1 Corinthians 1:9

God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. [The faithfulness of God insured that it would be no fault of his if the Corinthians failed to attain fellowship with Jesus; i. e., a close intimacy with him in the present, and an association with him in glory in the future. In these nine verses with which the apostle opens his Epistle he follows his usual course of putting his commendation before his reproof. But the quality of his commendation should be carefully noted. He praises them for their spiritual endowments, and not for their private virtues. There is no commendation for moral advance, as is accorded to the Thessalonians and Philippians. Moreover, he deftly concludes by noting how God had brought them into fellowship and union with Christ, that this unifying act of God might stand in sharp contrast with the schisms and factions into which they had divided themselves, and for which he is just now going to reprove them.]