NOTES for Co1 1:1-9

Beginning his letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul notes a very important feature of the process that the Bible calls salvation. He says of the Corinthian Christians that they have already received the testimony about Christ and that its fruits are clearly visible (vv. 4-6), while at the same time emphasizing that only the Savior Himself can finally establish the faithful in the Kingdom when He returns at the end of time (vv. 7-9). It is evident that, for the apostle, the destiny of a specific person in the Kingdom is inseparable from the history of the Kingdom itself, which, having entered the world, is revealed more and more, transforming it. And the life of those who share in the Kingdom is connected with the process of its becoming, which will be completed only with the Savior's return to the world at the end of time. With this approach there is no history of the salvation of an individual person as such at all; there is only the history of the Kingdom, in which each Christian takes part from the moment of being joined to it until the end of time.

This is no surprise if we remember that the Bible says nothing, or almost nothing, about the eternal destiny of an individual person. Neither in the Old nor in the New Testament will we find clear and unambiguous ideas about the afterlife or the immortality of the soul, just as we will find nothing resembling the traditional ideas of heaven and hell that took shape in Christian circles in the Middle Ages. The biblical books mention Sheol, the world of shadows prepared for every dead person, but this idea can hardly be called properly biblical, since virtually all the peoples of antiquity spoke of something similar. In this case the authors of the biblical books were simply following the ideas traditional for their era. But the prophets spoke a great deal about the coming of the Messiah, the general resurrection, and the Kingdom; this was the properly biblical teaching about the destiny of the human person in eternity. It is no wonder that for Paul too it is inseparable from Christ and from the Kingdom that entered the world together with Him. For it is precisely with Christ and with the Kingdom that the fullness of the life God originally intended for every person is connected. Therefore it can be received only through Christ and in the Kingdom, and only when the Kingdom is finally revealed to the world in all its fullness.

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.

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.