Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (4) I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you by Christ Jesus, (5) that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, (6) even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, (7) so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, (8) who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (9) God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The first letter to the Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul.  Our verses today are a springboard to the body of the letter in which Paul addresses abuses, inconsistences and shortcomings of the faithful in Corinth.

Paul remarks on the stronger aspects of Christianity in Corinth establishing their character and their evident state of grace.  Paul assures the faithful that they are to have a confident hope of eternal life which rests on the faithfulness of God who is the source of their call.  Paul is praising them in our verses but reminds them that their blessings are from God and not a result of works  – they are not to be “puffed up”.  But Paul is persuaded that the calling of the CorinthIan’s is true and therefore unimpeachable – unmovable – as God is faithful. This is needful to keep in  mind as Paul later moves on to list faults and failings In Corinth

Fundamentally, Paul is telling the Corinthians, who have been called and show the fruits of that calling, that they should have sure expectation of eternal salvation.  The faithful are called to fellowship in Christ so all of Christ’s benefits are theirs and ours.  We should have this persevering and unwavering hope if we are members of Christ who is never going to fall away.  The faithful have the complete forgiveness of their sins; their present is taken care of and their future salvation is guaranteed.

The Corinthians -and us – have been saved through no effort of their/ our own but by the free and undeserved grace of God in Jesus Christ.  They have been called and nothing can change that.  Grace means no guilt and it’s a gift; we don’t deserve it and can never pay it back.  We aren’t expected to.  All our sins are forgiven and we are given freedom.  Grace does not co-exist with obligation.  Wow