Last updated on November 20, 2024
Paul, Silas and Timothy spent 18 months in Corinth. When they left they went back to Antioch, and then shortly after they set out for their third missionary journey, which would take them to Ephesus, and where they would stay for 3 years. While in Ephesus Paul gets word that things are not going well for the Corinthian church. So he decides to write a letter to them. This letter has been lost, but he mentions it in the second letter he wrote, which we know as 1 Corinthians. After the church received the lost letter, they wrote him a letter that had a lot of questions. 1 Corinthians is a much longer letter than his first three, and a great deal of it covers the questions they asked.
Today’s reading covers the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians.
This church was filled with many smart and gifted people. Paul had started the church with Priscilla and Aquila, but they were now in Rome. And Paul was obviously in Ephesus. This group of smart and gifted people had begun to argue about who their leader was. Some felt it was Paul, since he had started the church. Others thought it was Apollos, a great orator who had recently spent time with them. Others thought it was Peter, who was one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. And then the guy looking for the gold star suggested it was Jesus.
Paul thought this argument was foolish, and he definitely had concerns about the many divisions in the church. But he doesn’t simply tell them to quit arguing. Instead and talks about Jesus, and specifically, the message of the cross.
The fact is that the message of the cross can come across as foolishness because it is steeped in weakness. The people in this church saw themselves as strong, not weak. Again, they were very smart and gifted. Paul wanted to remind them of who they were before their hearts were changed by Jesus. And he wanted to remind them that the same thing was true with him. When he first met them he didn’t come with lofty and impressive words. He simply shared Jesus. And that was enough.
Paul was concerned that pride had crept into this young church. He called them to humility. Without humility they wouldn’t grow past where they were. He says that they are still infants, unable to eat solid food. They haven’t matured, and it’s evidenced by their arguments over who is in charge. He says…
“I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church” (1 Corinthians 4:14-17).
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