1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Applebury's Comments

Salutation and Thanksgiving (1-9)

Commentary
Text

1 Corinthians 1:1-9. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 unto the church of God which is at Corinth, even them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus; 5 that in everything ye were enriched in him, in all utterance and all knowledge; 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 7 so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; 8 who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye be unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul.The life of this remarkable man will forever be an inspiration and a challenge to the followers of Christ. For some of the facts about his early life see Acts 22:3; Acts 26:4-5; Galatians 1:13-14; Philippians 3:4-5.

He is first mentioned in the story of Christianity in connection with the stoning of Stephen. He is the young man named Saul at whose feet the witnesses laid down their garments (Acts 7:58). The name Saul means asked for. Soon after he began his work as the apostle to the Gentiles, he became known by the name Paul (Acts 13:9). It would be a mistake, however, to assume that he got this name from his association with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus (Acts 13:7).

called apostle.His conversion and appointment to the apostleship are of such importance as to be recorded in three Chapter s of Acts (9, 22, 26). He never forgot the terrible thing he did in the role of persecutor nor the grace of God that made him an apostle of Christ. He saw to it that this grace did not become an empty thing, for, in his own words, he labored more abundantly than all the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:10).

The word called suggests the kind of apostle he was. He was summoned by Christ and sent as an apostle to the Gentiles. The words to be do not occur in the Greek text. They are supplied by the translators in an effort to make the thought clear. In doing so, however, there is danger of loosing sight of the real meaning of the expression: Paul was an apostle summoned by Jesus Christ. Others have taken upon themselves to be apostles (2 Corinthians 11:13-15), but without divine appointment they could not rightly be called apostles of Christ. While he is an apostle of Jesus Christ, God is the agent in his call to the apostleship, for it was through the will of God.

the will of God.It was necessary for Paul to establish his authority at the outset, for he was to give the divine solution to the problems that plagued the church at Corinth. For the defense of his apostleship, see 1 Corinthians 9:1-3. For the defense of the apostolic gospel which he proclaimed, see Galatians 1:11-24.

Sosthenes.Who was this man, Sosthenes, who is called brother? He must have been a person who was well known to the Corinthians, as suggested by the prominent mention of him in the opening words of the letter. His name does not occur again in the epistle. The fact that he is mentioned in the salutation does not suggest that he shared in any way in giving the inspired directives that were designed to lift the church of Corinth out of its sorry plight. In Acts 18:12-17, mention is made of a ruler of the synagogue by the name of Sosthenes. It is not possible to prove that he is the same man mentioned in First Corinthians, but he could have been.

Paul was well aware of the strong opposition to him at Corinth. It may be that he mentioned Sosthenes to show that he had friends in Corinth who trusted his leadership as an apostle of Christ.

the church of God.Paul addressed them as the church of God although they were splitting into various factions and proclaiming loyalty to various men. As God's church, they had been called into the fellowship of His Son. The disgraceful conduct that characterized so many of them was completely out of harmony with the thought of the name, church of God. But they were God's church, for the price of their redemption, the blood of Christ, had been paid for them as well as for any other congregation. Their mission, therefore, as the church of God, was to glorify God, not men.

The word church referred to the assembly of free citizens called out from the masses to exercise the privileges of citizenship and freedom. But when Paul used the term church of God, he lifted the word far above its ordinary meaning and put it in the realm of those who are separated from the world of sin by the blood of Christ and called through the gospel into the assembly of saints to enjoy the privileges of freedom in Christ and citizenship in the heavenly kingdom.

Almost every word in this greeting strikes a blow at the sinful practices that had crept into the church at Corinth.

sanctified.The word means separated from sin, purified, or set apart for the service of God. The form of the word used here suggests that this separation had taken place in the past and that its effect had carried over to the present. It does not imply that they could no longer commit a sin; it does clearly imply that they were to live a life of consecration in harmony with the fact that they had been set apart to a pure life. This had been accomplished by the blood of Christ at the time of their baptism. And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our Lord (1 Corinthians 6:11). See also Hebrews 9:13-14; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; Ephesians 5:26-27.

What an awful violation of this principle is seen in the conduct of the Corinthians as reported in Chapter s five and six!

called saints.The word saint is from the same root as the word sanctify, and it is related to the root word which means pure. In the O. T. it is applied to that which was set apart for the service of God. That which was set apart had to be free from blemish; the term, therefore, came to mean freedom from blemish, spot, or stain, first in the physical, and then in the moral realm. See 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 for the appeal for the Corinthians to live a life of separation from sin.

call upon the name of the Lord.The form of the expression indicates that it was in their own interest that they called upon the Lord. It was out of man's despair that he called upon God for help. How Strange that men who had called on God from this point of view should now be saying, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Cehpas.

