What does it mean that God is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9)?

203 Verses 8, 9 are exceedingly important. He had the hope that they were saints in a general way; then he casts them on God's faithfulness; so that they would be blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is one of the blankest cases of the perseverance of the saints (not happily, but commonly so-called); for, at that time they were going on exceedingly ill, yet there he introduces that they would be not safe but blameless. This he connects with the faithfulness of God. Jesus Christ will confirm you to the end, and God is faithful by whom ye were called.

"Fellowship of his Son," which follows just after, means having a part together, and with Christ (koinonia) and in the blessings that are with Him. Partaking (metokee) is not communion (koinonia), which last is a closer thing. I partake of a thing, and in that measure have it in common with another. It is more in the character of communication. For instance in Hebrews 2:14 we have the difference in an important case. "Forasmuch, then, as the children were partakers of [kekoinoneken] flesh and blood [because we all had it, it is all in common], he also himself likewise took part [metesken], of the same." Some misused it to teach that He took sinful flesh, which is nowhere said; but Christ did take flesh and blood. In Luke 5 the two words are used in a general way. "They beckoned to their partners" [metokois], v. 7, while [koinonoi], v. 10, shews they had common share, with nothing very definite for distinction. Words are used sometimes in a less, sometimes in a more, definite sense. We use a great number of words which have merely a different shade of meaning without an intention of making a difference. You might say, They both live in the same place, or in the same locality, but you do not mean another thought. Locality is the more general term. So going shares or partnership might have a shade of difference.

The Apostle knew all the evil which was among them as an assembly (and more so did the Holy Spirit know), but before he uncovers their condition, he gives a most precious assurance. He speaks of the faithfulness of God, who had called them into that wonderful fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ. God is faithful! He reckons on God's faithfulness to do in the end all for them which He had promised, so that they would be blameless in the day of the lord Jesus Christ. God does not repent of His gifts and calling. The same assurance is found in other epistles. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:23--24). Such a loving and gracious assurance to those who are called according to His purpose, that He is faithful and will bring it about that His people shall be blameless in that coming day of Christ, leads to self-judgment and repentance.

Not that a word is said to induce a doubt of His goodness or love to them. Never does a soul more need to hold fast grace than when it is probed and searched by the unsparing and all-detecting word of God. Hence the apostle does not hesitate to say that the Lord should also confirm them to the last unimpeachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. How sad then that a Christian should be to Christ's reproach now! When Christ, our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. But this to the apostle becomes by the Spirit only one cogent motive more for urging us to mortify our members that are on the earth. It is the day of our Lord which here again calls our responsibility into play. And as this does and must act on conscience, being in truth intended to do this, so it makes the saint feel the need and value of what the apostle adds as closing his introduction — "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord." (Ver. 9.) If He has called, will He not also perform? Philippians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:24. But His calling to the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord is not more sure in His grace than serious in its present claim on us that we cast no shade of unfaithfulness on both, sullying His name that is named on us, to which the very world binds us, loose as may be its sense of what is due to Him whom it knows not. How did the Corinthians answer to that call then? How do we now?

Paul, in verse 9, speaks of the faithfulness of God in calling us into the fellowship of His Son. What rest for us to know that the God Who has called us is ever faithful. If men are unfaithful to the call of God, we can always rely on the faithful God to supply all the needed grace and mercy to sustain us in the path to which He has called us. His Son is the bond that unites the saints in the fellowship to which all have been called; it is the only fellowship that is proper to the Christian company on earth; every other professed fellowship really denies the unity of the fellowship that subsists in relation to the Son of God. This is church fellowship, belonging to the one body, where the privileges of the Christian company are enjoyed, and where there is to be the maintenance of all that is due to God in consistency with His holy Name. (John, in his First Epistle, speaks of fellowship with the Father and the Son in relation to the knowledge of the truth of Christianity. It is not church fellowship, but what belongs to us as in the family of God, as knowing God.)

