1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, December 3 2023, is first Corinthians chapter one, verses three through nine. Grace to You, and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus, that in every way, you were enriched in Him in all speech, and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end. guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful, by whom you are called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Here ends the reading. This is the beginning of St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. And it's always interesting to look at the openings of Paul's letters to see the hints at what he's going to talk about. And Corinthians goes on for a long time about all the various things that he wants to correct and introduce and talk about to that congregation in current. And so we're going to take a look at some of these things and see what he's talking about. Paul begins his letters very similarly, when he says Grace to you and peace. In fact, that's often what I say, when I begin our sermons, Grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, very similar to what St. Paul says. He begins then by saying, I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus. Most of Paul's letters begin with some sort of giving thanks, that he says, Thanks for what God has done in that congregation. The only one that's different is Galatians, where he immediately starts to rip into them. Well, here he goes, I give thanks because of the grace God has given you. This is not a thanksgiving for what they're doing. But a Thanksgiving that God has given them grace. And I think for the Corinthian church, the the key behind this is that they are focusing on all of the things that they're doing. There's focus on the the gifts of the Holy Spirit and status and all of the inter church interactions that can cause problems and divisions. So much so that that St. Paul had to write about love. And in First Corinthians chapter 13, and about being united in the body of Christ, so that one cannot look down on another in in chapter 12. And so, what he, what he does here is he says, he's focusing on Jesus's grace, rather than on the things that Corinth is doing. And then he explains it, he says, that in every way, you are enriched in Him in all speech, and all knowledge. This is the thing that is a big deal. in Corinth, they were talking about speech and knowledge, wisdom of God and the power of God, which is something that he talks about a little bit later. Paul is saying that when the grace of God came to Corinth, they didn't need anything more. They didn't need to be wise in eyes, the world, they didn't need to have a secret knowledge or super high theological understanding of what God is doing. They didn't need to be puffed up and super great teachers. All they needed was the knowledge of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. In fact, St. Paul talks about the wisdom of God, the foolishness of God being wiser than the wisdom of men. He continues, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, that is the speech and the knowledge is just the story of Jesus Christ. That is all we ever really need. That Jesus came, died and rose for us to give us life. Then he continues, so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think this is a good one for Christians to remember is that when we have Christ, we are not lacking anything. We can look at other Christians sometimes and say, Whoa, they're so much better than I am they they're so riveting, they're loving, they've got that life together, whatever it is, and we can think to ourselves, ah, I wish I could be like that. And maybe you do wish you could be like that. But that doesn't mean you're lacking anything. Because the one thing that Christians have, the one thing we need, the whole thing is Jesus. So you are not lacking in any gift. If you have Jesus, once you're baptized, once you're in the faith, you are one with Christ, and you have everything God wants to give you. And every time you come to receive the means of grace, to hear his word, to receive the sacraments, you get everything you need, over and over and over again. You are never lacking, you are filled with Christ. And He is the one who sustained us to the end, when Jesus returns. Then he continues by finishing up by saying, God is faithful, by whom you are called into fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. God is faithful, reminding him that the promises that He gives us will come true. God does not lie. And so in our baptisms, when God chose us and made us His holiness, He will honor that promise, He will return and raise us from the dead and the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we can trust in that promise. We know it to be true. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai