1 Corinthians 1:3

Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Grace be unto you, and peace.—This is the usual style of apostolic greeting (Galatians 1:3; Ephesians 1:2), and with these words the address and greeting which open the Epistle conclude.

Benson Commentary

1 Corinthians 1:3-9. Grace be unto you, &c. — See on Romans 1:7. I thank my God always — Whenever I mention you to God in prayer, or on every occasion; on your behalf — On your account; for the grace of God which is given you, &c. — For all those spiritual blessings which are freely conferred upon you by God, for Christ’s sake. That in every thing — With all kinds of spiritual gifts, pertaining to the knowledge and preaching of the gospel; ye are enriched by him — That is, many among you are; in all utterance — With great freedom of speech; and in all knowledge — Namely, of the mystery of the gospel. These gifts the Corinthians particularly admired. Therefore this congratulation naturally tended to soften their spirits, and make way for the reproofs which follow. Even as the testimony of Christ — The gospel, which testifies of Christ, and declares the will of God concerning the way of saving sinners, Matthew 24:14; was confirmed in — Or among, you — That is, was plainly proved to be from God, Revelation 19:10, by these gifts bestowed upon you. They knew they had received these gifts by the hand of Paul, and that long before the false teachers came among them, and that they had received none from them. And this consideration was highly proper to revive in them their former reverence and affection for their spiritual father, and to show them how much they were to blame for attaching themselves to teachers who had given them no proof at all either of their divine mission or of the truth of their doctrine. So that ye come behind — Other churches, and are defective in no gift — Namely, tending to edification and confirmation in the faith and hope of the gospel; waiting for the coming — Την αποκαλυψιν, the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ — A sure mark of a true or false Christian, to long for, or dread, the second glorious revelation of the Lord Jesus. The apostle speaks here, not of all individual believers at Corinth, but of the church there in general; as having in it many spiritual persons, who possessed all the different spiritual gifts which common believers could enjoy. Accordingly he asked them, 2 Corinthians 12:13, What is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches? Who shall also — If you faithfully apply to him; confirm you — In these gifts and graces; unto the end — Of your lives, and of the time of your trial; that ye may be blameless — Clear from the guilt of any known sin; in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ — The time of his coming to judgment. Now it is our day, wherein we are to work out our salvation: then it will be eminently the day of Christ, and of his glory in the saints. God is faithful to all his promises, and therefore to him that hath shall be given: by whom ye were called — By his word and Spirit; unto the fellowship of his Son —

To partake, through him, of all the blessings of the gospel. And this calling, as if he had said, you should consider as a pledge of his willingness to save you unto the uttermost.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:1-9 All Christians are by baptism dedicated and devoted to Christ, and are under strict obligations to be holy. But in the true church of God are all who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, and who call upon him as God manifest in the flesh, for all the blessings of salvation; who acknowledge and obey him as their Lord, and as Lord of all; it includes no other persons. Christians are distinguished from the profane and atheists, that they dare not live without prayer; and they are distinguished from Jews and pagans, that they call on the name of Christ. Observe how often in these verses the apostle repeats the words, Our Lord Jesus Christ. He feared not to make too frequent or too honourable mention of him. To all who called upon Christ, the apostle gave his usual salutation, desiring, in their behalf, the pardoning mercy, sanctifying grace, and comforting peace of God, through Jesus Christ. Sinners can have no peace with God, nor any from him, but through Christ. He gives thanks for their conversion to the faith of Christ; that grace was given them by Jesus Christ. They had been enriched by him with all spiritual gifts. He speaks of utterance and knowledge. And where God has given these two gifts, he has given great power for usefulness. These were gifts of the Holy Ghost, by which God bore witness to the apostles. Those that wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, will be kept by him to the end; and those that are so, will be blameless in the day of Christ, made so by rich and free grace. How glorious are the hopes of such a privilege; to be kept by the power of Christ, from the power of our corruptions and Satan's temptations!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Grace be unto you ... - See the note at Romans 1:7.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. peace—peculiarly needed in the Corinthian church, on account of its dissensions. On this verse see on [2282]Ro 1:7.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This is the common salutation in all Paul’s Epistles, only in one or two mercy is also added.

Grace signifies free love.

Peace signifies either a reconciliation with God, or brotherly love and unity each with other: See Poole on "Romans 1:7". The apostle wisheth them spiritual blessings, and the greatest spiritual blessings, grace and peace, and that not from and with men, but from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Grace be unto you, and peace from God,.... This is an usual salutation in all Paul's epistles; See Gill on Romans 1:7.

