The following is my translation of the notes and useful applications for the Epistle Reading for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, 1 Corinthians 1:4–9, as they are found in Das Weimarische Bibelwerk (1877). Square brackets indicate my own notes and additions. For the useful applications, I recommend the reader see this very helpful article by Dr. Benjamin T. G. Mayes.
II. The Introduction. (v. 4–9)
Annotated Text
4. I * thank my (beloved) God at all times for your sake (so often I think of you) for the grace of God, which was given (granted) you in Christ Jesus,
* Ephesians 1:15–16
5. that you have been made rich in ever way through Him, in all doctrine, and all * knowledge (God has richly graced you with all kinds of spiritual gifts, which are useful and necessary for the edification of the Church and for the knowledge of God; but especially I thank Him, that He has brought you to the saving knowledge of Christ through the doctrine of the Gospel),
* 1 Corinthians 12:8 (Romans 15:4; Colossians 1:9; 2 Thessalonians 2:17)
6. for as the preaching of Christ (the testimony of the Gospel) has been powerful in you (in that you have received it with true faith, and that by means of it you have been graced with the Holy Spirit; thus, the preaching of Christ has been confirmed and sealed among you),
* Romans 1:16; 2 Corinthians 1:21
7. thus, that you have no lack in any (temporally and eternally serviceable) gift (consequently, you have no need of any other revelation or doctrine, 1 John 2:20, 27), and * wait only for the (final great and glorious) revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ (who on the Last Day will come again openly to hold the universal judgment);
* Psalm 34:11; Philippians 3:20 (Titus 2:13)
8. who * also will keep you firm (in true faith) until the end (of your life), that you ** be irreproachable until the *** (great judgement) day of our Lord Jesus Christ **** (because in this life the perfect righteousness of Christ is reckoned to you through faith, and you strive after an irreproachable walk, and thus can appear before Him with a good conscience).
* 2 Corinthians 1:21
** Colossians 1:22; 1 Thessalonians 3:13, 5:23 (2 Thessalonians 3:3)
*** Greek: “in the day”
**** Which is a day in which everything, even that which is now hidden in darkness, will come into the light [1 Corinthians 4:5].
9. For * God is faithful (He keeps His promise firmly and unbreakably), through whom (by whom) you are called (through the preaching of the Gospel) ** to the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. (Luther: “That is, you are co-heirs and fellow partakers of all the goods of Christ.”)
* 1 Thessalonians 5:24ff.
** John 15:5 (1 Corinthians 10:13)
Useful Applications
II. DOCTRINE: We ought to thank God at all times when we see that knowledge of Him, true repentance, and a Christian life are worked in men’s hearts through His Word (v. 4–7).
PATTERN OF SOUND WORDS 