Who are the saints?
The word “saints” can sound as though it belongs only to a small group of spiritual heroes. In the New Testament, though, Paul addresses the everyday Christians in Corinth as people called to be saints. They were not perfect. Their church had divisions and serious problems, yet God had set them apart as his people (1 Corinthians 1:2).
A saint, then, is someone who belongs to God through Christ. The Bible also calls believers in places such as Lydda and Jerusalem “saints” (Acts 9:13; Acts 9:32). The creed is speaking about the whole people of God, including the quiet Christian who prays, serves, struggles, repents, and keeps trusting Jesus.
Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
What does communion mean?
Here “communion” means shared participation or fellowship. It is more than being friendly after a service. The first Christians devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, shared life, meals, prayers, and practical care for one another (Acts 2:42-45). They belonged to Christ, and that new belonging reshaped how they treated each other.
Paul uses the picture of one body with many parts. No believer is meant to stand alone, and no gift or role makes one person unnecessary. When one member suffers, the rest should care. When one is honoured, the rest can rejoice (1 Corinthians 12:26-27). That is the communion of the saints in everyday form.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
A shared life centred on Christ
This communion does not depend on everyone having the same background, personality, or church custom. Christians may worship in different languages and meet in different places, but Christ creates one people. Paul says there is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism (Ephesians 4:4-5).
The Lord’s Supper gives this truth a visible shape. As believers share the bread and cup, they remember Christ’s sacrifice and confess their shared connection to him and to one another (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). The phrase in the creed therefore includes worship, mutual service, forgiveness, generosity, and bearing one another’s burdens.
Does it include Christians who have died?
Many Christians understand the phrase broadly to include all God’s people, both believers still living on earth and believers now with the Lord. Hebrews pictures worshippers coming near to God alongside a heavenly assembly and the spirits of righteous people made complete (Hebrews 12:22-24). Christian hope is not broken by death, because Jesus promises resurrection and life to those who trust him (John 11:25-26).
Faithful Christians differ on what this means in practice. Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians may speak of asking departed saints to pray for them. Most Protestant Christians affirm the shared unity of all believers in Christ but do not ask departed saints for prayer, stressing that Jesus is the one mediator between God and humanity (1 Timothy 2:5). The creed itself chiefly declares a precious truth: nobody who belongs to Christ belongs to him alone.
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.