B. Thanksgiving (1:4–9)
4I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all kinds of speaking and with all knowledge—6God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8He will keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul’s thanksgivings generally follow the same pattern: I (1) give thanks, (2) to God, (3) always, (4) for the recipients, and (5) for certain reasons, which are then elaborated. This thanksgiving is more clearly defined than those in 1 and 2 Thessalonians (and some of the later ones as well), and lacks any mention of intercessory prayer for the recipients, as found in letters both earlier (1 Thess. 1:2; 2 Thess. 1:11) and later (Rom. 1:10; Col 1:3; Phlm. 4; Phil. 1:4). As with the salutation, it contains a number of items that anticipate the body of the letter.
What is remarkable here is the apostle’s ability to thank God for the very things in this church that, because of the abuses, are also causing him grief. Some in fact have suggested that this is irony. But such a view tends to miss some vital features in Paul’s theology. Unlike many contemporary Christians, whose tendency is to domesticate the faith by eliminating anything that could be troublesome, the apostle recognizes that the problem lies not with the Corinthian believers’ gifts, but in their attitude toward these gifts. Precisely because the gifts come from God, Paul is bound to give thanks for them. After all, they are good things that have gone sour. In this thanksgiving, therefore, Paul accomplishes two things: he gives genuine thanks to God both for the Corinthians themselves and for God’s having “gifted” them, but at the same time he redirects their focus.
This redirection has two emphases: (1) The Corinthians are genuinely “gifted,” but as the letter reveals they are also self-satisfied and creature-oriented, boasting in mere human beings. The whole of the thanksgiving is God-oriented and Christ-centered. Everything comes from God and is given in Christ Jesus. (2) The second emphasis is eschatological. Granted that they lack no spiritual gift, but they have not yet arrived. They await the revelation (v. 7). Christ will establish them so that they will be blameless on the Day of the Lord (v. 8). This eschatological tension between their present giftedness (spirituality) and the final glory will emerge again in this letter (e.g., 4:8–13; 13:8–13).
Even though what comes next (vv. 4–8) forms a single, somewhat convoluted, sentence, the apostle’s flow of thought can be easily traced. The verb “I thank” controls the whole. The grounds for the thanksgiving are stated up front (v. 4, “for grace given you in Christ”). Paul next (v. 5) elaborates the grounds in terms of some specific gifts, which also serve as confirmation of the gospel among them (v. 6). As a result of God’s confirming the gospel among them in this way, they lack no gift available in the present age as they await the final consummation at the coming of Christ (v. 7). The final clause (v. 8) then brings the sentence to a fitting conclusion by shifting the focus from past “graces” to what God will yet do for them at the final eschatological event, namely “confirm them completely to the end.” The whole is then set off with the concluding exclamation (v. 9), which emphasizes the faithfulness of God to accomplish the future glory (of vv. 7–8) in light of their prior “calling.”
One should also note the fluctuation between the first and second person pronouns throughout (besides the “my” noted below in v. 4). Thus the pronoun you appears as the “object” of thanksgiving (v. 4), which then gives way to you as the subject of the discourse (vv. 5–8 [4x]). Then after the initial “my God” (v. 4) and the our testimony (vernacular singular? or now including Sosthenes?), the final three our’s (vv. 7–9) include both Paul and the Corinthians. This is quintessential Paul, with emphasis finally on what he and his converts share together in Christ.
4 It is Paul’s regular habit (“always”) to give thanks for his converts, as well as for other believers. Indeed, his ability to give thanks for these believers probably says much about his own character. If he must speak strongly to them, indeed at times be sarcastic and shame them, he nonetheless never ceases to be thankful for them; for in the final analysis, even though he feels responsible for them as a father for his children (4:14–21), they are God’s people, not his own. In every redeemed person there is evidence of the grace of God, which brings forth Paul’s gratitude, both to God and for them. In using the possessive “my,” Paul’s intent is something close to “the God I serve.” To delight in God for God’s working in the lives of others, even in the lives of those with whom one feels compelled to disagree, is sure evidence of one’s own awareness of being the recipient of God’s mercies. So it was with Paul. The self-sufficient are scarcely so disposed.
