The Christians at Colosse had an understanding of God’s grace in all its truth, yet they needed warning against false doctrine. The Christians at Thessalonica were confirmed as elect by their lives which became a living testimony of Christ in the region, yet there were some among them who had fallen into either personal sin or doctrinal error.

The most obvious example of a church with problems was the one in Corinth. Although Paul addresses them as the “ church of God,” refers to their being called by God, and assured them of their eternal salvation (1 Cor. 1:1-9), they were a church with problems.

They manifested a proclivity for being led astray by human wisdom, they were tolerating incestuous behavior to go on openly, they were divided, they were taking their personal quarrels into civil court, some of them apparently were involved in sexual immorality, they were quite confused about Christian marriage, they did not have the ability to apply the principles of grace to the matter of eating food offered to idols, some doubted that Paul was really an apostle, they had turned the Lord’s supper into a drunken and gluttonous feast, women were acting disrespectfully in worship, they had descended into petty bickering and jealous quarrels over spiritual gifts, they seemed to doubt the resurrection of the dead, and they had apparently failed to honor a pledge to give to the needs of Christians in Judea.

God told Paul to remain in Corinth for an extended time because He had many people in the city (Acts 18:10). These elect of God had ample exposure to the doctrines of grace that Paul would certainly have taught them. Yet their behavior showed deterioration from the holiness and purity of life and doctrine that “God’s grace in all its truth” would advocate.

The point is that we must continue to teach the foundational doctrines of God and help people to see the application to every day life situations. There is no end to this need!