1 Cor. 1:2 “To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called saints, with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours:”
The bulk of 1 Corinthians can be categorized into eleven different issues among the saints in Corinth; what we often focus on are the issues and problems. Besides the problems, most people read the apostle Paul as a strong, legal force rebuking the Corinthian believers. However, in light of the recent global scenario, we are able to see something more intrinsic to Paul’s serving the local saints there, something more human. This book reveals the core elements to how the Lord’s servant served, whom he served and what he served within the New Testament ministry. By the time we reach the end of 1 Corinthians, it becomes clear that Paul was serving the saints into a sphere of the divine essence to be matured for the Lord’s return.
1 Cor. 1:2 “To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called saints, with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours:”
Paul does not begin the epistle with the issues; instead Paul sends his message to the “church of God,” “those who have been sanctified,” and “the called saints”— these are the essential parts and the identity of the church. The church exists by the divine element from the Lord— not the problems, the personalities, the high or low born status— that marks out His people and draws them together [ref. 1 Cor. 1:2 footnote 2].
Here, Paul lays out two important aspects from the Lord’s point of view: 1) the saints have been sanctified, and 2) they are called. This viewpoint is the groundwork and the controlling burden throughout the rest of the letter. Paul rebukes, admonishes and reinforces the saints in Corinth from this heavenly understanding. It is the governing view that the apostle holds to in order to serve the saints who are stuck in the low and base things of their daily living.
This “sanctification” may seem like a judicial term, but Paul does not stop there. The sanctification is not procedural; it is an organic union, wherein the saints are “called into the fellowship of His Son,” or into a living sphere of sanctification [v. 9]. Sanctification is more than just a judicial positioning — actually, Paul served continually with the view of sanctifying in and from this organic union with the Son. And only those sanctified could receive his serving; only those in this organic fellowship are the recipients of this epistle.
1 Cor. 1:5 “That in everything you were enriched in Him, in all utterance and all knowledge,”
1 Cor. 1:7 “So that you do not lack in any gift, eagerly awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Corinthians did not lack anything judicially; they were “enriched in Him.” Yet the apostle’s concern and charge are related to their daily living. Where was the testimony from the divine element in their humanity? The saints should have been enriched with no lack—why was there still striving, opinions and divisions? They had received the initial gifts through grace, but they lacked the growth of life in their spirit, the proper maturing of the initial gifts.
In the middle of all the problems, in chapter 13, Paul reveals the secret to serve all the fleshly issues that the saints experience in the churchlife: the most “excelling way” to continue the maturation of the saints, which is the rich love that he received and was constituted with himself. This is the first gift from God to man and it is the overflowing virtue of God’s very Person. God’s love is manifested as He poured Himself —in image and likeness— into man from Genesis. This love also drives God’s eternal economy. Being saturated with this personified love, Paul is a model as someone who is “comely” in humanity and who uses that same exceeding essence of love to bring the saints out of fleshliness and infancy into the same sphere. To accomplish this, Paul is flexible: on the one hand, he urges and rebukes; on the other hand, he confirms and deposits the higher reigning life that the believers received and ought to pursue towards.
Paul’s view for serving the saints in Corinth was not for a half-salvation. He intended to bring them into full maturity [3:1; 13:11; 14:20] and into the inheritance [15:50] through living in the sphere of sanctification. It’s a sphere you can dwell in, the sphere where God is calling you, and you are calling on God. He dwells in you; You dwell in Him. Eventually through this mutual calling, you become no longer yourself. You and He are one, same in image and likeness. Just like a marriage, you don’t just live a married life for one day, and then the next day you’re single again. No, the sphere is a marriage, in which to be mingled and be made one, and in which the individual life disappears. In this sphere, the called ones will mature, beholding and reflecting the Lord, even exhibiting the divine attributes of Christ as part of their humanity, as a testimony lived out through their earthen living.
The sphere is not for mediocre believers. This sanctification was not for redemption only. This sphere is the sphere of God’s victory, for the overcomers. This sphere is also the place where God enjoys His Bride. Paul continually carried this vision in his service. By the end of the book, we find Paul declaring eternal victory through this sphere of sanctification—and the excelling way of this love lived out, practiced, and carried out in the Body— which is able to conquer corruptible flesh and death.
1 Cor. 15:57 “But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
After serving the saints through the fleshly and soulish activity so prominent in this book, Paul exhorts the saints to gain the victory, to take ownership of Christ’s calling, sanctification and fellowship. The victory is one based on the full realization of living in the sphere of sanctification — presenting and offering of our bodies — moving out of the corruption into incorruption. Through the overflowing love that issues out of the Life and Person of Christ, the saints may mature and become a well-acceptable offering, “changed” [15:52] and able to “inherit the kingdom of God” [15:50].
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” [v. 55]
Paul’s serving to the saints in Corinth is in the same nature and expression we are striving to carry out today. Today, our church life is for nothing else except serving this full sphere of sanctification to each other. Just because we have all the problems exposed these days, so much the more we need the true humanity, the true love, and the true maturity to be manifested in us. We need to be fully saturated and permeated in the Life and the Person of Christ —all that He is—to be like Him, one with Him, reflecting Him, and married to Him. If we are not resisting this sanctifying process, we will experience this victory — a reigning life in resurrection, redeeming us even in the flesh. Even as we see the condition of the saints in Corinth exists within us, yet to the called ones, the Lord’s victory is coming shortly. We, as the called saints, are waiting to see Him face to face. We long for that maturity as a “bride made ready” to fully realize that unique oneness as our marriage to our Lord.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 5/10/2020, not reviewed by the speaker.)