The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1957-10-04
Called to Be Saints


Called to Be Saints
No church gave Paul more trou-
Bile than the one at Corinth. That
sclty was big. booming and bad.
Most Of the Corinthian church
members had had no background
Of experience in the high religion
Of the Jews, but came in from raw
paganlsm Few Of them were per-
sons of great culture. AT the time
Paul wrote to them first, none of
them had been Christians long
And yet Paul writes To them ais
The sancufed in Christ Jesus,
called q be saints As B Phil
lips translates Paults Greek. these
Corinthians arc those whom
Christ has made holy. who are
called to be God S men and wo-
men Almost every one Of Paul
letters ID Christian churches BE-
gins on this same high note To
tho Ephesian Christians he writes
that they have been stamped with
the promised Holy Spirit as a
guarantee VI purchase Phillips
The Colossians he calls saints and
faithful brethren Theologlans and
others have often discussed the
question. Is the church human or
divine II we take Saint PAU
seriously we have 10 say. at least.
that the church is made Of persons
who have been touched ana are
being transformed by the divine
There Is QuarreIng ="
The ink is hardly dry On the
high words Paul has used N de-
scribe his brothers in the COW
inthian church, when he begins to
write III a quite different key. Hi
has been reported. he says. fhat
there is quarroling among you. :"
The reader who pushes on through
this and the second letter 10 the
Corinthians may be shocked by
what he sees These people are TN
spiritual GID, they are babies
go there is jealousy and strife
among them $3.50 Gross sin goes
on among them unrebuked (5sl.2J.
They have lawsuits against one an
other CID They have to be
warned against prostitution els,
16). Some Of them came drunk 10
communion. or got drunk there
tll.2l4 Paul is afraid that when
he next visits them he may find
selhshness. SANDER. gossip con-
ceit and disorder III Cor. 1920
How can he say such things TO
people who have been 'sanctifed
and are called to be saints"2 The
truth is, Paul sees the Corinthians.
as he saw all his converts and all
his churches, in two lights. He sees
the ideal church, what it ought to
be and what IN the mind Of God
it already is. or more precisely
what il is destined to be,
The Answer
Now the church moves from
where it is TO where ii is to be.
But by what power? What is the
secret OF the church's TRANSFORMED
ton from what it is to what it is
destined to become. from the real
to the Ideal7 The answer is-in one
word-Christ. Paul calls him the
power Of God and the wisdom of
God Z In other words, as Christ
comes to live in the hearts Of these
raw, imperfect, quarreling Chris
tians-by-intention. they will be-
come changed, as time goes on,
more and more into his likeness.
AS they face their many problems,
they will learn to find the solutions
as they learn more and more what
the spirit Of Christ really is. II
Christ lives in his church, the
church will not be tempted to con
fuse what il is with what it ought
to bet will not mistake the real
church for the ideal one; but on
the other hand. If He lives in the
church. no one has right to be
discoursge d, and fear that the
ideal will never come true.
tsased o. outlines copyrighted ~ III.
Division ~ Christian Education. Ms
t,-rsl Council % the Churches 81 Christ
In fl. L Il Released By Cor rurtty
Press Ssrvics@