The Rose of God’s Grace

The Wednesday feature of the Worldly Saints blog is a Scriptural meditation whereby I take a verse or passage I have been pondering lately and seek to edify my readers with it’s promises, encouragements, warnings, rebukes, etc.

Paul wrote in his introductory words to a carnal church, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus” (I Cor 1:4).

For as long as I can remember, this verse has convicted me more as a pastor, perhaps more than any other verse in the Bible. And perhaps that is because when you are in church leadership, you see the mess of the lives of people in the church more than you would like. You see the teenagers abandoning their faith, you see the spouses speaking disrespectfully towards one another, you see the bitterness and unforgiveness of people towards other Christians that leads to church splits, you see families torn apart by sexual compromise, etc. You see the mess.

And it would be very difficult to be the pastor of Corinthian church with their tolerated immorality and worldliness like Corinth and start your words off by saying, “I am always thankful when I think about the church at Corinth.”

What? Who says that? Is Paul naïve? Is he blind? Is he stupid? Is he just like the Corinthians? Does he tolerate sin too?

For years, I could not understand all of this. Then, by God’s good providence, it hit me. Paul was thankful, because when he looked at them, He didn’t just see them for their sin; He saw their Savior. Paul didn’t focus on the thorns; Paul saw the rose. Read it again carefully – “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.”

One of the evidences we have here that Paul is focused on the work of God’s grace is the repetition of the name(s) of God. Eight times in these six verses, Paul refers to a name of God.

• God (vs. 4, 9)

• Christ Jesus (vs. 4)

• Christ (vs. 6)

• Lord Jesus Christ (vs. 7-8)

• Son (vs. 9)

• Jesus Christ (vs. 0)Our Lord (vs. 9)

Paul is caught up with God’s working them. God called them, made them saints and has begun a work in them he will complete (Phil 1:6).

He is not really acknowledging so much what the Corinthians were doing but what God was doing despite them. This church was a good thing gone sour, but it was something God’s “grace” was upon. Grace is God’s undeserved favor. John MacArthur says it this way:

“It is super magnanimous giving, giving that is totally undeserved and unmerited. It need not, in face cannot, be repaid.”

God is gracious and Paul acknowledges that in the Corinthians. He sees it.

What a lesson that is for all of us! People who are aware of God’s mercies are thankful for God’s working(s) in the lives of others … no matter what.

Can you look past someone’s faults and sins and weaknesses and express thanks for them? People who know they need God’s favor are thankful people. And they can see the rose among the thorns. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:7, “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” And that “measure” is immeasurable; it cannot be contained and it can get into the darkest of places or churches.

Commit yourself to not focus on the faults or sins of others, but to look at the men and women in your life who are worthy of honor. And thank God for them.