Walking through Corinth

2 Corinthians 1:1-2

    The letters of Paul most always follow the normal greeting found in the letters of his day.  This greeting consisted of 1) the name of the sender 2) the name of the recipient or recipients, and 3) a greeting or blessing. 
    This example can be found in many Greco-Roman letters such as the one composed in Acts 15 by the apostles.
   
    Paul does modify the greetings to his letter by adding his title (apostle), by mentioning Timothy and by substituting the word “grace” for greetings.  He keeps the Hebrew greeting shalom which is in Greek irene and translates as “peace.  This peace is that which is from God.

    Some scholars encourage readers not to be too caught up in the greeting of a letter, or to read to much into its details.  But there are many things here which the believer should notice.  The first is that Paul is not apostle by “choice” but apostle by “calling.”

    Apostles were those who had seen the risen Christ.  We are not apostles, or at least I am not, for I have not seen my risen Lord.  Whenever Paul thought of himself being called he was always no doubt brought to that startling moment when all that he had believed about himself, the world, and about God was proven to be false.
   
    The calling of Christ was none of Paul’s doing.  And as believers today, it is not to our own merit that we follow Christ, but rather to His glory.  The Christian should never think to his or herself, “I am saved, how wonderful am I!” but instead, “He saved me, he gave me even the faith to believe, how wonderful is He.”
   
    It is only by daily reminding of one's salvation that one can truly be humbled.  And it is only by humility, that one can be magnified through Christ.  We see our model of humbling and magnification in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. And this humble promotion through the blood of Christ by “grace” grants the believer true “peace.” Who can take away the peace which God gives, or can give peace that abides in the “One who was, and is, and is to come.” (Rev. 1:4)?


 
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. - C. S. Lewis