Reflections on 1 Corinthians 1:1–2
“Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people…” (1 Corinthians 1:1–2, NIV)
Paul opens his letter to the Corinthians with a single word that carries the whole story of his life: called. He was “called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” And the people he writes to are called too, “called to be his holy people.”
But a call is not the same as an answer. Paul was called by the will of God, yet the call was not answered until Paul chose to answer it. God can call us, and we are free to refuse. That is how much He respects us.
When Christ met Paul on the road to Damascus, He read a heart that was true but misguided. Paul later wrote that he had acted “ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Timothy 1:13); he honestly thought he was serving God by fighting Jesus (Acts 26:9). When his eyes were opened and he understood, he stopped fighting the truth and allowed it to take hold in his life and heal his heart and mind. That man became one of the most powerful tools in God’s hand for carrying the gospel to the world, and through his letters he is still sharing it today.
It did not all come in one day. After his conversion Paul went away into Arabia, and three years passed before he went up to Jerusalem (Galatians 1:17–18). Then came years back home in Tarsus, until Barnabas went looking for him (Acts 9:30; 11:25). Paul had to grow into his calling, just like we all do.
We are all called. Those of us who answer are then made holy, set apart, by the work of healing done in us through the truth about God we have accepted. And whatever we accept as truth will change us all the way down to the DNA. Our only power is to choose what we will believe; after that, what we have taken in has the power to heal us or to destroy us.
We are our choices. Our choices will either heal us through the power of God’s Love and Truth, or they will shrink our understanding of reality until the mind has no want or capacity to embrace truth again. Paul describes people who have gone that far as “past feeling” (Ephesians 4:19).
That is why it matters to begin now. Doing the work now gives us the time to move slowly as healing comes. Each choice for the good makes the next one stronger, until the desire to be a blessing to others outweighs every old habit and longing. We begin the journey sick and in need of healing everywhere. As we take in more and more of the truth, things in us begin to change, and we learn how powerful a single choice can be.
You do not have to see the whole road. Make an intentional choice, a choice with your will behind it, and leave the results with God. The Father is with you. Every day is an adventure, a new beginning.
