Are All Christians Really Saints?
1 Corinthians 1:2 ‘To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord..’
In our verse today and throughout the Bible Christians are called saints. Peter, in Acts 9:32speaks about visiting the saints who lived in Lydda. And in Acts 26:10 Paul boasts about shutting up many of the saints in prison. Obviously these saints were living Christians and not people who had been declared saints after their death. Since today’s verse references the ‘church called to be saints’, just what does it mean for every Christian to be called a saint? The common belief is that for a person to be a saint he or she must be a ‘paragon of virtue’ or practically sinless. Instead, Christians become saints when they are born again into the family of God. The word saint comes from a Greek word hagios which means holy, sacred or separated unto God. Just as being good enough has nothing to do with becoming a Christian – we are saved solely on the basis of what Christ did on the cross; so, being a saint has nothing to do with how good of a Christian we are – we are saints simply on the basis of being washed from our sins by the blood of Christ.
However, Christians are called to be saints for a purpose – they are set apart to be the disciples of Jesus Christ, and are meant to be lights in a dark world. True believers are saints who make up the body of Christ or the church. They will never be sinless while here on earth, but as an old adage says ‘they are able to sin less’ because of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Rather than feeling embarrassed at being labelled a saint, Christians should rejoice in the fact that this is how God sees them. And they should ensure that this privileged standing before God is reflected in their lifestyle.
Do you like the idea of Christians being called saints?
How would you feel if someone referred to you as a saint?
Is being called a saint a motivation to be a better Christian?