1 Cor 1:1-9
"Greetings and Thanksgiving"
We saw last week that the citizens of Corinth sought to find status and value in the eyes of others. Even though the Corinthians had believed upon Christ for salvation, they had brought those status-seeking values into the church. This mentality had begun to erode their fellowship. It had even caused them to look down on the Apostle Paul, who hardly met their qualifications of a philosopher and teacher of status.
Though the relationship between the Corinthians and Paul was strained, Paul begins his epistle offering thanksgiving for the Corinthian Christians. In his introduction, the Apostle in seed form provides all the themes that he will later unpack in the letter.
Now before we consider Paul's introduction, we must do a reality check. The Corinthians are not the only Christians that tend to seek approval and value by comparing themselves with others. As children of Adam we have inherited this insecurity. And as children of God we often return to that mindset when we lose sight of the gospel.
There is a tendency in modern Christianity to find our value in what we do as Christians. We tend to judge our relationship with the Lord on how we are doing that week. We have been told that unless our relationship with the Lord is producing life-change; unless we are making practical differences every day, something is wrong.
Now let's be honest. How often do you experience life-change? This thinking leads us to great insecurities in our relationship with God. We begin to trust in the law to make us right before God. If I do the following then I will be a committed Christian, and God will think better of me. We act as if Christ is only standing by in heaven waiting for us to be more committed. And of course He is up there always frustrated that we are so weak.
This kind of thinking leads to the problems we see in the church at Corinth. Christ has already made the great change in your life. Life change has already occurred for the Christian. You have been transferred from the realm of darkness and death to the realm of eternal life.
You see, if your relationship with God is based on how you are doing at any given week, or how close you feel to God, or how godly others think you are, then you will invariably lose sight of Christ and His work. You will begin to compare yourselves to others to find that approval and security you seek. A preoccupation with self will lead to a constant comparison with others. And then you will not have true Christian fellowship.
As a new believer my youth pastor took aside some of us college students and led us in a personal discipleship course. In this course we were challenged to go beyond the average Christian commitment. I was told that committed Christianity was conquering a series of challenges and disciplines. So every week I read more Scripture than others, I memorized more verses, I prayed longer than others, and I even passed out more tracts than others.
Our discipleship group began to get a reputation, but not the one I thought we had. What I didn't realize is that as I was doing more, I was also growing more proud, and as a result pushing others away in the church. At the time I chalked my attitude up to being zealous for the Lord.
But I soon realized that I was judging my Christianity by the things I was doing, and finding value in the fact that I did more than others in the church. In other words, my Christianity revolved around me. I hurt a lot of people in those days and am thankful that the Lord grew me up. It wasn't as if I abandoned prayer or Bible reading, I finally stopped judging my relationship with God by them.
This is what was happening in Corinth. Many in the group thought there was a way they could arrive spiritually, and they were looking down on others who hadn't arrived.
They were wrongly viewing Christianity as a passive God only responding to our commitment. If we want a strong Christian life, we must do the following.
But this view of Christianity is foreign to the Apostle Paul. In his introduction to the epistle, Paul lifts the Corinthians' minds off themselves, and off their works and qualities. Where does he lift their minds? Well, you heard it in the reading. How many times in these nine verse is Christ referred to? I'll save you from counting; Ten times. Nine times Christ's name is used, and in v. 5 the phrase "in Him" simply means in Christ.
The fourth century church father Chrysostom noted that nowhere in any other epistle does the name of Christ occur so continuously in such few verses. The Apostle Paul in his introduction draws their minds off themselves and on to Christ their Savior and representative.
Only when you find your value in what Christ has already done for you will you be free to love and serve others, instead of comparing yourselves with them. We see this exemplified even in the way Paul introduces himself. Remember the Corinthians were doubting Paul's apostleship, and they were very critical of his preaching and of the way he lived.
