It’s hard for us to imagine living in such an environment, much less imagine trying to preach the gospel in one. One of Paul’s clear objectives in his writing to them was to at least keep this nightmare out of the church. That appears to have been a major focus of that mysterious letter from Paul that predates this one.

1 Corinthians 1:2–3 (NKJV)

 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

While “called to be saints” is the most common translation of the Greek words κλητοῖς ἁγίοις (klay-tois hag-i-ois)—it’s exactly the same in the ESV—the Greek words literally are “called holy.” The NIV says “holy people” instead.

Holy means separate or set apart. This is what Paul means by “saints.” The modern understanding of the word saints is something like “perfect Christians,” which is nice, but not what Paul means here.

Of course, the goal of every Christian is to behave in such a way that people might think of them as a saint in the modern meaning of the word. This has much to do with why Paul wrote this letter in the first place. His readers definitely aren’t there yet.

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