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Maintaining unity in Christ
First Corinthians 1:3–9 forms part of the lectionary readings for the first Sunday of Advent, which is November 29th. Whereas most letter writers today sign their name at the end of their correspondence, it was customary in the Greco-Roman world of the first century A.D for a writer to identify himself or herself at the beginning of a letter. Paul followed the above literary convention. He also established his authority to instruct the church about spiritual matters by describing himself as one “called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God” (v. 1). A number of people in the church at Corinth were at odds with…