… so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Lack of spiritual gifts was not the Corinthians’ problem; it was the excess and abuse of the gifts. Yet we must be careful, as the apostle Paul was, not to let the pendulum of reaction swing to the opposite extreme, and therefore forbid the spiritual gifts (see 1 Cor. 14:39). His initial response was to speak affirmatively and acknowledge the legitimacy of their gifting. We might learn from Paul’s gracious attitude in correcting wrong practices, to begin with commending what is good and true in those whom we want to set straight.

The apostle also commends the Corinthians for their anticipation of the Lord’s return. Whatever we may say about the Corinthians, we must acknowledge their genuine desire for the Lord. Paul rejoins this with a profound truth, that the Lord will also “confirm you to the end.” The NIV renders this “sustain you to the end,” and the NLT “keep you strong to the end.” God will establish the Corinthian believers in their faith beyond all doubt. He shares a similar thought with the maturing Philippians: “I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). For mature or faltering believers, the apostle holds out the promise of God’s work in their lives.

What stretches credulity, if we think sub-Christianly, is that God would establish the Corinthians as “blameless.” We are reminded of Paul’s analogy to the Ephesians that Christ would one day present the church “blameless” (Eph. 5:27). Although the Greek word Paul uses there is different, the meaning is the same: without guilt. If the Corinthians in the end would be considered blameless, why not just go ahead and sin? Such thought totally misses the point of the cross. Jesus’ death gave us entry into eternal life, a right standing before God—that will never, ever change. We are secure. That is because, though we may at times be unfaithful, our passage today reminds us that “God is faithful” (See 1 Thess. 5:24, Heb. 10:23). Paul wrote Timothy, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). Together with the Corinthians and all Christians everywhere, we have been called into this kind of fellowship with Christ, one that is secured by His faithfulness, not ours. And that is because of the cross, which gives us the secure footing for dealing with our struggles with sin. So we must be sure of our standing!

Lord, keep reminding me of Your cross that demonstrates Your faithfulness.