Our proper portion is in the holiest, and there I get two things. I have the assurance as to redemption, that I am come to God, that is a settled thing; that is, not counting on God's faithfulness, but believing in the assurance of that which He has wrought. But then, secondly, I get its application to me; for I am going through the wilderness, and I have to get to Canaan, and there dependence comes in - every-day faith in the Lord to keep me along the journey kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." It is a kind of assurance that is identified with incessant dependence on God every step of the way. If I am sitting in heavenly places in Christ, there is no one there to pluck me out of His hand; but if I am walking down here, it all depends on my dependence on the faithfulness of God. It must be constant dependence, or I am down in an instant. The moment I act in my own will I am wrong. All the "ifs" in the New Testament come in for the journey; it would be blasphemous to use an "if" as to salvation; it would be calling in question the efficacy of Christ's work. For the journey it is a different kind of assurance; it is just as sure; for "God hath spoken, and shall He not do it?" But it is not yet accomplished. Hebrews is full of "ifs;" for we are looked at there, not as in Christ, but as poor, feeble things walking on the earth, and Christ a Priest on high, therefore all conditions were looked at as finally fatal, if not kept; getting away from Him was apostasy. "If ye continue in the faith," etc. (Col. 1:23), if not, it was apostatizing from the faith. There are no "ifs" in Ephesians, because we are looked at there as sitting in heavenly places in Christ. In Colossians it is a hope laid up in heaven. Philippians always takes up salvation as something to come; it looks at justification as a future thing. In 1 Cor. 1: 7 the apostle says, "God is faithful," and yet he begins to blame them for everything they were doing. (v. 8 is not standing but experimental work.) "At this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought?" When I speak of the work accomplished and done, I get that in Exodus 15; but there is still the other character, that we are walking through the wilderness, poor, feeble creatures, dependent on God every moment. In Philippians you get a man running a race, and doing nothing else; he has seen Christ, and he must win Him. There is no goal of attainment but Christ Himself; there is never any goal presented to us in this world for attainment; the goal is Christ in glory.

Our proper portion is in the holiest, and there I get two things. I have the assurance as to redemption, that I am come to God, that is a settled thing; that is, not counting on God's faithfulness, but believing in the assurance of that which He has wrought. But then, secondly, I get its application to me; for I am going through the wilderness, and I have to get to Canaan, and there dependence comes in - every-day faith in the Lord to keep me along the journey kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." It is a kind of assurance that is identified with incessant dependence on God every step of the way. If I am sitting in heavenly places in Christ, there is no one there to pluck me out of His hand; but if I am walking down here, it all depends on my dependence on the faithfulness of God. It must be constant dependence, or I am down in an instant. The moment I act in my own will I am wrong. All the "ifs" in the New Testament come in for the journey; it would be blasphemous to use an "if" as to salvation; it would be calling in question the efficacy of Christ's work. For the journey it is a different kind of assurance; it is just as sure; for "God hath spoken, and shall He not do it?" But it is not yet accomplished. Hebrews is full of "ifs;" for we are looked at there, not as in Christ, but as poor, feeble things walking on the earth, and Christ a Priest on high, therefore all conditions were looked at as finally fatal, if not kept; getting away from Him was apostasy. "If ye continue in the faith," etc. (Col. 1:23), if not, it was apostatizing from the faith. There are no "ifs" in Ephesians, because we are looked at there as sitting in heavenly places in Christ. In Colossians it is a hope laid up in heaven. Philippians always takes up salvation as something to come; it looks at justification as a future thing. In 1 Cor. 1:7 the apostle says, "God is faithful," and yet he begins to blame them for everything they were doing. (v. 8 is not standing but experimental work.) "At this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought?" When I speak of the work accomplished and done, I get that in Exodus 15; but there is still the other character, that we are walking through the wilderness, poor, feeble creatures, dependent on God every moment. In Philippians you get a man running a race, and doing nothing else; he has seen Christ, and he must win Him. There is no goal of attainment but Christ Himself; there is never any goal presented to us in this world for attainment; the goal is Christ in glory.