The first reference to men who called on the name of the Lord is given in Genesis 4:26. Evidently, men realized that their only hope of survival was to turn away from the wickedness of Cain and turn to God who alone could save them. In the days of Joel, the prophet, a similar situation prevailed in the life of the nation of Israel (Joel 2:39). Israel was facing almost certain destruction, and Joel reminded them that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Peter quoted this prophecy on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:21) and showed that there is a sense in which it applies to the sinner whose only hope of salvation is in Christ. See Acts 4:12, Another example is found in Acts 22:16. Ananias had said to Saul, Get yourself baptized and wash away your sins because you called upon His name. Saul, at last, had accepted the truth of Stephen's message; he could go no further in his opposition to Christ. Consequently, when Jesus spoke to him on the Damascus road, he said, -What will you have me to do, Lord? There was no other alternative; for him, it was repent or perish. All Christians came to be spoken of as those who were calling on the Name of the Lord. He was their only hope.

This is far more than appropriating a name for themselves, or piously saying, Lord, Lord (Matthew 7:21); it was the desperate cry of the sinking sinner, Lord, save me (Matthew 14:30).

theirs and ours.This, as the American Version indicates, is a reference to the word Lord which does not occur in the Greek in this phrase. It is possible that it may refer to place, and if so, it suggests that calling upon the name of the Lord was not limited to any one place; but men in every place, even where Paul was, were calling on His name.

Grace to you and peace.This is something more than a mere salutation. It seems to breathe a prayer for the strife-torn congregation at Corinth: Let God's unmerited favor be with them; let His peace abide with them.

I thank my God always.Knowing the conditions that existed in Corinth, one wonders how Paul found it possible to thank God always concerning them. He was thankful for God's grace that had enriched them so that they lacked no necessary instruction to enable them to prepare for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. There was a solution for the problem of the Corinthian church. Note the reference to God's grace.

the grace of God which was given to you.This is a reference to the unmerited favor of God that had supplied the Corinthians with the miraculous power (see Chapter s 12 through 14) through which divine instruction in righteousness had been given them. These miraculous gifts were necessary in the absence of the written Word. They, however, abused this favor, for they quarreled over the relative value of tongues over other spiritual gifts.

enriched in him.This enrichment had to do with utterance and knowledge in connection with the confirmed testimony of Christ. Utterance is the word or message of wisdom (1 Corinthians 12:8). Knowledge is the ability to know or to understand the meaning of the divinely revealed message. The Corinthians knew and understood God's revealed will for them; nevertheless, they disregarded it. Consequently, it was necessary for Paul to write this letter to correct the many errors in their thinking and conduct.

testimony of Christ was confirmed.Paul had preached to them the message about Christ. It had been established or confirmed by the miracles that accompanied the preaching. See Mark 16:20; Hebrews 2:3-4.

ye became behind in no gift.The failures in Corinth were in no way caused by the lack of inspired instruction or its confirmation by miraculous demonstration. They had all the advantages of the other churches. Their disgraceful conduct, so unbecoming to a Christian, was entirely their own responsibility.

revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.This refers to Christ's second coming.

confirm you unto the end.The established message about Christ would establish the faithful in Christ. It was adequate to direct them in Christian character and conduct; there was no need for them to fail to enter the rewards of the saints in heaven. Those who were failing were doing so in spite of all that Christ was doing to present them before the Father as irreproachable.

unreprovable in the day of our Lord.No one in the Day of Judgment will be able to lay anything to the charge of God's chosen ones, the ones who choose to obey His will and remain faithful unto death (Romans 8:33; Revelation 2:10). This is a strong reason why Christian people should strive to live a life that glorifies God in the body (1 Corinthians 6:20; Titus 2:11-12). The day of our Lord is the day of His coming to judge the world. The phrase on the Lord's day (Revelation 1:10) is not only different in form but in meaning also: it refers to the first day of the week.

fellowship.This interesting word occurs many times in the New Testament in a variety of forms. The root idea is partnership, association, or participation. Those who are associated with Christ are to share with Him in the proclamation of the Word of the Cross and in the discharge of the other obligations of the saints of God.