“This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”
1 Corinthians 1:1-3 NLT
We’re going to take a break from the Psalms for now and spend some time in the Corinthian letters, which Paul wrote in the middle of the First Century AD. A few years earlier Paul had established the church in Corinth, and while away in other places, probably including Ephesus, he wrote the first epistle, followed by the second, three or four years later.
The authorship of the Corinthian epistle was clear, because the letter starts with the name of the author. Paul established the church in Corinth during his second missionary journey, as we read in Acts 18. Paul tried to convince the Jews there about Jesus, but eventually gave up – Acts 18:6, “But when they opposed and insulted him, Paul shook the dust from his clothes and said, “Your blood is upon your own heads—I am innocent. From now on I will go preach to the Gentiles””. Paul therefore started the church in the home of a man called Titius Justus, who lived next door to the synagogue. It seemed to be quite a successful church plant with even the leader of the synagogue becoming a believer. Reading further, “One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you, for many people in this city belong to me.” So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God” (Acts 18:9-11).
Paul started his first letter by reminding the Corinthians about his credentials, “chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus”. Paul was different from the other early Apostles because he met the risen Jesus on the Damascus Road, on his way to arrest some early believers. We can read the account of how that happened in Acts 9, with the commissioning of Paul recorded in Acts 9:15-16 through a believer called Ananias. “But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake””. A clear endorsement of Paul’s apostleship and he did indeed suffer much as he travelled around the Middle East on his missionary journeys. But what choice did Paul have, after such a dramatic encounter and conversion? Paul would never be the same again and all that zeal directed and focused on doing the early believers harm was now to be re-focused on spreading the Gospel. Paul was an extraordinary man, and very worthy of the title “Apostle”.
Paul was chosen “by the will of God”. But in a sense that also applies to all believers. In Ephesians 1:4-5, Paul wrote, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure”. Jesus said to His disciples, and by extension to us as well, “You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name” (John 15:16). In our arrogance, sometimes, we claim that we “saw the light” and chose to become a believer, but God knew otherwise, as we saw from Paul’s words in Ephesians 1:4. Romans 5:6, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners“. Jesus didn’t have to do that. Perhaps we think sometimes that surely God must have had a Plan B for reconciling man to Himself, less demanding and dramatic, but God knew best, as always, and His Plan A was a demonstration of love so profound that it caught the devil on the hop and defeated him once and for all. But most importantly God provides an opportunity today for people to respond to Him, with grateful hearts in this season of grace, and discover His love for them, as they embrace Jesus’ sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins.
Regarding us pilgrims, Peter in his first epistle wrote, “ … for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). We pilgrims are royalty, chosen by God. What a wonderful place to be. God loved the world, and Jesus died as the outworking of that love. We pilgrims now have the opportunity to tell people about what happened two thousand years ago, and we take note of the sermon preached by Peter in Acts 2. At the end we read the corollary, “With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation” (Acts 2:40). Peter didn’t try and convince his audience that God loved them, asking them to respond to that love. Instead he warned them of the consequences of refusing to believe in Jesus and in the process living a life the same as the sinful people around them. God has put before all human beings an open door with a sign hanging on it inviting everyone to step inside. Inside they will find the road to eternal life and a personal experience of God’s love, the consequence of being chosen by God.
Dear Lord God. We know that You choose us and love us, Your children, and we are so very grateful. But many around us are totally unaware of what lies before them beyond the grave. Please lead us to people with open hearts, people willing to stop, listen, and take note that this season of Your grace won’t last forever. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 