article6

§1 Salutation (1 Cor. 1:1–3)

Letters in the Greco-Roman world had a fairly standard form. They would begin with a salutation, followed by a conventional thanksgiving (often in the form of a prosaic prayer). Next came the body of the letter, often followed by parenesis (concrete directions), and then the closing of the letter. The salutation itself normally contained three parts that first named the sender, then named the recipient, and finally offered a greeting.

A typical non-Christian letter from Paul’s day might open as follows: “Gaius, to Quartus, greetings.” The salutations in Paul’s letters are rarely so concise. Rather, Paul modified the form of the salutation by expanding it and giving it a distinctively Christian cast. Even when Paul’s salutation is brief, as it is in 1 Thessalonians, it has a clearly theological tone. The salutation here in 1 Corinthians is quite elaborate.

1:1 / Paul describes himself as one called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. This designation emphasizes God’s divine initiative in setting Paul about the work that he did in founding and forming churches in the first-century world. While Paul literally writes, “called apostle” (the NIV supplies the words “to be”), he does not merely wish to report a title he received from God. Apostolos, from the verb apostellō meaning “to send,” describes Paul as “one who is sent,” so while apostle could serve as a title, the word defined what Paul did as a result of God’s call. Moreover, Paul informs the Corinthians that he was an apostle of Christ Jesus. This phrase concerning Paul’s apostleship can only mean that he is one who is sent out in behalf of Christ. He is Christ’s own agent; indeed, one might understand that Christ Jesus himself sent Paul. Thus, Paul is one sent under the authority of Christ. Paul reminds the Corinthians of his relationship to Christ Jesus because in the rest of this letter he will deal with them as the agent of Christ, as one authorized by Christ, whose authority is not his own, but Christ Jesus’ authority. Furthermore, Paul’s being commissioned and going on behalf of Christ Jesus are through the will of God. He did not simply decide to be Christ’s agent; God willed it and now Paul works under and with the authority of Christ Jesus. The result of God’s acting in Paul’s life was that Paul became active in the world.

Along with Paul, Sosthenes is named as the co-author of this letter. From the letters preserved from the Greco-Roman world, it does not appear that joint authorship was a normal procedure. Why Paul wrote this way is open to speculation, and perhaps the motives differed from one letter to another. In the other instances of co-authorship the persons named with Paul were known to the churches to which they were writing, and from Paul’s use of “I” and “we” throughout the letters we see that he did not always understand his co-authors to play equally active roles in the composition of the letters. The inclusion of Sosthenes here is especially striking since this reference is the only mention of Sosthenes in this or any other Pauline letter. Nevertheless, Paul calls him “Sosthenes the brother.” In other letters of Paul the designation “brother” identifies one of his fellow workers, and that may be the case here (see Rom. 16:23; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 1:1; 2:13; 8:18, 22; 12:18; Phil. 2:25; 1 Thess. 3:2; Phlm. 1, 7, 20; and Eph. 6:21; Col. 1:1; 4:7, 9). From Acts 18:17 we know that someone named Sosthenes was the ruler of the synagogue community in Corinth at the time when some members of the synagogue brought Paul before the tribunal of Gallio. The charge against Paul was not successful, and the Acts account reports that Sosthenes suffered a beating from his fellow Jews when their case failed. We do not know whether the Sosthenes of Acts and the Sosthenes named here are the same person. If the two references are to one person, we do not know how he became a Christian or how he came to work with Paul away from Corinth, but we would gain insight into Paul’s possible motive for naming Sosthenes as the co-author of 1 Corinthians.

1:2 / Paul refers to the Corinthians in an elaborate and deliberate manner. He refers to them as a church. The Greek word ekklēsia can be translated “church,” “congregation,” or “assembly” and was used in different contexts. In secular Greco-Roman literature it named a political assembly, especially one brought together for decisive action. Yet the word had religious usage in Judaism that Paul would likely have known. The LXX uses ekklēsia to render the Hebrew word qahal that both named the Israelites at points in their desert wanderings during the exodus and referred to their later assemblies at the temple for various kinds of worship. There is no reason or way to force a decision between the secular and religious uses of ekklēsia in order to understand how Paul and the Corinthians thought about the nature of the company of Christians in Corinth. More crucial for understanding Paul’s vision of the church than isolating a particular background for the word ekklēsia is to notice that he calls the Corinthians the church of God. The church exists because of God’s initiatives. Thus, Paul refers to the location of the congregation in Corinth only as a secondary identification, for primarily the Corinthian church belongs to God (6:19–20), not merely to a place.

