February 23, 2000
FAMILY BIBLE SERIES:
It is the message--not the messenger--that saves
___1 Corinthians 1:1-17
___By Stacy Conner
___First Baptist Church, Muleshoe
___"... It has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there are quarrels among you." That simple sentence tells us volumes about the condition of the Corinthian church. Not only does it reveal that there is a divisive spirit among the congregation, but that they are organized into camps ("Chloe's people"). Although we are not quite sure of all the issues that have organized "Chloe's people" into a unified interest group, it is easy to believe they are sympathetic to Paul, hence the report.
___The Corinthians have made the leap of making the unimaginable mistake of following the personalities of faith, instead of Christ. It is impossible to imagine this in our day andtime. But the Corinthian believers have lined up behind the messengers of the gospel.
___Some like the eloquent preacher Apollos. Some prefer Peter. Still others line up behind Paul. By preference of personality, the Corinthians have chosen sides.
___This selection of personality so revolts Paul that he is grateful he has not baptized many of the Corinthian believers. By memory he could only point to two men and one household who had been baptized by his hands. In Paul's way of thinking, this is a bonus in that no one could look to him as the father of their faith.
___We are fortunate with the maturity of our faith that issues of personality identification do not trouble the church today. It would certainly be a rare conversation in our world if people were to identify their church by the name of the minister. Blessedly, "I go to Dr. So and So's Church" is never proclaimed today. What an advantage in today's church that no one ever says, "I watch Brother This and That on television. He really nourishes my soul." We are also fortunate that the 21st century church has moved past the practice of putting minister's faces on prominent interstate billboards and promotional packets. In the modern church, personality never interrupts the message.
___In all seriousness, the same issues that faced the Corinthian church are present today. So often we confuse the meaning and power of the message with the messenger.
___Corporations spend thousands of dollars securing the right spokesperson. Over time, the face will come to symbolize the product. For most of us, the message and the messenger go hand in hand.
___As Christians, we should be on our guard against the power of personality overriding the gospel's message. Paul astutely recognizes that when personality rises above the gospel the power of the cross is emptied (1 Corinthians 1:17). If we kneel to the temptation to revere the person who baptizes or the Sunday School teacher who enthralls, our focus shifts from the gospel to the messenger. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation, not the messenger.
___Paul opens the Corinthian letter with a direct confrontation of the partisan personality cults that are fighting in the church and a demanding call that they look not at the preacher, but to Jesus Christ, who saves our souls.
Send this story to a friend
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!