1 Cor. 1:2 …To those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called saints, with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours
9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord
Into the fellowship [in 1 Corinthians 1:9] denotes to partake of the fellowship of the union with God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and of the participation in Him. God has called us into such a fellowship that we may enjoy Christ as our God-given portion. This word, like the word in verse 2 concerning Christ’s being theirs and ours stresses again the crucial fact that Christ is the unique center of the believers for the solving of the problems among them, especially the problem of division. (Life-study of 1 Corinthians, second edition, p. 23)
Today’s Reading
First Corinthians unveils to us that the very Christ, into whom we all have been called, is all-inclusive. He is the portion given to us by God (1:2)
He is God’s power and God’s wisdom as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to us (vv. 24, 30). He is the Lord of glory (2:8) for our glorification (v. 7; Rom. 8:30). He is the depths (deep things) of God (1 Cor. 2:10). He is the unique foundation of God’s building (3:11). He is our Passover (5:7), the unleavened bread (v. 8), the spiritual food, the spiritual drink, and the spiritual rock (10:3-4). He is the Head (11:3) and the Body (12:12). He is the firstfruits (15:20, 23), the second man (v. 47), and the last Adam (v. 45); and as such He became the life-giving Spirit (v. 45) that we may receive Him into us as our everything. This all-inclusive One, with the riches of at least twenty items, God has given to us as our portion for our enjoyment. We should concentrate on Him, not on any persons, things, or matters other than Him…It is into the fellowship of such a One that we have been called by God. This fellowship of God’s Son became the fellowship that the apostles shared with the believers (Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3) in His Body, the church, and should be the fellowship that we enjoy in partaking of His blood and His body at His table (1 Cor. 10:16, 21). Such a fellowship, which is carried out by the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14), must be unique, because He is unique; it forbids any division among the members of His unique Body
Fellowship…means that we and Christ have become one. It also means that we enjoy Christ and all He is, and that He enjoys us and what we are. As a result, there is not only a mutual communication but a mutuality in every way
All that Christ is becomes ours, and all that we are becomes His…We have been called into a mutuality in which we enjoy what the Son of God is, and in which we are one with Him and He is one with us. Elsewhere in 1 Corinthians, in 6:17, Paul says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” We have been called into such a oneness. In this oneness we enjoy what Christ is, and He enjoys what we are. You may say, “I certainly believe that we have been called to enjoy Christ
But how can it be true that Christ enjoys us? You may say that this is true, but I find it hard to believe.” Christ, however, would say, “Child, I enjoy you very much. You don’t realize how much I enjoy you. Even when you are weak and low, I still enjoy you, for I am one spirit with you.” In chapter 1, verse 9 is related to verse 2. In verse 2 Paul says, “With all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours.” Christ is ours, and He is also theirs. He belongs to us and to all the other believers…The very Lord Jesus Christ upon whose name we are calling in every place is our Lord and their Lord, our portion and their portion
This means that all the saints have the Lord as their unique portion. The reason for this is that we all have been called into the fellowship of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Life-study of 1 Corinthians, 2nd edition, pp. 23-25)