1 CORINTHIANS 1:1-9
PAUL’S LETTER OPENS WITH an identification of the senders (Paul and Sosthenes) and the receivers (the Corinthians, and all Christians). He then offers his introductory prayer. These two sections are tied together by their rhetorical form and by their theological content with its focus on God, Christ Jesus and the believing community. The text is displayed in figure 1.0(1).
| The Greeting (1:1-3) |
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1. | 1:1Paul, called by the will of God | GOD (His Will) |
| to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, | Christ Jesus |
| and our brother Sosthenes, | Paul & Sosthenes |
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2. | 2To the church of God which is at Corinth, |
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| to those made holy in Christ Jesus, | TO CORINTHIANS |
| to those called out as saints | (Christ, you) |
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3. | together with all those who are called |
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| by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, | TO ALL CHRISTIANS |
| in every meeting place of them and of us. | (Christ, they) |
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4. | 3Grace to you and peace | GRACE TO YOU |
| from God our Father | From God our Father |
| and the Lord Jesus Christ. | & Lord Jesus Christ |
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5. | 4I give thanks to God always for you | GRACE TO YOU |
| because of the grace of God | From God |
| which was given to you in Christ Jesus, | In Christ |
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6. | 5that in every way you were enriched in him |
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| in all speech and all knowledge | CHRIST SUSTAINED |
| 6even as the testimony to Christ was sustained among you | Among You (now) |
| 7so you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, |
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7. | as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ; |
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| 8who will sustain you to the end, | LORD JESUS CHRIST |
| guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. | Will Sustain You (then) |
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8. | 9God is faithful, | GOD is faithful |
| by whom you were called | Your Calling |
| into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. | Christ Son/Lord |
Figure 1.0(1). 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
In these opening verses references to the senders, the addressees, the greetings, the tradition, the initial thanksgiving prayer and the introduction to the entire epistle are woven tightly together into eight interlocking cameos. This particular rhetorical style with two sections (each composed using an A-B-B-A structure) appears in five other texts in this same letter.1 Here, important themes run throughout the eight cameos.
The simplest expression of the underlying structure of these eight cameos is demonstrated in figure 1.0(2).
| Paul called by the will of God |
| To the Corinthian saints |
| To all those called by the name of Jesus Christ |
| God is our Father |
| The grace of God to you |
| Believers enriched in the present |
| Believers sustained to the end |
| God is faithful |
Figure 1.0(2). The underlying structure of 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Initially it is clear that this passage says four things about the nature of God and these references appear at the beginning and at the end of each of the two halves of the passage. The list is as follows:
1. God has a will
4. God is our Father
5. God extends grace
8. God is faithful
These same eight cameos have eight things to say about Jesus. In order these are:
Christ Jesus calls apostles
Christ Jesus makes the Corinthians holy
All believers are called by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
The Lord Jesus Christ extends grace and peace
Grace to them in Christ Jesus is a source of thanksgiving
A testimony to/from Christ that was available to the Church
Our Lord Jesus Christ is able to sustain them guiltless
Jesus Christ our Lord is the Son (of God) and he creates a special fellowship
Amazingly there are also eight things said about the believing community. Following the order of the text these are:
The Church has apostles and brothers/sisters
The Corinthians are “made holy” and called to be “saints”
All believers are called by the name of “our Lord Jesus Christ”
They are recipients of grace and peace
The grace they received is a source of thanksgiving
They are enriched by speech, knowledge and all spiritual gifts
They will be sustained guiltless to the end
They are called into the fellowship of God’s Son
Noting these three lists of weighty theological statements, there are aspects of each of the eight cameos that deserve comment. We will repeat the text for easy reference.
1. | 1:1Paul, called by the will of God | GOD |
| to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, | CHRIST |
| and our brother Sosthenes, | APOSTLES (senders) |
As he opens the epistle, Paul is already defending his apostleship. That defense comes to full flower in 9:1-18. Here he reminds his readers that he did not choose his calling as an apostle, but he was called by the will of God to this ministry.
It is impossible to prove that the Sosthenes mentioned in this text is, or is not the Sosthenes who initially opposed Paul in Corinth (Acts 18:12-17). But there are good reasons to suppose that the two may be the same man. In Acts 18:17 Sosthenes is identified as the head of the synagogue in Corinth. Under his leadership the synagogue initiated a case in the Roman courts against Paul before Gallio, a famous Roman judge. Gallio dismissed the case, publicly humiliating the Jewish community which then took out its frustrations and ensuing anger on Sosthenes by beating him in front of the court for having led them into this public debacle. What happened next?
We are not told what happened to Sosthenes after his beating. But it is natural to assume that the evening of the beating, Sosthenes and his family were trying to recover from the day by dressing Sosthenes’ physical and psychic wounds. They were isolated, humiliated, wounded and frightened. The Jews had beaten him and the Roman authorities had watched the violence without intervening. No one could expect Paul’s new converts to side with the man who tried to harm their leader and their cause. But is it not like Paul to have visited Sosthenes on that occasion to express sympathy for the abuse that Sosthenes had sustained? The irony of such a visit could not have been missed by anyone. The purpose of Sosthenes’ action was to harm Paul. That plan failed, and the harm intended for Paul ricocheted back onto Sosthenes. Overcoming evil with good was a formative part of Paul’s theological and ethical DNA (Rom 12:19-21). In this very epistle Paul writes, “When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure” (4:12). Had Paul made such a visit, Sosthenes would have been deeply moved. Did such a visit take place, and did it lead Sosthenes, in time, to follow Jesus the crucified Messiah? We do not know, but we can entertain this outcome as a possibility.
If he is the same man, having served as the head of the synagogue in Corinth, Sosthenes naturally would have known a great deal about the Jewish-Christian members of the Corinthian church and could have provided great help to Paul in the writing of this letter. Regardless of his identity, Sosthenes was most certainly known to the Corinthians, otherwise Paul would not have mentioned him by name. The two of them undoubtedly discussed what to include and what to omit in this critical epistle.
At the same time, by including Sosthenes as a joint sender of the letter, he is saying,
I know that I am a newcomer to your city. Please understand that I am not sitting here in Ephesus in grand isolation from the real world of Corinth and its society, dreaming up criticisms of your theology and ethics. Sosthenes agrees with everything I have to say to you. Keep that in mind as you read. We are together sending you this letter.
Paul could “field test” his letter simply by reading it to Sosthenes. In any case, Paul offers Sosthenes a high compliment by attaching his name to this famous letter as a “joint author.” It is a very nice touch.
After naming the senders, Paul identifies the recipients of this letter [see fig. 1.0(3)].
2. | 2To the church of God which is at Corinth, |
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| to those made holy in Christ Jesus, | TO CORINTHIANS |
| to those called out as saints | (Christ, you) |
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3. | together with all those who are called |
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| by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, | TO ALL CHRISTIANS |
| in every meeting place of them and of us. | (Christ, they) |
Figure 1.0(3). The receivers of 1 Corinthians (1:2)
As observed in the introduction, Paul routinely identifies the recipients of his letters. The book of Romans was addressed to “God’s beloved at Rome” (Rom 1:7). Galatians mentions “the churches of Galatia” (Gal 1:2), and Philippians tells of “the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi” (Phil 1:2). But here in 1 Corinthians Paul describes two types of readers, the Corinthians and all Christians everywhere. The Corinthians are identified as “Those who were made holy” and who were “called out as saints [i.e., holy ones]” (1:2). They were getting drunk at Holy Communion and shouting insults at each other. One of them was sleeping with his mother-in-law. The prophets (preachers) were all talking at once in their worship services and some of the women were chatting and not listening to anyone. They had split into factions, and some thought that polished language was more important than historical realities like the cross. Others denied the resurrection. Yet Paul called them “saints.” Remarkable! Clearly, for Paul, “a saint” meant a person who had received the Holy Spirit and not a person who had reached some undefined stratospheric level of piety. The troublesome Corinthians were saints!
Second, as noted, Paul includes the entire church among his readers. He appears to be doing more than merely reminding the Corinthians that they belong to a larger fellowship, although that is surely part of his intent. Nor is he primarily affirming his authority over all the church, and thereby building his case for the authenticity of his apostleship. Rather, he stresses that he is indeed writing this letter for all Christians everywhere. This helps explain the extensive use of polished rhetoric, and the meticulous construction of the five essays before us. From Paul’s own words we can be confident that Paul means this epistle as a “general letter.” How so?
Initially we see that the word “called” (epi-kaloumenois) used here is a passive. The BAGD Greek-English Lexicon affirms that this passive word is used when “someone’s name is called over someone to designate the latter as the property of the former.”2 Isaiah 43:7 reads, “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.” Jeremiah 7:11 states, “Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?” Such language declares that God’s name is called upon the things that belong to God, be they objects like temples, or people. They are no longer their own— they belong to the God who calls his name upon them. Many English translations have turned the passive tense of the key verb (in this text) into an active tense and read “who call upon the name” as though the Christians were doing the “calling.” This latter is possible, but it loses the weight of the affirmation that all those “sanctified in Christ Jesus” now belong to the Son of God. God in Christ called them “into the fellowship of his Son” (1:9) and they are thereby a part of his very body of Christ (12:12-27). Later in the epistle, using the language of the institution of slavery (6:19-20), Paul writes, “You are not your own; you were bought with a price.” Paul’s readers belonged to God. Surely Paul intends his readers to understand that they belong to God as affirmed both in 6:19-20 and here in the opening verses of the epistle. “All those on whom is called the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” means all Christians everywhere. Furthermore, even if we disregard the passive tense of the verb epikaloumenois, Paul affirms that he is writing this book for the Corinthians along with all Christians in every place. Realizing the full scope of Paul’s intended readership is critical for how we understand much of what Paul has to say throughout the epistle.
