1 Corinthians 3:1-4
“What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each.” vs. 5
The congregation in Corinth was giving Paul fits. Instead of celebrating their unity in Christ they were choosing sides, with one group claiming connections with Apollos, the silver-tongued orator who had come to them after Paul, and the other claiming special allegiance to Paul, the church planter. And now the two groups were at odds, like a couple of rival political parties backing rival candidates. That kind of bickering, the sort modeled on the ways of the world, can destroy the mission of a faith community…and Paul wants it to stop. He tells the Corinthians that they are better than that! What really counts is that they have become believers and it really doesn’t make any difference which apostolic leader was the instrument of faith for them. And so it is for us. Each of us has followed a different path to Jesus and we’ve all had great influences along the way, but our denominational backgrounds and pastors we have known are unimportant in the larger scheme of things. Being Lutheran or Baptist or Catholic means nothing…what counts is knowing the Christ and giving our lives in faithful service. That’s the kind of maturity Paul was looking for in Corinth…and that continues to be the gold standard for the Christian community two thousand years later.
Thought for the Day: Through whom have I come to believe?
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