Lessons #05 and 06
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Salutation (1 Cor 1:1-3)
1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Recipient (1 Cor 1:2)
Paul having identified himself as the human author of this epistle, proceeds to identity its recipient. The ultimate recipient of the epistle is the universal church of God with focus on the local church in Corinth. There are two reasons for this assertion. The first concerns the verbal phrase of 1 Corinthians 1:2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus.
The translation To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus of the NIV and many of our English versions given in verse 2 represents a reading found in some Greek manuscripts of the NT of the fourth and fifth century but a second century manuscript along with several other fourth and fifth century manuscripts read To the church of God, having been sanctified in Christ Jesus, to the one being in Corinth. Although this second reading is the one found in one of the earliest manuscripts most scholars judge the first reading to reflect the original. Their reasons are that the second reading is too difficult and does not quite fit the pattern the apostle used in identifying the recipients of his epistle where the word “church” is used, as for example, in his epistle to the Galatians, as in Galatians 1:2:
and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia:
Or, in his epistle to the Thessalonians, as we read in 1 Thessalonians 1:1:
Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.
Furthermore, they say that the second reading arose through what they describe as “accidental omission of one or more phrases” that when the omission was recognized then the phrase was reintroduced but at a wrong position in the Greek manuscript. While we cannot be certain of which of these follows the original order of the text but that does not change the fact that the apostle was thinking of the church universal as he wrote the epistle although he recognized that the epistle was being delivered to a local church in Corinth as in the phrase in Corinth. It is not difficult to accept that the apostle was thinking of the universal church as the ultimate recipient of the epistle since he would have been aware that what the Holy Spirit inspired him to write was to be for believers everywhere and for all the time the church is on earth. This should not be difficult to accept when we realize that the apostle encouraged the exchange of his epistles within local churches, as in Colossians 4:16:
After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
The apostle would not require exchange of letters if he did not think of the letters as ultimately addressed to the universal church.
A second reason we assert that the ultimate recipient of the epistle is the universal church of God with focus on the local church in Corinth is the word “church” itself in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 1:2 to the church of God. The word “church” is translated from a Greek word (ekklēsia) that can refer to a group of citizens assembled for socio-political activities and so means “assembly, gathering” as in the riotous group that rose against Apostle Paul at Athens, as recorded in Acts 19:32:
The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there.
Here the Greek word is translated “assembly.” The Greek word may be used to describe people with shared belief, hence means “community, congregation.” It is in this sense that the word is used to describe Israel in the desert in Acts 7:38:
He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.
Most of our English versions used the meaning “congregation” instead of the word “assembly” to translate the Greek word in this passage of Acts although the Authorized Version used the word “church” but the NKJV used the word “congregation.” The word in the sense of referring to people with shared belief is used predominantly in the Scripture in six different ways.
First, it is used in the Septuagint relating to the word “Lord” to describe the assembly of the people of God, that is, Israel, as it is used in the Greek translation of the Septuagint of Deuteronomy 23:2:
No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation.
The phrase the assembly of the LORD refers to the Lord’s people or the people of God. That aside, the word “assembly” is translated from a Hebrew word (qāhāl) that is a general word for assembly, but it is this word that is translated in the Septuagint with the Greek word that is given the meaning “church.” Even without the use of the word “Lord” the Greek word used in the Septuagint refers to the congregation of believers, as it is used by the psalmist in Septuagint of Psalm 22:22:
I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.
