Grace Enriches us with Peace in the Fellowship, Knowledge, and Words of Jesus Christ

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.

• Two terrifying people who turned to live for Jesus.
• Jesus Christ joins us together in grace and peace.
• Grace enables us to be enriched in knowledge and words in Jesus Christ.
• Grace gives us blessings as we look forward to Jesus coming back.
• Jesus Christ is faithful to make us blameless in the presence of God.

Two terrifying people who turned to live for Jesus. “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,” 1 Corinthians 1:1 When Paul was known as Saul, he jailed and murdered the followers of Christ before he gave his life to Jesus. And Sosthenes has a similar background as the chief ruler at the synagogue of Corinth. At first, Sosthenes tried to have the Christian Paul arrested and even worse, then Sosthenes was beaten by the Jewish mob when the case was thrown out by the Roman-run court, Acts 18:12-17. Apparently, Paul extended God’s grace and shared the Gospel of Christ with Sosthenes after the beating, and Sosthenes gave His life to Jesus Christ. It would mean a lot to the Corinthians that the chief ruler who was over them, and Paul, were also followers of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ joins us together in grace and peace. Paul and Sosthenes are co-authoring this letter to the Corinthians, “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:” 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul and Sosthenes declare Jesus Christ to be their Lord, the same Lord that the Corinthians are living their life for. That is an excellent example of the grace and peace that the Spirit of Jesus Christ brings, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 1:3 There is no greater grace than the Salvation of Sosthenes and Paul, and no greater peace for the Corinthians.

Grace enables us to be enriched in knowledge and words in Jesus Christ. “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus,” 1 Corinthians 1:4 The same grace that God has shown to Paul and Sosthenes is the same grace He offers to each one of us through Jesus Christ. No matter what we have done under the influence of the thing that forms what we think, do, and say, we can come to Jesus and live for Him. There is no greater thankfulness to God than for those are dead to the mark of the beast and alive to Jesus by the grace of God. “…that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,” 1 Corinthians 1:5-6 By what we say and know shows the enrichment we have in Jesus because the testimony of Christ lives in us. Our knowledge isn’t the uncanny knowledge and heightened intuition that comes when living by the mark of the beast, and our words doesn’t flow from it. It opposes the name of Jesus Christ, but we lift up and glorify the name of Jesus.

Grace gives us blessings as we look forward to Jesus coming back. “…so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Corinthians 1:7 The gifts we have from God are through the Holy Spirit who is given to us through Jesus Christ. Among those gifts is the gift of the Holy Spirit who is a token of the gift of eternal life, which we eagerly wait for the day when Jesus comes back. The gifts of God are not those given in the flesh by the thing that has power over physiology. The gifts of the flesh are such as uncanny knowledge, physical comforts, heightened intuition, sensual pleasures, extraordinary skills, amazing physical abilities, physical healings, etc. Those endowments are given for living by the mark of the beast.

Jesus Christ is faithful to make us blameless in the presence of God. “…who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:8 When we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, then Jesus also acknowledges us in the presence of God, and we are determined to be without blame on the day of judgment. We who hold to the testimony of Christ will be given a home in the New Jerusalem. “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.1 Corinthians 1:9

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1