The specific basis of Paul’s thanksgiving in their case is God’s “grace given you in Christ Jesus.” Commonly this is viewed as a thanksgiving for grace as such, i.e., the gracious outpouring of God’s mercy in Christ toward the undeserving. However, for Paul charis (“grace”) very often is closely associated with charisma/charismata (“gift/gifts”) and in such instances refers to concrete expressions of God’s gracious activity in God’s people. Indeed, the word “grace” itself sometimes denotes these concrete manifestations, the “graces” (gifts), of God’s grace. So, e.g., further in this letter (16:3) and elsewhere (2 Cor. 8–9), charis refers not only to the “grace of giving” on the part of the Corinthians, but concretely to their gifts as well.
Such a “concrete” understanding of grace seems to be what is in view here, since the following elaborations (vv. 5–7) specify its manifestations in terms of certain charismata (“gifts”), which in fact the Corinthians tended to prize very highly. Paul’s emphasis, of course, differs considerably from theirs. They stressed the gifts per se; he the gracious activity of God, who would so gift his people. Precisely because they are “given” by God and are expressions of God’s “grace” (unmerited by the recipients), there can be no grounds for boasting on their part. Paul’s dilemma in this letter is to convince the Corinthians to share his view of these benefits, since they arrogantly boast over the very things that as gifts may not be the source of personal boasting (cf. 4:7).
5 Paul next enumerates specifically the “graces” for which he is giving thanks. They “have been enriched,” he says, “in every way.” Yet it is clear from the phrases that follow that his focus is much narrower, namely, “in all your speaking (logos) and in all your knowledge (gnōsis).” Ordinarily, these would not be the only—or ordinary—things for which one might give thanks among a group of new Christians. In fact, it is often noted that Paul does not in their case mention such things as love, faith, or hope (as, e.g., in 1 Thessalonians, Philippians, or Colossians). This is true, of course, but it does not necessarily imply that they lack these; after all, in a later, nearly parallel passage (2 Cor. 8:7) the two items mentioned here are again included, along with faith, earnestness, and love.
Paul selects these almost certainly because they were noticeably evident in the community. But they also happen to be items that function in some very negative ways among them. What Paul appears to be doing, then, is redirecting their focus from their “graces” (good things in themselves because they edify the church) to God, who has given them, and to Christ, “in whom” they have been made available. This is true even of the imagery expressed in the verb “you have been enriched.” In similar contexts, both in earlier and later letters, Paul most often uses the verb “to abound” to speak of the overflow in the Christian life. What is significant here is that, although the concept of God’s having “riches” recurs in his letters, the imagery of being “enriched in (or by) Christ” is unique to the Corinthian letters. In each case it occurs in contrast to “poverty”—of Christ whose “poverty” effected their “enrichment” (2 Cor. 8:9), or of Paul whose preaching made it possible (4:8–13; 2 Cor. 6:10). Given the sarcastic sense in which the imagery appears in a later moment (4:8), one wonders whether this is not one of their terms that Paul is now using in its positive sense, precisely because in Christ Jesus their experience of Spirit giftings is a genuine enrichment.
But what are the specific “graces” intended by the words logos (“speech”) and gnōsis (“knowledge”)? Considerable discussion has arisen concerning the meaning of these two words, but the context of 1 Corinthians itself supplies all the help one needs. Both terms occur far more often in the two letters to the Corinthians than in all the other Pauline letters, and in contexts that make it clear that they are terms being used by the Corinthians themselves. Significantly, both words appear later in a very positive context as gifts of the Spirit (chaps. 12–14), but also negatively in another context in the letter. The term logos here (cf. 12:8) probably means something akin to “in every kind of ‘spiritual utterance’ ” and refers especially to the many gifts of utterance noted in the later discussion (knowledge, wisdom, tongues, prophecy, etc.)—even though, as that later interchange makes clear, the Corinthians’ interest in “speech” is more singular. But in this opening argument, the term refers in a pejorative sense to what is merely human, in contrast to the logos of the cross (1:17–18; cf. 2:1–4). So also with gnōsis. Later (chaps. 12–14), as a charisma, it refers to the gift of special knowledge, probably related to prophetic revelation (12:8; 13:2; 14:6). Yet earlier (8:1–13) it serves as their basis for Christian conduct, and as such comes under severe criticism from Paul.