Second, it is used to describe God’s people, whether in heaven or on earth, who have believed or who will believe in Christ, whose names are recorded in heaven. Jesus used the word to describe a community of believers that will exist after His death on the cross, as we read in Matthew 18:17:
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
The reason we stated that Jesus viewed the church as a community of future believers is that the preceding two verses speak of one brother or two more brothers who are believers, as we read in Matthew 18:15–16:
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
Since the instruction of the Lord is to take the matter to the church if no resolution is achieved with two or three brothers, then it must be that church is viewed as the larger community of believers that is future from the time Jesus declared the words of Matthew 18:17. That aside, the word “church” is used to refer to God’s people with focus on Christians on this planet as that is the sense the word is used in Hebrews 12:23:
to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,
The phrase church of the firstborn of Hebrews 12:23 is a reference to all God’s people but with focus on believers in Christ since the cross. Of course, there are those who interpret it as a reference to all believers living or dead or a reference to Old Testament believers. This notwithstanding, it is because there is a clear reference to believers in heaven in this passage that we are convinced that the phrase church of the firstborn refers to all believers who are still on this planet, that is, believers in the universal church of God that are still on this planet. The class of believers the author mentioned in Hebrews 12:23 to the spirits of righteous men made perfect is clearly a reference to believers already in heaven that will certainly include OT believers.
Third, our Greek word translated “church” is used to designate the totality of believers in Christ, living and meeting in a specific locality or larger geographical area, but not necessarily limited to one meeting place. Thus, it is used to describe the believers of the early church in Jerusalem, as we read in Acts 8:1:
And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
The church here, no doubt, refers to believers in Christ since we are informed that except for the apostles, the rest of the church was scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Only people not a building, as some use the word church, can be scattered. There is the indication that believers met at different houses, as implied in Acts 8:3:
But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
Fourth, our Greek word translated “church” is used to designate the gathering of believers for discussion of matters of concern to the community or for worship. Hence, believers who gathered together in Jerusalem to deal with the concern of Apostles Paul and Barnabas concerning the relationship of Gentile believers to the Law that gave the guided directives to Gentile believers, were described as the church in Acts 15:22:
Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, two men who were leaders among the brothers.
It is in this same sense that Apostle Paul described the gathering of the believers in Corinth for worship that involves the celebration of the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:18:
In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it.
Fifth, our Greek word translated “church” is used to designate the global community of believers or the whole body of those who have believed in Christ regardless of where they are located. This is often referred to as “the universal church.” It is in this sense that the word is used by Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:22:
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,
Christ is the head of the church not only in the sense of a local assembly of believers, but in the sense of the assembly of believers everywhere and at all times.
Sixth, our Greek word translated “church” is used to designate believers as an assembly that belongs to God or to Christ or to both. It is used to describe the assembly of believers that belong to Christ in Romans 16:16:
Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.
It is used to describe the assembly of believers who belong to God in 1 Corinthians 11:16:
If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.
We have examined the various ways the Greek word translated “church” is used in the NT, so the question is in what sense did the apostle use it in 1 Corinthians 1:2? It is for the universal church, that is, the global community of believers or the whole body of those who have believed in Christ regardless of where they are located. We are saying that when the apostle penned the Greek word translated “church” he was thinking of the universal church but then he narrowed his thinking to the local usage of the word “church” as a gathering of believers in a specified geographical location, hence the phrase in Corinth of 1 Corinthians 1:2. Thus, we contend that it is the universal church that the apostle had in mind as the ultimate recipient of this epistle but in the time he wrote, he focused on the Corinthians as the first recipients of the epistle, especially because of the problems that local church faced.
The apostle in the phrase church of God probably meant to convey that the global community of individuals he has in mind belongs to God or they are in a unique relationship with God unlike any other group that may claim to be worshipping God. This is particularly the case in Corinth where many worshipped many different gods. Thus, the apostle wanted them to know that the universal church of which the Corinthian local church is a part is one that is characterized by a unique relationship with the true God of the universe. The church belongs to Him and not to any individual or group although sometimes we describe a local church as belonging to one individual or group. This is not true. The church, universal or local, belongs to God who constituted it. There is more. In using the phrase church of God, the apostle was thinking of the triune God and not any specific member of the Godhead. This is because, on the one hand, the apostle described the church in relation to Jesus Christ, as in the passage we cited previously, that is, Romans 16:16:
Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.
