1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 1.
Salutation and Thanksgiving. 1 Cor. 1, 1—9.
The thanksgiving of the apostle: V. 4. I thank my God always on your behalf ...v. 6. even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, v. 7. so that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the abundance of this knowledge and understanding in them was in proportion to their acceptance of the Gospel-truth: Even as, or, inasmuch as, the witness of Christ was confirmed in you. The witness to Christ, the good news of God about His Son, "the well-established truth of the message" of salvation, had been made sure in them; they had become fixed, they had remained steadfast in the truth, their hearts were established, Heb. 13, 9, they were certain of its reality. As then, so to-day this establishment in the witness to Christ is a matter of His grace, an object of prayer, and a cause for thankfulness.
A further result of this gift of grace and of the firm establishment of the Gospel: So that you are not deficient in any gift. The Christians of Corinth did not lack, did not fall behind in, any gift of grace which was needed for edification, by which they were qualified to labor for the Lord by instruction, by exhortation, by rule, by service. No congregation of the early days exceeded that of Corinth in the variety of its endowments and the satisfaction felt in them, chap. 12,7—11. The believers in that heathen city were in possession of such rich endowments while they eagerly awaited the coming, the final revelation, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They received the rich endowment of the gifts of grace and used them for the benefit of the work for Christ, but at the same time their hearts were turned in eager anticipation to their final redemption, Phil. 3, 20; Titus 2, 13; 2 Pet. 3, 12.
Thus the heart of every believer is filled with homesickness for the mansions above; but that very fact causes him to work in the interest of the Master while it is day, to use all his gifts and abilities in the interest of his Lord.