Title: God's Grace to You
Contents
The grace of God given to you 2002/10/9 (Wed)
(1 Corinthians 1:4) I always give thanks to God for you for the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus."
Today is the second lesson of 1 Corinthians. In the previous chapter, we looked at the local characteristics and environmental background of the Corinthian church. The city of Corinth was newly born amid the spiritual basis of Greek philosophy to combine the mysteries of the universe with humans, the regional characteristics of a port city where Eastern and Western cultures intersect, and Rome's political ambition to unite the world in the environment of idolatry. It was an old city. After planting the church in Corinth, Paul went to Ephesus and wrote this letter while planting the church for three years.
In 1 Corinthians 1:2, which we looked at last week, Paul defined "the church of God" as "holy in Christ Jesus." The reason Paul said this is not that the Corinthians were not made holy, but that they did not fully understand the meaning of the word 'holy' (hagios). Holiness is the manifestation of God's justice only when we believe in Jesus Christ. Therefore, all believers in the Corinthian church and those who believe in Jesus Christ today have become holy children of God in the name of Jesus Christ. But we who have this holiness must show the holiness of Christ in all our thoughts, words, and actions, that is, in our lives. Therefore, it can be said that it is very meaningful that Paul mentioned the holiness of the Corinthian church members at the beginning of his letter.
Paul wrote this letter because, as recorded in verse 11, many problems arose in the church in Corinth. The biggest problem was the conflict between the saints. However, the conflict of the saints caused more problems as the days went by. These things eventually corrupt the grace of God accomplished in the name of Jesus Christ, resulting in the use of the cross of Christ in vain. Paul refers to the way of the cross in verse 18.
Verse 4, which we are going to look at today, says, “I always give thanks to God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus. Here Paul is referring to God's grace to us. Grace is the Greek verb 'charis', which means 'to rejoice'. The understanding of the term grace is well expressed in Luke 1:30 and Acts 7:10 and basically means the fulfillment of the covenant of redemption through Jesus Christ. This grace is God's merciful love freely given to mankind in sin, and the 'gift of God', that is, the 'gift of the Holy Spirit' (charisma), which he gave to his people who are looking forward to the fulfillment of the gospel of Christ, is derived from this. . To understand why Paul is talking about the grace of God here, we need to keep in mind 1:26-29.
The grace of Christ did not follow the lineage as the world thinks. At that time, Jews thought that God's love and grace were limited to His chosen people, and that He was given to those who received God's special duties from their ancestors. This thought has come down to this day, and even in our church, we pride ourselves on our belief in the motherhood, and in recent years, it has even led to the succession of the head of the church. All of these people have misunderstood the grace of God. God's grace does not come according to human lineage and wisdom, but is a divine decree expressed in God's foreknowledge, election, and calling as a servant of Christ.
As we saw in Romans 1, Paul's epistles were structured in a unique logical sentence form. Thus, in order to fully understand Paul's epistles, we must analyze Paul's motives for making those words, which only require careful study inductively according to the context. In addition, in order to fully understand Paul's theological thoughts, it is necessary to first examine the theological thoughts that Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, preached to the members of the church he planted.
As an apostle of the Gentile Church, Paul expressed four theological ideas that Gentile church members must know. First, in 1 Corinthians 10:1, Paul mentioned about the history of Israel when he wrote, “I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers.” In verse 11 Paul says, “These things that happened to them are a mirror, and they are written as a warning for us to meet the last days.”
In fact, more than 70% of God's scriptures, the Bible, are about the history of Israel. In the Old Testament, everything except the work of creation is the history of Israel. He wrote in detail the birth of their first parents, the beginning of their faith, the success stories of those who lived by faith, and the consequences of those who disobeyed God's Word. And God's plan to provide for the people of Israel was interrupted with the death of Christ, as he had already said through his prophets, and he promised to provide again on the day of his coming again. This is recorded in Romans 11:25. Here again Paul said, "I do not want the brethren to be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in yourselves, which is that Israel hardened in part, until the full number of the Gentiles had come in." Thus, two of Paul's theological ideas were related to Israel.
What, then, are the other two of Paul's theological ideas? It is about the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we will learn in the future. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:1, “Brothers, I want you to be ignorant of spiritual things.” Here, "spiritual things" are not in the original language, but were added to help understanding when translated.
The fourth of the four theological ideas that Paul emphasized is about the unfulfilled rapture of the church. Paul said to the Thessalonian church, who was looking forward to the end, "We do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep" (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Here Paul refers to "we" as opposed to the three mentioned above. This refers not only to their personal knowledge and experience, but also to all believers who are confident and anticipating the coming of Jesus Christ. Now, next time, we will look at the characteristics and problems of the Corinthian church.