1 Corinthians 1:1-17

Butler's Comments

SECTION 1

Unity Originates in the Character of God (1 Corinthians 1:1-17)

1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,
2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, 5that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge6even as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ; 8who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

10 I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren. 12What I mean is that each one of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas, or I belong to Christ. 13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14I am thankful that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius; 15 lest any one should 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 any one else.) 17For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

1 Corinthians 1:1-3 Consecration: Paul, whose Hebrew name was Saul, was born near the beginning of the first century in the busy Graeco-Roman city of Tarsus in Cilicia at the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. He was born with Roman citizenship (Acts 22:28); the son of a Pharisee and a Pharisee himself (Acts 23:6), he could have boasted of the purest Hebrew background (Philippians 3:5). As a young Jewish patriot and fledgling rabbi he persecuted the Christians with zeal (Acts 7:58-60; Acts 8:1-3; Acts 9:1-2; Acts 26:9-11; 1 Timothy 1:13) until his conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-31; Acts 22:1-21). Calling himself chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), he forever after attributed the change in his life to the overflowing grace of the Lord toward him (1 Timothy 1:12-17). Paul studied at the feet of the famous Hebrew rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3; Acts 26:4-5). He was well educated in the literature of the Greeks (Acts 17:28) and was a world traveler with a cosmopolitan attitude (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). The authenticity and historicity of this epistle is beyond question.

Paul begins by stating that he was called (Gr. kletos, means more than invitedit has the connotation of being uniquely chosen) by the will of God to be an apostle. Paul is declaring that he is in the service of God not by any merit of his own but by the sovereign call of God's grace. When Paul wrote to churches where his authority as an apostle was unchallenged, he did not assert his apostolic title (Philippians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; Philemon 1:1); but when he corresponded with a church or churches where his apostolic authority might be questioned, he always declared his office in the salutation and sometimes presented the evidence for his apostleship (Romans 1:1; Galatians 1:1; Colossians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1).

On his first missionary journey (45-48 A.D.) Paul established churches in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) (Acts 13:1-52; Acts 14:1-28; Acts 15:1-35). On his second missionary journey (Acts 15:36-41; Acts 16:1-40; Acts 17:1-34; Acts 18:1-22) he established churches in Macedonia and Achaia (modern Greece) (51-54 A.D.). It was during this second journey that Paul established the church in Corinth.

The third missionary journey took three years (54-58 A.D.) and, after spending three months in Achaia (Acts 20:3), he stopped in Ephesus for about two or three years. It was from this residence in Ephesus he received communication from Corinth and wrote back to them this epistle. A Christian named Sosthenes was with him in Ephesus. That this is Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth (Acts 18:17), is doubtful. Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, seems to have been an enemy of Paul.

Paul addressed the Christians in Corinth as the church of God. The Greek word for church is ekklesia (related to the same word Paul used to describe his call to apostleship). Ekklesia means literally the called out ones. It was used in the Greek world to denote the convening of the assembly of all the citizens of a particular city to fulfill the functions necessary for the maintenance of their social structure; a town-meeting. Paul adapts the word to the church for the very same purpose. William Barclay says: In essence, therefore, the Church, the ekklesia, is a body of people, not so much assembling because they have chosen to come together, but assembling because God has called them to Himself; not so much assembling to share their own thoughts and opinions, but assembling to listen to the voice of God. The word ekklesia as it is used in the New Testament certainly connotes those who have been called out of a life conformed to this wicked world order unto a life transformed into the image of God's Son, Jesus Christ.

Paul emphasizes the fact that those addressed are a church of God because God had sanctified them. The Greek words hegiasmenois (sanctified) and hagiois (saints) mean literally to set apart, to consecrate, to separate for a specific use. Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words declares these words do not denote some ethical attainment but rather define the state into which God, through the grace merited by Christ, has made available membership in his kingdom (the church) and all the attendant blessings of salvation. Sanctification is the separation of the believer from evil things and ways. This is God's will for the believer (1 Thessalonians 4:3); it must be learned from God as he teaches it by his Word (1 Thessalonians 4:4; John 17:17; John 17:19; Psalms 17:4; Psalms 119:9) and it must be pursued by the believer, earnestly and undeviatingly (1 Timothy 2:15; Hebrews 12:14). Men must deliberately choose the sanctification which the Lord provides and promises. They must pursue it through the directions and instrumentalities which are authorized exclusively in the revealed Word of God.

