1 Corinthians 1:10-18 - Bible Study

 This study was prepared for the Women's 10 am Wednesday Bible Study at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Orlando FL, by the Rev. Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh.

 

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Last week we looked at verses 1-9 of chapter one of 1 Corinthians.  Paul now gets to the work at hand and begins with verse 10 to address the first of many problems in the church of God in Corinth – divisions and schisms.  He starts off this way:

¹⁰ Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,

The literal translation of that verse is “I appeal to you, brothers,” and sisters is not included.  But translating the Bible is difficult – you are translating words AND meaning. 

Even today some English speakers will say “Man” instead of “humanity,” but they certainly do not mean “male only” when they say that.

And Paul is expressing a thought that is being conveyed to everyone in the church, not just the men.

This phrase “brothers” or – “Brothers and sisters” -- is used twice in our reading, but it is used many times in Paul’s letters.

64 times in all of his letters. 

He uses the phrase 20 times in I Corinthians – twice as many times as he does in Romans, and far more than he does in the rest of his books.

Theodore Beza, the sixteenth-century Calvinist commentator, said, ‘In that (phrase) there lies hidden an argument.’ By the very use of the word “brothers”, Paul does two things.

First, he softens the rebuke which is given, so that he comes across not in any threatening way, but as from one who has no other emotion than love.

Second, it should have shown them how wrong their dissensions and divisions were.  They were not just people who gathered together, they were brothers and sisters.  They were family.  They should live in mutual love.

Paul is trying to bring these divided people together by helping them remember that they are one family.

¹⁰ Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

            Last week we pointed out that Paul uses the name Jesus Christ ten times in the first ten verses of this book.  He is trying to resolve conflict by helping all sides understand that they share a common focus point – Christ.  It is when we take our eyes off Christ that we become distracted and let divisions arise.

¹⁰ Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.

Paul uses similar language about being of one mind many times:

Philippians 1:27

Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel,

Philippians 2:2

make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

In Romans 15:6:

Be of  one mind and one mouth glorify God,

In 2 Corinthians 13:11:

Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

The concept here of being “of one mind” is not the same as being “of one opinion.” 

If that was the case, Paul would have pulled together the lists of things that each group was teaching and would have said HERE IS THE TRUTH, forget the rest.  But no, he does not go into any detail about the divisions, other than to say, there were divisions and people were using labels for the different groups.  And that was all that was important.  There was no other issue other than – you are family.  Act like it.  Be brothers and sisters.

Being of the same opinion is not necessary.  In fact, it is impossible.  But having the same mind means being united in Christ, focused on Christ, and spiritually holding hands together.

¹¹ For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters.

PAUL begins the task of mending the situation which had arisen in the church at Corinth. He was writing from Ephesus. Christian slaves who belonged to the establishment of a lady called Chloe had had occasion to visit Corinth, and they had come back with a sorry tale of dissension and disunity.

Who is Chloe?  Who knows?  We know nothing of her except what we read here.  In fact, I get the feeling that Chloe might have been unknown to Paul and to the Corinthians.  She is not described as “Chloe” but rather as “a lady called Chloe.” 

She is not from Corinth, but she had the opportunity to visit Corinth and she saw what was happening.

Visitors are often able to see things that members of a church cannot. 

I’ve had visitors point out to me so many obvious things – the telephone number is not in the bulletin, or there is an announcement that can’t be understood by visitors because the writer assumes everyone knows what Cookie Sunday is, or the American Flag is on the wrong side of the Sanctuary.

Chloe has this ability to see the Corinthian Christians as an outsider and she picks up on the fact that this church has problems.  She reported it to Paul.

¹² What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.”

It is interesting that Paul does not say, “I follow Paul” or “I follow Apollos.”  He says, “I belong to Paul/Apollos, etc.” 

To belong to someone meant that you followed them, but also that there was a commitment that communicated a sense of great devotion.  Ownership in fact. 

