June 2, 1 Corinthians 1
You’re at a committee meeting, sifting demographics, studying research, choosing your group’s next church-planting mission. A committee member suggests the most ludicrous idea you’ve ever heard: “How about ?” (In this blank, please insert the name of the most wicked city you know—a place so corrupt, so immoral, so crawling with vice and perversity you wouldn’t think of planting a church there.) The suggestion provokes groans of disapproval. You say the seekers there aren’t looking for what we’re trying to help them find.
I doubt Paul went to many committee meetings to plan his missions. But in his day, the city in the blank could have been Corinth—a city located on a lucrative ancient trade route, teeming with diversity and perversity. When Paul went there and preached, many of the Corinthians heard the gospel, believed it and were baptized. Paul stayed there a year and a half before moving on, leaving a church in one of the most unlikely places on earth.
Paul wrote to the young Corinthian believers, saying they were called by God to be saints and to have fellowship in Christ. They had been given grace and spiritual gifts. But like all of us who are trophies of grace, the Corinthians still needed instruction and improvement.
Quarreling factions claiming allegiance to different teachers had disrupted the church’s unity. To those who had denominated themselves by their favorite teacher, Paul posed some questions: “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (Answer key: No, No and No.) It was not who baptized them, but into whom they had been baptized that mattered. Paul’s ministry was centered in Jesus, not himself. He preached Christ crucified. This offended Jews who refused to hear the words “Christ” (Messiah) and “crucified” in the same sentence. The message about a Jew executed by Romans being the Son of God and the Savior sounded foolish to the pagans. But Paul said this "foolishness" was the wisdom of God, who used things despised by the world to save people in a way that gave the saved no room to boast.
What’s the takeaway for us, many years and miles removed? Never doubt the gospel’s power to change you or others. If the Corinthians could be saved and sanctified by grace, don’t count anyone beyond hope. We must resist the temptation to make our standing with God about us: who taught us, how smart or how good we are. Christ is the source of our life. God made him our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. We can brag only about what a fabulous Savior we have. Think how much shameful division this single principle could heal. The solution to fractured unity does not lie in making treaties or holding unity summits. (That’s still about us and what we’ve done.) When individual disciples make Jesus and what he’s done the basis for unity, we’ll be closer to what Paul urged the Corinthians to be.
From The Abiding Companion: A Friendly Guide for Your Journey Through the New Testament,
Copyright © 2010 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—June 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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