1 Corinthians 1:1-17--Divisions in the Church

1 Corinthians 1:1-17
English Standard Version

Greeting
1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving
4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge-- 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you-- 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Divisions in the Church
​10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

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As our election results for 2020 are coming in last night, today, and in the coming days here in the United States, it seemed like a good time to dive into the book of 1st Corinthians where the main issues seem to be carnal "Christians" (we'll see what Paul actually says such nominal "Christians" are really Christians at all if they are controlled by their flesh and not controlled by the Spirit) and that manifesting itself in a lack of Christian fidelity and unity in that local church.  I put off covering this one first because many people that read this epistle first without the context of the other Pauline epistles make it out as if Paul says something different to this church than he said to all the other churches--namely that people like to say that Paul makes a third option here for a Christian that is controlled by his or her flesh who is "carnal."  I promise he doesn't and that you need to understand Paul's tone and style which you pick up on from reading other epistles that Paul is kind of sassy/sarcastic at times when he gets really upset about something.  Think about the tone of the book of Galatians that we studied in the blogs here and carry that same idea over here.  I'm also probably going to work backwards in that I'm going to go from 1 & 2 Corinthians back to Romans next as 1 Corinthians in particular is a good synopsis of Romans and gives a really good view of the cultural issues that were at play in the church at Rome when Paul wrote his letter.  For now though, let's dive into the greetings and time of thanksgiving that Paul gives at the beginning of this epistle before we dive into the main part that I want to focus on today about divisions in the church.


Paul co-writes this epistle with another Christian brother named Sosthenes (probably the same one who is named in Acts 18--the leader of a synagogue in Corinth who was seized and beaten and front of the proconsul of Corinth, who paid no attention to the beating, for letting Paul speak in the synagogue).  It seems that this man is a Messianic Jew who was of some importance in the city and it is likely that the church was a mixture of converted Jews (since Paul started off preaching in the synagogue, but it appears that there is also a large influence of paganism from among the Gentiles of Corinth in this church.  This is one of the possible divisions we've already studied about--the division between Jew and Gentile.

Paul opens with his traditional "grace and peace" opening to all the saints in Corinth--and he spends much time defining this term not satisfied to simply say "the church" or "the elect," but to right off the bat say that he is talking to all those have been sanctified (made holy in their new nature and in their actions) and who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only for salvation, but Paul is careful to repeat that he means as "their Lord and ours" and calls Jesus "Lord" twice in a very short period of time--this isn't a mistake because this congregation faced the serious question already hinted at if Jesus could be Savior and not Lord (can you get saved from hell and still live like the world after you are "born again")?

Paul now moves onto giving thanks for everything good that such real, genuine Christians have received in Christ Jesus--speech and knowledge, (this is probably speaking of both tongues and prophecy that were sign gifts used to confirm the receipt of the Holy Spirit in the early Church--see the rest of the verse 6 for why I think this is what Paul is talking about since he mentions confirmation of the testimony they had received there).  Notice though that even if this is pointing to the "sign" gifts that some received that Paul is quick to point out that they have received many other gifts that might not be as flashy, but are still just as much gifts from God that Paul gives thanks for as a measure of God's grace upon them--this too will be a point of division among these church members as they will covet each other's gifts, especially the more visible and flashy "sign" gifts that many associate with the Pentecostal churches of today.

Paul reminds them these genuine believers that it was Christ who did the saving and Christ who does the sustaining, so they have nothing to brag about, and must give thanks and glory to God for every step in the process of their salvation, because they can't claim credit for any of it.  They must also be thankful and grateful and give glory to God for every good and perfect gift (especially the spiritual gifts that we've been discussing, but it's more than that) which they have received through Christ--again they did nothing to deserve this and have no reason to brag.  We'll see that bragging is another one of their character flaws that Paul addresses.  The focus when people see us should be on the goodness and faithfulness of God, and Paul tries to make sure that the self-centeredness of this congregation is addressed in a kind way to start off, but Paul is going to get more and more direct (and I think upset) as he continues to write the epistle.