What then is Paul doing here? He seems to be picking up on two of their own terms, items in their spirituality about which they are perhaps a bit too self-confident. In the places where they boast in such things as “utterance” or “knowledge,” Paul argues that they are acting in merely human ways, and thus are not “in Spirit” at all. Nonetheless, these same items appear as legitimate gifts of the Spirit that belong to the present age (12:8–11; 13:8–12), and set in proper perspective they will edify the church (14:1–6). Precisely because they are spiritual gifts (v. 7), given by God in Christ Jesus, Paul can be genuinely grateful for them.
6 It is difficult to determine the precise sense of the conjunction that begins this clause, and thus also to determine the relationship of these words to what has just been said. Most often, as in the original NIV, it is seen as a causal clause, which “explains the reason for the richness of spiritual endowment the Corinthians possessed. That cause was a testimony centred on Christ.” More likely, however, as the present NIV has it, the Greek kathōs carries its ordinary comparative sense (“just as,” “even as”). In this case it would be used very much as Paul had in an earlier letter (1 Thess. 1:5), where after Paul asserts that his gospel came among them with power, he adds the reminder, “just as you yourselves know.” Here, therefore, he is probably suggesting that their gifts, for which he is genuinely thankful, are the evidence that “our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you.” If we take seriously that the implied subject of the passive verb is “God,” as our text has it, then the clause says that it was God the Father who confirmed Paul’s witness to Christ among them by giving them these Spirit giftings, which is exactly what the next clause (v. 7) will go on to reaffirm.
Although not common in Paul (cf. 2:1; 2 Thess. 1:10; 2 Tim. 1:8), the term “testimony” refers to the gospel itself and is probably used because of the verb “confirmed.” The whole clause thus functions as a metaphor, taken from commercial law. In preaching the gospel in Corinth, Paul bore witness to the good news about Christ, especially his death (1:18–25; 2:1–2) and resurrection (15:1–11); God himself “guaranteed” the truth of the message by enriching them with every kind of spiritual gift. This means also that Paul’s “in you” (cf. NIV 1984) carries the sense here of “among you,” or as the NIV now has it, “in your midst” (cf. NRSV, NAB).
As throughout the thanksgiving, therefore, the emphasis in this clause is on Christ. Nonetheless, one might also see here a hidden reference to Paul’s own ministry among them, since for him these two stand or fall together in this community.
7 This clause functions to bring closure to the point that has been made thus far, namely, Paul’s gratitude for their Spirit giftings, which serve as God’s confirmation both of the gospel itself and Paul’s preaching of it in Corinth. But by adding the eschatological note at the end, Paul also now attempts to set their present giftedness in the proper eschatological perspective of “already/not yet.”
The clause itself is a result clause that modifies the confirming word that has just preceded (v. 6), so that the clauses of that passage and this one together recapitulate by way of historical reminder what was said in the immediately preceding clauses (vv. 4–5). Thus, “I thank God for the ‘grace’ bestowed on you (v. 4), in that God ‘enriched’ you with specific gifts of the Spirit (v. 5), just as historically it worked out in your midst by God’s confirming our testimony about Christ (v. 6) so that you came short in no Spirit gifting (v. 7).”
It is not certain what precisely is intended by “you do not lack any spiritual gift.” The verb “lack” ordinarily takes a genitive for its object and in that case would mean, as the NIV has it, that they potentially have at their disposal all the gifts of God. But here the verb is modified by a prepositional phrase, as in the beginning affirmation (v. 5, “in every way”), and therefore could mean that they do not come short, either in comparison with others or with normal expectations of Christians who have the Spirit, in any of the gifts that they do possess. Although many prefer the latter option (because of the grammar), it is more likely that the syntax here is influenced by the earlier phrase (“enriched in every way”). Thus the clause merely repeats in a negative way what was already affirmed positively. This also means that the word charisma (“spiritual gift”), which could be seen to refer more broadly to the gracious gift of redemption, is, as in that earlier affirmation, to be understood more specifically to refer to those special endowments of the Holy Spirit taken up in some detail later in the letter (chaps. 12–14; cf. Rom. 12:6).
