The apostle Paul tells us today that in Christ we have been enriched in everything. Not in "something," but precisely in everything: "in every word and every knowledge." In other words, God has given us all the knowledge of Him that is necessary, precisely necessary, because to know Him in fullness, as He is, is impossible for a creature, at least in this world. He has given us every word, and if He calls us to bear witness to Him, then we cannot say that we do not know how to preach. He has given us the ability to proclaim the gospel. And we "lack no gift," that is, all the gifts that can be needed, meaning that He will need us to use them, He has already given us.

This does not mean that we do not need to ask for anything, because the fact that He has given something does not mean that we have received it. But it is important that He has already done everything. We have been given everything that is needed. Let us be grateful.

In his letter to the Corinthian Christians, Paul writes words that at first seem strange: he speaks of the testimony that was confirmed among them, or strengthened in them, if translated literally. What does he mean? The apostle also mentions the word and knowledge received by those who heard the testimony. It may appear that he is speaking of the new teaching Paul brought to the Corinthians and that they received.

But Christianity cannot be reduced to teaching alone. Of course, Jesus said many things to His disciples during His earthly ministry, yet He did not come in order to create a new teaching. He came to give the world the Kingdom. Christianity is not a new teaching, but a new life, life in that very Kingdom. This is life that must be received and must be established, strengthened in a person, and made his own, becoming an inseparable part of his existence.

Such life cannot be conveyed by words alone. What is needed here is testimony: the testimony of a person who himself lives the life of the Kingdom and can show visibly, by his own example, what that life is and how it is lived. This is exactly the kind of testimony Paul bore. In fact, this was his apostleship: an apostle is always a messenger who goes to testify to what he was sent to testify about.

He says nothing from himself; he is not a teacher or mentor, but only a witness to what he was commissioned to report. But if the matter is the life of the Kingdom, then to report it means to bring others into it, because no stories about the Kingdom are worth anything without participation in its life. Without such participation, all of them would mean no more than stories about a joyful life in a faraway beautiful country that the hearer will never see. Yet participation in the life of the Kingdom alone is still not enough.

One must live in the Kingdom, and in order to live its life, a person must change, spiritually and even physically, if participation in the Kingdom in all its fullness is in view. This is not a one-time act; it is a process, and a process that will be completed only with Christ's return in glory. Then what was only partly opened to those seeking the Kingdom at the beginning of the path will be revealed to them in all its fullness. And the path will end in meeting face to face with the One who brought the Kingdom into the world.

Faithful means He spoke and did not deceive, promised and did it, loved and did not stop loving. This is someone worthy of trust, someone you can entrust yourself to, someone you can rely on. Such is God, who calls us. That means we can respond to His call: His faithfulness guarantees that He does not call us to our harm.

Let us look at where He is calling us. The Greek word koinonia means something like brotherly communion, the fellowship of equals. Now imagine this picture: there is a great and mighty King who has many subjects. He also has a Son, who naturally is lord over His Father's subjects. This Son, of course, lives in the palace, where there is a beautiful garden in which He spends His time. And now the King calls His subjects to come into this palace, into this garden, so that they may associate with His Son as equals, thereby becoming sons of the King and coheirs of the Kingdom.

We human beings are used to distrust. We think there is no such thing as a free lunch. We have to change our habits very deeply in order to trust such a King, but God's faithfulness is our support in this.