I Corinthians 1-3: The Dysfunctional Family/Church

Just as I am struck by the similarities of USAmerican society and the New Testament days of the Roman Empire, so I am struck by the similarities of USAmerican Church and the church of Corinth: its tendency toward the sensational (I Corinthians 11-14), it’s compromised morals (I Corinthians 5-8), and its dividedness (I Corinthians 1-3). Divisions showed in every part of the church of Corinth: worship, fellowship, gifts for ministry, and holiness or the lack thereof. At the root of this division are two personalities, Apollos and Paul. According to 1:12 the division was actually three-fold, with another group forming claiming to be superior to those who followed Apollos and Paul – “we follow Christ.” When people ask me how I account for the many denominations of Christian faith in the world, I first say, “The differences are usually small. They represent moves of the Holy Spirit that happened in certain times.” At it’s best, that’s what happened to create the Catholics, the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Baptists, the Pentecostals, etc. But the other side is that they represent key personalities and political movements that were leading at the time. It’s no accident to me that the Mormon faith developed during the time of Manifest Destiny in the United States, when we believed that God had predestined that we would stretch “from sea to shining sea”. Of course, Jesus would have a resurrection appearance in America, then. I don’t believe that, but I think I know how it developed. The faith is divine, but human expressions are not so. As Paul says in II Corinthians 4:7,

“We have this treasure in jars of clay…”.

Paul’s discussion of who is truly wise is penetrating and educational for us today. We are not to be those who compete with each other about how is the most spiritual, knowledgeable or valuable. At the root of those desires is an insecurity that tries to prove our worth in relationship to others. Paul calls the Corinthians to a common ground of humility – none of us wise by God’s standards or the world’s standards. Yet God uses us. Our humility allows us to operate from privilege and blessing, rather than entitlement. We are all absolutely dependent on a higher wisdom, in which we through prayer and listen to God we develop “the mind of Christ”.

If only Jesus could see the personality cults in the USAmerican church of today! He would really be shaking his head. But the truth is that each of us has a role to play and we are called to play it to the very best of our abilities under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. As Paul says in I Corinthians 3:6,

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, and God made it grow.”

Bottom line: Instead of competing with each other, let’s cooperate and together compete against despair, bigotry, poverty, selfishness, hate, secular materialism, oppression and other evils that wars against the ways of God and cheapen and threaten life around us.