It is well known that division in the church of Corinth was over leadership. Some considered Paul their authority, others Apollos, others Peter, and still others accepted only Jesus as their authority. It is possible that these divisions represent competing house churches, some founded by Paul and others by Apollos. But even if multiple house churches are founded by different leaders, Paul passionately argues that the body of Christ cannot be divided in this way. In fact, these divisions are a sign of worldliness. How can the presence of divisions be described as “worldly”
Bruce Winter details the Greco-Roman practice of discipleship in the second chapter of After Paul Left Corinth. He finds that there is a great deal of parallels between the disciple-teacher relationship in the culture of Corinth and the problem of divisions in the church over the authority of teachers. Dio Chrysostom visited Corinth about A.D. 89-96. He described the activities of the disciples of the Sophists – the professional orators who could command large audiences, charge high fees for educating youth, and often wielded considerable power within the city. There was extreme competition among the orators for honor and power. The better the orator, the higher the fee, and the more disciples he would attract. Dio Chrysostom complained that Corinth was filled with “wretched” sophists, many of whom were debating one another with “shouting and abuse” near the temple to Poseidon. (I suppose that if Dio were commenting on the modern world, he would describe the “wretched bloggers” shouting abuse at the temple of WordPress…!)
Paul enters this world of “wretched Sophists” and preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He gathers disciples and establishes a church, a meeting place for educating his disciples. He begins the process of developing them into leaders who will also preach the gospel and found more churches. The Gentiles coming into this new Church do not seem to be able to see the differences between it and a Greco-Roman philosopher gathering disciples and educating them in a particular philosophy.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul consciously avoids disciple-teacher language. Paul did not want to present the Gospel as an orator, competing for students as they did. In fact, Paul never claims them as disciples. This is really what is behind his disclaimer on baptism in 1 Corinthians 1:14-16. He came to Corinth to create a community of disciples from which he might receive patronage and prestige.
Paul does not want to be considered a philosopher who is gathering disciples, nor does he want that for Apollos or Peter or any man. So rather than detailing their accomplishments as orators, Paul describes their functions (Paul planted, Apollos watered, etc.) Christians are all disciples, or better, stewards and servants of the mysteries of God (1 Cor 4:1).
The real problem behind the “divisions” is that the church continues to act like Christianity is just another philosophy, and teachers are in competition with each other just as the Greek orators competed. They are still acting “just like the world.” This is the challenge of the “divisions” in 1 Corinthians – how does the modern church act “just like the world”? In what ways have we failed to “de-paganize”? I do not think things have improved much since the first century.
I appreciate the perspective given by the author – and agree 100% that the body of Christ is divided. It’s not just the denominations per se any more – there’s also a proliferation of ‘house churches’ too. They are springing up all over the place, including Downunder (Australia) where I live here in Brisbane.
While there can be problems with some (no recognised leadership, disorganised, isolated, cultishness, lack of cohesion etc) they can also produce some of the strongest disciples I’ve seen for many years, and yet, they could easily claim to be that fourth division like the one at Corinth – the “I am of Christ” division, where they have no name (no favoured preacher/teacher) but are still divided off.
In my experience though, I find that it is carnal and unspiritual leaders that put up walls and fences between members of the body. It is those who have a financial interest in their own wellbeing, that divide the sheep up into different folds. God only sees one fold, (John 10) and there is only one faith, one Lord, one baptism etc.
God’s people who are moving in revival (like we have been to experiencing right here in Brisbane these last few months) have no qualms about getting together to see the nation of Australia come to Christ. It’s pastors, bishops and others who fear the loss of their livlihoods as their former sheep ‘move on in God’ towards the new wine skins of revival that want to maintain the old wine skins which brought them an income. God is all about people, not money, and I feel sorry for anyone who tries to take over the current move of God, put it in a box, stick a label on it, and own it – they will be swept away.
Austin Hellier
Brisbane Queensland
Australia
Thanks for the thoughtful comment Austin. My impression is that the same sorts of problems evident in Corinth are clearly evident in the contemporary church, whether that is West Michigan or Brisbane. Obviously sin is at the heart of these divisions, but I am encouraged to hear that at least in your corner of the world there is some unification and revival.
I believe that if people would take their eyes off man and stop putting man up up so high and put THE MASTER BACK FIRST in their lives it won’t be so much division in our churches. And I say that because some people focus on “PREACHER” instead of THE “SAVIOR”.
Although the modern church has improved in many ways compared to the ancient churches, there is still the issue of division that exists among differing churches as was in the ancient churches. For instance, in the Greco-Roman culture the practice of teacher-disciple relationships was often common and so many Christian converts in Corinth would associate themselves with a particular teacher and be under their discipleship. As a result, this led to the division among Christian converts and to the Christian community as a whole. In comparison to modern churches, it’s easy to say that there are hardly any divisions among Christians and differing churches…but could these divisions still exist today? In fact, there are still many divisions that exist today in modern churches. The first noticeable division would be among differing denominations. Now to this, there should be a division that exists considering that there are some denominations that do teach correct biblical doctrine, while other churches deviate from correct biblical doctrine in order to teach their own false doctrines. Aside from this acceptable division within the modern church, there are also two other reasons for division which should not exist. One of them being the reason to follow a specific pastor. Even as Christians, there seems to be the desire of wanting to uphold one pastor over another by comparison and ultimately glorifying certain pastors. Yet, in reality as long as correct biblical doctrine is being taught no pastor should be viewed in comparison to one another. The other reason is the division among churches of the same denomination. It seems unbelievable at first to think that this kind of division exists within the modern church, but more often than not it is actually one of the most common reasons for division. Even though the churches within a certain denomination agree to the same biblical teachings, some churches within those denominations may begin to disagree with the biblical teachings and break away from the denomination to become affiliated with another denomination that aligns with their beliefs.
The city of Corinth was filled with philosophy and social networks, making it difficult for someone, like Paul, to share something important, like the Gospel. Paul had to avoid sounding like someone who was trying to argue and convince or even manipulate others through good rhetorical language while also not making out the Gospel to become something that can be bought by others through the means of patronage. Paul shares that he is not trying to convince through deceptive methods to get others to believe the Gospel (1 Cor 2:1-5). Furthermore, from the book, A Week in the Life of Corinth, by Ben Witherington III, he shares that some of the people in the large crowds that Paul spoke to would try to pay or give Paul money for sharing the Good News with them, which caused another issue. Paul had a very difficult task ahead of him that almost seemed impossible, but Paul knew that all things were possible through God (Phil 4:13). Even though his life situation was hard, the Holy Spirit equipped him with the words to say and the strength to keep going when obstacles occur.
Not identical, but similar issues are occurring today. Paul and other apostles mention that there will be false teachers who will try to distract or redirect believers away from the truth. We see some of those false teachers today, like Joel Olsteen, for example. He presents the Gospel as something slightly different, and full honesty, something more attractive to hear: the prosperity gospel. He gives the false message of a fake hope in that if you do good things, you will be blessed. To which there is some Biblical truth in that, that is not entirely true. If I give money to the church, that does not mean my cancer sickness will go away. If I serve my community, that does not mean my anxiety will disappear. If I pray hard enough, God will give me a new job that pays me more than my current one. This is a false doctrine that was wrongly inspired, and the prosperity gospel is one of many other false teachings that are occurring all over the world today. So, we must be careful and go back to the scriptures to see if what we are hearing is true (Acts 17:11).