But thanksgiving for present gifts is not the final—nor the only—word. For Paul such gifts are ever to be realized in the context of “eagerly awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Indeed, there is perhaps a correlation between the contemporary church’s general loss of such “graces” and its general lack of eager expectation of the final consummation. It should be noted here that even though Paul’s theological perspective is thoroughly eschatological, a comparison of this thanksgiving with that of his earliest letter (1 Thess. 1:2–5) indicates that an eschatological note is not a necessary element in the Pauline thanksgivings (in fact it occurs in later letters only in Philippians and Colossians).
Why, then, this additional note about the coming of Christ? It may of course mean nothing more than that such a concern is ever present with the apostle himself, since salvation for Paul was primarily an eschatological reality, begun with Christ’s coming and to be consummated by his imminent return. But it is also probable in this instance that that ever present concern is heightened by the Corinthians’ own apparently overrealized eschatological understanding of their existence, which for them was related in particular to their experience of the “spiritual gift” of tongues (see on 13:1). Paul’s gratitude for their giftedness, therefore, includes a reminder that they still await the final glory, since it seems to be the case that some among them do not have such eager expectation (see on 4:8 and 15:12).
What they eagerly await is “for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed,” where Paul returns again to the threefold “name” used above in the salutation (v. 3, and only once more in this letter—in the opening appeal [v. 10]). Although Paul ordinarily speaks of Christ’s return in terms of his “coming” (parousia), in an earlier letter (2 Thess. 1:7) he has also referred to it as Christ’s “revelation” (apokalypsis). In the present case the choice of nouns is probably less dictated by any nuance of ideas between “coming” and “revelation” than by the general sense of the entire paragraph, which has God as its subject. Thus God will consummate the ages by the final “revelation” of his Son; it is this final christological revelation that the Corinthians are being reminded they yet await.
8 With this clause Paul finally brings to a conclusion this now long sentence (that began in v. 4). He does so by elaborating on the eschatological note struck at the end of the preceding clause (v. 7), now in terms of what it means for the Corinthians themselves. It is noteworthy that the language of this clause resembles that of the prayer found in his earliest letter (1 Thess. 3:13). It is possible, therefore, that the clause is intended to function very much like the prayer-reports in the other thanksgivings—however, with the significant difference that this is a strong affirmation, not simply a wish-prayer. Paul is here confident that God will indeed “confirm” them to the end.
Significantly, he makes this affirmation by repeating the verb “to confirm,” which appeared in the preceding metaphor (v. 6). Thus, instead of his usual “God will strengthen, or establish, you,” Paul says that in the same way that God first “guaranteed” our testimony to Christ while we were with you, God will also “guarantee” or “confirm” you yourselves “to the end.” That this is a purposeful repeating of the preceding legal metaphor (v. 6) is further evidenced by the word “blameless,” which carries the sense of their being guiltless (with reference to the law) when appearing before God at the final judgment because Christ’s righteousness has been given to them. Finally, the use of the phrase “on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” also points to the final judgment. The OT eschatological expression “the day of the Lord” (see Amos 5:18–20; Joel 2:31) is appropriated by Paul and made christological. It is still “the day of the Lord,” but “the Lord” is none other than Jesus Christ (see also 3:13–15; 5:5; cf. 1 Thess. 5:2).
What is remarkable is that Paul should express such confidence about a community whose current behavior is anything but blameless and whom on several occasions he must exhort with the strongest kinds of warning. The secret, of course, lies in the subject of the verb, “he” (= God). If Paul’s confidence lay in the Corinthians themselves, then he is in trouble. But just as in later passages (5:6–8 and 6:9–11), in Paul’s theology the indicative (God’s prior action of grace) always precedes the imperative (their obedience as response to grace) and is the ground of his confidence.
Not all, however, are agreed that the subject of the pronoun “who” is “God.” In fact the most natural antecedent is “our Lord Jesus Christ,” which immediately precedes it. Nonetheless, good reasons exist for thinking that Paul intended “God” as the subject. First, because God, to whom Paul is giving thanks, is the implied subject of all the passive verbs in the paragraph. Second, and in particular, God is the implied subject of the prior occurrence of the verb “confirm” (v. 6), thus indicating that God is also the one who will confirm the Corinthians themselves at the end. Third, in the final exclamation, God again is acknowledged as faithful in bringing all of this to pass.
