Read 1 Corinthians 16 at Bible Gateway.
As we conclude the first letter to the Corinthians, I realized that the entire letter forms a single Chiastic Structure from beginning to end:
When Paul wrote this letter, he did not plan this structure first, and then write the letter to fit it. The structure is complex … I have been working on uncovering it for several years. And, as we saw when going through 1 Cor, many of the chapters and groups of chapters also form smaller chiastic structures, and I have other overlapping ones in my notes. How can a human mind take a set of questions from a church, plan the answers, and then construct the letter so that the questions are answered, all the chiastic structures are included, their symmetry maintained, all fitting within this greater structure? It would have to be the work of a lifetime, for a single letter! Paul most likely wrote this reply in a few days (as his busy missionary schedule suggests). Paul listened to the Spirit and wrote his reply. That Paul’s reply forms this mass of elegant chiastic structures, smaller and greater, is evidence that this is the Spirit’s Word. The chiastic structure is one of the thumbprints of the Spirit on His Word — His Word, not Paul’s. There are believers who reject Paul and his letters in the New Testament because they misunderstand his message. The Spirit’s thumbprint on his letters is evidence that he is to be accepted.
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