My dear readers,

1 Corinthians 1:1-3 “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: 3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The church in Corinth is well known among believers as one littered with many spiritual problems. These spiritual problems are sinful, and the holy Name of Christ, which the church carries, has been badly maligned. These sins include:-

• Schisms -- members of the church defended the one they followed and regarded as their spiritual father. Some were for Peter, others were for Paul, or Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 1-4);
• Fornication -- A member of the church had taken his father’s wife (cf. 1 Corinthians 5).
• Lawsuits -- Members of the church took each other to the courts of men regarding carnal matters (cf. 1 Corinthians 6);
• Problems with Marriage and Singlehood – Members of the church were confused about singlehood and marriage, including what happens when one spouse becomes a believer while the other does not. Should they divorce or remain married? Is singlehood better than marriage? (cf. 1 Corinthians 7);
• Food Offered to Idols – Should they be eaten or not? If they eat, is it a sin? (cf. 1 Corinthians 8);
• Role of Women in the church – How should women behave in the church compared to men? (cf. 1 Corinthians 11);
• Understanding the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper – Some in the church abused the ministry of the Lord’s Supper and fell sick, and some even died. (cf. 1 Corinthians 11);
• Understanding Spiritual Gifts – The lack of biblical understanding and application of spiritual gifts led to confusion in the church's worship. As a result, worshipping God became a mess rather than a blessing (cf. 1 Corinthians 12-14).

Despite these sinful issues, God deliberately called the church, “the church of God which is at Corinth”. The word “church’ literally means “the called-out ones”. These are the ones whom God has called out of darkness and into His marvellous light. The Lord Jesus Christ saved them. They belong to God in Christ. They are God's children. By this revelation that God still considers the church in Corinth the church of God, we understand that God does not expect sinless perfection from His beloved children, for He knows they cannot be perfect as long as they remain in this earthen vessel that still succumbs to the temptations of this world. But by the exhortations and instructions from this epistle to the Corinthians, we also understand that He not only expects but demands holiness from all who call themselves Christians!

The epistle to the Corinthians was written to the church in Corinth, which comprised true and false believers. Those who are rebuked by this epistle and repent are true believers. Those who do not are merely professing believers with no genuine faith. The reason is that though the believer cannot live a sinless, perfect life, he desires to live one in his heart. With this desire, he repents whenever he sins. The Holy Spirit, who dwells in all believers, will convict and compell him to repent of his sins and make right with God and man. That is why repentance is one of the clear evidences of one who is genuinely born again in Christ. The one who refuses to repent is one who lives and remains in sin. If he is a genuine believer, God will certainly chastise him and stop him from sinning and shaming the holy name of Christ. He will repent and thank God for the chastisement. But if he says that there is peace in his heart, he deceives himself. He is not a child of God. No child of God would sin and refuse to repent and say he has peace in his heart, for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit will not permit that.

God’s children are His witnesses on earth of God’s love and the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in saving sinners from sin, death and hell. God has also called them out of the world to be separated and consecrated for His divine service. A Christian man who stands alone does not constitute a church, but a gathering of believers does. From the fall of man in the Garden of Eden to the end of Genesis, God's witnesses were Christian families scattered throughout the world. The heads of these Christian homes, like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Job, served as priests, offering sacrifices to God. Their places of witness were their homes in every location God placed them. From the time of the exodus in Moses’ day, God replaced these Christian family witnesses with a national witness: Israel. From the books of Exodus to Malachi, God had a national witness in the Promised Land. The management of the nation changed from a theocratic rule (Exodus to 1 Samuel) to a monarchical rule (1 Samuel to 2 Kings). After the captivity and return of Israel from the Babylonian exile, the national witness was that of a vassal state under Gentile masters such as the Persians, Greeks, and the Romans in the time of Christ. When the nation of Israel, represented by the Sanhedrin Council, rejected Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and crucified Him, God replaced the national witness with the ecclesiastical witness, i.e. the church witness. The church witness began from Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria and then to the uttermost part of the world, from the West to the East, determined and directed by God as seen in the book of Acts.  

The assembly of God’s people together forms the church, i.e. a gathering of called-out ones whom the blood of Christ sanctified to serve God before they are called home to glory. Therefore, God called them “saints”; literally, holy ones! They have been sanctified by Christ, not by any other means, such as good Christian works or services. The powerful work of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross when He died for the sins of the world has not diminished, even in the slightest, though it happened two thousand years ago. The moment a sinner receives Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ will baptise him with the Holy Spirit, and His blood will wash away all his sins, i.e. he will be sanctified. Romans 10:8-11 “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” Every believer must live a holy life as evidence of their salvation so that they can share the gospel. Sinners will see the impact of the gospel in their holy lives. God will be pleased to take the gospel shared by His holy ones, i.e. saints, to bring conviction and conversion through the work of the Holy Spirit! The church is a place for believers to be sanctified and to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. The church is also a place where the gospel according to the Scriptures is to be fearlessly proclaimed, so that all sinners, young and old, may come to know Christ as Lord and Saviour. These two holy characteristics of the church must never be diminished or lost, for the devil has been infiltrating and attacking them since the birth of the church at Pentecost in Acts 2.

This revelation that the church is a church of God, though composed of believers and unbelievers, is not reserved only for the believers in the church in Corinth; all who have called upon the name of Jesus Christ are included in this blessed description by God.

In today’s last-days context, believers must be discerning. Many churches have fallen prey to the seductive powers of the devil, and have become citadels of the devil rather than biblical churches of Jesus Christ; the B-P movement is not excluded.

The church must not be an appendix in a believer’s life. The church must be the heart and soul of every believer’s life simply because the church was ordained and designed by God for every believer’s spiritual service, well-being and growth. The devil knows the crucial role church life plays for the believer; otherwise, he would not be attacking her from the moment the church was born in Acts 2. He attacks the church through false doctrines, derelict and carnal leaders, cultic leaders who draw men after themselves rather than to point them to Christ, false worship, etc. At the slightest disagreement, believers will leave rather than what Christ teaches, which is to reconcile. They fail to realise they remain in sin and their worship and prayers are not heard by God, wherever they go. They attend churches to scratch their itching ears, desiring to listen to “sweet words” so that they can hold on to their carnality, and not to the doctrines that will sanctify them in Christ, that make them more holy, like Christ. Members of churches do not do their part to protect their church from decay and attacks of the evil one. They would rather join the attack with their careless lips.

The importance of church life is lost or has diminished to many. Has it already been lost or diminished to you? May God protect every sound biblical church in these last days, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Yours faithfully in the Saviour’s Service
 Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew, Pastor