1 Corinthians 1:4-9 (2)

As believers we are called to pray. From the earliest pages of God’s Word we are able to listen in on conversations between God and people - Genesis 2,3,4, - all contain conversations between God and humans. Genesis 4 concludes with this statement:

Genesis 4:26 (HCSB)

... At that time people began to call on the name of Yahweh.

The OT is filled with pages of prayers. The book of Psalms is a compilation of many prayers spoken and sung by God’s people.

Jesus’ ministry is marked by prayer -

Luke 5:16 HCSB

Yet He often withdrew to deserted places and prayed.

He taught His followers to pray -

Matthew 6:9–13 HCSB

“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]

Paul’s letters make prayer a priority. In many of his after he identifies himself he offers a prayer for those to whom he is writing.

1 Corinthians 1:4–9 HCSB

I always thank my God for you because of God’s grace given to you in Christ Jesus, that by Him you were enriched in everything—in all speech and all knowledge. In this way, the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; you were called by Him into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

There are two specifics in Paul’s prayer that are just as important in our lives as they were in the lives of believers in Corinth.

Sufficient Grace

To believers in Ephesus Paul writes,

Ephesians 2:8 HCSB

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—

The unmerited, undeserved, unearned favor of God is the basis by which we live. Yet grace is not just some thing that God gives, according to one author,

grace itself is “not a third thing or substance,” for “in grace, God gives nothing less than Himself.”

Mark Olivero, “God’s Grace,” in Lexham Survey of Theology, ed. Mark Ward et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).

Literally Paul thanks God for having revealed Himself to those in Corinth who believed in Him. Many came to a saving faith because of Paul and Priscilla and Aquila and Silas and Timothy (see Acts 18:2,5).

Coming to faith, believing in Jesus, giving one’s life to Jesus - all those phrases simply point to the simple reality: God reveals Himself to us - personally - and we respond to Him in faith and receive His gift of new life.

Because of God’s grace believers then - and now - are lacking nothing. Paul specifically identifies ‘speech’ and ‘knowledge’ as gifts of grace.

Both are important in the context of the believers in Corinth. Many held themselves up as ‘teachers’ or ‘communicators of the word.’ Paul is reminding those who claim that ability that it comes specifically from God’s grace.

Likewise, some in Corinth regarded themselves as filled with knowledge. Paul links ‘knowledge’ to grace - reminding us that whatever it is we think we know, it is grace that has granted us that knowledge.

There is a clear purpose for these ‘gifts.’ the purpose of this grace is to enable us to be live with assurance as we wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Instead of using speech and knowledge as tools to build up one’s self, speech and knowledge are graciously given in Christ that we might live with confidence and certainty in these in-between times.

Sufficient Strength

The well-known lifeboat analogy is well worn but still suggestive. Someone may have been saved (past) decisively from a sinking ship; but as the lifeboat brings him or her through choppy, uncomfortable seas (present), the final safe landing on the solid shore lies still ahead (future).

Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000), 99.

None of us in this room are strangers to pain and hurt. Waiting for the full revelation of Jesus Christ is challenging.

Yet, God’s grace provides the strength we need to wait.

This strength is specifically aimed at presenting us ‘blameless’ when Christ returns. One might define the Greek word as ‘unimpeachable.’ When Christ returns the verdict God pronounces over the lives of His people is ‘blameless’ because of what Jesus has done for them on the cross.

This grace that is sufficient for the present and provides strength for the future is because of the nature of God Himself.

He is faithful. God’s calling - His self-revelation to us - gives assurance that what God has started, He will finish.

This call, this assurance places us as shareholders in all Christ and in what it means to be a child of God.

Our share in His nature means that the experience of the cross is as much ours as in the promise of resurrection.