Homily 1 — First Corinthians 1, verses 1 to 3

“Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, to those who have been made holy in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” [a]

See how, right from the very beginning, he casts down their pride and dashes all their foolish fancies to the ground by speaking of himself as “called.” He means: “What I have learned, I did not discover myself, and I did not gain it by my own wisdom. I was called while I was persecuting the church and laying it waste.” Here everything belongs to the one who calls. To the one who is called belongs nothing, so to speak, except to obey.

“Of Jesus Christ.” Your teacher is Christ. And are you signing yourselves up under the names of men, as though they were the patrons of your teaching?

“Through the will of God.” For it was God who willed that you should be saved in this way. We ourselves have done no good thing; it is by the will of God that we have reached this salvation. Because it seemed good to him, we were called — not because we were worthy.

“And Sosthenes our brother.” Here is another sign of his modesty: he places in the same rank as himself a man who stood below Apollos. For the distance between Paul and Sosthenes was great. Now if, where the gap was so wide, he sets beside himself a man far beneath him, what can those people have to say who look down on their equals?

“To the church of God.” Not “of this man or that man,” but of God. “That is at Corinth.” Do you see how with every word he brings down their swollen pride, and trains their thoughts in every way toward heaven? He calls it the church “of God,” too, to show that it ought to be united. For if it is “of God,” it is united, and it is one — not in Corinth only, but in all the world. For the very name of the church is not a name of separation, but of unity and harmony.

“To those made holy in Christ Jesus.” Again the name of Jesus; for the names of men he finds no place. But what is holiness? The washing, the cleansing. He is reminding them of their own uncleanness, from which he had freed them, and so he persuades them toward humility. For it was not by their own good deeds, but by God’s love for humankind, that they had been made holy.

“Called to be saints.” For even this — being saved by faith — “is not of yourselves,” he says. You did not come near first; you were called. So not even this small thing is entirely yours. And even if you had come near first, answerable as you are for countless wicked deeds, not even then would the grace be yours; it would be God’s. That is why, writing to the Ephesians, he said, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves” (Ephesians 2, verse 8). Not even the faith is entirely yours. For you were not the first with your believing; you obeyed a call.

“With all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Not “of this man or that,” but “the name of the Lord.”

“In every place, both theirs and ours.” Although the letter is written to the Corinthians only, he still makes mention of all the faithful throughout the whole earth. He is showing that the church across the world must be one, however much it is scattered in different places — and much more the church in Corinth. The place may separate them, but the Lord, who belongs to all alike, binds them together. That is why, to unite them, he adds, “both theirs and ours.” And this, the power to unite, is far stronger than the other, the power to separate. [f]

Think of people living in one place who have many masters giving them opposite orders. They are torn apart, and being in one place does not help them to be of one mind, because their masters give conflicting commands and each pulls them his own way — as Christ says, “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6, verse 24). In the same way, people in different places, if they have not different lords but only one, suffer no harm to their oneness of mind from the distance between them, since the one Lord binds them together. In effect he says: “I do not say, then, that you Corinthians ought to be of one mind with Corinthians only, but with all who are in the whole world, since you have a common Master.” This is also why he has added “our” a second time. He had said, “the name of Jesus Christ our Lord”; so that the thoughtless would not think he was making a distinction, he adds again, “both our Lord and theirs.”

To make my meaning clearer, I will read it according to its sense, like this: “Paul and Sosthenes, to the church of God that is at Corinth, and to all who call on the name of him who is both our Lord and theirs in every place, whether in Rome or wherever else they may be: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” [g]

Or again like this, which I also believe is somewhat more correct: “Paul and Sosthenes, to those who are at Corinth, who have been made holy, called to be saints, together with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours.” That is to say: “Grace to you and peace to you who are at Corinth, who have been made holy and called” — not to you alone, but “with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and theirs.”

Now if our peace comes from grace, why do you think so highly of yourself? Why are you so puffed up, when you are saved by grace? And if you have peace with God, why do you want to sign yourself over to others? For that is what division comes to. What does it matter if you are at “peace” with this man, and even find “grace” with that one? My prayer is that you may have both of these from God — both from him, I say, and toward him. For they do not stay secure unless they enjoy the influence from above; and unless God is their object, they will not do you any good at all.

It does us no good to be at peace with all people if we are at war with God, just as it does us no harm to be held an enemy by all people if we are at peace with God. Again, it is no gain to us if everyone approves of us while the Lord is offended; and there is no danger, even if everyone shuns and hates us, if we are accepted and loved by God. For what is truly grace and truly peace comes from God, since the one who finds favor in God’s sight fears no one, though he suffers ten thousand horrors — I do not say no human being only, but not even the devil himself. But the one who has offended God suspects everyone, even when he seems to be safe.

For human nature is unstable. Not friends only, and brothers, but fathers too have before now been completely changed; and often, over some small matter, the son they fathered, the branch of their own planting, has become the target of their persecution more than all their enemies. Children, too, have cast off their fathers.

Look at it, if you will. David was in favor with God; Absalom was in favor with men. What became of each, and which of them won the more honor, you know. Abraham was in favor with God, Pharaoh with men — for to please Pharaoh they handed over the righteous man’s wife. Which of the two, then, was more illustrious, and which was the happy man? Everyone knows. But why do I speak of righteous men? The Israelites were in favor with God, but they were hated by men, by the Egyptians. Nevertheless they prevailed over those who hated them and defeated them — and with how great a triumph, you all know well.

So let all of us work hard for this. If someone is a slave, let him pray for this: to find favor with God rather than with his master. If a wife, let her seek favor from God her Savior rather than from her husband. If a soldier, let him seek the favor that comes from above in preference to that of his king and his commander. For this is how you will be loved among people as well.

