Thank for listening to the First Day podcast. I am so happy to be a part of your spiritual journey. Please don’t hesitate to reach out; if you have any questions send them to connect@firstday.us. I want to ask that you share this podcast with others if you have found it helpful in your growth as a disciple and journey with Chirst. I am hoping to have an average of seventy listeners per week by the end of 2024. Thank you for your help in growing the podcast. Now on with Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

It was typical to begin letters with the sender’s name. Paul doesn’t call himself by the  Jewish version of his name, Saul. There is no evidence that his name was changed due to any moment of conversion. Rather, as was the convention of his day, the apostle used different versions of his name depending upon the audience or context. 

Sosthenes may well be the former head of the Jewish synagogue in Corinth—also called Crispus—who was beaten before the proconsul Gallio’s tribunal. This incident was reported in Acts 18. He had come to believe Christ was the Messiah and had brought many Corinthians to believe, too. Sosthenes’ relationship with the Corinthian church is not described, but considering Paul mentions him at all indicates a meaningful relationship between the church and the former Jewish leader. 

Paul declares that he is “called as an apostle of Jesus Christ”. Also note that in the very next verse, Paul states that the Corinthians, too, have been “called as saints”. What, then, does it mean to be called? In current usage, we use the word ‘calling’ synonymously with the word ‘vocation’, but here, it seems, Paul means it to be more broadly and meaningfully utilized. Paul’s authority is, therefore, grounded in the eternal, the divine, and cannot be revoked by anyone. This is similar to his description of his calling to the Gospel that he gives to the Galatians. To be called isn’t just about one’s career path—or abandoning them all together. This calling is specifically stated to be “by God’s will” and not by any other person’s whims.

Indeed, Paul didn’t earn a dime from fulfilling his call in Corinth: He worked as a tentmaker or leather worker if you recall from the last episode. No. To be called means so much more than working in an occupation you love or are have skill in. With this in his introduction, Paul is making this letter not only one specifically concerning Corinth but also one intended for the whole Church. 

Calling is about the meaning and purpose of one’s life and not how that person earns a living. For what gives rise to a saint if it is not the willingness to lay down one’s life for what is more meaningful? In Christ not only have the Corinthians been called to live as saints, Paul tells them, but so have “all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ”. Joel 2:32 comes to mind: “But everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved, for some on Mount Zion in Jerusalem will escape, just as the LORD has said. These will be among the survivors whom the LORD has called.” All of Christ’s followers call upon this same Lord. 

I can’t help but think that Paul has found it necessary to remind the Corinthians of this fact—that they are one with every other believer because of the culture of Corinth—for theirs is a city known for its greed and its citizens’ desire for social advancement and advantage. 

In verse three, the apostle offers the Corinthians God’s grace and peace before offering a thanksgiving to God and then getting right to the issue at hand. “Peace is not simply a negative or passive state in the Christian faith. Rather, it is an integration of the spiritual personality wrought through a faith centered in Christ the Prince of peace.” (The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Vol. 5, 124) Years later in his letter to the Ephesians 2:14 declare the Christ Jesus “is our peace.” Our struggles with others—and theirs with us—can only be mitigated through the presence of Jesus Christ. Therefore peace, like purity or impurity, does not originate in the external but comes from the heart—where the Spirit of that same Christ dwells. 

This is the peace that is felt when we live into our calling “as saints”. It is a peace that surpasses all understanding because it is a peace that is available even int the direst for circumstances. A perfect example of this peace is found in the story of Stephen’s calling—and ultimate martyrdom—in Acts 7.

In the next section of his greeting, Paul offers a thanksgiving up to God for the work that the Spirit performed in and among the Corinthians. 

Paul continues his greeting with a thanksgiving. He is thankful that the Corinthians have received God’s grace in Jesus’ work, and he’s thankful that God has made the congregation equipped to understand and share the gospel. In fact, this is proof that the Corinthians have a relationship with God through Christ Jesus. And this relationship has been given and received for purpose: so that the Corinthians may remain faithful until the end—until the Day of the LORD when Christ is revealed.

