Unhealthy rivalry (1 Co. 1:10–18)
Australians love their sport. Be it cricket, football, netball, tennis, cycling, motorsport, e-motorsport, or even professional darts, Aussie competitors are almost always among the world’s best. Whatever the sport is, the most interest and highest attendance usually correlates to rivalries. Carlton v Collingwood, Wallabies v All Blacks, Queensland Maroons v New South Wales Blues… We love a good rivalry.
The Greeks basically invented competitive sport with the Olympic Games and, therefore, the idea of novel rivalry. This spirit of picking a side and remaining loyal to it eventually found its way into the church, putting it in danger of dividing itself and losing its core purpose and identity. Ultimately, it’s an issue of individualism, where people place an inflated value on a single person, raise them up, and attempt to raise themselves up at the same time.
This kind of individualism is very much an issue for us today, too. The church has always had its divisions and rivalries, and our little LCA is no exception. It’s also heavily present in secular society and especially politically (liberals v conservatives). Scroll through any social media platform for about three seconds and you’ll find evidence of this individualism in our society.
Before we explore the situation with the Corinthians and how it relates to our own, let’s pray…
The Corinthian conundrum
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 quarrelling among you, my brothers.
From the get-go, Paul emphasises the main point of this whole letter to the Corinthian church: Christian unity depends on faithfulness to Christ rather than pursuing our own agendas or ideas. He writes as a fellow brother in Christ, already displaying the practical implications of his teaching.
In Philippians 2:1–11, Paul provides the supreme example of how Jesus put his own ambitions and desires aside for the sake of God’s mission. He put self-interest and self-gain aside to do the work he was sent for, paying the ultimate price for your sin and mine.
We don’t know much about Chloe and her people, but we do know that they had contact with Paul and had informed him of what was going on. The Corinthian church was not divided into factions necessarily, but there was quarrelling and strife which threatened its unity in mind and judgment.
What is unity of mind and judgment? Is Paul saying that Christians should all think the same way and come to the same conclusions? Not exactly. People will inevitably have varying expressions of faith, piety, and worship. God creates us that way and it shouldn’t be discouraged.
However, the church is not to be individualistic. As the body of Christ, the church is to remain unified under Christ’s authority and leadership. To help us be certain that we are being led by Christ and not our own ideas, we have a system of authority in place.
People who are called by God into the ordained ministry are educated and trained before being sent into the church as spiritual leaders, preachers of the gospel, and representatives of Christ in worship.
Others are elected by the congregation to be educated in church governance and make considered decisions on behalf of the people.
Others are equipped and empowered to assume responsibility for various tasks like teaching our young people about the faith, offering hospitality, and ensuring that worship is accessible audibly and visually.
With all of the roles and responsibilities within a congregation, it is crucial that the end goal and sole focus is to make the gospel of Jesus Christ available to as many people as possible via the means that God has provided: his Word and the sacraments.
This sounds simple enough, but we get distracted from that task far too easily.
Personality contests
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?
Paul had planted the Corinthian church and got it moving. Apollos and the apostle Peter (which in Aramaic is Cephas) had come later. It’s possible that Apollos’ teaching was more advanced than Paul’s—1 Corinthians 3:6 says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
How Paul, Apollos, and Peter got along between themselves was irrelevant. The people found a way to pitch them against each other and align themselves with their favourite previous pastor. Loyalty to the preacher rather than Christ himself is the root of the problem at Corinth. Pastors are a critical part of the church’s ongoing life and growth because they bring the gospel to people, but they only serve the Lord who gives the growth.
Paul goes as far as listing followers of Jesus as just another political party (“I follow Christ”). By doing so, he criticises the formation of any party or faction. We cannot claim that we follow the real Jesus while others don’t, or that Christ belongs to us on our terms.
The opposite is true. When you were baptised, you were claimed by God. We belong to him on his terms. Who are we to say who is following the right or wrong Jesus, or doing it in the right or wrong way?
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 also baptise the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptised anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptise but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
At first it sounds like Paul has quite a low view of baptism and he’s glad that he didn’t administer too many of them. Not true. He clarifies that in verse 17: “Jesus didn’t send me primarily to baptise, but to preach the gospel loud and clear.”
Even Jesus himself didn’t perform any baptisms. It says this explicitly in John 4: “…Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples).” Jesus calls and empowers others to baptise by his power and authority. Paul does a very similar thing here, understanding that God’s purpose for him is to preach the gospel and plant churches. Paul’s role was less about being a pastor as we might know it today, but more as a freelance bishop who starts a place up, authorises a leader, and makes himself available for support from a distance (hence all the letters he wrote).
There might be a place for more of this in our current ministry context. It’s no secret that the number of fully trained and ordained pastors is shrinking (not just in our church, either). Maybe it’s worth considering an early church model where a church’s ministry is carried out by local leaders rather than someone who is imported to do the job. That imported person, then, can see things from above and direct from that position. Food for thought, anyway.
Paul also downplays his ability with words, claiming not to preach with “eloquent wisdom.” Truthfully, he was pretty good with words but that’s not the point. The point is that the gospel is not made more powerful or dynamic because of the skill of the preacher. The gospel’s power comes from itself and those that speak it and live it out are mere vessels.
In fact, Paul goes as far as saying that eloquent wisdom (i.e. advanced language and presentation skills) can actually empty the cross of Christ of its power. The method becomes more important to us than the content. We recognise our deep need for the gospel, and we want to hear it, but only in the way that we want to or that we think is most effective.
We all love an entertaining preacher. I’ve never been good at remembering specific sermons, but the ones that come to mind are the ones that were preached with incredible energy, or the preacher did something completely unexpected. In those cases, the gospel was completely lacking, and I remember feeling short-changed later. Maybe your own experience is different.
Being involved in a local church can turn into a personality contest if we’re not careful. Pastors fall into the trap of wanting to be liked by everyone. Leaders listen more closely to the desires of the people than God’s will. Members look for personalities they like rather than allowing Christ to speak through those we least expect. We exclude those we don’t like or don’t understand without even realising or meaning to.
The word of the cross
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The world’s religions are based on a story, myth, or legend. The truth of those stories don’t really matter—what matters is the moral of the story. That is what forms the basis.
Christianity, unlike religion, is founded on a specific moment in history that happened in a real place, at a real time, to a real man.
Christianity is founded on a paradox. The cross is a symbol of defeat but the moment of victory for all time. The cross, like thousands of others in the Roman Empire, was made of ordinary wood. What gives the cross its power is the man that hung from it and died on it. What gives us the victory is what the dead man did next.
We, who are being saved, know that the cross is the very power of God at work. The cross is what remains at the front and centre of our worship spaces, it is the universal symbol of our faith, and yet, it is a symbol of pain and death.
As people of the cross through our baptism, we trust in the power of the cross. We look to it above all else, we hope in it more than anything we can do, and we remain unified under it.
The only real rival that we have has lost. Satan will continue to snap at our heels until Christ comes again, but he can’t harm us. There is no place for rivalry and division in God’s kingdom, of which we are a part. Let’s pray that he keeps us united under him…