Thus even though Paul is concerned to remind the church that they have not yet arrived, at the same time he holds out before them his great confidence that by God’s own action they will indeed make it in the end. Consequently, by means of thanksgiving Paul redirects their confidence from themselves and their own giftedness toward the eternal God, from whom and to whom are all things.
9 All that has preceded in the thanksgiving, both God’s prior act of grace in their behalf and God’s future “guaranteeing” of them on the day of judgment, is now summed up in this glorious exclamation. In a way very similar to the concluding moment in his earliest letter (1 Thess. 5:24), Paul joins the reality of God’s faithfulness to God’s calling of believers. How can he be sure that they, of all people, will be found guiltless on that day? Because “God is faithful,” he assures them, predicating his confidence on one of the more deeply rooted motifs about God found in the OT. The God of Israel was a faithful God, always reliable and unable to be otherwise, who could therefore be counted on to fulfill all the divine promises (Deut. 7:9; Ps. 145:13).
In this case, however, the affirmation of God’s character does not depend on OT realities, but on his more recent work in Corinth itself, whereby he “called [them] into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” God’s faithfulness in having called and redeemed them now serves as the grounds for Paul’s hope of their final salvation at the end. These words pick up the theme of “calling” from the opening salutation and address (vv. 1 and 2, q.v.), especially God’s calling of the Corinthians themselves to become believers (cf. also 1:24). Thus again Paul redirects their focus from themselves to the eternal God, who by calling them is responsible for their very existence as a community of faith.
The call here is expressed in terms of “fellowship with his Son.” Although this language recurs in a sacramental passage much later (10:16), it is doubtful that it alludes to the sacrament here. The current reference is to what took place at their conversion. The calling to Christ is a calling to be in fellowship with Christ through the Spirit (cf. 2 Cor. 13:13; Phil. 2:1). Thus in all likelihood this language is to be understood not only positionally, but also relationally. Believers are not only in Christ, and as such freed from the guilt of their sins, but are also in fellowship with Christ, and as such are privileged to commune with him through the Spirit. Such language, however, for Christian conversion or Christian life is unusual in Paul, and, in light of what is about to be said in the very next sentence, may have been chosen so as also to reflect the idea of the fellowship of believers that has been formed in his Son, but that seems doubtful in light of the soteriological use of “call.”
Finally, it must be noted again that God is the subject of all the actions of the thanksgiving. And in every case that work is mediated by or focused on “his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” Thus the christological emphasis that began in the salutation is carried through in an even more emphatic way in this introductory thanksgiving. Everything God has done, and will do, for the Corinthians is done expressly in “Jesus Christ our Lord.”
With these great cadences the introductory matters to this letter come to an end. But one can learn much from these words. Not only do they anticipate the letter itself, but they do so in such a way as to disclose a good deal about Pauline theology and his own pastoral care. As the letter will reveal, there are some strained relationships in this church, both between the church and Paul and internally within the membership. Moreover, the cause of many of these tensions is that some gifts of God are being badly abused by them. Nonetheless, Paul can still open with honest thanksgiving, both for the Corinthians themselves and for their gifts, which for Paul serve as evidence of God’s confirming his preaching among them. Eventually, Paul must speak to the abuses; for now he is grateful. His concern here is to redirect their focus—from themselves to God and Christ and from an overrealized eschatology to a healthy awareness of the glory that is still future.
For much of its life the church has suffered through the opposite of the Corinthian problem, namely an “underrealized” eschatological perspective, in which very little is expected from God in the present age. The twentieth century, through both the traditional Pentecostal and more recent charismatic movements, witnessed a resurgence of many of the more visible gifts of the Spirit. Among some Christians there was a Corinthian-like focus on the more spectacular gifts, leading at times to spiritual pride, while others in their own form of pride have rejected altogether such gifting as a possibility for the contemporary church. From this thanksgiving we should learn both to be thankful for such gifts, as evidence of God’s confirmation of the gospel, and to make sure that our focus is Paul’s—on God and Christ, from whom and through whom are all things.