1 Corinthians 1:1-3

It is time for America’s Christians to grow up!

Children fight and squabble among themselves over who is right, who is the strongest, who is the proverbial king of the hill…. mature adults should not….but most of us still do. 

It is time for us to grow up and stop fighting each other and unite under the auspices of the Holy Spirit so that we can work together for the common good…..God’s.

Though true believers, the Corinthians had a lot of growing up to do. They had to stop following the immoral, selfish, and contentious ways of their pagan neighbors in Corinth, the notoriously immoral city of that day. One can sense the disappointment of a hurt father in Paul’s stern words for the Corinthians. Yet Paul, like a surgeon, diagnosed the problem and aimed his efforts straight at the source: pride and a lack of true love in the church.

Paul’s words of introduction are more than simple words of greeting. The first few verses introduce the themes of his letter. Thus in his greeting, Paul introduces his apostolic authority, the sanctification of his readers, and the unity of all believers, all major themes of the letter and concerns for the Corinthian believers.

1 Corinthians 1:1-3

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

² To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I, therefore, the prisoner¹of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 

Ephesians 4:1

¹² that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. 

1 Thessalonians 2:12

²² even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 

Romans 3:22

⁷ To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Romans 1:7