A Study of 1 Corinthians (5)

 

A Church Divided Over Leaders (1:10-17)

¹⁰ I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. ¹¹ My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. ¹² What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶ (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

If the church is as Paul describes it, the reports he received form “Choe’s household” are rightly at the top of his agenda to address. As a community “set apart” to God and for his purposes, a “holy people” with all others who commit to Christ (1:2), blessed with “grace and peace” (1:3), divisions over leadership is a profound challenge to its reality and credibility. As Tucker puts it with academic aplomb: “This section is about belonging. The cognitive, evaluative, and emotional elements of a group are functioning inadequately in Corinth, so Paul writes to restore the salience of the group’s in Christ social identity.” (Tucker, Reading 1 Corinthians, 36)

In the “name of Jesus,” that is, in the presence of the crucified and risen One, Paul calls for this church to be (re)united. The verb used here is that used for mending fishing nets (Mark 1:19/Matt. 4:21) (Hays, 1 Corinthians: 608) What they have been Paul hopes they will be again.

This unity is not a lock-step sameness but a unity in diversity (12;4-6,12-31). Not a doctrinal uniformity but a commitment to work toward the same divine goal given us in Christ. Hays notes: “Paul’s remarks here suggest that the emergent factions may be created more by personal allegiance to particular leaders than by clearly defined theological differences.” (Hays, 1 Corinthians:618). That these are likely local community personality-cults is shown by Paul not even knowing he is the subject of one (which he clearly abhors)!

 “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (v.13) is his response. The form of these questions in Greek requires a negative answer. Thus, Christ is not divided, Paul is not their savior, he’s not even the one who baptized them that they should rally around him in a contentious, divisive way. That he confesses he did baptize a few there (v.16) may well be a rhetorical tactic rather than a slip of memory. Baptism is so little a matter for personal kingdom-building in the church that Paul downplays it here. “Baptism,  Paul explains, is meant to define social identity in relation to Christ, not in relation to the person who performed the baptism.” (Tucker, Reading 1 Corinthians: 808)

These divisions are replications of the drive for status and honor so prevalent in the Roman world and which Paul was seeking to combat. As Paul presses in various ways throughout this letter for a vision of the church as a community of difference (gifts, status, ministries) united (by a miracle of grace) by Christ into the holy people who serve God and his purposes we realize how deeply this instinct contrary to grace is rooted in the church. And Paul works hard to root it out!

Paul closes this section and transitions to the next in v.17: “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” Paul reaffirms his ministry not to baptismal in-group division but to preach the gospel. A gospel of unity, hospitality, honoring of differences, cooperation. A gospel in which baptism plays its part in forming our identity in Christ. A “plain spoken” gospel which allows the paradoxical power of the cross to do God’s work rather than a curated oratory. And that paradoxical power he will explain in the next section (vv.18-25).

It's hard not to be reminded here of the cult of celebrity preachers we seem especially vulnerable to here in America. The Roman drive for status and power seems as deeply rooted in is as it was in those Corinthians. Paul’s word to us in this context is particularly poignant. How we begin to root it out, or better, have it rooted out of us, is clearly on his mind as he writes on.