“Getting back on track”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, September 18, 2023
1 Corinthians 1:1-19 (Forward, p. 51) CEV p. 1190
One of my seminary profs used to chuckle over some of the apostle Paul’s famous digressions. In fact, I remember him saying that some of went on for verse after verse and sometimes even longer—over entire chapters. In some cases, he even lost his original train of thought.
Here we have yet another of them. Paul begins, in verse 10, with a discussion of the divisions that have been reported to him as taking place in the Corinthian church. As an aside, he mentions baptism, ‘were you baptised in my name’? (verse 13) and then downplays this part of his ministry. He then goes on to explain why this was the case: “Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the good news without using big words that would make the cross of Christ lose its power” (verse 17). And here is where his digression begins. Taking this as a cue, he then launches into a lengthy dissertation of the Cross and on its power and its wisdom.. Only in chapter three does he actually get back to his discussion about their unhappy divisions.
But this doesn’t mean that this discussion was unimportant. Indeed, nuances or instances of this issue crop up repeatedly within this letter—in his discussion of the communal meals, for instance, or in his exposition on love and spiritual gifts, or in his words of advice about order and ‘sanity’ within their public worship. As occur within almost every group of people, there were disagreements and tensions within the local church, ones that threatened the very harmony and proper functioning of the group, and so Paul feels that it is incumbent upon him to deal with them.
And how does Paul address this? He points them back to Jesus, who is the only foundation, the only thing that they can base their lives upon. None of the apostles ‘cut it’ in comparison. Everyone else, whether it be Cephas [Peter] or Apollos or himself, are merely servants of Christ, coworkers with Him. Indeed, even as they carry out their various tasks, it is Christ, and Christ only, who produces results, who brings about the harvest. So, it is not really any of these human ‘actors’, but the Lord, that should be focused upon and given the glory. Indeed, it is the Lord only that we should ultimately looking to for direction and for help, and the Lord that
we should seek to imitate and obey. No one else ultimately will really ‘fit the bill.’ Thanks be to God.
Forward notes: “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel—and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power” (verse 17).
“I am not a charismatic public speaker. In college, I had to take a speech class and participate in a speech tournament. Everyone had to deliver a short speech before a panel of judges. Those who performed best stayed in the competition while others were eliminated. When it was my turn, I stood in front of the audience with my index cards in hand. As I spoke, all I could think about was how nervous I felt, how sloppy and disorganized my points were, how stumbling my sentences seemed, and how bored audience members must have been. It was such a miserable experience that I was just glad for it to be over.
“I don’t know what Paul’s oral delivery was like or how his audiences reacted to his proclamation. But I appreciate the message he offers in this verse for people like me who aren’t eloquent public speakers: the good news that God delivers in Jesus does not depend on my speaking abilities. The gospel does not require polished words to transform people’s lives.”
Moving Forward: “How do you speak the gospel to others?”