1 Corinthians 1:2

2. Sanctified in Christ Jesus For every justified man is also, in some degree, a sanctified man. Every true Christian is a saint. And the word saints is a usual New Testament appellation for the body of true believers.

Romans 15:23; 1 Corinthians 6:1-2; Ephesians 1:1; Ephesians 1:18; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2.

Called to be saints Literally, called saints. As Paul was a called apostle, so they were called saints.

Saints That is, holy ones; a term, as just said, with different degrees of verity, applicable, as it is here applied, to all Christians.

With all That is, they are called saints not alone; but in blessed unity with the living, universal Church.

Call upon So that there is a mutual call; Jesus Christ calls them, and they call upon Jesus Christ. By call upon, is meant, praying to. So Stephen, in Acts 7:59; and so Acts 9:14, and Romans 10:13. This last text, in particular, shows that the phrase means prayer in its highest sense as to God, and is a very conclusive proof that the very mark of a Christian, in Paul’s view, was truly praying to Christ, as that of a Jew was blaspheming him, and that of a Gentile was worshipping idols.

In every place The Greek order of words is thus:

with all that call upon the name of the Lord in every place, both theirs and ours.

Theirs and ours Some make this mean their place or locality of residence and ours. Ours would then include Paul and his Corinthian brethren; theirs would refer to all others praying to Christ. But our English version makes a richer sense. Jesus is declared to be Lord alike of the Corinthian and the universal Church. Paul exults to address his Corinthians as not solitary Christians, but as part of the great body of saints.