The Apostle could have really laid it on thick to promote his authority. He could speak about his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus; he could tell of his visions, he could brag about how God had used him throughout the world.
But Paul does none of that. He continues to lower himself that Christ may be glorified. The only thing he says about himself in v. 1 is that he was an apostle of Christ; but that he was called by the will of God. Paul takes no credit for himself, but lifts up God's sovereign calling as the reason for his apostleship. He readily admits from the beginning that there was nothing in him worthy to be an apostle, only that God had called him. At the time we would expect him to boast, he humbles himself.
And Paul is not threatened to share the glory. Some commentators have wondered why Paul adds this fact at the end of v. 1, that the letter also comes from Sothenes our brother. It is possible that Sothenes was a scribe who wrote down Paul's words. Paul did not usually write the epistles himself, but dictated through a scribe.
But what is important is that the apostle treats Sothenes as an equal sender of the letter. He calls him, "our brother." He could have used the term, "my servant," or at least "my scribe" or "helper." But Paul was exemplifying to the Corinthians what the Christian life is really about. Paul was not seeking glory from the Corinthians; he was willing to lower himself and lift up a lowly scribe. Does that not remind you of another, who lifted up His people by lowering Himself?
And then Paul offers thanksgiving for these Christians. These Christians who have criticized him; who have doubted him, who have even been embarrassed by him. Paul begins by thanking God for them! How can you thank God for those who were hurting you? Well, Paul was reflecting the Lord Jesus. Does He not love us even when we sin against Him?
For Paul Christianity was not ultimately about how the Corinthians were doing. They may have rough edges, they may be weak and childish, but Paul thanks them for what Christ had done for them. Notice the focus of his thanksgiving was not on their qualities, or their strengths. Paul thanks God for what God has done for them in Christ.
Paul lists the many riches Christ has already won for them. V. 2 - they have been set apart and called as holy ones. Holiness is not first and foremost a command, it is a declaration. Because your Savior kept the law perfectly for you, when you were justified you were called holy. Christ's righteousness was imputed to you as a free gift. This is the holiness Paul focuses our attention on.
In v. 3 Paul greets the church by proclaiming grace and peace from the Father and the Son. Grace from God and peace are gifts won for us by Christ. God has shed His grace upon us in sending His Son in our place, as a result we have eternal peace with God. The peace Paul speaks of is not first and foremost subjective peace you feel, but an objective declaration. We have peace with God because Christ took His anger for us.
In v. 5 Paul reminds them that they have been enriched in everything in Him. What do you have that you have not been given? What can you boast about over others?
Paul thanks God for granting the Corinthians speech and knowledge. Speech refers to their teaching; knowledge to their understanding. Even though the Corinthians were boasting in these things, Paul still thanks God for them, but attributes them to God's grace. He takes the boasting out of their hands.
In v 6 the apostle thanks God that the testimony of Christ had been confirmed among them. As the believers exercised their knowledge and teaching, it was proof of what Christ had already accomplished among them.
In v 7 Paul is thankful that they lacked no gift. Some had exalted their gifts above others, but Paul says that together as a church you lack no gift -each of you together fills up the church and each is equally as important. Your gifts only work as you serve each other. You cannot use a gift by yourself.
At the end of v. 7 and in v. 8 Paul turns their attention from the present to the future. You see the problem was that some in the church believed they had spiritually arrived. But Paul now places their focus on to the return of Christ. At Christ's return He will establish them as blameless.
You see the importance of a proper eschatology, or understanding of the times. We seem to think that there is a magical formula that if we just applied it would give us maturity, or would take away our insecurities or weaknesses. We look to others as role models. If I just imitate what they do, I will find the spiritual success they found.
Because the Corinthians thought they could attain to a higher spiritual level than others, they began to treat one another as rivals. But Paul would have them see that we are all on the same journey. And that journey continues and is perfected only when Christ returns.
