1 CORINTHIANS 1:1-9 - Called To Be Saints

Introduction

Imagine for a moment that you have moved to a new town and are in the process of looking for a good solid church to join. One Sunday morning you walk into a church that had listed itself as a “New Testament Church”, emphasizing its commitment to the Scriptures and to the Gospel. So you walk in one Sunday morning in time for Sunday School. There are several classes to choose from and so you pick one that sounds interesting and take a seat. You open up your MacArthur Study Bible in your lap, and immediately are nudged by the man sitting next to you, who says, “Uh, I think you’re in the wrong class—we don’t use that guy’s Bible. Try across the hall...” Everyone else is looking at you like your Bible is a rotten fish, so you sheepishly slip out and across the hall to the another class. This time when you sit down and open your Bible you get approving nods and smiles from everyone, along with a couple of sympathetic whispers: “You weren’t over there with the R C Sproul people were you?? Those “Ligonerds” hadn’t started scrawling on their chalkboard yet, had they? What a bunch of losers...”

After Sunday School, you are chatting pleasantly with one of the class members you sat next to about where you were from, what brought you to town, and so on, when suddenly a very angry-looking woman comes storming over and interrupts your new friend mid-sentence: “I have had it with your stonewalling over this contract, Jerry—you are going to be hearing from my lawyer first thing in the morning!” And it’s like a switch flips in this guy’s head and he starts jabbing his finger in her face: “You know what, Debbie? Bring it—I will own your stupid little company by the time we’re done with you!!” And then they both storm away to sit on opposite sides of the sanctuary for the service.

So let me ask you—based on those experiences, would you be back next week? Probably not; but consider for a moment that at least they were consistent with their statement that they were a New Testament Church! Because both of those scenarios were taken directly from the book we are beginning to study this week. They were fighting over what teacher was best (1:11-13), they were taking each other to court (6:1-8), they were using the Lord’s Supper as an excuse to get wildly drunk and party (11:21), one of their members was sleeping with his stepmother (5:1), and several of the men had to be reminded that the new members’ class had clearly told them to stay away from the temple prostitutes in town (6:15-16)

In other words, the church in Corinth that Paul was addressing was an absolute mess of Christians buried under very unChristian behavior. Paul knew them well—we read in Acts 18 that he had spent about a year and a half living there, working in his trade while he preached the Gospel and planted the church there—the head of the synagogue, Crispus, became a believer under Paul’s teaching, and formed the core of the church that was planted there.

So Paul had a particular love for the church in Corinth—warts and all. And so we find not one but two letters dedicated to them. He wrote more to that single church than to any other of his churches. He loved them deeply and he was very committed to seeing them thrive in the Lord.

And so that meant that he had to write some very harsh and difficult things to them—not only are these letters his longest, but also the most stern, as we will see. But the verses that we read here in the beginning of this long, stern letter are filled with that underlying love and delight:

1 Corinthians 1:1–2 LSB

Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

1 Corinthians 1:4 LSB

I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,

Now because we know what is coming in the following chapters, we can be tempted to skim past this section as just the “initial pleasantries” that Paul has to get out of the way before he tells them what he really thinks of them. But we cannot move through the rest of this epistle unless we absolutely establish that this IS what he thinks of them. The things that he is going to write about later in this book are matters of grave and significant sin—but all of those things must be viewed in the light of the realities about them that Paul writes in these first nine verses.

Martin Luther had a description for the condition that the church in Corinth was demonstrating here: Simil justus et peccator— “at the same time justified and a sinner”. From the outside, we cannot tell if the people in the illustration we started with are believers or not. By their behavior, they certainly didn’t seem regenerate; but only God can see into hearts.

And so this is what is so important about this opening to this letter: Paul knew their hearts, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—he knew that they were genuine Christians who were caught in some pretty gnarly sins. And so he starts off this letter establishing them in that truth—the truth that they are the church of God who

1 Corinthians 1:2 LSB

...have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

Paul tells them straight off—you belong to Christ, you are called to be saints, and you are genuine believers. Only when they know that they belong fully to Christ can they go on to to the soul-work of repentance and growth in grace and holiness.

