1 Cor 1:1. Paul, and Sosthenes.
Paul, called an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Brother Sosthenes. Paul is an Apostle of Jesus Christ by God’s calling and will, not by private usurpation, as the pseudo-apostles are, together with Sosthenes, one most devoted among the professors of the Christian faith to the chief task of advancing the Gospel—whom you know well. That Sosthenes was the ruler of the synagogue at Corinth (cf. Acts 18:17), who was beaten by the Jews before the tribunal of Gallio the proconsul on account of Paul, whose defense he had undertaken. The Latins already celebrated his memory in the ninth century on the eleventh of June and the twenty-eighth of November (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. I). The Greeks, however, enrolled him in the sacred calendars on the eighth of December as one of the Seventy-two Disciples and among the martyrs, as he was reckoned in the time of Eusebius—an error made by Adonisius, unless we suppose there were two men named Sosthenes. But Theodoret acknowledged no other Sosthenes, nor did Bede, Mark, or the Roman Martyrology, except the disciple of Saint Paul of whom Saint Luke speaks in the Acts of the Apostles (Roman Martyrology, at the Martyrology of the Church).
1 Cor 1:2–3. To the Church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all who invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, theirs and ours.
To the Church of God founded at Corinth, that is, to the faithful at Corinth who agree in the worship of the one true God through Jesus Christ, and who, by the merit of His Passion, have been sanctified in Baptism, who profess holiness—from which they have received their name—together with all worshipers of Jesus Christ our Lord, that is, those who truly believe in Christ and adore Him as true God and the only-begotten Son of God, wherever they may dwell; for whatever place is theirs is also ours, by reason of the unity of the Church spread throughout the world, as Saint Chrysostom explains. Or rather: “to those who invoke the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, common to them and to us,” as Photius has it—“theirs and ours,” wherever they may be.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ—who is the author and giver of grace and peace no less than God the Father. Grace, I say, be multiplied in you, and peace which is born of grace: peace with God, with whom you have been reconciled through Christ Jesus, and peace with neighbor, which removes dissensions and preserves order.
1 Cor 1:4–6. I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God which has been given you in Christ Jesus.
I continually give thanks to my God for the benefits bestowed upon you by Him, for the manifold grace of God given to you, both for your own sanctification and for the benefit of others through Jesus Christ. Because in Him you have been enriched in everything, in all speech and in all knowledge, on account of the spiritual riches with which you have been filled through Him, in all things that pertain to the gift of speech and the gift of knowledge—that is, the gift of knowing divine things and of expressing them fittingly. Compare 2 Corinthians 8:7.
Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed among you. By these gifts the preaching of the Gospel among you was confirmed. He therefore calls the preaching of Christ a “testimony,” for those who preach in a certain way bear witness. Thus also, writing to Timothy, he said: “I testify before God, who gives life to the dead.” In the same way the Lord said in the holy Gospels: “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, as a testimony to all nations” (Matthew 24). The confirmation of the Gospel itself took place through the working of marvelous signs, which Theodoret also calls “testimonies of God,” for by them the truth of the preaching was shown.
1 Cor 1:7–8. So that you are not lacking in any grace, as you await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So that you lack no grace, whether necessary for your own salvation or for the edification and benefit of the Church, while meanwhile you await the second coming of Christ and the day of the final judgment, when He shall be openly seen in His glory and shall consummate His grace in the elect and take them up into the fellowship of His glory.
He will also confirm you to the end, blameless on the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And God, by His mercy, will grant to you—whoever among you are elect—steadfastness and perseverance in good until the end, so that you may be without blame and irreproachable on the day of Christ’s coming. These words are not referred to individuals but to the whole body of the Church of the Corinthians: “so that you lack nothing in any grace.” For many among them were imperfect. Nor was the Apostle certain that the gift of perseverance would be granted by God to all the Corinthians individually, or that each would be preserved without blame or grave sin until the Lord’s coming. He was, however, certain of what the Catholic faith teaches: that all the elect, by God’s gift, will persevere in good until the end, so that either they never fall into any grave sin, or, if they do fall, they rise again through repentance and are found without stain on the day of the Lord. For whoever is found without blame on the day of death will come without blame to the day of judgment.
Or, if these words are referred to the whole body of the faithful at Corinth and not only to the elect, then “He will confirm you to the end, blameless” are words of good confidence rather than of absolute assertion, similar to those in Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus,” and also: “It is right for me to feel this way about you all.”
Finally, here applies the rule handed down by Saint Augustine (Epistle 149 [otherwise 59] to Paulinus, n. 20): Scripture has the custom of speaking of a part as if it were the whole. Thus, in the opening parts of his First Epistle, Paul praises the Corinthians as though all were such, though only some were praiseworthy; and later in certain passages of the same Epistle he reproaches them as though all were blameworthy, on account of some who were such. Whoever carefully observes this custom of the divine Scriptures, scattered very frequently throughout the whole body of his letters, resolves many things that seem to be mutually contradictory.
1 Cor 1:9. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
God, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son by a calling according to His purpose, is faithful and true in His promises. Therefore He will give you perseverance until the end, which is included in the calling according to His purpose. Or else: God, who has bestowed on you the gift of adoption and promised you, as sons, the inheritance of His kingdom, will not abandon you unless you abandon Him; He will not withdraw His help from you, so that you may always live devoutly and justly.
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