At first, reading only the salutation, the idea that a church of Christ might exist in Corinth would present no problem. That Paul addresses the members of that church as those called to be saints, would be initially acceptable also. By the time one has read to the end of this epistle, however, he may find it difficult to believe that a church could ever have been formed in such surroundings and, once formed, that it could have survived. When Paul wrote this letter, the church was not much over six years old. It should give twentieth-century Christians pause to note that the condition of the Corinthian church is a specific example of our Lord's parables insisting that the growth of the kingdom is slow and difficult (cf. Matthew 13:1-53; Mark 4:1-34; Luke 8:4-18) and the devil is always sowing tares in the same field in which God's servants are sowing good seed. Christians today should learn from this that no matter how spiritually immature a member of the Lord's church might be, he is called by God to be a saint and is a brother in Christ if he is willing to be taught the word of God and is willing to conform his mind and life to that Word. No matter how wrong some of these Corinthians were about doctrine and practices, so long as they were willing to receive his divinely-inspired instruction and grow toward it, he said they were sanctified in Christ Jesus. We can do no less today! Of course, a brother who blatantly defies apostolic doctrine (such as the man in 1 Corinthians 5:1 ff.) and refuses to repent must be delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the fleshly mind. Once such a brother repents, however, the church is to forgive him (see 2 Corinthians 2:5-17). A congregation of Christians is not sanctified in Christ because it has reached a pre-determined level of spirituality, but because every member is constantly struggling and growing into the image of God's beloved Son (cf. Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Peter 1:3-21).

Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians that they belong to a universal brotherhood of saintsall who in every place call on the name of Jesus as Lord and Savior. This reminder is to have its impact on the whole situation at Corinth. Paul wants them to understand they are a part of a whole body of Christians. When they have divisions, immoralities, jealousies and other disorders, the whole body of Christ throughout the world will be affected, one way or another. No congregation is an island! Every saint in every congregation is called together with all those who in every place call on the name of Jesus as Lord.

So, as Paul salutes the Christians at Corinth, he begins his argument against the factionalism in the church there. He salutes them as those sanctified. called to be saints and they are thus because the God who called them and to whom they profess allegiance is sanctified. That is, God is holy! There is absolutely no falsehood or wickedness in God's nature, nor was any manifested in God's Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. Those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ as Lord (God) must be holy. Division and schism are unholy. God does not divide himself and fight himself. He is not jealous of his Son's glory nor is his Son jealous of the Father's glory. They glorify one another. Christians cannot love one another earnestly from the heart unless they aspire to and act in imitation of the holiness of God (see 1 Peter 1:13-25). Those who destroy God's holy temple (the church) by division and partyism are trying to destroy Godand they will be destroyed (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Christians are called to be members of the sanctified (holy) body of Christ throughout the world. Disunity, factionalism and jealousy make a mockery of the call of God for sanctification. The congregation that is constantly bickering and separating one brother from another is not holyit is carnal and no different than the strife-filled, discriminatory, cliquey clubs of unregenerate men.

Unity has its origin or source in the nature and character of God. Unity cannot exist without holiness and sanctified living. Jesus-' longest recorded prayer is for the unity of his followers through sanctification (holiness) in the truth (see John 17:13-26).

Grace and peace are part of God's holy nature. The word grace is from the Greek word charis, and means something granted, a favor given, a gift. We get the English word charisma from it. Paul is reminding the Corinthian Christians that their sanctification is only by the favor granted them by God through Jesus Christ. They did not earn the right to be sanctifiedit was by the grace of God. Therefore, the love of Christ should have constrained them to dwell together in unity. If all Christians are sanctified by the grace of God and by no merit of their own one has no right to esteem himself above another and no cause for jealousy and division. Peace in Hebrew is shalom and means wholeness or well-being. The Greek word for peace, eirene, was often used in the same way. It means health, harmony and integrated wholeness. God, in Christ, has called men to peace (unity, harmony). The church is God's kingdom of peace, God's holy habitation of peace (see Ephesians 2:11-22). God, by the vicarious atonement of Christ's death, has declared himself at peace with rebellious man. Those who accept the peace Christ earned for them must practice peace with all other men (Romans 12:14-21). In fact, the peace of Christ must be allowed to arbitrate (Colossians 3:15, Gr. brabeueto, rule) in the hearts of men. All decisions a Christian makes are to be decided on the basis of the meaning and application of the peace Christ has wrought for him. When this is so, there is no schism in the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 1:4-9 Constancy: God is gracious. And God is also constant. He is faithful. What God promises, he will fulfill. Christ's body, the church, finds both motive and source of unity in God's faithfulness. Paul was always giving thanks (Gr. eucharisto, present tense verb, continuing action) for God's faithfulness and grace to the Corinthians. The Corinthian Christians had been made rich (Gr. eploutisthete, aorist) when they answered the call to be set apart (sanctified) unto Christ. Christ had seen fit to bless the Corinthian church with many miraculous gifts (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; 1 Corinthians 14:1-40). Paul mentions two of those miraculous gifts, speech and knowledge. The Greek word for speech is logos and is usually translated word. This probably means the miracle of declaring divine revelation. It is translated utterance in 2 Corinthians 8:7. Knowledge in Greek is gnosis (from which the English word gnostic comes) and refers, in this context, to a miraculous understanding of the miraculous revelation.

