Tuesday, August 6th, 2024

Scripture: 1 Cor. 1:7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

1 Cor. 1:8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Cor. 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Teaching: Paul calls the Corinthians to see that it was God’s grace that brought them into their faith in Christ in his opening thanksgiving remarks, but he is also alluding to his first major point of the letter that comes in the following verses. This first issue is the Corinthians’ penchant for seeking honor above their peers, creating factions and divisions based on their own perceived values. In Greek culture, wisdom, knowledge, and oration were supremely valued. Like many other cultures then and now, they also placed honor on those who were wealthy.

Paul’s opening remarks in this letter call the Corinthians to see that they did not earn their salvation, giftings, or knowledge of Christ – it was given to them by God’s grace. Thus, they are all equal in the eyes of the Lord. They have already obtained what they needed (salvation) and been given what they need to sustain them in the days ahead. What matters now is not jostling for rank, but understanding that what they have already received is enough as they “wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul is calling them to understand where they currently sit in God’s timing: blessed to be on this side of Christ’s resurrection but eagerly awaiting Christ’s return to establish His Kingdom. What matters in this moment is not jockeying for worldly positions of importance but embracing what has been given by God and is sustained by God to effect Christ’s mission: making disciples. The spiritual giftings, knowledge, and speech the Corinthians were gifted and enriched with are not primarily for their own use but for the building of the Church.

Teaching: Paul’s view in these verses is eschatological, or end-times focused. This is a common way Paul quashes spiritual immaturity or worldly influence in his letters as it calls his reader to lift their viewpoint from the temporal and earthly to the eternal and heavenly. What is now will not always be, but what is of Christ and in Christ will be eternally. Verse 9 communicates the fact that God is faithful, and echoes Paul’s argument in Philippians 1:6, that they could be “confident...that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” In God’s faithfulness, He has called the Corinthians, and us today, into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ. Paul stresses this fact, that they all are in fellowship with Christ who is Lord (and head of the Church). For us today reading these verses, it is important to recognize where we sit in God’s timing: by God’s grace through faith we are saved, but we eagerly await Christ’s return. We, like the Corinthians, do well to live life now with the Kingdom in mind.