Second Sunday after Epiphany: Epistle, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9                   

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Paul, as his practice much of the time, begins this epistle with a word of thanksgiving. Let’s read: “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as he testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:4-8).

Not lacking in any spiritual gift, the Corinthian believers, among the most troubling in the New Testament, receive not the boot of the law in order to straighten them out. No, they receive the declaration that God in His Son has given to the Corinthians all they need to live this life and to prepare them for their very entrance into the inheritance of eternal life. Read the text again. Read the entire reading and perhaps the entire first chapter of this jewel. Then ask yourself: “What is missing?”

The answer is sure and clear. Nothing. Do you believe it?