In
1 Corinthians 1:4-8, Paul began his encouragement and entreaty to the
Corinthian Christians. He began his letter reminding them of the most important
thing – God’s grace is all-sufficient. In these five verses, Paul taught very
succinctly the four most important things about God’s grace. Most
importantly, he said, God’s grace
enriches believers’ lives. We today can and need to learn and hold on to
this teaching.
First,
remember God’s grace is His loving-kindness and mercy given to a person without
him or her deserving it. His grace is more than this though. One Corinthians
1:4-8 is where Paul unpacked it for the Corinthian believers.
God’s
grace enriches a believer’s life in his or her speech and knowledge. He fully
enriches every believer in all ways so the believer’s words, speech,
declarations, thoughts, meditations, reasoning, intelligence, understanding of God
and the Christian faith are deeper, more perfect, and enlarged. The
understanding by the believer of God and the Christian faith is so enriched and
illuminated he or she explains his or her faith with power.
God’s
grace acts in a believer’s life so it is visible. His grace enriching the
believer’s knowledge and understanding of Him and the Christian faith spoken
and testified with power and conviction leads to the believer’s life confirming
his or her testimony of his or her faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in God came
from His gift and gave His undeserved grace to the believer. That grace then
makes itself evident in the gift of knowledge, understanding, and speech of the
believer when he or she that testifies of God and the Christian faith
In
addition to these, Paul stated God’s grace gives and shows in the believer’s
expectant, eager, and watchful hope for the return of Jesus Christ. God’s grace,
which provides salvation and adoption, gives hope for the future expected
return of Jesus the Christ, a time when all things on earth return to
perfection. His grace affects the mind of the believer, affects the believer’s thinking
and hope for present and future times. Living with this evident hope testifies
to God’s grace.
Finally,
Paul said, God’s grace confirms the believer to the end so he or she is
blameless and innocent before God. God’s grace given through the blood of Jesus
Christ establishes and makes sure the believer is blameless of sin on the day
of judgment and for eternity. His grace seals the believer for eternity.
This
statement by Paul seems so small when considered in the totality of his
writings, yet it is profound though concise. God’s grace enriches a believer’s
life in speech, knowledge and insight so he or she lacks no gift from God. The
conviction of this faith and the depth of knowledge and illumination manifests
itself in the believer’s life and words to confirm his or her testimony of
believing in Jesus Christ. God’s grace gives and shows in the believer’s
expectant, eager, and watchful hope for the return of Jesus Christ. Finally, it
confirms the believer to the end so he or she is blameless before God.
Have you experienced God’s grace?
Is your life a living
testimony to God’s grace?
Like the Corinthian
Christians who were divided into factions, we need to remember we must choose
to live the life God’s grace put into us so our words and actions show His
grace to the world as a testimony so others will want to come to know Jesus
Christ, too.
