The Bible studies I chose to do came about in answer to the request from my first congregation out of seminary. I consistently sought to present a serious, somewhat scholarly approach to the interest among my parishioners. I would take a book in the Bible to study, assume it was written or edited to be read from the beginning, and make sense to the reader in that format. I attempted to discover for myself and my group what the book sought to convey. In this volume, the study of 1 Corinthians (1982–83) followed that pattern exactly.