter. It's clear that Paul also receives a report from "those in Chloe's household" (1:11) about the situation in the church in Corinth. This report, and presumably the letter from the church, are what prompted Paul to respond back, and in a tone of authoritative rebuke.