Now to the meat of today's passage--Paul urges these brothers and sisters in Christ (again, the ones who are really, genuinely saved) to be unified without divisions--we've seen that in other epistles so far.  Jesus makes us into one Body, the Body of Christ that cannot be at war with each other, in fact, that's one of the images that we'll be used here is that not even cannibals eat their own flesh, but this is a "body" that appears to be devouring itself.  Paul is using this graphic imagery on purpose to make a point.  We'll get to the "body of Christ" passage later in the epistle, but it's most likely one of the key passages of the entire epistle.

Already this early on, there were factions, sects, cliques and what some want to call "denominations"--I disagree with that nomenclature though as these members were part of a single body that were splitting into political factions around people (who was the most "super-apostle" basically) and not a division based off of theology or doctrine like separates many of our "denominations" today.  This was more akin to people that go to Ivy League schools looking down their nose at people that went to their local 4-year school even though both have earned the same Bachelor's or Master's degree or Doctorate degree.  In this case, it doesn't matter who shared the gospel with you or baptized you, what matters is if the gospel took root and is producing fruit in your life.  Sometimes that's a "team effort" as Paul lays out.  Specifically in this case that it appears that there were some who were disciples of John the Baptist in that town and had heard that they needed to repent and prepare for the coming of the Messiah, but they never heard the rest of the gospel that the Messiah had come and His name was Jesus of Nazareth and that He died on the cross to save both Jew and Gentile alike from their sins to put sin and the flesh to death and was raised as the firstborn from among the dead so that we might have hope to one day be raised like Him and also be fit to live with Him forever in heaven.  Paul is going to give one of the clearest and earliest presentations of the true gospel later in the book of 1 Corinthians and it appears to have been in the form of a creed that the early church had used to make sure that they gave all the key elements of the gospel when sharing it with others.  If you're unsure of what "the gospel" is and would like to jump ahead to read that right now, check out 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (the "I" and "they" there have to do with the exact issue I was just talking about with who shared this gospel with them, and Paul says it doesn't matter--what matters is that they believed the true gospel and that it takes root and bears fruit in their lives).

Paul is thankful having seen how prone to divisions and rivalries this group is (again, Paul will point to this as them being controlled by their flesh and not by the Spirit later) that he did not make this bad situation worse by baptizing those who converted--he seemed to leave that for the local church leaders to do with the exception of a couple of notable people in the community.  It appears that these would be one of the local synagogue leaders, Crispus, and the very proconsul who they brought Paul and Sosthenes before in the book of Actus (unless Gaius was a popular name).  It was important for these public figures to make very public professions of faith.  There was also the household of Stephanas (yes, this is one of the few verses that those who believe in infant baptism cling to because they say that "household" could include infants, but most likely this is saying the man and all those who were in subjecting to him, even slaves, who were able to profess Jesus Christ as Lord--remember that point has already been made quite clear as defining true faith by Paul, and infants can't do that).  Paul doesn't recall baptizing anyone else. bit focused on preaching the Word of God in a way that was plain and simple, unlike the philosophers who would "was eloquent" who Paul differentiates himself from.  Paul seems to say that to use flashy language and make the message hard to understand would take the focus off of Christ and put it on Paul where it didn't belong and would rob the gospel of its power as people must understand the gospel in order to believe and receive it.  Therefore it is important to know your audience and speak their language--Paul will get to this later in the epistle with the "I have become all things to all men so that by all means I might win some" passage.  That is not to say that the Christian becomes like the world and becomes a drunkard to reach drunks, but that Paul was willing to be scholarly with the philosophers, to speak the common vernacular in the marketplace, to become a vegetarian if needed, or to eat meat sacrificed to idols (which he knew were false gods who had no power) if needed in order to share the gospel.  It will become more clear as we study this epistle where Paul would draw the line and it should make sense and be clear when we get there, but if not, I hope you all know where to find me and how to ask me questions, as I anticipate there might be more than a few questions about this particular book of the Bible.