But how will anyone find favor with God? How else but by humility? [j]

“For God,” as someone says, “resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4, verse 6). And, “The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit; a heart that is brought low God will not despise” (Psalm 51, verse 17). If humility is so lovely among people, much more is it so with God. This is how the Gentiles found grace, and it was in no other way that the Jews fell from grace: “For they did not submit to the righteousness of God” (Romans 10, verse 3).

The humble man I am speaking of is pleasing and delightful to everyone. He lives in constant peace and has nothing in him to start a quarrel. Insult him, abuse him, say whatever you like — he will stay silent and bear it gently, and he will have such peace toward everyone that it cannot even be described. Yes, and toward God as well. For God’s commands are to be at peace with people; and so our whole life prospers through peace with one another. For no one can harm God: his nature cannot perish, and it is above all suffering.

Nothing makes a Christian so admirable as humility. Listen, for example, to Abraham saying, “I am but dust and ashes” (Genesis 18, verse 27); and again to God saying of Moses that “he was the gentlest of all men” (Numbers 12, verse 3). For no one was ever humbler than he. He was the leader of so great a people. He had drowned the king and the whole army of the Egyptians in the sea as if they were flies. He had worked so many wonders in Egypt, at the Red Sea and in the wilderness, and had received such high testimony. Yet he felt exactly as though he were an ordinary person. As a son-in-law he was humbler than his father-in-law: he took his advice (Exodus 18, verse 24) and was not offended. He did not say, “What is this? After such great achievements, have you come to us with your advice?”

That is how most people feel. Though a man brings the best advice, they despise it because the person is lowly. But Moses did not; rather, through humility he did everything well. That is also why he despised the courts of kings (Hebrews 11, verses 24 to 26): he was truly humble, and a sound mind and a high spirit are the fruit of humility. How great a nobility and greatness of soul, do you think, did it show to despise the royal palace and the royal table? For among the Egyptians kings are honored as gods, and they enjoy wealth and treasures that never run out.

Nevertheless, he let all these go, threw away the very scepters of Egypt, and hurried to join himself to captives — to men worn down with toil, whose strength was spent on clay and the making of bricks, men whom his own slaves loathed. For, it says, “The Egyptians loathed them” (Exodus 1, verse 12). To these he ran, and he put them ahead of their masters. From this it is plain that whoever is humble is also high and great of soul. For pride comes from a common mind and a low spirit, but modesty comes from greatness of mind and a lofty soul.

If you like, let us test each of these by examples. Tell me, what was ever more exalted than Abraham? And yet it was he who said, “I am but dust and ashes”; it was he who said, “Let there be no quarrel between me and you” (Genesis 13, verse 8). But this man, so humble, despised Persian spoils and took no notice of barbarian trophies (Genesis 14, verses 21 to 24). And he did this out of great loftiness of mind and a nobly bred spirit. For the truly humble man is indeed exalted — not the flatterer, not the pretender. For true greatness is one thing, and arrogance is another.

This is plain from the following. Suppose one man considers clay to be clay and despises it, while another admires the clay as though it were gold and counts it a great thing. Which, I ask you, is the man of exalted mind? Is it not the one who refuses to admire the clay? And which is abject and petty? Is it not the one who admires it and sets great store by it? Judge this case in the same way. The man who calls himself dust and ashes is exalted, even though he says it out of humility. But the man who does not consider himself dust and ashes, but pampers himself and thinks highly of himself — he, for his part, must be counted petty, since he takes little things for great. So it is clear that the patriarch spoke those words, “I am but dust and ashes,” out of great loftiness of thought — loftiness, not arrogance.

In bodies it is one thing to be healthy and firm, and another to be swollen, although both show a body full of flesh — unsound flesh in the one that is swollen, healthy flesh in the other. So it is here: it is one thing to be arrogant, which is like being swollen, and another to be high-souled, which is like being in good health. Again, one man is tall because of the height of his body; another, being short, grows taller by putting on buskins. Tell me, which of the two should we call tall and large? Isn’t it plainly the one whose height is his own? The other has it as something not his own; by stepping on things that are low in themselves, he turns out to be a tall person.

That is how it is with many people who mount themselves up on wealth and glory. That is not exaltation. The exalted man is the one who needs none of these things but despises them, and has his greatness from himself. So let us become humble, that we may become exalted: “For he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14, verse 11). The self-willed man is not like this; rather, he is the most ordinary of all characters. A bubble is inflated too, but its inflation is not sound; that is why we call such people “puffed up.” The self-controlled man, on the other hand, has no high thoughts even in high fortune, since he knows how low his own state is; but the small-minded man indulges a proud fancy even over his trifling concerns.

So let us gain that height which comes through humility. Let us look into the nature of human things, so that we may be kindled with longing for the things to come. For there is no other way to become humble except by love for what is divine and contempt for what is present. A man about to receive a kingdom will count it as nothing if someone offers him some trivial compliment in place of the purple robe. In the same way, we too will laugh to scorn everything present, if we desire that other kind of honor.

Don’t you see the children? In their play they form a band of soldiers, with heralds and lictors going ahead of them, and a boy marches in the middle in the general’s place. How childish it all is! All human affairs are just like that — yes, and even more worthless: today they are, and tomorrow they are not. So let us rise above these things. Let us not only not desire them, but even be ashamed if anyone holds them out to us. For in this way, casting out the love of these things, we will possess that other love, the divine one, and will enjoy glory that never dies. May God grant that we all obtain it, through the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory and power to the Father, together with the Holy and good Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.