We all began the journey at the same place. We were dead. We were already in a coffin spiritually. Then the triune God, the ruler of the universe, chose a race from the mass of dead humanity, and He came down in the Lord Jesus Christ to become our salvation. The Son of God walked the perfect life representing us. Then the Son submitted himself to bear the full wrath of the Father; hell's fire was forever satisfied.
The Son of God rose again to then bring this new life to us by sending His Spirit, the down payment of the internal inheritance won for us in Christ.
But though in a legal sense we have been accounted as blameless, in a subjective sense we still war against sin. Until heaven our subjective experience will be one off growth and weakness, righteousness and sin.
Consider the analogy of a group of people locked outside a house in freezing weather. They were kicked out for they rebelled against the owner of the house. The house is locked, but inside the house is a warm fire. They are dead as far as their relationship to the owner is concerned, and soon that judgment will be felt as they die in the cold. But then the owner, out of love and mercy, opens the door, comes outside, and rescues the people from the cold. He places them by the warm fire, and locks the door behind them so that they will never be thrown outside again.
In one sense the victory is won. The people will never freeze to death. The owner locked the door for good. They have been saved. But in another sense the victory is not complete. As their limbs begin to slowly thaw from the fire, they feel the pain from the effects of the cold. As the fire warms them the aches of the cold still hurt, the cold still affects them. Only when the thaw is complete will they experience the full effects of the owner's rescue.
The Corinthians were not helping each other endure the effects of the former cold. Instead they were comparing their amount of the thaw with each other. They were finding their value in other people's weaknesses; and in their own works.
But there is no life in this type of thinking. Ladies, I know how prone you are to compare yourselves to other ladies, both physically and spiritually. Men are just as prone to comparing, though maybe in different areas. But you see this type of living leads only down to paths. Either you see yourself as not as good as another and you begin to despair, or you see yourself as better and you begin to grow proud. Either road is the wrong path. They only leads to a church that has lost sight of Christ, and cannot love one another.
Paul's answer: get your minds off yourselves. Do not judge your relationship with God by how you are doing this week. As you thaw you will have good weeks and bad weeks. You will have times of great assurance and times of great doubt and stress.
You must be anchored in something beyond how you think you are doing with the Lord. Your anchor must be Christ and what he has accomplished in your place. Then you will be free to serve Him in love, not in trying to live up to other people's expectations.
Avoid the role model mentality so popular today. No one has discovered a secret to feeling close to God. They may boast of their disciplines, but Paul points you to Christ. Here is where you find your value.
And the Corinthians had focused so much on themselves and their own individual walk, they not only lost sight of Christ but the greater church. The world revolved around them. But did you notice how Paul describes the Lord in v. 2? Not only is He your Lord, but the Lord of all those in every place who call upon the name of the Lord, both their Lord and ours. Stop thinking about yourself in such individualistic terms. It isn't just you and God. You are art of a greater body, and together you glorify God. You can only be a healthy Christian as part of a whole.
Finally, we would end with the last verse. Though the Corinthians were dealing with their own sins and issues, Paul blesses God for calling them into the eternal fellowship with the Son. The greatest concern is not your own faithfulness. Rest instead in this: God is faithful, who will complete what he began. Then you will be faithful.
It is no accident that to these individualist Corinthians, so focused on themselves and on how others perceived them, Paul explicitly mentions Christ more times than in any other passage of Scripture.
In all things Christ is your representative. He is your command-keeper. He is your sanctification; He is the source of your spiritual life. As you grow in your understanding of His work, and His love, you will not treat one another as rivals to compare yourselves with, but as fellow pilgrims on the same journey, placed on the journey by the same Savior.
As we see our brother thawing out, and that thawing can be very rough; those sins and weakness can be ugly; when that happens we will not judge but seek to comfort, for we also are thawing out. As the stinging ice continues to thaw, find your value in Christ, not in yourselves or your works. And remember, He who called you and rescued you will also present you before God blameless on the day of Christ Jesus. Amen