1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Season of Advent

At the beginning of Advent it is important to help remind the congregation the significance of the season and raise awareness to the tensions of Advent and most calendars of December. While retailers begin Christmas after Labor Day, often the Church begins “Christmas season” after Thanksgiving. Advent offers the church an invitation to engage not in exuberant party, but similar to Lent, a season of fasting and expectation. The goal of Advent is to help the people remember the need for not only Christ’s first coming, but also his coming again. This longing is not escapist, looking to get out of here; rather, it is an awareness of the dangers of other ‘gods’ that can often distract us from the true God, “Immanuel.” The season of Advent is about longing, waiting, and hoping. While many engage is such waiting and longing, often the imaginations are focused on what is under a tree and not what is coming in a manger.

Theology of this Text

This letter is grounded Christologically in the work of God in Jesus Christ. As such, all that is written is in the hope and thanksgiving of both what God has done in Jesus Christ and what God will do. One will notice in this short passage that Paul traces their very beginning in the faith until the end when the day of our Lord comes and is fully revealed. Paul’s use of gifts given (1.5) both celebrates God’s provisions, but also will challenge some in the community who are quick to despise the gifts of others. This passage makes clear that this church is not lacking for the Spirit’s presence and empowerment. The challenge raised in this letter is some confusion over what to do with those gifts. The bulk of the Corinthians letter celebrates the gifts they have been given, but invites them to repentance for treating those gifts as their own possession and failing to use those gifts to love well.

Context of the Text

The love that Paul has for this Church is evidenced by his shared deep concern and frustration for them. It is noteworthy that in the greeting given to the Church in verse 2, Paul establishes again his authority as an apostle called by Christ Jesus. With the hard and loving words Paul will offer in this book, Paul felt it important to remind them that his authority does not come from them but from God.

Notes on the Text

V. 3 While things are not as bad as in Galatians where Paul offered no greeting, Paul begins this book with a very common greeting that is found in many of his letters.

V4. In words that are very similar to those in Philippians 1:3, Paul wants to remind them of his affection for them. It his deep affection, not antipathy, that will drive this book, including places of correction.

V.5 Paul reminds the Corinthians that Christ is the foundation of Paul’s ministry, Christ is the power from which they are given words to speak and knowledge to mature.

V. 6 Christ is validated as their source of knowledge and speaking because Paul’s own testimony concerning Christ was evidenced in the Church. Paul is clearly wanting to affirm that in and through Christ they are connected.

V.7 In this greeting Paul wants the Corinthian church to know that all they have in Christ is all they will need. Yet all that Christ has given has not exhausted the divine resources that God is going to give. Within this celebration of God’s provision is also an expectation that God has more to share for the ongoing coming of the Kingdom of God.

V.8 Again celebrates the centrality of Christ who will be the strength to help them persevere, to finish the race well. This perseverance will guide them to be blameless until Christ returns. Again it is noteworthy the parallels here to Philippians 1:6. The importance of hope in the future also becomes fertile group to call for repentance in places of disunity.

V. 9 This being blameless it not because of your own work, but a gift God offers as part of fellowship with Christ. Moreover, Paul affirms that God will be found faithful to uphold God’s promises.

Preaching the Text

As Advent is a season of waiting, it is helpful to remind us that what one waits, longs, and hopes for shapes how one is being formed before the gift even arrives. Advent asks the question what is shaping your imagination? What do you desire to be and become? Do you recognize the need of a Savior? Do you recognize the import of God’s kingdom and not my own? This passage celebrates that the Church has been given all that is needed, but the question remains if they will be able to properly use the gifts God has given. When one desires things contrary to the kingdom, one may often not know how to recognize and use the gifts that God has already given. Moreover, with those gifts given by God, those gifts are not the believer’s possession, but gifts to be used in love. Again the season of advent reminds us that as we desire and imagine well, the gifts can then be always received as gifts and used for love and not for personal kingdoms.

This text is also a reminder for how to reproach a group of people for whom there are issues. Paul begins with the strong foundation in Christ and celebrating all that God has done in the community. That is not simply “buttering them up,” but a real conviction of his deep love for them. Yet this deep love and celebration of the resources in God they have become, the foundation for the deep concerns about division in the body.