“Paul,
called to be an apostle of
Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 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: Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (1
Corinthians 1:1-3)
When Jesus described what His Kingdom people were to
be, He used the metaphors of salt and light—both of which have a disproportionate
impact on their environment due to their distinctive qualities. A little salt can season a lot, and a small
light can illumine a room. There is no
question we live in a society that is rotting and needs the preservative nature
of salt, and that we are in a time of spiritual darkness which desperately
calls for the light of the Gospel. That
is our assignment as a church. It is the
duty of church leadership to direct the church to fulfill that holy calling.
Paul understood this.
That is why we find him writing the church at Corinth. Three times in the first three verses, he
mentions our call—that we are sanctified, set apart—for a sacred
responsibility. The church will never be the church until she is confronted
with her calling, and that is the calling of the preacher. I do not do what I do because of a vocational
choice I made, but because of the will of God thrust upon me. I am not an apostle, but when I speak their
words I am communicating with apostolic authority.
The church at Corinth was facing a daunting task. They were to grow and bear fruit in a hostile
environment. It would be far easier to
cave to the pressure to compromise with the pagans around them, than to convert
them to faith. It might even seem
reasonable to “adapt” the message to better suit the culture with a view of reaching
the culture. Yet, the reality is that
the church is always most effective when it is being different and thus making
a difference.
The good news is that the seeming impossibility of the
assignment is made possible by the supernatural resources God gives: grace and
peace. They are always in that
sequence. You can’t have peace with God
until you experience the grace of God.
Grace means that God gives us all the tools to do what He wants in this
world. There is a peace in knowing I don’t
have to accomplish anything on my own.
The God who called me will equip me!
