One of the things I find most fascinating about the book of 1 Corinthians is how the apostle Paul greets the church to whom he is writing. I’m thinking particularly of verse 2, where he writes, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.”
This may seem like a very typical opening to one of Paul’s letters, and in fact, it is. Paul begins nearly all of his letters with similar greetings. What I find most interesting about these opening verses isn’t actually what Paul said, but rather to whom he said it.
If you keep reading, you’ll quickly find that the church in Corinth had some serious issues. They were gladly tolerating heinous sexual sin, dragging each other into court, and even apparently getting drunk during the Lord’s Supper!
I want you to imagine for a moment—if you were standing in the apostle Paul’s position, how would you address this church? How would you think about them? How would you speak about them when they weren’t around? I imagine many of us would be tempted to conclude that the people of this church couldn’t possibly be real Christians—just look at how much of a mess they are! You would surely be tempted to conclude that the conduct of their lives clearly proves that their profession of faith in Jesus couldn’t possibly be genuine.
And yet, how does Paul address them? He says that they are “those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” They are those, Paul says, who have been set apart, who have cleansed, and who have been made holy by the Lord Jesus.
Seriously?! These people? Sanctified in Christ Jesus? Paul clearly had categories in his mind that many of us don’t have today. He wasn’t quick to condemn the Corinthians’ genuinely terrible behaviour as proof of lack of genuine salvation, nor does he spend the letter of 1 Corinthians telling them, “you’d better start obeying, or you might not be a real Christian!” Instead, what does Paul do? He spends the first several chapters of his letter grounding them in the gospel and in their identity as saints—literally holy ones. He reminds them who they are and then calls them (sternly at times) to lives in ways that reflect the truth of who they are in Christ.
Brothers and sisters, when we interact with those in the church who are caught in sin, may we not be quick to question the legitimacy of their insurance. Let us instead follow the example of the apostle Paul who reminded those who were caught in sin of their identity in Christ and exhorted them to live in light of those great and glorious truths!
All the best,
Luke
