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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Corinthians 1:2 - 1:2
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The church of God (tēi ekklēsiāi tou theou). Belonging to God, not to any individual or faction, as this genitive case shows. In 1Th 1:1 Paul wrote “the church of the Thessalonians in God” (en theōi), but “the churches of God” in 1Th 2:14. See same idiom in 1Co 10:32; 1Co 11:16, 1Co 11:22; 1Co 15:9; 2Co 1:1; Gal 1:13, etc.
Which is in Corinth (tēi ousēi en Korinthōi). See note on Act 13:1 for idiom. It is God’s church even in Corinth, “laetum et ingens paradoxon” (Bengel). This city, destroyed by Mummius b.c. 146, had been restored by Julius Caesar a hundred years later, b.c. 44, and now after another hundred years has become very rich and very corrupt. The very word “to Corinthianize” meant to practise vile immoralities in the worship of Aphrodite (Venus). It was located on the narrow Isthmus of the Peloponnesus with two harbours (Lechaeum and Cenchreae). It had schools of rhetoric and philosophy and made a flashy imitation of the real culture of Athens. See note on Act 18:1 for the story of Paul’s work here and now the later developments and divisions in this church will give Paul grave concern as is shown in detail in I and II Corinthians. All the problems of a modern city church come to the front in Corinth. They call for all the wisdom and statesmanship in Paul.
That are sanctified (hēgiasmenois). Perfect passive participle of hagiazō, late form for hagizō, so far found only in the Greek Bible and in ecclesiastical writers. It means to make or to declare hagion (from hagos, awe, reverence, and this from hazō, to venerate). It is significant that Paul uses this word concerning the called saints or called to be saints (klētois hagiois) in Corinth. Cf. klētos apostolos in 1Co 1:1. It is because they are sanctified in Christ Jesus (en Christōi Iēsou). He is the sphere in which this act of consecration takes place. Note plural, construction according to sense, because ekklēsia is a collective substantive.
With all that call upon (sun pāsin tois epikaloumenois). Associative instrumental case with sun rather than kai (and), making a close connection with “saints” just before and so giving the Corinthian Christians a picture of their close unity with the brotherhood everywhere through the common bond of faith. This phrase occurs in the lxx (Genesis 12:8; Zec 13:9) and is applied to Christ as to Jehovah (2Th 1:7, 2Th 1:9, 2Th 1:12; Phi 2:9, Phi 2:10). Paul heard Stephen pray to Christ as Lord (Act 7:59). Here “with a plain and direct reference to the Divinity of our Lord” (Ellicott).
Their Lord and ours (autōn kai hēmōn). This is the interpretation of the Greek commentators and is the correct one, an afterthought and expansion (epanorthōsis) of the previous “our,” showing the universality of Christ.