1 Corinthians 1:1-3
The church's identity and unity begin with God's calling through Christ, not human status or allegiance.
1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2 to the assembly of God which is at Corinth—those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The church's identity and unity begin with God's calling through Christ, not human status or allegiance.
Paul establishes his apostolic authority and reminds the Corinthian believers of their shared calling and identity in Christ as he opens the letter.
These opening verses function as the formal greeting of the letter, yet they do more than introduce names and pleasantries. Paul immediately identifies himself as an apostle by God's will, which establishes the divine authority behind the letter's coming corrections. He addresses the church as God's church, sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be holy, which anticipates the major themes of holiness, identity, and ecclesial order that dominate the epistle. The greeting also places the Corinthians within the wider company of all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, pushing against the sectarian spirit exposed later in chapter 1. Grace and peace are named as covenant gifts from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, showing that the letter's exhortations arise from gospel realities already bestowed. Thus the greeting is not detached from the rest of the book, it quietly introduces authority, identity, holiness, catholicity, and Christ-centered belonging. The letter's corrective burden must therefore be read inside this gospel-shaped opening frame.
1 Corinthians was written into a strategic, wealthy, morally mixed, and status-conscious Roman city where the church faced pressures from surrounding pagan life, internal pride, and fractured loyalties. In this opening greeting Paul establishes both his apostolic commission and the Corinthians' covenant identity so that the many rebukes that follow will be heard as the word of Christ to God's own people. The greeting also reflects a church composed of ordinary believers living amid social stratification, religious pluralism, and public pressures that tempted compromise. By naming them sanctified and called, Paul reminds them that their primary social identity is no longer defined by Corinth but by Christ.
The Cross of Christ Against Boasting, Division, and Worldly Wisdom
God confronts a divided and boastful church by centering it again on the crucified Christ, whose cross destroys worldly pride, redefines wisdom and power, and leaves no room for boasting except in the Lord.