But I have a positive promise from God that I shall be kept by His power. Why kept? Because if He did not keep me, I should tumble in the wilderness; so I am in need of constant dependence, and of the infallible faithfulness of God along the entire road. And this you will find running all through Scripture. "God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no," Deut. 8.

Mark now the word "if" (v. 23). Why should the apostle speak of being kept if there were no danger? The "ifs" apply to the wilderness. We are saved and reconciled, but not yet in glory, and we need to be kept guarded. We should not shun these expressions; for we have need of dependence all along the road, else we shall be negligent. God is faithful to keep us, but it is necessary that we should be kept. Thus, in John 10, the Lord says, "No one shall pluck them out of my hand." But it is evident that the enemy will endeavour to do that. See further 1 Cor. 1:8-9: "Who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom" - we have God's fidelity to keep us. May we avail ourselves of it.

The word translated "persuaded" in the verse just quoted above, is often translated "believe." It is a persuasion that makes one believe: it made the Apostle quite sure of what he spoke. He had to say to the Galatians: "I stand in doubt of you", or, "I am perplexed about you." He had no doubt or perplexity as to the Philippian saints: and yet, though it was indeed by looking at the saints themselves he was so fully persuaded, as we shall see; yet his confidence was really in the Lord: he was persuaded that the One Who had begun the good work in them, would complete it: so his faith and confidence were in the Lord, rather than in the saints themselves. And it is well when our eyes are on the Lord, rather than on the saints only: though we may truly delight to see saints walking well. When the dear Apostle looked off to the Lord, he could add, even to the Galatians, "I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded." (5:10). And to the Corinthians, whom he had to scold about so many things, he wrote: "having confidence in you all." (2 Cor. 2:3). And at the very beginning of the First Letter to them, before he mentions one word of blame: he writes: "Our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall confirm you unto the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by Whom ye were called." (1 Cor. 1:8-10). The Apostle also writes to the Romans (15:14), to the Thessalonians (2 Thess. 3:4), to Timothy (2 Tim. 1:5), and to Philemon (ver. 21), that he is persuaded of them. In every one of these cases (except 1 Cor. 1) it is the same word: being persuaded, being confident, or quite sure. And because of this confidence, he writes: "Therefore we are always of good cheer." (2 Cor. 5:6): "good cheer" is quite a different word. How often we find some who refuse to have confidence in those who have confessed the Lord's Name: and perhaps these very doubts raise doubts in the hearts of those who are truly the Lord's; and so stumble them. What good cheer to our own hearts should this confidence of the Apostle prove. Sometimes we see the saints we love going on so badly that we stand in doubt of them, we are perplexed as to them, are they truly saints or not? And yet we are persuaded that the Lord did begin a good work in them: and, coming nearer home, sometimes, perhaps, we are so disappointed in ourselves, that we wonder if it is possible that we ourselves are truly saints. How often does our heart condemn us! Let us remember, then, that God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. (1 John 3:20). Yes, at such times we need to look off unto Jesus, and we also may be persuaded that HE will finish up that work which HE began, unto, or, until, or, against, Christ Jesus' day. "Christian love is clear-sighted and full of trust with regard to its objects, because God Himself, and the energy of His grace, are in that love." (JND). Knowing all the failures of the Corinthians, the Apostle falls back on the words: "God is faithful." What encouragement for us! We have no Apostles now: we have not even ordained "bishops and deacons." But we have GOD: the same GOD as the Apostle: and GOD IS FAITHFUL! As the Apostle parted from his beloved Ephesians, he said: "I commend you to God, and to the Word of His grace." And we still have the same Resource: GOD, and the Word of HIS Grace.

Still we must never forget that His trustworthiness does not in the least depend upon the worthiness. Or otherwise, of our trust. "If we believe not are unfaithful! yet He abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself" ([2 Tim. 2:13). It is therefore most happily true that they who are weak in faith, and consequently do not trust Him wholly, yet find Him wholly true. This is a fact calculated, above all things, to reinforce and increase our trust in the Lord.