A Devotional Thought From 1 Corinthians

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their’s and our’s:                                 1 Corinthians 1:1,2

Who the heck is Sosthenes? Actually (metaphorically) we are: We Christians; We who trust in Jesus Christ as Savior. While we know little of the man himself we know that his life was tied up with Paul’s in the service of the gospel. He was a believer. He was called, as we all are, to be saints. We are summoned or invited to be a part of God’s family. We are invited into faith. Come unto Me all ye who labor and are heavy laden. Come and serve me. That is the calling that Paul received and he was not only called to salvation and service, but called to the position of being an apostle. Just so all of us who have trusted in Christ have been called. We are called to be Christians, called to serve the Lord, called to be saints (This word is a synonym for Christians. The word for saints in the New Testament Greek is agioi which literally means the holy ones, or the ones made holy by God.) We, each of us who belong to Jesus have this calling on his/her life in the same way that Sosthenes and Paul did. We have differing ministries, but we are all called to the service of Christ. The ministry of the unknown “Sosthenes” in our churches today is just as much a calling, and just as important a ministry to God as that of the pastor, or teacher, or missionary. Every Christian believer is called to be for God in this life. All of us should value one another for that reason, love one another for that reason, and work together for that reason. The  work of Christian ministry is all about our Lord who can call people to Him, build a fellowship of love, and use that fellowship as salt to preserve the world from evil, and He does some of that work through us using the least to the greatest.