On the other hand, he described the church in relation to God the Father and God the Son in 1 Thessalonians 1:1:
Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.
In this passage of 1 Thessalonians, the apostle in connecting the Father and the Son in relationship to the church recognized the deity of Christ. For if Christ is not God, it would have been blasphemous in the thinking of the apostle to put the Son on the same footing as the Father. This aside, the apostle did not want to identify any specific member of the Godhead so that he used the phrase church of God.
In any case, the apostle piled upon the church in Corinth with descriptions that are true of the universal church of God. He described them as those consecrated or those distinctively dedicated to God as in the verbal phrase of 1 Corinthians 1:2 to those sanctified in Christ Jesus.
To most English readers the word “sanctified” conveys the sense of freedom from sin or moral purity due to human effort or piety. This can hardly be the meaning of the word here as used to describe the Corinthians, considering that the apostle described in the epistle the moral failures of some of the members of this local church that are described as “sanctified.” He did not say that some of them were sanctified but he described all the members as sanctified and so, as we have stated, the apostle could not have been thinking in terms of moral purity that results from a human effort in his description of the Corinthians. So, what does he mean when he described the Corinthians as those sanctified in Christ Jesus? To answer this question, we need to consider the various meanings of the Greek word translated “sanctified.”
The word “sanctified” is translated from a Greek word (hagiazō) that, no doubt, means literally “to make holy” or “to sanctify.” As we indicated previously, both meanings could be misleading in that many people when they use such meanings would be thinking mostly in terms of moral purity achieved by a person, which is not often the case, especially, with the Corinthians. In effect, we are saying that “to sanctify” while it may mean to make someone free of sin does not always mean that. To demonstrate this statement, consider the fact that it is our Greek word that is used in the priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus in John 17:19:
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
It is difficult to understand what it means that Jesus sanctified Himself since it could not possibly mean that He made Himself holier or free of sin since as God man He is without sin. This supports the assertion that the word “sanctify” does not always mean to make free from sin. Thus, we should examine the range of meaning of the Greek word to determine which is suitable to our context where it is used to describe the Corinthians and so all believers in Christ.
That aside, the Greek word may mean “to consecrate.” On the one hand, “to consecrate” may mean to include a person in the inner circle of what is holy, in both cultic and moral associations of the word and so has the additional meaning “to make holy, dedicate, to sanctify.” It is in sense of being dedicated or set apart that our word is used in John 10:36:
what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?
The expression “set apart” may also be translated “dedicated” or even “consecrated.” By the way, it is in the sense of being dedicated or set apart that our word is used in the priestly prayer of Jesus Christ in the passage we cited previously in John 17:19 in that the Lord Jesus Christ meant He dedicated Himself to the Father as His own to carry out His mission as He wanted the Father to dedicate the disciples to Himself as belonging to Him. It is in this sense of being included in the circle of what is holy that the word is used to describe an unbelieving spouse that is married to a believer who at the time of the marriage was also an unbeliever, as in 1 Corinthians 7:14:
For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
An unbelieving spouse is sanctified in the sense that such an individual is made a part of the Christian community in a physical sense of being associated with those who are believers in Christ so that the person is exposed to truth of the gospel in a way that no other unbeliever is. The unbelieving spouse is separated from the world of unbelievers by being associated with a community of believers. Such an association of the unbelieving spouse with the believing community implies that the individual has the potential of being saved by hearing of the gospel message on a consistent basis. It is this truth that is implied in the question of the apostle in 1 Corinthians 7:16:
How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
Hence, we note that to consecrate may mean to include a person in that which is holy; in this case, the Christian community. On the other hand, “to consecrate” may mean to set something aside or to make it clean for ritual purposes or simply to make it acceptable with respect to God and so the word is used for consecrating of food through prayer in 1 Timothy 4:5:
because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
Another meaning of the Greek word under consideration is “to reverence”, that is, to treat as holy as the word is used in the pattern prayer the Lord gave to His disciples, as recorded in Matthew 6:9:
“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
The word “hallowed” is an archaic English word used to translate the Greek word we are considering that in this passage in Matthew means “to honor as holy, to treat as holy, to reverence.” Hence, the NJB translates the expression hallowed be your name as “may your name be held holy” while the TEV translated it as “May your holy name be honored.” Still another meaning of the Greek word is “to purify” in the sense of to eliminate that which is incompatible with holiness. It is this meaning that is implied in 1 Thessalonians 5:23:
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is true that most of our English versions used the word “sanctify” in this passage but the standard Greek English lexicon of BDAG indicates that the meaning “purify” may apply. This is probably the reason the translators of the NCV rendered the expression sanctify you as “make you pure.”