The testimony to Christ's faithfulness to fulfill his promises was confirmed. Paul uses the Greek word ebebaiothe, a word found frequently in Greek papyri to describe the confirmation of a business transaction. God settled the issue of his faithfulness to the Corinthians by extending a special measure of grace to them, making them excel (2 Corinthians 8:7) in miraculous gifts. The Corinthian church was second to none in experiencing Christ's faithfulness to confirm the gospel by miraculous gifts (cf. Hebrews 2:4; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 4:7, etc.). They were by no means lacking (Gr. hustereisthai, last, lagging behind). Christ had kept his word. They had all they needed while they waited in daily expectation for his return. There was no lack that could justify their jealousies and factionalisms. They should not have divided up to follow other leaders as if to find in such division something more to sustain them against the judgment day. Christ alone gives the revelation and knowledge necessary for that. No other leader has anything to say about salvation worth hearing! If that be true, there is no reason in heaven or on earth for Christians to divide over human leaders or institutions. The unity of God's kingdom has its source in this characteristic of God and his Son, Jesus Christabsolute faithfulness!

The sentence in the Greek text (1 Corinthians 1:9) begins literally, Faithful, the God through whom you were called. It stresses God's faithfulness. Faithful is the very name of God. And if he called the Corinthians into communion (Gr. koinonian, fellowship, sharing) with his Son, he is certainly able by himself to sustain them. They need not divide up, compete with one another, or follow other leaders. Factionalism would make the world believe the God of the Corinthian Christians was impotent, unfaithful and less than absolute. And that is precisely what division in Christendom does in the twentieth century!

The grace of God had made it possible for these Corinthians to have the saving work of Christ imputed to them. God saw to it that they were second to none in possessing miraculous gifts. They had advantages other Christians did not have. Their disgraceful conduct (division, immorality in the church, disorderly worship, vanity, pride, and misapprehension of true doctrine) was not because God supplied them insufficiently with divine direction or that God was unfaithful toward them. It was due to their own spiritual immaturity and refusal to grow.

1 Corinthians 1:10-17 Completeness: Is Christ divided? Paul appeals for a mentality and practice of Christian unity in the Corinthian church on the basis of the oneness of God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4). God is one in character, in purpose and in action. There is no variation in him (James 1:17). Jesus declared that he and the Father and the Holy Spirit were one and the same person (cf. John 1:1-18; John 14:1-11; John 14:18-24; John 8:25-30, etc.). Paul clearly taught that Jesus was God when he wrote, For in him (Christ) the whole fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily. (Colossians 2:9; see also 2 Corinthians 5:19; Colossians 1:19; Galatians 3:20). Even the prophet Isaiah declared the triune oneness of God (Isaiah 48:16). Jesus claimed he always agreed with and did perfectly the works of God because he was God (cf. John 5:17-46; John 6:45; John 8:28-30; John 8:58; John 10:22-39; John 15:7-11; John 16:15; John 17:1-5, etc.). That Jesus was God in the flesh is certainly a verifiable proposition. His deity was established historically by the signs and wonders he did in the presence of men (cf. Acts 2:22; Acts 26:26). The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) means more than simply enumerating Jehovah as the only God there is. It means that he is one integrallythat is, he is perfectly unified, totally single in purpose, objective and goal. God may manifest himself in three persons, but his mind, his will, his heart, his actions and his purpose are absolutely undivided. God is not man that he should change or be divided (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Isaiah 40:8; Isaiah 55:11).

Paul appealed (Gr. parakalo, called upon) to the Christians at Corinth on the basis of the name, or authority, of the one Lord of all Christians, Jesus Christ. His appeal was that they all agree (Gr. lit. hina to auto legete pontes, that the one thing you may be saying, all.). The KJV translates it, ... that ye all speak the same thing. In the present context, this unquestionably means Paul is directing them to all say one thing (all agree on one thing) which is: there is only one church of Godone body of Christiansover which Jesus Christ alone is the head. Paul is not here insisting that all Christians must agree on every issue of lifeespecially those issues not expressly commanded or clearly enjoined in the New Testament. All Christians are free, in Christ, to have opinions which may differ from other Christians in matters where the New Testament gives no specified direction. But even our opinions must be subordinated to the authoritative commands of the New Testament for brotherly love, peace, doctrinal purity, unity of the church and edification of one's brother. Agreement, in this context, applies primarily to the fundamental New Testament doctrine of the oneness of the body of Christ. There are not many different churches, separated according to differing teachings of human leaders, constituting the church of Christ. If the church of Christ is essentially one, as Thomas Campbell said in his Declaration and Address, then to speak of a divided church is a contradiction of terms. If it is intentionally one, to divide it is to disobey the intentions of Christ. If it is constitutionally one, it implies conformity to a plan or constitutional (Biblical) organization which must be inherent in the revealed will of its Head.

Paul considered himself free to exercise his own opinions about cultural preferences, evangelistic methods, and marital status so long as the Lord Jesus had not plainly commanded otherwise. But Paul had also committed himself so completely to the law of love he would relinquish his freedom to exercise personal opinion if opinion caused a brother to sin (see I Corinthians, Chapter s 8, 9, 10, and Romans, chapter 14). Paul would not divide the body of Christ over one of his own opinions. He certainly would not allow any attempt to divide it over human personalities to go unrebuked.
The Corinthian Christians are exhorted to refrain from dissension. The Greek word is stronger than thatit is schizmata, meaning, to rend, to split, to break. In non-biblical Greek the word was used to describe cleaving the head with an axe, or a ship breaking to pieces in the sea. Greek cultic religions punished members for schizmata (division) in the same manner they punished someone for stealing from or deceiving a member of their cult. Cancer cells within the human body are physical schizmata. Division within the church is destructive. The Greek word schizo is used as a prefix to many English words used in psychology to describe the mental disorder sometimes referred to as split-personality. Schizophrenia is a type of psychosis characterized by loss of contact with (withdrawal from) environment (reality) and by disintegration of personality. That is an apt description of a divided Christendom! Modern Christendom has a spiritual sickness (psychosis) characterized by loss of contact with (withdrawal from) its real unity in Christ and evidences a disintegrated personality to a lost world! Dividing the church of God is a sin. It is called a work of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21). There the words are dichostasiai, from which we get the English word dichotomy (stand apart), and haireseis, from which we have the English word heresy (to defect, to divide). James wrote that the contention which causes division (Gr. eritheian, from Eris, goddess of strife and fighting) is demonical! Indeed, the devil is the master designer of all division in the church. The devil is an anarchist, a divider, a liar and a murderer from Eden until now. Those who deliberately practice and cherish dividing the church of Jesus Christ into opposing, unbelieving, unloving factions are children of the devil.

The apostle urges these Christians to be united in the same mind and the same judgment. The Greek word katertismenoi translated united means, be repaired or be restored. It is used in Matthew 4:21; Mark 1:19 to describe the folding together of the fishermen's nets. In 2 Corinthians 13:11 Paul tells the Corinthians to mend their ways. The idea is to restore or repair something that has been disordered to its proper order so that it will be fit for productive use. Christian unity is not something which originates from manit originates from God. At the time a human being becomes a Christian God joins that new-born being to the body of Christ. We are joinedwe do not join. Once we are joined to Christ's body (the church) we must give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3). There are times when Christians may sin and promote division, but they must repent and be diligent to repair and restore that unity by surrendering to the will of Christ for their lives.

Paul insisted that unity would not come until these Christians were restored (united) in the same (Gr. auto, one, only, same) mind and same judgment (Gr. gnome, understanding, means of knowing). Some commentators insist that the Corinthian Christians were not dividing over central or doctrinal issues, but over diverse opinions. Consider the following issues over which there seemed to be not only differences but divisions:

a.

The issue as to whether who baptized a person was more crucial than the doctrine of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:1-31).

b.

The issue of divine revelation and apostolic inspiration and inerrancy (1 Corinthians 2:1-16).

c.

The issue of sanctification and church discipline (1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 1 Corinthians 6:1-20).

d.

The issue of marriage and divorce (1 Corinthians 7:1-40).

e.

The issues of idolatrous associations; of Christian liberty; of apostolic rights (1 Corinthians 8:1-13; 1 Corinthians 9:1-27; 1 Corinthians 10:1-33).

f.

The issue of who is the Lord's body and of judging others and improper observance of the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11:1-34).

g.

The issue of immaturity; of misuse of spiritual gifts; of indecency and disorder in worship (1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; 1 Corinthians 14:1-40).

h.

The issue as to whether there can be a resurrection from the dead or notperhaps even belief in the bodily resurrection of Christ an issue! (1 Corinthians 15:1-58).

Most of these are more crucial than differences of opinion. They are doctrinal issues. We believe the Lord intends his church to be of the same mentality, knowing the same revelation of his will and understanding his will the same way. We believe that is the reason the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write this epistle to the Corinthian Christians. The Lord intended the church at Corinth to come to the same understanding, to think the same and act the same way in all the matters to which Paul gave instruction in this epistle.
Is it possible for Christians to all understand the Bible alike? Of course it is! God wrote his book in human language. That is what Paul clearly says in chapter two of this epistle. The Bible is to be understood by using the same principles of understanding human language one would use in understanding any other book. There are some fundamental guidelines used by every one who reads in order to understand what another person has written:

a.

The correct and true interpretation of any written communication is what the author intended to saynot what the reader wants the author to say.

b.

God intended only one ultimate meaning in every word he has written in the Biblenot many conflicting meanings for each word.

c.

God is certainly able to say what he intends to say and he knows to whom he speaks. God expects men to be able to understand his message to them and insists they must if they are to be saved.

d.

To understand a communication from another person we must investigate how he uses words. To do, that we must take into account grammatical structure, context, historical usage, historical circumstances, parallel passages, etc.

This is why Paul states emphatically in 1 Corinthians 2:13 that the mind of God has been imparted to mankind (through the apostles) in wordshuman language. No human being could have known the mind (will) of God had it not been delivered through words (human language). God wants all men to know and understand his will. And God wants all men to understand it alike! Paul repeated this appeal many times (cf. Romans 15:5-6; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Philippians 1:27; Philippians 2:2) and so did Peter (1 Peter 3:8).

As long as Christians have different levels of scriptural knowledge, there will exist differences in spiritual mentality and judgment. One of the major functions for which the church was established was to bring all followers of Christ to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13). Bringing all Christians to the same (unified) faith and knowledge in mature (Gr. teleion, perfected, attained the goal) manhood to the stature (Gr. helikias, adulthood, grown up) of Christ is the purpose of ministry. The very fact that some Christians are content to be deficient in the knowledge of God's word gives the devil fertile ground in which to produce division! The church must not neglect the imperative ministry of edifying every member in the scriptures. A primary goal for the church is to bring all members to the same level of knowledge of God's word. Until it-gives priority to that goal it is not giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Bible study must have top priority in the church!

A woman member of the Corinthian church named Chloe had apparently visited Paul in Ephesus, with members of her household (people), and they had informed Paul of the divisions and quarreling (Gr. erides, strife) among the Christians. Practically every Christian (each one of you) in Corinth was involved in the strife. Christians were forming certain doctrinal and/or non-doctrinal stands opposing one another and striving against one another. Beyond that they were trying to make out that they followed divinely-appointed leaders of Christianity who also opposed one another in these differences of doctrine and opinion. Some had even attempted to portray Paul, Peter and Apollos as opposing Christ and Christ opposing these leaders. Satan still dupes theologians and religious leaders today with the same sophistryalleged doctrinal differences between Paul and Peter and Christ. It is absurd to think that the absolute, almighty, inerrant Holy Spirit of God would contradict himself as he spoke through these. But the biggest lie the devil perpetrates is that these men were not divinely inspired and inerrant instruments of the Holy Spirit. They were, according to many modern theologians, fallible and often mistaken in what they wrote. Before unity in the church is ever repaired or restored the issue of the infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible must be settled.