Paul continues to clarify the true theological identity of the Corinthians by referring to them as those sanctified in Christ Jesus. “Those sanctified” translates a Greek word that comes from a verb (hagiazō) that means “to make holy.” In mentioning the sanctified state of the Corinthians in this way, Paul recognizes that God’s own past activity, not that of the Corinthians, forged out their new life in Christ. To be sanctified means to be made holy, to be set apart for special service to God. The Corinthians are to reflect God’s own holiness in their devotion to God. The form of the word here literally means “having been sanctified” and implies a completed past action that may indicate the conversion of the Corinthians to Christian faith. Clearly they have their identity in Christ Jesus, and perhaps Paul even means to remind them that they are “in Christ” and no longer “of the world” (see 1:27–30).

As Paul was (literally) “called apostle,” i.e., called to be one sent by God, so the Corinthians are (literally) “called holy ones,” i.e., called to be holy. The word translated holy in the NIV is sometimes rendered “saints” in other translations, but today that term has taken on connotations that could be misleading for understanding Paul’s remark. The same basic root in Greek lies behind both the word that was translated “those sanctified” and the word that is construed with holy in this verse. Paul is not, however, being redundant; rather, he is emphasizing that God’s divine calling imparts an identity that gives a new, clear purpose to life. As Paul was called apostle to be sent by God, so the Corinthians were sanctified to be set apart for service to God. Although persons and tasks differ, there is always a missional dimension to Christian identity and existence.

Furthermore, Paul acknowledges that the Corinthians were sanctified and called to be holy together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours. By informing the Corinthians of their common bond with all others who affirm the lordship of Jesus Christ, Paul registers an identity that will prove to be a large part of the solution to the problematic situation that existed in Corinth. While Paul has not yet mentioned any of the difficulties that exist among the Corinthians, it becomes clear in the rest of the letter that some in Corinth were manifesting lifestyles that were inconsistent with the manner of life advocated by Paul and embraced by the members of other churches. Later Paul will chide the Corinthians for their inappropriate independence (14:36), and he will repeatedly confront their arrogant tendency to strike a novel path of life (4:6, 17; 5:1–2; 11:16; 14:33b; 15:1–2). Even as he opens this letter, Paul reminds the Corinthians that they are not an unrestrained holy group that is detached from the larger community of Christian faith. Rather, they and all other Christians live in a dependent relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ that establishes a mutuality that transcends the worldly boundaries of human relations. Shared devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, who through the calling of God has authority over the lives of all believers, focuses existence and draws Christians beyond themselves and their immediate congregation into a universal fellowship of faith.

1:3 / The standard word for hailing the recipient in the salutation of a Greco-Roman letter was “greetings!” The Greek verb chairō, meaning literally “to rejoice,” was used for this purpose. Paul’s letters make a slight modification that gives theological emphasis to the greeting. Rather than chairō, Paul writes charis, meaning grace; and to that greeting he adds the traditional Jewish greeting, “peace.” This combination of grace and peace occurs in every letter attributed to Paul in the New Testament (although the triad of “grace, mercy, and peace” forms the greetings in 1 and 2 Timothy). The word “grace” summarizes Paul’s understanding of God’s full generosity in dealing with humanity; indeed, grace is the way, the means, and even the presence and power of God at work in relation to humans (1:4; 3:10; above all, 15:10). The result of God’s gracious dealings with humanity is summarized by “peace,” which is far more than the mere absence of strife. Peace means wholeness and well-being; it is the divine result of the divine gift of grace. Paul consistently couples grace and peace, because he understands that grace creates peace and peace comes about through grace.

Moreover, Paul’s greeting recognizes the source of both grace and peace to be God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. All that God does is through Jesus Christ. In turn, as Paul calls God our Father he preserves Jesus’ own language for God and he fosters the understanding of and attitude toward God that Jesus taught to his initial disciples. The religious significance of calling God “Father” has nothing to do with the idea that God is male, which idea has fallen under much sharp criticism today. God is not male or female; but the cast of this address inspires one to relate to God in the best terms of the love that is experienced in a healthy family. Moreover, relating to God as loving heavenly parent inspires Christians to relate to one another as sympathetic members of the family of faith. Indeed, because he regards God as Father, Paul regards Sosthenes as his “brother” and still other believers as his “brothers and sisters.”

Paul ends this salutation with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, we see Paul’s overriding christological outlook from the beginning to the end of the opening three verses of this letter. Paul designated himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus. He recognized the church of God in Corinth to be those sanctified in Christ Jesus along with everyone else who called on Jesus Christ as Lord. Finally, Paul understood that the very grace and peace of God came to Christians from both God and the Lord Jesus Christ.