1)      There were those who claimed to belong to Paul, and this is where Paul starts.  It is helpful for him to start with those who claim to belong to Paul, because it defuses a situation better than if he started with those who claimed to belong to someone else.  Who were the people who said they belong to Paul?  Paul doesn’t say, because essentially, the issue is there are to be no divisions – but while Paul is not concerned about it, it is interesting for us to ask, who were the people who said they belong to Paul?  No doubt this was mainly a Gentile party. Paul had always preached the gospel of Christian freedom – of grace not law.  Paul opened the church to the gentiles.  It is most likely that this party was attempting to turn liberty into license and was using their new-found Christianity as an excuse to do as they desired. It is possible that these people had had forgotten that they were saved --  not to be free to sin, but to be free not to sin.

2)      There was the party who claimed to belong to Apollos. There is a brief character sketch of Apollos in Acts 18:24.

Acts 18:24-28

²⁴ Now there came to Ephesus a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria. He was an eloquent man, well-versed in the scriptures. ²⁵ He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord; and he spoke with burning enthusiasm and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. ²⁶ He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately. ²⁷ And when he wished to cross over to Achaia, the believers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. On his arrival he greatly helped those who through grace had become believers, ²⁸ for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Messiah is Jesus.

            Apollos had a long friendship with Paul – and in Paul’s letter to Titus he tells the reader to hurry up and get Apollos to come visit him.

Alexandria was a center of education and intellectual activity. The scholars there made a science of allegorizing the Scriptures and they loved to find the most obscure meanings for the simplest passages.

Let me give an example of the kind of thing they did.

The Epistle of Barnabas, an Alexandrian work, argues from a comparison of Genesis 14:14 and 18:23 that Abraham had a household of 318 people whom he circumcised.

The Greek for 18 – the Greeks used letters as symbols for numbers – is iota followed by eta, which are the first two letters of the name Jesus; and the Greek for 300 is the letter tau, which is the shape of the cross; therefore the scholars of Alexandria, who loved to find these obscure meanings in the Scripture, believed that this incident was foretelling the crucifixion of Jesus on his cross!

Yes – it is a bit of a stretch! 

But Alexandria was a city that loved that sort of thing. 

 

They were also enthusiasts for philosophy.  They were in fact the people who intellectualized Christianity. Those who claimed to belong to Apollos were, perhaps, the intellectuals who were fast turning Christianity into a philosophy rather than a faith and religion.

3)      There were those who claimed to belong to Cephas. Cephas is the Jewish form of Peter’s name. These were probably Jewish Christians.  In all likelihood, they wanted to maintain the tradition of the law and sought to teach that Christians must still observe the Jewish law. They were legalists who loved the law, and, by so doing, belittled grace.

4)      There were those who claimed to belong to Christ. This may be one of two things. (a) There was absolutely no punctuation in Greek manuscripts and no space whatever between the words. This statement may well not describe a party at all. It may be the comment of Paul himself. Perhaps we ought to punctuate like this: ‘I am of Paul; I am of Apollos; I am of Cephas – but I belong to Christ.’ It may well be that this is Paul’s own comment on the whole wretched situation. (b) If that is not so and this does describe a party, they must have been a small and rigid sect who claimed that they were the only true Christians in Corinth. Their real fault was not in saying that they belonged to Christ, but in acting as if Christ belonged to them. It may well describe a little, intolerant, self-righteous group.

¹³ Has Christ been 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 can 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 proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.
 

            I love these people who are named in the Bible as being Christians – but we know next to nothing about them.  They were just ordinary Christians, who happened to be named by Paul, who loved to mention people by name.

            Crispus?  This is all we know for sure, but there is a strong tradition that he became a bishop and was martyred for the faith.

            Gaius?  Same thing.

            Here is an interesting thing that the Alexandrians would have loved.  Crispus and Gaius were both names of Roman emperors – doesn’t really mean anything, but interesting.

            Stephanas – He is mentioned in these verses, and also at the end of the letter in chapter 16:

¹⁵ Now, brothers and sisters, you know that members of the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints; 16 I urge you to put yourselves at the service of such people, and of everyone who works and toils with them. ¹⁷ I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence; ¹⁸ for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. So give recognition to such persons.

And finally, there is this passage that we end with:

¹⁸ For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Throughout all of the conflicts and shortcomings of the Corinthians that Paul will continue to address here, staying focused on the cross and the power of God is more important than being focused on human leaders or divisive groups.