It says, "Under the church of God," which is at Corinth.
And look who else he's writing to.
"To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus,"
and then look at the next phrase, "tolled to be saints."
And then he says this, "with all that in every place
call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
both theirs and ours."
So in this verse, he's defining what a saint is,
because he's saying, "I'm writing to those
that are sanctified."
And notice the similarity between the word sanctified
and the word saint.
Those are both from the same root word there.
He says, "To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus,"
in verse 2, "called to be saints."
And he's saying, "They're called to be saints,
along with everyone else who calls upon the name
of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours."
So that right there tells us that all that in every place
call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord are saints.
That tells us right there that every saved person is a saint,
because when he says, "Those that call upon the name of the Lord,"
we could tie that in with, "For if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
And then he said, "For whosoever shall call upon the Lord shall be saved."
And so here we see that a saint is someone who's saved.
And everyone who is saved, no matter where they are,
if they call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are a saint.
It's not like the Roman Catholic doctrine that says, "There are certain saints."
You know, there are certain people who have achieved a higher level of sainthood.
And you say, "Well, Pastor Anderson, why is this important? Why does this matter?"
Well, the words that we use matter.
And the word "saint" is a word that is often used throughout the Bible to describe believers,
and it's a word that should be in our vocabulary.
You know, it's amazing today how people have the word "Christian" on the tip of their tongue all the time.
They want to talk about "Christian this, Christian that."
Well, the word "Christian" is only used three times in the whole Bible,
but the word "Saint" is used scores of times, okay?
And I'm not saying the word "Christian" is a bad word.
It is a good word. It's a biblical word.
But let's use this word also. Let's use this word "the saints."
The word "Saint" is a better word, and it becomes important when talking about biblical doctrine.
For example, when the Bible says, "At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints."
Who's coming with Him?
You know, the Bible says, "Them that are asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him."
And so that right there can prove to us that all believers are present at that event.
And so He says that, "They're called to be saints with all that in every place call upon
the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours."
Remember where this verse is located, because if you ever need to prove to someone that saints
are believers, this is a great place to go, 1 Corinthians 1, 2.