Geneva Study Bible

{6} Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

(6) The foundation and the life of the Church is Christ Jesus given from the Father.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Corinthians 1:3. See on Romans 1:7.[106]

[106] See also the elaborate dissertation on the apost. benedictory greeting by Otto in the Jahrb. für D. Theol. 1867, p. 678 ff. The origin of that greeting, however, is hardly to be traced back, as the author holds, to the Aaronic blessing, Numbers 6:25 f. Otherwise it would always be tripartite, and, in particular, would not omit the characteristic ἔλεος. Now, the only Epistles in which it certainly occurs as tripartite, and with ἔλεος, are the (post-Pauline) ones, 1 and 2 Tim. and 2 John 1:3; also Judges 1:2 (but with a peculiar variation). It was only at a later date that the Aaronic blessing passed over into Christian liturgic use (Constitt. ap. ii. 57. 13); but a free reminiscence of that blessing may already be contained in the greetings of those late Epistles.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Corinthians 1:3. χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη ἀπὸ Θεοῦ κ.τ.λ.: Paul’s customary greeting; see note on Romans 1:7. “The occurrence of the peculiar phrase ‘grace and peace’ in Paul, John, and Peter intimates that we have here the earliest Christian password or symbolum” (Ed[63]). κυρίου might grammatically be parl[64] to ἡμῶν, both depending upon πατρός, as in 2 Corinthians 1:3, etc.; but 1 and 2 Thessalonians 1:1 (Θεῷ πατρὶ κ. Κυρίῳ Ἰ. Χ.) prove Father and Lord in this formula to be parl[65]: cf. 1 Corinthians 8:6, 2 Corinthians 13:13; nowhere does P. speak (as in John 20:17) of God as Father of Christ and of men co-ordinately, and for ἡμῶν to come first in such connexion would be incongruous. “The union of” Θεοῦ and Κυρίου “under the vinculum of a common prp[66] is one of the numberless hints scattered through St. Paul’s epp. of the consciously felt and recognised co-ordination” of the Father and Christ (El[67]).

[63] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians.2

[64] parallel.

[65] parallel.

[66] preposition.

[67] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ] The close association of these words—for the preposition is not repeated twice—has been held to imply the oneness of substance of the Father and the Son. It is also to be noted that the grace and peace are said to come from our Lord Jesus Christ equally with the Father. The same formula is to be found in the greeting of every epistle. But the most remarkable instance of this form of speech is certainly that in 1 Thessalonians 3:11 and 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, where the Father and the Son stand together as nominatives to a verb in the singular. Grace is here used in the signification of favour, kindness, rather than in the usual theological signification of Divine assistance. The Apostle is speaking of that Divine favour in the sunshine of which the believer is privileged to dwell, and which produces peace of mind as its natural effect. For it is a cardinal point of his teaching that ‘there is henceforth no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit’ It is to be remembered that our word grace is derived from the Latin gratia, the original signification of which is favour, kindness.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Grace to you and peace. This is St. Paul's greeting in all the Epistles except the pastoral Epistles, in which he beautifully adds the word "mercy." It is a remarkable blending of the Greek and Jewish salutations. The Greeks said Ξαίρειν, and to them the word "grace" involved the notions of joy and brightness and prosperity. The calmer and more solemn greeting of the East was, "Peace be to thee." The Church unites both forms of greeting - "grace," the beginning of every blessing; "peace," the end of all blessings; and into both she infuses a deeper meaning, that of a "joy" which defied all tribulations, and a" peace which passeth all understanding." From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. God is the Source of "every good gift and every perfect gift." God is our Father as our Creator, and as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we become, in a higher sense, his children. Christ, in his mediatorial kingdom, is specially and immediately "our Lord," though that phrase, now so universal, only occurs (in its isolated form) in Hebrews 7:14. Jesus Christ. One of St. Paul's peculiarities of style is the constant reiteration of one dominant word. In the first nine verses of this Epistle, the Name "Jesus Christ" is repeated no less than nine times. "Observe," says St. Chrysostom, "how he nails them down to the Name of Christ, not mentioning any man, either apostle or teacher, but continually mentioning him for whom they yearn, as men preparing to awaken those who are drowsy after a debauch. For nowhere in any other Epistle is the Name of Christ so continually introduced By means of it he weaves together almost his whole exordium." 1 Corinthians 1:3

Vincent's Word Studies

Grace - peace

Grace is the Greek salutation, peace the Jewish. Both in the spiritual sense. Compare Numbers 6:25, Numbers 6:26. This form of salutation is common to all Paul's epistles to the churches. In Timothy and Titus, mercy is added. James alone has the ordinary conventional salutation, χαίρειν rejoice, hail, greeting.