Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? – 1 Corinthians 1:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 1, 2014): 1 Corinthians 1

Christianity has long been accused of really being a form of Paulianity. The argument is not simply the fact that Jesus himself has left us with absolutely no writings (compare this to the fact that in Islam, Muhammad himself heard the words of the angel that met him in the cave over a period of time, and he caused these revelations to be written down, and in Judaism, the great prophet Moses is credited with, at the very least, beginning the oral tradition that resulted in the writing down of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible – the Torah or the Law. But in Christianity, the main figure of the faith did not write down a single word. What we have from Christ is his words as remembered and interpreted by those who had gathered around him. And by far the largest portion of the Christian Testament was written by Paul, a former critic and persecutor of the Christian Church, who met Jesus just once, and that was actually after he had been resurrected from the dead, and after he had ascended into heaven. Yet it was this Paul who has defined much of what we, as Christians, believe about Jesus.

It is also this Paul who continually points to Jesus – and away from himself. There were conflicts that had grown up in the Corinthian Church. Evidently there had developed schools of thought – and these schools had developed around some of the personalities that were well known in the early church. And the people were divided among the schools. And Paul was distressed that his name, his teachings and his beliefs was being used in one of these schools – and that he could be used in such a disruptive way. So he points one more time at Christ. He is undivided. It was not Paul who was crucified for the church – although eventually he would die for the one who had died for him. And it was not into Paul’s name that the Corinthians had been baptized. If the people thought that they were honoring the name of Paul by using him in this way, they were wrong. If Christianity really is a form of Paulianity, the conflict might have brought Paul honor, but Paul makes it clear that this is not the case.

The public image of the church is still that we are divided. We have gathered ourselves into denominations, but more than that, every week there is conflict between Christians which results in a picture of a divided church. And often these conflicts are actually over minor issues that we have made major. At some point in the argument it is almost inevitable that someone says that the other side of the argument can’t be Christian if that is what they believe. And it is in these arguments, the Corinthian church is alive and well in the 21^st Century.

Maybe the most important thing that we need to remember is what Paul is about to write in this letter to the Corinthian Church. “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Because after everything – and through every disagreement and conflict and division that we might have, that we know the crucified Jesus Christ is all that really matters.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 2