The fourth cameo states:
4. | 3Grace to you and peace | GRACE TO YOU |
| from God our Father | From God our Father |
| and the Lord Jesus Christ. | & Lord Jesus Christ |
“Peace to you” was a standard Jewish greeting. Greeks would expect “chairein” (Hail!), which sounds much like Paul’s greeting of “charis” (grace).3 By writing “Grace to you and peace,” Paul is identifying with both “Jew and Greek.” Paul desires intensely to unite Jewish and Gentile believers into one body and one temple and this yearning appears a number of times throughout the epistle. The crosscultural Greek/Jewish greeting encourages that journey of reconciliation. It also brings together two of the greatest words in Paul’s theological vocabulary. Grace (Hebrew: khesed) has to do with covenant faithfulness that expresses itself in mighty acts in history to save. Peace (Hebrew: shalom) refers to a comprehensive reconciling peace that flows from the grace of God. It is through grace that deep peace is possible. God is “our Father” and the above mentioned grace and peace flow to us from the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. After this introduction, Paul turns to his opening prayer of thanksgiving.
Paul’s letters usually open with a thanksgiving prayer. To the Corinthians Paul writes:
5. | 4I give thanks to God always for you | GRACE TO YOU |
| because of the grace of God | From God |
| which was given to you in Christ Jesus, | In Christ |
This is Paul at his diplomatic best. He cannot thank God for their “faith” (Rom 1:8), or for their “partnership in the Gospel” (Phil 1:5), or for their “faith… and… love” (Col 1:4), or for their “faith,… love… and hope” (1 Thess 1:3). So he offers thanks for the grace given to them. This is like a father addressing a “difficult child” at dinner and saying to him, “Johnny, every night I am deeply grateful to your mother who bathes you and dresses you in clean clothes before supper.” This is not a compliment to Johnny. The Corinthians had received a great deal of grace. Their responses to that grace were deeply flawed. The most kindly thing Paul can honestly say to them is to remind them of the grace they have freely received. They have no grounds for boasting because all their spiritual heritage was a gift.
Cameos 6 and 7 are a carefully balanced pair [see fig. 1.0(4)].
5that in every way you were enriched in him |
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| in all speech and all knowledge | CHRIST SUSTAINED |
| 6as the testimony of Christ was sustained among you | Among You (past & present) |
| 7so you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, |
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7. | as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ; |
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| 8who will sustain you to the end, | LORD JESUS CHRIST |
| guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. | Will Sustain You (present & future) |
Figure 1.0(4). Cameos 6-7 (1 Cor 1:5-8)
The Corinthians were proud of their “speech” (tongues), “knowledge” and “spiritual gifts” in general. Actually, they were quarreling over these matters. Paul does not deny their gifts or the importance of them. He will discuss this subject in detail in chapters 12 and 14.
The testimony they have heard is “of Christ” (NRSV) or it is testimony “to Christ” (RSV). The first means that they have heard some of the teachings of Jesus. The second would only indicate that they have been told about him. Both options are faithful to the original text. What matters for Paul’s larger argument is that with these words he is invoking the tradition which they had received. He will do this at the opening of each of the five essays. Everything Paul says to them is built on the foundation of a tradition which they had heard and received.
Cameo 6 discusses the present while cameo 7 holds up the mirror of eternity. The key word bebainoo occurs in each of these stanzas. The RSV translates “confirmed” for the first and uses “sustained” for the second. The NRSV chooses “strengthened” for both texts which allows the English reader to more easily observe the connection between the two. The point is that the confirming/sustaining/strengthening that has already taken place in the present will continue until the Day of Judgment. Regardless of all the ethical and theological failings that Paul found in the church in Corinth, he was confident that the Corinthians would stand “guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” O that the antagonists in church fights in every age might maintain this amazing confidence.
The final cameo in these opening verses (8) makes a concluding statement about the nature of God.
8. | 9God is faithful, | GOD is faithful |
| by whom you were called | Your calling |
| into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. | Christ Son/Lord |
The Corinthians may not be faithful—but God is! Furthermore, it is instructive to note that the word “to call” (kaleo) occurs three times in the opening lines and reappears here in cameo 8. Paul, Sosthenes, the Corinthians and all Christians everywhere were called into “the Church of God” (cameos 1-2) and into “the fellowship of his Son” (cameo 8).
Finally, the rare phrase “our Lord Jesus Christ” appears three times in this introduction along with the similar phrase “Jesus Christ our Lord” shown here. It ties the Corinthians to all believers in every place. Paul uses it once more in the following verse as he introduces the problem of their divisions. But then this four-word phrase disappears until the very end of the fifth essay where in 15:57 Paul affirms victory over death through “our Lord Jesus Christ.” In spite of denials, divisions, ethical failings and theological lapses, Jesus is still “our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul uses this phrase as a golden thread at the beginning and at the end of the epistle, binding the letter together.
This densely packed introduction and thanksgiving is like a diamond that sheds light in many directions. To summarize it is to recite the full text. Having said very important things about God, Jesus and the church, Paul is ready to launch into the first essay, which focuses on unity, the cross and the Spirit.