THE SANCTIFIED

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be His holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:1-3

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today, we look at our beginning message from Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth and the Corinthian Christians. The epistle was written while Paul was in Ephesus during his third missionary journey somewhere around 56 AD.  

As is customary with Paul when he would write to a church, we see him using a format in his opening.

First, he lets the Corinthians know who is writing, identifying himself an apostle of Jesus Christ but note how he deflects the attention from himself and to the Lord. For it wasn’t Paul’s choosing to be an apostle but rather God’s will that resulted in the calling. We need to remember this when we embark on ministry efforts. As Christian servants, we are answering God call in order to carry out His will through the things He leads us to do. Perhaps there could be no better way to describe Paul than this and we should aspire to be like him as we carry on his Gospel-spreading efforts.

Of interest, we learn at the end of verse 1 that Paul had a co-author for this letter, a man Paul referred to as his “brother Sosthenes”. Outside of the fact that he was a Christian, we don’t know much more about Sosthenes but he was obviously an important contributor or Paul wouldn’t have mentioned him.

After Paul’s introduction of himself, and Sosthenes, we see him identify the letter’s target audience, “the church of God in Corinth” but look at what he had to say about the Christians there:

“...those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be His holy people...”   

Paul labeled the Corinthian Christians as being sanctified in Christ Jesus so it would benefit us to know what that means. When we go to the dictionary, this is what we find:

“to set apart for a sacred purpose”

When we substitute this definition into how Paul described the Corinthian Christians, we get this:

“...those set apart for a sacred purpose in Christ Jesus”

When we choose to believe in Jesus as Savior, He makes us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are set apart, in the world but not of it, called to be God’s holy people, no longer separated from Him but co-heirs to His kingdom along with Jesus (Romans 8:17). This is where the Corinthian church was at, and the Christians there joined others who had called on the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords. Together, these Christ followers became the sanctified.

And with that, Paul wishes the Corinthians “grace and peace” which would come from the God and His Savior Son they had placed their hope in, a grace and peace that is given fully and freely to those who are set apart to do the Gospel work of the Father.

Are you included in the number of the sanctified today?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com