Saints are described in the following, all from the New Testament:
Who are the Saints?
One way to get at this question is to investigate which people the New Testament authors address as saints. When we do this, we discover that, overwhelmingly, living Christians on earth are called saints in the New Testament.
- An extremely valuable verse in this regard is 1 Corinthians 1:2. Here Paul calls his readers "the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours." What makes this passage valuable is that Paul defines the church of God at Corinth (the Christians at Corinth, his readers) as "those who have been sanctified (Greek - hagiazo) in Jesus Christ, saints (Greek - hagioi) by calling." There are not two groups here that he writes the letter to, the church and the saints, but one group, the church of God in Corinth, who are saints!
This passage sets the tone for the New Testament, especially Paul's letters. Living Christians at various churches or locations are called "saints":
- Ananias tells Jesus, "I have heard from many about this man [Saul of Tarsus], how much harm he did to Thy saints at Jerusalem (Acts 9:13);
- Peter, "came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda" (Acts 9:32);
- Paul tells King Agrippa that in while in Jerusalem, he locked up "many of the saints in prisons" (Acts 26:10);
- Paul writes to the Christians at Rome, "to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints" (Rom. 1:7);
- He addresses his second letter to the Corinthians, "to the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia" (2 Cor. 1:1);
- He addresses several other letters, "to the saints who are at Ephesus, and who are faithful in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 1:1), "to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi" (Phil. 1:1), "to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae" (Col. 1:2);
- He tells the Corinthians, "All the saints greet you" (2 Co. 13:13) and the Philippians, "Greet every saint in Christ Jesus" and "All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household" (Phil. 4:21-22);
- · He asks the Roman Christians to "Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them" (Rom. 16:15);
- He tells the Romans that Christians should be "contributing to the needs of the saints" (Rom. 12:13);
- He himself is busy readying a gift to bring to the poor Christians in Jerusalem: "I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem" (Rom. 15:25-26; see also Rom. 15:31; 1 Cor. 16:1-6; 2 Cor. 8:4, 9:1, 9:12);
- He takes the Corinthians to task for taking one another before secular courts, "Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints" (1 Cor. 6:1)?
- He gives instruction to Timothy that a true widow is one who "has washed the saints' feet" (1 Tim. 6:10);
- the author of the letter to the Hebrews tells his readers to "Greet all of your leaders and all the saints" (Heb. 13:24).
http://www.orlutheran.com/html/saintid.html#Anchornt