1 Corinthians 1:1-9

September 17, 2017

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

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The sermon starts at 14:45 in the audio file.

Or, Paul’s Greeting to and Gratitude for the Church in Corinth

To read the opening of Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth for the first time without going on to read the rest of the letter, it would not be unreasonable to think that the apostle was in a cheerful mood when he began to write or that he had recently heard a report that the Corinthian Christians were really walking in a manner pleasing to the Lord. These first thoughts initially appear that positive.

To read the beginning of this letter a second time, after having finished reading the rest of the letter, it would not be difficult to argue that Paul’s positivity was inconsistent with the true state of things in Corinth, perhaps he was even in a state of delusion. Maybe worse, Paul was using a rhetorical device merely to draw them close enough for a verbal beating.

But having the gift of our own copies of this letter, as well as the gift of other letters from Paul to different churches for sake of comparison, and having opportunity to observe what he says and what he doesn’t say in light of what he’s about to say, I believe we should read these initial greetings and expressions of gratitude as pastoral and provocative. We ought also read them as a pattern for our own responses to fellow Christians, especially those who are less saintly in practice than we deem thanks-worthy.

For all of their personality-driven division (chapters 1-4), misapplied sense of purity (chapter 5, maybe chapter 7 as well), self-centered pursuit of spiritual knowledge and gifts (chapters 12-14), and their conformity to worldly, even idolatrous, values (chapter 6, 8-9), Paul sees signs of grace among them. The very existence of a church in Corinth calls for songs of loudest praise to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is not blowing sunshine at them, he is giving thanks to God the Father and His Son in front of them.

As he greets them and gives thanks to God for them, he reminds them of what they’ve been given. These are God-givens that identify them, grace-givens that set a trajectory for the rest of the letter.

There are two main thoughts in verses 1-9: the greeting in verses 1-3 and the gratitude in verses 4-9. Once we look at those I’ll summarize a list of all the things that were given to them that identify them.

Greetings That Were God-Ordained (verses 1-3)

This letter, and the relationship between the man writing the letter and the group reading the letter, are far beyond the human horizon. The formula of “From whom, To whom, Hello,” is a standard way to start a first-century letter, but that is the only part of these first three verses that is ordinary.

The letter is from the apostle Paul. Technically, he is dictating as he makes clear in chapter 16:21. Sosthenes may be the one scratching pen on papyrus, but an amanuensis usually wasn’t considered a sender. Sosthenes may have been the “ruler of the synagogue” in Corinth from Acts 18:17. He was known by those in Corinth as our brother. But the letter is from Paul.

The letter is to the Christian church in Corinth. Corinth was a city in Greece but politically and culturally Roman. They had been a church for two to three years by the time Paul writes.

But Paul only wrote because of God. The church in Corinth existed because of God. The greeting itself is not boilerplate filler, the greeting is because of God.

Paul had been called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. Paul had other intentions on the Damascus Road, malicious to Christ and murderous to Christians (see Acts 11). God changed Paul’s direction, giving him a heart that believed and loved Christ then appointing him to service for the gospel of Christ. God ordained Paul for this responsibility.

The people he was writing to were those sanctified in Christ Jesus. The use of sanctification[...]