Christian, this is what we can take from this passage this morning—no matter your struggles with sin, no matter how tangled and trapped you are, no matter how often you fail and have to pick yourself up off the mat again, you have the promise of real holiness by the grace of God in Christ.

Look at the verses before us this morning written to this stumbling, messy, sinning church and take heart that

God sees past your every STRUGGLE with SIN to the HOLINESS He has BOUGHT you in Christ

If you look carefully at the structure of these verses you will see that Paul speaks of things that have happened to the Corinthians and things that will happen:

v. 2 - “to those who have been sanctified” v. 5 - “you were enriched in Him” v. 6 - “witness about Christ was confirmed in you”

Then in Verses 7-9 v. 7 - “eagerly awaiting” the revelation of Christ v. 8 - “will confirm you”

So I think it will be helpful for us to consider the holiness Christ has bought us in two ways: first, consider from these verses

I. The Holiness you now POSSESS (1 Corinthians 1:1-6)

As Paul is strengthening and encouraging his readers, what are the things he is assuring them that they already have in Christ? First of all, look at

Grace in their CALLING as SAINTS (vv. 2, 4)

1 Corinthians 1:2 LSB

To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

For all their struggles and messes, for all of the ways that they fall short of the holiness they are called to, they are truly saints! See here that Paul makes it clear that they are called as sainds “with all who in every place call on the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ...” They are not second-tier saints, they are not bush leaguers who need to step up their game before they can really join the ranks of the redeemed. They are just as much saints as any other church.

This is not to say that they don’t have a lot of work to do; it isn’t telling them that they can just coast by on the sanctification they have already received—on the contrary, this is a reminder that they need to recognize the heights they are called to. But at the same time it is an encouragement to them that they are already saints in God’s judgment. They have been freed from the wickedness and darkness and evil of their past lives; they have been declared “not guilty” by the blood of Christ; they are no longer enemies and strangers and aliens, but beloved children of God who are rightly called “saints” by the grace of God:

1 Corinthians 1:4 LSB

I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,

Paul exhorts them to remember the grace they received in their calling as saints, and in Verse 5 he reminds them that they have been

Enriched in all WORD and all KNOWLEDGE (v. 5)

1 Corinthians 1:5 LSB

that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all word and all knowledge,

The two Greek words here, logos (word) and gnosis (knowledge) are particularly significant in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. Paul says that the church in Corinth was particularly skilled in communication (logos)—preaching, teaching, using the written word effectively. In the same way, it’s interesting to note that the word for “knowledge” here appears only five times in the rest of Paul’s letters—but here in 1 Corinthians the word appears no less than ten times, and another six times in 2 Corinthians! Paul will go on in this letter to ride the brake pretty hard on the way the church in Corinth was abusing their versatility in language and communication (tongues, for instance) or fighting over who had more knowledge than the other (as we’ll start seeing next week, Lord willing.)

But the point that Paul was making here in Verse 4 is that God had richly blessed them as a church with gifts of teaching and preaching and insight into God’s Word; He had given them everything they needed to thrive in the holiness He had purchased for them in Christ. Their futile minds had been opened to understand the spiritually-discerned things of God in the Scriptures (1 Cor. 2:14-15); they had a hunger to know Christ, to grow in Him and to make Him known. They were both neglecting and abusing those gifts, to be sure, but Paul assures them here that those gifts of word and knowledge were real, and are part of the holiness He had already given them

The church in Corinth already possessed these things as part of their identity as saints—grace in their calling to salvation, enriched in all word and all knowledge, and see in Verse 6 that they are

Confirmed in WITNESS of CHRIST (v. 6)

In their midst:

1 Corinthians 1:6 LSB

even as the witness about Christ was confirmed in you,

Paul says that, for all their stumbles and faults and backsliding and failures, Christ was still shown to be present and active in their midst! They weren’t hypocrites; they weren’t fooling themselves. Christ really was present in their midst. For all of their weakness and foolishness, He claimed them as His own. The original Greek construction here makes it hard to distinguish whether “the testimony of Christ” refers to their testimony about Him, or His testimony about them. In the wider context of this passage it really does seem that Paul is saying that the Corinthians had a genuine testimony of Christ—but surely if that is true, then Christ Himself would testify that they are His children.

