1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

In the opening verses of 1 Corinthians we find a very descriptive greeting – descriptive in the sense that Paul theologically described the church to whom he was writing. He was, in a sense, reminding them of who they were even as he said “hello.” But before we see Paul’s description of them we should not miss his description of himself: Paul, the man who was called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God (vs.1). This epistle was not written by “the people’s philosopher” or a publicly elected official, it was written by an apostle who had been called and commissioned by God (vs.1b). The Lord Jesus Christ had intersected Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts. 9:3-6) and ordained him to be an apostle to the Gentiles (Acts. 26:16-18). This was important for the Corinthians to remember particularly because so much of what followed in the epistle was corrective.

Now look at the way he described them in verse two: he called them “the church of Godwhich is at Corinth” (vs.2a emphasis added), comprised of “those who are sanctified in Christ” (vs.2b), and “called to be saints” (vs.2c). The emphasis is unmistakable; it’s as though Paul is reminding them – you are a holy people! The church of God wasn’t Corinth; the church of God was at Corinth. So in the midst of a city notorious for its sin, there was a called-out people – remember the Greek word ekklesia, translated “church,” literally means “called out.” They were the called-out people of God.

Furthermore, they were sanctified in Christ (vs.2b). We tend to think of the word sanctifyin relation to the doctrine of sanctification and our growth in godliness. We tend to think of it as a theological term that describes what happens throughout the life of a follower of Christ. And while that theological term is helpful, the sanctifying spoken of here refers to a prior setting-apart that occurred; namely, at conversion. The word for sanctified, hegiasmenois, is in the perfect tense and it refers to something that had already happened. The true church at Corinth had already been made holy “in Christ Jesus” (vs.2b).

Such is why they were called saints (i.e. holy/set apart ones). The New Testament identification of a saint applies to anyone who has been saved by grace through faith in, and in light of, the person and work of Christ. It isn’t limited to a ‘special group’ that another ‘special group’ coined as having earned so much merit that their overflow is stored in some kind of treasury where it is potentially available to, say, those who purchase indulgences. Rather, every believer that is a believer is a saint (cf. Acts. 9:13,32, 41; 26:10; Rom. 1:7; 8:27; 12:13; 15:31; 16:2,3,15; 1 Cor. 6:1,2;14:33; 16:1,15; 2 Cor. 1:1; etc.).

Let, then, Paul’s descriptive greeting to Corinth be a gracious reminder to you who are in Christ – you are holy, set apart, and sanctified in Christ Jesus. It’s as though all the instructions that followed for them (and us) come under the banner of this beautifully blended truth and exhortation: You are holy therefore live holy.