The Christian Distinction

The letter is addressed, as the Revised Standard Version has it, to all the saints in Christ Jesus. The word translated saint is hagios, ( Greek #40 ); and saint is a misleading translation. To modern ears it paints a picture of almost unworldly piety. Its connection is rather with stained glass windows than with the market-place. Although it is easy to see the meaning of hagios ( Greek #40 ) it is hard to translate it.

Hagios ( Greek #40 ), and its Hebrew equivalent qadowsh ( Hebrew #6918 ), are usually translated holy. In Hebrew thought, if a thing is described as holy, the basic idea is that it is different from other things; it is in some sense set apart. The better to understand this, let us look at how holy is actually used in the Old Testament. When the regulations regarding the priesthood are being laid down, it is written: "They shall be holy to their God" ( Leviticus 21:6 ). The priests were to be different from other men, for they were set apart for a special function. The tithe was the tenth part of all produce which was to be set apart for God, and it is laid down: "The tenth shall be holy to the Lord, because it is the Lord's" ( Leviticus 27:30 ; Leviticus 27:32 ). The tithe was different from other things which could be used as food. The central part of the Temple was the Holy Place ( Exodus 26:33 ); it was different from all other places. The word was specially used of the Jewish nation itself. The Jews were a holy nation ( Exodus 19:6 ). They were holy unto the Lord; God had severed them from other nations that they might be his ( Leviticus 20:26 ); it was they of all nations on the face of the earth whom God had specially known ( Amos 3:2 ). The Jews were different from all other nations, for they had a special place in the purpose of God.

But they refused to play the part which God meant them to play; when his Son came into the world, they failed to recognize him, and rejected and crucified him. The privileges and the responsibilities they should have had were taken away from the nation of Israel and given to the Church, which became the new Israel, the real people of God. Therefore, just as the Jews had once been hagios ( Greek #40 ), holy, different, so now the Christians must be hagios ( Greek #40 ); the Christians are the holy ones, the different ones, the saints. Thus Paul in his pre-Christian days was a notorious persecutor of the saints, the hagioi ( Greek #40 ) ( Acts 9:13 ); Peter goes to visit the saints, the hagioi ( Greek #40 ), at Lydda ( Acts 9:32 ).

To say that the Christians are the saints means, therefore, that the Christians are different from other people. Wherein does that difference lie?

Paul addresses his people as saints in Christ Jesus. No one can read his letters without seeing how often the phrases in Christ, in Christ Jesus, in the Lord occur. In Christ Jesus occurs 48 times, in Christ 34 times, and in the Lord 50 times. Clearly this was for Paul the very essence of Christianity. What did he mean? Marvin R. Vincent says that when Paul spoke of the Christian being in Christ, he meant that the Christian lives in Christ as a bird in the air, a fish in the water, the roots of a tree in the soil. What makes the Christian different is that he is always and everywhere conscious of the encircling presence of Jesus Christ.

When Paul speaks of the saints in Christ Jesus, he means those who are different from other people and who are consecrated to God because of their special relationship to Jesus Christ--and that is what every Christian should be.