He Made You Holy

Reading: 1 Corinthians 1; Psalm 115 2 We are writing to the church of God in Corinth, you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did all Christians everywhere—whoever calls upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and theirs. 3 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you his grace and peace. 4 I can never stop thanking God for all the generous gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus. 5 He has enriched your church with the gifts of eloquence and every kind of knowledge. 6 This shows that what I told you about Christ is true. 7 Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:2-7 NLT) First of all, I want to take a moment right at the beginning of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church to establish a couple of things. God, and his Apostle Paul, the founder of the church in Corinth, saw these people and this church as holy through Christ and gifted and empowered through God’s Holy Spirit! Next, Paul was writing a very challenging letter to this church and its leaders, a letter that might test their relationship with Paul to the limit. This letter addresses division in the church, personality preference popularity cults, sexual sin so serious that it wasn’t even common among the pagans, disorderly worship services, and communion celebration that was little more than a drunken party! Most of us are inclined to think holiness in God’s sight depends on our performance and rule-keeping. I believe one of God’s messages for us in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is that we are made holy not by our performance, but by means of God’s calling, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and by the Holy Spirit of Christ who lives in us by faith! We are called and destined to be holy, but we don’t become holy by living morally and obeying the rules. We are enabled to live a moral and obedient life because Jesus Christ lives in us and makes us holy by his sacrifice and his spirit! Just sayin’! Prayer: Father, Thank you for calling us holy and calling us to be your holy people! Jesus, thank you for making us holy! Spirit of Christ, thank you for imparting the grace and gifts that enable us to live out the holiness you have given us! In Jesus’ Name!