Paul would, of course, be familiar with this Day, though to most of his Greco-Roman audience the idea would be a foreign one. Amos 5:18-20 states:

”18 Woe to you who are longing for the day of the Lord,/ For what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you?/ It will be darkness and not light;/ 19 As when a man flees from a lion/ And a bear confronts him,/ Or he goes home, leans with his hand against the wall,/ And a snake bites him./ 20 Will the day of the Lord not be darkness instead of light,/ Even gloom with no brightness in it?”

This is a Day of Judgement and not one of relief and comfort. In the last series on Thessalonians, we spent some time considering the fact that so many of us state that we long for the Day to come, but that when it does come, all of our stuff will be laid bare. In so many traditions and congregations there are Christians who long for this day also because it is the Day of the Great Comeuppance. But as Christians should we really be hoping for this to befall those who have not come to the LORD?  

But this Day isn’t only about judgement, but it is also about salvation. 

“32 And it will come about that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
Will be saved;/ For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem/ There will be those who escape,
Just as the Lord has said,/ Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.” (Joel 2:32)

Judgement or salvation, this Day will come quickly as Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5:2, “2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord is coming just like a thief in the night.” The apostle said this not because certain people would be snatched away but because the event will happen when it is least expected. I think Jesus had a parable about a thief that included a “If the owner of the house knew when the thief was coming”? 

Just as with the Thessalonians, the thought of an end to the world, to the order of things, was something that was foreign to the Corinthians. Paul here thanks God that He has given to them this knowledge and even the ability to share it with others. And here we see a little foreshadowing. 

Paul tells the Corinthians that they have received their spiritual gifts—their charism—for this purpose so that they may remain faithful through it all. Later in his letter, we learn that the Corinthians were not utilizing their gifts to build up each other’s faith as they await the Coming of the LORD but, rather, are using them as a means to “prove” that they are better than the other members of the church. 

The apostle closes out his greeting by saying: “8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful; you were called by him into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Something that we take for granted—or maybe have forgotten and need to remember—is that only through grace have we received the hope of salvation. It is God, Paul says, who keeps the Corinthians blameless. To be blameless is a legalism that means that a person stands unaccused. In other words, it is God who justifies us not we ourselves. In verse nine, Paul introduces the Gentile Corinthians to yet another foreign idea: the divine covenant. 

In Greek and Roman religion the gods are mercurial and fickle, and there is no guarantee of their beneficence. In Paul’s declaration of God’s faithfulness to the Corinthians, the apostle is including the Gentiles in the LORD’s covenantal relationship with His people. Just as Abraham and his descendent were called so, too, through Jesus have the Gentiles. Also note that Paul says that “God IS faithful,” meaning that the King of kings’ work is not done and that He never abandons those whom He calls. 

This calling is a repeated refrain throughout Isaiah:

“6 “I am the Lord, I have called You in righteousness,
I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You,
And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the nations…” (42:6)

Here God declares that the Christ Jesus, the Servant, will be a light that brings the nations to covenant with God. 

In Isaiah 46:10 we hear: “10 Declaring the end from the beginning,/ And from ancient times things which have not been done,/ Saying, ‘My plan will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’…” 

This covenant with the nations exists because it His plan and His pleasure to see it come to fruition. All we have to do is make sure that we get ourselves out of the way. All this is accomplished because the instrument of God’s plan—the instrument at work in the Corinthians—has been called by God to bring about their redemption. 

“7 This is what the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One,/ Says to the despised One,/ To the One abhorred by the nation,/ To the Servant of rulers:/ ‘Kings will see and arise,/ Princes will also bow down,Because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.’” (49:7)

So what Paul tells the Corinthians is nothing new, although it is new to them. It has always been God’s plan to bring these Gentiles into a saving relationship with Himself, and in his greeting, Paul is simply reminding the Corinthians of what they have come to know.