Paul is going to have to address them at various places in this letter as if they were not bearing a true testimony; as if they were not gifted with all knowledge and understanding:

1 Corinthians 3:1 LSB

And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshly men, as to infants in Christ.

But here at the outset he is making sure that he knows—and wants them to know—that they truly do possess the holiness of saints purchased by the blood of Christ and that they are both gifted and treasured by Christ.

But Paul wants to go one step further in building up this precious church—not only does he want to remind them of what they have been given in their salvation, he wants to them to look forward with hope to what they will be given. See here not only the holiness that you possess, Christian, but

II. The Holiness you are PROMISED (1 Corinthians 1:6-9)

Paul tells the church in Verse 7 that

1 Corinthians 1:7 LSB

...you are not lacking in any gift, eagerly awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The sense here in Greek is that they are “not coming up short” in any gift; there is nothing that they need to have for life and godliness that they don’t have. They have all that they need

To SEE Christ FACE to FACE (v. 7; cp. Heb. 12:14)

The writer of Hebrews reminds his readers in Hebrews 12:14

Hebrews 12:14 LSB

Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord,

Paul is promising the church in Corinth here—this struggling, backsliding, sinning church—that when the moment comes for Christ to be revealed at His Coming, they will be holy enough to see Him! They can eagerly await His coming, because they will possess the sanctification necessary to see Him on that Day

2 Thessalonians 1:10 LSB

when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed

The church in Corinth lacks nothing that they need to be ready for that Day—they can look forward with eager joy to Christ’s return!

They are promised the holiness by which they will see Him face to face on that Day, and the holiness

To STAND CONFIRMED before Christ (v. 8)

1 Corinthians 1:8 LSB

who will also confirm you to the end, beyond reproach in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Not only will they have the holiness to see Him on the Day He returns to judge the world, but to stand before Him beyond reproach in that Judgment. The Greek word translated “beyond reproach” has the meaning of “unaccusable”—no charge of wrongdoing, no past that can be dredged up, no old shame, no former guilt—nothing but holiness applied to them on that Day. When the books are opened and all their deeds are read, none of their sins will be counted against them.

Paul wants the Corinthians to understand that when the Day of Christ appears, none of the things he is writing to them about will be counted against them—they will be free of all reproach. This is not so they can just ignore the hard work ahead of them as they fight the world, the flesh and the Devil for the holiness that Christ has purchased for them; this is their encouragement that they will win that fight! They will be “confirmed to the end”—established, settled, made firm by Christ Himself so that at His appearing they will stand before Him justified and glorified.

And how will this come about? What assurance do they have that they will stand, that their fight for holiness will succeed? Because, Paul writes in Verse 9

1 Corinthians 1:9 LSB

God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The holiness that the Corinthian church is promised means that they will see Christ face to face and they will stand confirmed in Christ because they have

FELLOWSHIP with Christ that cannot FAIL (v. 9)

Their holiness is promised by God Himself; the God Who cannot lie or change His mind, the God Whose promises cannot be broken; the God Who sealed His covenant of grace with the blood of His Son. This is the God Who has called the church in Corinth into fellowship with Christ—and if their fellowship is in Christ, it is fellowship with one another. Though they may be scrapping over which teacher to follow and taking each other to court and offending one another’s conscience over pagan idol sacrifices, Paul reminds them that God Himself is faithful to call them into fellowship. It will happen—they will have unity in Christ; they will have perfect fellowship with Him and one another.

