1 Corinthians 15:1-2 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
Paul now turns to another topic of importance and possibly misunderstood by the Corinthians. This topic is at the heart of Paul’s preaching. It is the gospel itself. It is so fundamental that to misunderstand this topic is to call into question the very foundation of Christianity. Paul introduces this chapter by calling the Corinthians to remember what he preached. He started off the letter with this same type of reminder in 1:18-2:16. This type of arrangement shows how Paul looks to the past and Jesus’ death and resurrection and looks to the future with Jesus’ coming again to deal with the present issues in Corinth. This is how Paul saw time, and this directly impacted his ethics and everything he did to get the gospel to the world.
The Corinthians heard this message and believed in it. They have grown in it but still have more growth to do. They had some basic misunderstandings about how to live as believers, so Paul wrote this letter with many directions to them about how to conform their lives to be more in line with this message. These people are believers; they just needed to faith to grow in understanding and the response of obedience. This would particularly show up in how they loved one another.
This message of faith in Jesus brought them salvation. The conditional clause in v. 2 is significant theologically. It shows that having an initial faith in Jesus is not enough for final salvation. One must continue to grow in this faith and not turn back to the world. If their faith was genuine, then they need to grow in this faith and become imitators of Paul who points them to Jesus (11:1). Paul does not want them to think that their faith is useless or in vain. Their faith is the open door to this salvation. If they turn their bacon this faith, they will miss out on the salvation offered in Jesus Christ. This does not mean that they are at risk to lose their salvation arbitrarily but that temptation and sin will pull them away unless they believe in the right doctrines and then act on this faith by living holy lives of obedience and by loving one another selflessly.
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