Go-and-teach-all-nations
Paul’s greeting to the God’s church in Corinth
1 Corinthians 1:1-3
v1 This letter is from Paul. It was God’s plan to choose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. This letter is also from our Christian ‘brother’ Sosthenes.
v2 We are sending this letter to you, the members of God’s church in Corinth. God has chosen you to be his holy people because Christ Jesus has made you holy. He has done the same for all those everywhere who worship our Lord Jesus Christ. He is their Lord and ours.
v3 We pray that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will give you grace and peace.
Comment:
Verse 1 - ‘Christ’ is the Greek word for Messiah. It means the king that God would send to his people. Paul emphasises that he is an apostle because of God’s plan. He describes himself in this way in other letters. But it was important for him to state his authority to the Christians at Corinth. Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9:1-23 show that some Christians at Corinth doubted whether he was an apostle. They doubted his right to tell them the truth and to give them advice.
Sosthenes may have been the same person as the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth. People had hit him in front of the ruler Gallio (Acts 18:12-17). Sosthenes had become a Christian and he had travelled with Paul to Ephesus. He may have acted as Paul’s secretary. Paul calls him ‘our brother’. So, the Christians at Corinth must have known him.
Verse 2 - Paul had written to the church ‘of the people in Thessalonica’. Here he speaks about the ‘church of God’ in Corinth. Paul did not want the Christians at Corinth to feel proud about themselves. So, he reminds them that the church belongs to God. They are like God’s field, God’s building and God’s workers (3:9).
The Greek word for ‘church’ is ‘ecclesia’. It means the people whom God ‘called out’ to be his own people. Their behaviour must be different from the way many Christians at Corinth were behaving. God has made them ‘holy’ because they trusted Christ. Paul says to them what he has said to Christians everywhere. The Christians at Corinth are only one part of God’s church.
Verse 3 - Paul does not use the usual greetings that began and ended letters. He prays that they will know peace. This peace comes as people know the grace of God. Grace is God’s love that they do not deserve. And they cannot earn God’s love. God has shown his love by Jesus. When they know that love, they will feel safe. God has forgiven them. So they will have inner peace.
Paul here unites Jesus Christ with God the Father. Jesus really is God. And Jesus works with God the Father to save his people.
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Text from the EasyEnglish Bible Version and Commentary - used with permission - © 1997-2004, Wycliffe Associates (UK) - For more information about EasyEnglish Publications, visit their website: www.easyenglish.info
Go-and-teach-all-nations