How large was the church at Corinth when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians?
When Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, the church at Corinth was not a large congregation. It was likely only a few dozen believers at most. They had recently come out of paganism, so they were not spiritual giants and had many problems.
Les explains that Corinth was a city saturated in paganism and gross immorality. The believers were a little group, and we should not think of a church back then like the huge megachurches of today. There were probably a few dozen at the most that Paul addressed. These men and women had just recently come out of a pagan background, so they could not all of a sudden become spiritual giants; they had many problems. The Corinthian congregation had actually sent Paul a letter with a series of questions, and he was across the Aegean Sea at Ephesus when he wrote to answer them one by one.