What's Your Prognosis?

11.29.20 1 Corinthians 1:3–9

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! 4 I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus. 5 You were enriched in him in every way, in all your speaking and all your knowledge, 6 because the testimony about Christ was established in you. 7 As a result you do not lack any gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will also keep you strong until the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

What’s Your Prognosis?

You go to the doctor because of a problem. You get an xray and wait for him to return with the results. He walks in. You read his face, trying to determine: what’s the prognosis? Am I going to live or die?

You meet someone that you might be interested in dating. You look in their eyes. Are they responding? Laughing? Smiling? Is there a flicker of light there? Any interest? Any future?

Years ago I took a young man through Bible Information Class. He was dating a member of our congregation and they were getting “serious”, I guess you would say. But when he came to class, he would quickly answer the questions and ask no questions. It seemed he really didn’t want to be there. Nonetheless, he finished the classes and decided to join. When the relationship didn’t end up working, he didn’t last long at church, and it didn’t really surprise me.

It’s what concerns me when we have a class of confirmands every year. Some children don’t engage at all in class. Their parents don’t seem to take much interest in worship. It’s like they’re just going through the motions. It’s hard to be optimistic in such situations.

Paul didn’t have such a pessimistic attitude with the Corinthians. You sense an attitude of thankfulness, gratitude and optimism in this letter. And it wasn’t like the Corinthians were perfect by any stretch of the imagination. What was it that gave Paul such positivity? Was he just a Joel Osteen type? A positive type of person? No. Let’s listen again. I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus. 5 You were enriched in him in every way, in all your speaking and all your knowledge, 6 because the testimony about Christ was established in you. Their faith was enriched and established. The same Word is used in Mark 16:20 when Mark talks about the ministry of the disciples. He wrote that, “the Lord worked with them and confirmed (same word as established in the Greek) his word by the signs that accompanied it.” The miracles CONFIRMED that the disciples had the authentic approval of God.

Think for a minute about these Corinthians. Some of them came from terrible backgrounds. Paul said that some of them were, “sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers.” (1 Cor 6) These were not salt of the earth people when they were converted. I’m sure they spoke like perverts and had no problem lying to gain a profit. Vulgarity probably would have rolled off their tongues like drunken sailors. But when Paul listened to them speak and saw them grow in their faith after their conversion, he was confident that they would endure to the very end.

First of all, they were enriched in “all your speaking.” What does this mean? They’d be speaking forgiveness to each other. In 1 Thessalonians 5 Paul told the Thessalonians to “encourage each other and build each other up.” They’d be encouraging each other to stay faithful to Jesus. They’d cheer others on when they resisted temptations or stood firm against their own families in order to stay faithful to Christ. They didn’t tear each other down when they messed up. They’d be praying for each other. They spoke the Word of God to each other in words of encouragement. They weren’t cursing at each other or speaking vulgar talk. Their speech had changed.

That’s not all. They also said they were enriched in “all your knowledge.” The Corinthian converts made it a point to know Jesus and see Jesus throughout the Scriptures. They made sure to know what God had to say about Creation, the Fall, prophecy, and so much more. They diligently learned how it all pointed to Jesus. It would have taken time and effort to study the Scriptures and learn these things. But they made the efforts, and as a process they grew in their knowledge.