We have considered several meanings of the Greek word translated “sanctified” in our passage of 1 Corinthians 1:2, so which meaning is intended? There are two possibilities. It could mean to be included in the inner circle of that which is holy hence “dedicated, consecrated”, implying the Corinthians are dedicated to God or included in the family of God. Another possibility is to take the Greek word to mean “to purify”, meaning that the Corinthians have been dealt with in such a way that any impurity that excludes them having eternal relationship with God has been removed. Truly, it is difficult to be certain in the sense in which the apostle used the word. Nonetheless, it is probably that the apostle used it with the meaning “to purify” so that the apostle described the Corinthians and so all believers as those who have been purified so that they have eternal relationship with God. There are three reasons for accepting this interpretation. A first reason is the immediate context. To take the meaning of “dedicated, consecrated” will lead to the apostle being redundant in the same verse because of the verbal phrase of 1 Corinthians 1:2 called to be holy since as we will note later, the Greek implies also those dedicated or consecrated. A second reason, is that in the larger context, the apostle used our Greek word only twice to describe the Corinthians and in its second usage it is in a passage that the context implies purification, I am referring to 1 Corinthians 6:11:
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Here the apostle reminded the Corinthians that they were washed and sanctified, implying they were purified. Thus, it is possible that the apostle in the sixth chapter was echoing what he said about the Corinthians in his introduction of the epistle. Therefore, we believe that the apostle wanted to inform the Corinthians and so all believers that they have been purified which will, of course, imply they are also dedicated to God. A third reason is that sequentially, it makes sense for purification to take place before dedication to God. The church cannot be dedicated to God without first the purification of those who constitute it. We are saying that church must be purified first before it can be said to be dedicated to God. This is because we know that God will not accept any uncleaning thing as part of what can be dedicated to Him so that when animals that were unclean were offered in keeping with God’s requirement, they were to be redeemed. For example, the Lord’s instruction to Israel requires they give Him the firstborn of both persons and animals but if the animal is unclean it must be redeemed, as instructed in Numbers 18:15:
The first offspring of every womb, both man and animal, that is offered to the LORD is yours. But you must redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn male of unclean animals.
The implication of this is that God will not accept anything unclean being dedicated to Him. Furthermore, those who have not been consecrated were not fit to officiate in the Tabernacle in the OT. Therefore, special consecration process took place with respect to priests, as indicated in Exodus 29, but we consider only Exodus 29:1–5:
1“This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect. 2 And from fine wheat flour, without yeast, make bread, and cakes mixed with oil, and wafers spread with oil. 3 Put them in a basket and present them in it—along with the bull and the two rams. 4 Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water. 5 Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself and the breastpiece. Fasten the ephod on him by its skillfully woven waistband.
If God cannot accept anyone who is unclean, so to say, to serve Him as a priest then it is inconceivable that the church that consists of human beings could be dedicated to Him without the members of the church being cleansed or purified. Of course, since both purification and dedication are the work of God, they are simultaneous actions of God. Hence, we maintained that when the apostle used the verbal phrase to those sanctified in Christ Jesus to describe the Corinthians as part of the universal church of God, he meant they are those who have been purified so that they are acceptable to God to be a part of His eternal family.
