THE KING’S BUSINESS
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you are “called to be,” and that is what you are. It is ours to live out in daily life what God in His infinite grace has called us to be. (3) “Thera that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We see from this that Christians are distin guished from others by the fact that they pray to Jesus. Of course they pray to the Father also, but they pray to Jesus. The normal order of prayer is, to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy ' Spirit (Ephesians 2:18), but prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ is distinctively Christian prayer, according to the teaching of this verse and of other portions of God’s Word Two things Paul desired first of all for the saints in Corinth, “grace” and “peace.” This was Paul’s constant prayer for believers (2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3, etc.). In all his epistles he puts grace before peace: this is the unvarying order. We cannot enj oy peace until we have received grace. The world is full of misguided teachers today, who are trying to bring people into peace before they have received grace. All such attempts are hopelessly futile: it can not be done. Paul sought this grace and peace for the Corinthian believers from the only source from which grace and peace can be found, “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice the way in which the name of Jesus Christ is coupled with that of God the Father. It would be blasphemy to couple the name of any finite being in this way with that of God; and this is one of the countless proofs' in' the Bible that Jesus is Divine. Paul begins his epistle, which later will have much of rebuke in it, by thanksgiv ing for that which Was good in the Cor inthian Church. But it is to God that Paul renders his thanks, for it was to Him that all that was good in them was due. It was to “the grace of God” that they owed all that they possessed, and it is to the same grace of God that we owe all that we possess. This “grace of God” (2 Cor. 12:8, 9J. Saturday, Sept. 15 . 1 Cor. 1 : 3 , 4 .
was “given” them “in Christ Jesus.” All grace is “in Christ Jesus:” there is abso lutely no grace outside of Him. Severed from Christ Jesus there is no grace. unday, Sept. ' 16 . 1 Cor. 1 : 5 - 7 . The Church in Corinth was marvelously blessed with spiritual gifts: they were “in everything enriched in Him.” They were particularly “enriched in Him, in all utter ance and all knowledge.” From many things in the epistle it appears that knowing, and telling what they knew, was their especial forte. We shall see later that, while they were rich in gifts, they were poor in graces. It is often-so today with Christian work ers. Paul’s testimony to Jesus Christ had been confirmed among them by the gift of the Holy Spirit to them (cf. Eph. 1:13; Acts 10:44; Gal. 3:2). The result of this gift of the Holy Spirit to them was, that they came “behind in no spiritual gift” (cf. 2 Corinthians 8:7). They had been taught the truth concerning the Sec ond Coming of our Lord Jesufe Christ, and were “waiting for the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 2 Thess. 1:7). Monday, Sept. 17 . 1 Cor. 1 : 8 , p. This Jesus who was- to come would con firm them until the end, so that they should “be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (that is, in the day when His judgments and power should be seen in the earth). There was one sure pledge that they would thus be kept blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, that was “God is faithful” (cf. 1 Thess. 5:23, 24; 1 John 1:9). Our continuance in the Christian life and our being confirmed until the end does not result from our faithfulness, but from His (cf. John 10:28, 29; 1 Thess. 5:23, 24). It is this “faith ful” God who has “called” us, and there fore we may be confident that He will per fect in us that to which He has called us. It is a very high and glorious calling to which He has called us, , “into the fellow ship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” Fellowship means comradeship or partner-
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