See here in these verses that God saw past all of the Corinthian church’s struggles with sin to the holiness He purchased for them in Christ. And since that was true, Paul never gave up on them. He was committed to them no matter what.

In an age where so many Christians love to play “Steeplechase”—bouncing around from church to church whenever they find something they don’t like in a particular congregation—God’s Word here calls us to a deep commitment to a local church body. We are so conditioned to treat every aspect of our lives as consumers, that we feel the right to pull up stakes and walk away from a church as soon as we feel that our “needs” aren’t being met or we have any disagreement whatsoever with someone else.

But what does God call us to do in the face of a church that is struggling with sin? Look to the promises of God and lean in. Paul prayed for the church in Corinth, he loved them, he delighted in them and he did everything he could in his authority as an Apostle and the planter of that church to call them to faithfulness and repentance. The day may come when you realize that the lampstand has been taken away, and that church has completely fallen away from Christ—but unless and until that happens, as long as you still see the grace of God at work in genuine love for Christ, His Word and His people, then hold fast, keep praying, keep loving, and keep looking to the promises of the God Who cannot fail that He will perfect them in holiness.

If God sees past all of the struggles with sin to the holiness that He has purchased for them in Christ, then what does that mean for you when you are on the wrong end of a fellow church member’s struggles with sin? When you have been hurt by the prideful or angry or selfish or immature behaviors of other members of the church? If God Himself looks on them through the lens of the holiness He has purchased for them in Christ, do you have the right to respond with anger, judgment, hurt feelings and division? The quick and easy answer is to just check out—find another church to attend, and the next time you’re at Save A Lot you look carefully down the freezer aisle to make sure they’re not there before you go down to get your chicken nuggets. That’s the world’s way—that’s the coward’s way; it’s not the Christian way.

Because when you consider that weak, sinning brother or sister in Christ the way God does, you don’t see a wretched sinner that was so insensitive as to hurt you; you see a fellow heir of holiness purchased by the blood of Christ. And you see that God has sworn to call you into fellowship with them in Christ; you are both in Christ, and that means you are able to reconcile.

This is what these verses are showing you this morning, beloved—when you belong to Christ by faith, the identity that you bear is not one of a sinner. You are holy, you are enriched in everything for your sanctification; you have been given the grace of God in Christ. Your sin no longer defines you; you are defined by the calling God has extended to you, sanctified in Christ Jesus and called as a saint. Yes, you still struggle with sin; yes, sometimes it is hard from the outside to tell if you are even a Christian—but if you belong to Christ by faith you are a saint first, even as you struggle with sin. You are a saint first, even when you fail; you are a saint first, even when you have to ask forgiveness for the fiftieth time this month. God does not regard your sin when He looks at you; He has laid them all on Christ. He sees your holiness, even when you cannot see it yourself sometimes.

But make no mistake, Christian—saying that God looks past your struggles with sin to the holiness He has purchased for you in Christ does not mean that you can simply coast along without ever dealing with the sin that you still struggle with. It doesn’t mean that you can be content in your sin, or that you can rationalize it by saying that since God sees you as holy you can just go along as you please.

After all, if that were the case, 1 Corinthians would be one of the shortest books of the New Testament, wouldn’t it? If Paul certainly doesn’t just say, “God sees you as saints; you’re good, keep doing what you’re doing...” Instead, he comes to this struggling, fighting, sinning, messed-up dumpster fire of a church and says, “There is a way out! You are destined for better than this! You are not damaged goods, you are not too far gone to mess with, you have not ruined your relationship with Christ—you can come back! It doesn’t happen overnight, and it requires a lot of hard work, a lot of repentance, a lot of killing sin, a lot of reconciliation and a lot of humility, but God has already promised the holiness of Christ to you.

This is the hope of the Gospel—not that your sins and your guilt and your rebellion and pride can be swept under the rug, but that He has promised to free you from all of it. That on the Day that He appears you will be free to stand before Him completely and utterly beyond reproach—called by God Himself into eternal, perfect fellowship with His Son, your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Jude 24–25 LSB

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

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