It is not only that the Corinthians collectively as believers are purified but the purification is the work of Christ. It is this fact that is conveyed in the phrase in Christ Jesus. Before we examine this phrase, we should note that the change in order in the title “Jesus Christ” to “Christ Jesus” is a practice that is found only with Apostle Paul since no other writer of the NT epistles places “Christ” before “Jesus.” This notwithstanding, there is no significant difference between the use of the phrase Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus. In effect, there is no reason that is obvious why Apostle Paul sometimes uses Jesus Christ and at other times Christ Jesus. We say this because, we see the apostle use each title relating to the phrase God the Father in the salutation in his epistles. He joined the title “Jesus Christ” to the phrase God the Father in his greeting to the Thessalonians, as we read in 2 Thessalonians 1:2:
Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
But in his salutation to Timothy, he joined the title “Christ Jesus” to the phrase God the Father in his greeting in 1 Timothy 1:2:
To Timothy my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Furthermore, when the apostle speaks of salvation as it is related to faith, he used either title. He used Jesus Christ to convey salvation through faith in his epistle to the Romans, as we read Romans 3:22:
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
But he used the title Christ Jesus in reminding Timothy of salvation that is also by faith in the same person in 2 Timothy 3:15:
and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Thus, there is nothing special about the apostle using Christ Jesus instead of Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians 1:2. The most we can say is that it is a matter of preference for him, especially when he conveys that believers are in union with Christ, using the preposition “in”. Take for example, when he indicates believers are in union with Christ, he used the title Christ Jesus in 1 Corinthians 1:30:
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
In speaking of the union of believers in terms of being in heaven by virtue of their position in Christ, he used the title “Christ Jesus” in Ephesians 2:6:
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
There is no passage where the apostle indicates union with Christ using the title Jesus Christ, that is, in the phrase in Jesus Christ. A possible reason for this is that the apostle could have wanted to emphasize that believers are in union with one who is God so that he begins with a title “Christ” that is associated with His deity instead of the word “Jesus” associated with His humanity. Nonetheless, the point is that although the apostle may prefer the use of the title Christ Jesus when addressing the union of believers with Christ, there is no significant difference between the use of the title “Christ Jesus” or “Jesus Christ.”
Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.”
If you are in Christ, you are permanently purified as it relates to your eternal relationship with God. You need to continual deal with your daily sins as that is what our Lord means by washing of feet. The second support is that this interpretation is supported by the fact that Jesus Christ is said to sanctify believers, as the Holy Spirit asserted through the human author of Hebrews in Hebrews 13:12:
And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.
The verbal phrase to make the people holy through his own blood is more literally in order that he might sanctify the people by his own blood. The purification or making people holy that Jesus accomplished is through His death on the cross, as sated in Hebrews 10:10:
And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Of course, the assertion of Jesus Christ being the agent of our purification or sanctification is an indication that everything related to our salvation is the work of the Godhead although the focus may be on a member of the Godhead. It is for this reason that God the Holy Spirit is also stated to be involved in our being sanctified in Romans 15:16:
to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
That aside, the truth is that purification of each member of the church or each believer being sanctified is an action that takes place by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as indicated in Acts 26:18:
to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
In any event, the first description of the church of God in Corinth is that which stands purified before God. This brings us to the second description of the Corinthians, as part of the universal church of God. This we will do in our next study. But let me end by reminding you that if you are a believer in Christ, He has purified you so that you stand with God as one purified. This purification is a work of Christ that guarantees you having good standing with God forever. However, you are expected to live a life where what is true of your position with God is true in your personal experience. This requires that monitor your thoughts continuously so you will use the spiritual armor to resist Satan and to involve in constant cleansing of your soul when you detect any sin your life.
12/15/17