Every Christian is a Saint - Called By God

This morning as I begin a journey into study of 1 Corinthians, I was reminded of a wonderful truth of what it means to be in Christ. Paul wrote to the people of the church at Corinth, this letter, and in it, Paul addresses the many ways this church and its people, were trying to live with one foot still in the world.

The city of Corinth was a city known for its immorality. Like some call Las Vegas, Corinth could be said to be “sin city”. Fornication, which the Greek word used here is porneia from which we get the word pornography, idolatry, adultery, effeminacy, homosexuality, stealing, covetousness, drunkenness, reviling, which is abuse through speech, and swindling, are the basic sins Paul will speak of in this letter. Sound familiar? Our society has moved past having one or two cities such as Vegas, where sin runs free. Paul’s list of sins can now be found in every place in America.

But Paul wrote, not to the city, but to the church, because the church had drifted into a place where it was somewhat hard to tell the difference between the world around them and the Christians within. This, my friends, is also the case today in the church right here where we live.

Yes, I am saying that the church today is still struggling just as the church of Corinth did. Many are trying to tone down the preaching against many of these sins. The very divisiveness we see in America today is being played out in the area of sexuality and gender. Pornography, drunkenness, and drug addiction are three issues that a great many are battling in our congregations. And yes, not all the people who sit in a pew on Sunday are really Christians, but that does not preclude the fact that even us Christians, have fallen into addictions and sinful lifestyles that cause us to look much like the world. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians to the Christians. That is clear by the salutation he wrote.

1 Corinthians 1:2
 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

Honestly, this is good news, because we are all sinners and each of us are still wrestling with the old sin nature, even as we live out the Christian life. Paul didn’t write this letter to condemn the church; he wrote it to remind them of who they are, called ones from God, set apart and called saints. The word here for saint is hagios, which means holy one or set apart one. We have been set apart by God.

Paul also reminds us we have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. Though we typically use the word sanctification to speak of the ongoing work of us becoming like Christ in actual behavior, in the sense Paul uses it here, speaks of our position in Christ. When we are baptized into Christ, and in that I mean identified with Him through faith in Him, God imputes the very righteousness of Christ upon us. Thus, we are wearing His cloak of righteousness, we are declared by God as holy. We more often call this justification.

So, Paul wrote this letter to the church of Jesus, which includes us. And in this letter, we can find hope in Jesus for both joy here and in the eternal life, even if we are still struggling with our sins. The truth is, we are.

But we can rejoice in this; God has chosen us and declared us saints. He also chose the apostles to remind us who we are in Christ and how we should strive every day to live in the power of the Holy Spirit to grow more like Christ.

Paul also wrote this wonderful truth to us in Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Open your Bible today and let it, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, lead to you a life of obedience that will culminate one day in being like Jesus. I leave you with Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 1:3, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”