This week’s epistle text is a long one: 19 verses. It faithfully follows the precise, prescribed unfolding of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church, which in turn faithfully follows the niceities of proper letter composition in the first century Greco-Roman world. The genius of Paul is to work within formulaic frameworks while finding a way to add his own unique touches in order to preach the gospel.

In his salutation (vv.1-3) Paul asserts his own apostolic identity, his “call,” and identifies the source of that mission as “the will of God.” In the Corinthian church they were arguing about Paul’s true “apostle” status. His initial greeting to them leaves no doubt that he is “an apostle of Christ Jesus.”

Paul continues in vs. 2 to remind the Corinthian community of their appropriate iden…