What the attraction was that polarized these Christians toward certain human leaders we do not know for certain. Perhaps it was seniority or the successes which the parties claimed for their superiority over one another. Peter was one of the first called to be an apostle and was recognized spokesman for the twelve a number of times. Paul, on the other hand, had demonstrated phenomenal success with evangelism and missionary endeavors to the whole Gentile world. Apollos was a man noted by many in the Roman world for his eloquence (for which neither Paul nor Peter was noted). Paul's question, Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? means divisions were being made according to who the baptizer might have been. There is no historical evidence whatever that Peter was ever in Corinth. There might have been some people in the Corinthian church who had been baptized by Peter in Palestine on the Day of Pentecost (or later) who then returned to Corinth. The divisions were probably more according to alleged differences in doctrine than anything else. There is only one name in which Christians are baptizedthe name of Jesus Christ (cf. Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:38; Acts 10:48; Acts 22:16; Acts 4:12). Men are not to be baptized in the name of the church.

Paul was thankful that he had not baptized many at Corinth with his own hands lest some glory in the fact they had been immersed by the great apostle Paul. Paul would not have his name used by these factions to set themselves apart from others. Paul had immersed Crispus, ruler of a synagogue in Corinth (Acts 18:8), and Gaius (identity unknown), and the household of Stephanas, first convert of Achaia (1 Corinthians 16:15). He could remember no others. Paul would have a difficult time understanding some preachers today who take great pains to advertise the number of baptisms they perform. Paul's statement that he was not sent by Christ to baptize but to preach the gospel must not be taken to mean that Paul considered baptism unessential or of little importance. Baptism was and is an essential part of the gospel message of salvation. Paul submitted to baptism himself as necessary to washing away his sins (Acts 22:16). He stated in his writings that it was the act of obedient faith which brought penitent believers into covenant participation in Christ's death and resurrection (Romans 6:1-11). He implies that only as many as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ and are sons of God, Abraham's spiritual offspring, heirs according to the messianic promise (Galatians 3:25-29). Paul taught people to be baptized (Gr. baptizo, immerse, plunge, dip) when he preached or there would never have been any question raised about some claiming to have been baptized in Paul's name! We have documented proof that people were baptized as a consequence of Paul's having preached what to do to be saved (Acts 16:14-15; Acts 16:29-34; Acts 18:8). When Paul preached, most often others did the baptizing. John writes in his Gospel about Jesus, The Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than JohnJesus himself baptized not, but his disciples (did), (John 4:1-2). The twelve apostles undoubtedly did not, with their own hands, baptize each of the three thousand believers on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38 ff.). There is no commandment in the New Testament that only an ordained clergyman may officiate at the immersion of a believer into Christ. For the sake of propriety, it would be preferable to have someone who was already an immersed believer in Christ to immerse new believers; but it might be an elder, a deacon, a father baptizing a son, a son baptizing a father, or, most appropriate, a Christian baptizing the person he has brought to belief. There was no problem with immersion in water in obedience to the gospel covenant of salvation in the first century church; neither in mode nor purpose. The problem Paul had to deal with here is sectarianism, not gospel immersion. It is not immersion Paul is renouncing here but the argument over who immersed whom! He is disclaiming the idea that being immersed by any particular human leader makes the immersed one a member of any religious faction or party. He is saying it is possible to overemphasize baptism. Baptism is not redemption. Redemption is what Christ did on the cross and through his resurrection. Christ's command, and that of the apostles, to be immersed in water for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38, et. al.) is one of the initial covenant terms by which that redemption is to be granted. The New Testament is plain: to possess redemption requires covenant relationship and covenant relationship requires, initially, faith, repentance and immersion, But to make the person or party by whom one is immersed the central issue of redemption is to empty the cross of Christ of its power, Paul says, He (Christ) is the source of our. redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). Being immersed into Christ is not the source of our redemption; Christ is the source. But we cannot receive that source without accepting the Source's terms. Immersion into Christ does not tap us into different sourcesit unites us in the One and Only Source! That is what Christ sent Paul to preach. And preach it he did!

Paul declares that he was not given the commission of apostle of Christ to compete in sophisticated word-games (Gr. sophia logou). He wanted no one to become his disciple or trust their redemption in his eloquence or other abilities. The fact of the cross of Christ cannot apply its power when human pride gathers followers through human cleverness. Such an approach inevitably produces heresy and destroys unity in Christ.