Bible Commentaries
1 Corinthians 2

Verses 1-7

XV

THE PREACHER AND FACTIONS

1 Corinthians 2:1-4:7.

We shall proceed to repeat part of the ground of the last chapter. We were discussing the third division of the outline, ecclesiastical disorders. The first is factions. There were divisions. Paul, in replying to the evil of divisions in churches about persons, made an argument that the world has never equaled, and which will be important for all time upon the subject of factions.

His first argument against factions is that Christ Is not divided. Second, the preacher was not crucified for them. They were making divisions about preachers, yet nobody was crucified but Christ. Third, nobody was baptized in the name of a preacher. Fourth, one of the grounds of division was that some preachers were more oratorical than others in their speaking, and used eloquence and philosophies of the schools. In replying to that he stated the wise or oratorical preacher does not save men. They are saved by the cross. Therefore, it is perfectly foolish to have a division about persons on the ground that one is more oratorical than another. Fifth, that worldly wisdom never did discover God, and never could have devised a plan of salvation. God gave the wisdom of the world all the opportunity that it wanted from the beginning of time to the coming of Christ. There had been many wise men, particularly among the Greeks and Romans, but what did their wisdom amount to? It had never discovered the nature of God, devised a system of morals or a plan of salvation. History presents the awful anomaly that the wisest cities in the world, such as Athens, Ephesus, and Corinth, were morally rotten, spiritually putrid. Their wisdom did not save them from obscenity or debauchery. The sixth argument is that as a matter of fact few of the wise and the great men were saved. Somehow their wisdom and their greatness prevented their stooping down and becoming little children in receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ. He proves this by appealing to their own case. "You know, brethren, from your own experience that not many wise, great, or noble are called." The seventh argument against division, where it was predicated on superior worldly wisdom on the part of any of the persona about whom the division was centered, is that Christ himself is the wisdom of the Christian, the righteousness, sanctification, and redemption of the Christian. How beautifully he works in the thought of the Trinity, "Who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." While Christ is the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption of his people, the application is different. He is not our sanctification in the sense that he is our righteousness. Our righteousness is imputed to us, and we receive it by a single act of faith. Our sanctification is applied to us differently by the Holy Spirit, and becomes at last a personal righteousness.

His eighth argument is that the gospel which saves men is not discerned according to carnal wisdom, but is spiritually discerned. Whether a man be wise or ignorant does not enter into the question. We might take a Negro that could not read a letter in a book, and put seven wise men of Greece against him, and the Negro might spiritually discern the gospel of eternal life preached to him as a poor, ignorant, lost soul quicker than the seven wise men of Greece.

I have often used as an illustration of that, the case of Gen. Speight, whose children live in Waco now. He was a great man in many respects. He was the best organizer and trainer of a regiment I ever knew, and his intellect was quick as lightning, and yet he could not see how to be converted until his old Negro servant took him off in the gin house and showed him how to come to Christ.

That applies in Paul’s argument. One of the grounds of division, was that they were instituting comparisons between Paul and Apollos. Apollos was a wise man, expert in Alexandrian philosophy. Paul wants to know what that counts in a case of this kind. The natural man receives not the things of God. They are foolishness to him.

His ninth argument is that factions hinder spiritual progress. They were yet babes in Christ when they ought to have been teachers. I don’t know anything that can more quickly destroy the spiritual progress of the church than divisions. Let a church be divided into two parties, one following Deacon A and the other Deacon B; one clamoring for this preacher and the other for that; let the line be drawn sharply, then all spirituality dies. There cannot be power ’in the church while that continues.

The tenth argument consists of some questions: "What then is Apollos? and what is Paul?" At a last analysis they are only the instruments or ministers by whom they believed; God himself gave the increase.

He advances in the eleventh argument: "You are divided about preachers. You are not the preacher’s field or his building. You are God’s field; you are God’s building. Then if you are God’s building you don’t belong to this preacher or to that preacher."

The twelfth argument is that the only foundation in this building is Jesus Christ: "Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." The thirteenth argument is that all the incongruous material the preacher puts on that foundation will be destroyed in the great judgment day – tried by fire. He refers to the material received for church membership. Paul laid a divine foundation for the church at Corinth. Other men proposed to build on that foundation. Suppose a man puts into the temple of God "wood, hay, stubble." Some people thatch the roof of the house with hay or stubble. Every addition to that church, when the Master comes to examine his building, that has not been made of living stone, lasting spiritual material, will be cut out and will go up in fire and smoke. So we will say that one reason for the division was that a preacher held a meeting and received a thousand members and 975 came in without conviction or repentance – a dry-eyed, easy, little faith, little sinner, little savior – and it did not amount to anything. The preacher, if a Christian, will be saved, but every bit of the unworthy material he put in the church will be lost, and because the work is lost he will suffer loss of reward for his labors.

His fourteenth argument is that factions destroy the church, which is the temple of God, which temple they were: "Him that destroyeth the temple of God will God destroy." I never knew it to fail where a man through his fault destroyed a church of Christ that that man was destroyed world without end. Even if he was a Christian he was destroyed. Not as to eternal life, but certainly as to his usefulness in this world. His fifteenth argument is – what a text! I heard Dr. Hatcher, of Richmond, preach a sermon on it. The church does not belong to the preachers; the preachers belong to the church: "All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s."

The sixteenth argument is that these preachers about which they were dividing this church must be counted simply as stewards of the grace of God, the deposit of the gospel which has been given to them. They were not to be looked on as the builders, the authors, and the savior of the church. What they were to do in their case was to ask the one question, "Has this steward been faithful?" The seventeenth argument is that they were dividing this church on their human judgment of men, and their human judgment didn’t count at all. The King James version of 1 Corinthians 4:3 is, "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment; yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself." How many sermons I have heard on that when the thought is not that at all! This is the meaning of the true text of the Greek: “For though I know nothing against myself, yet I am not hereby justified," i.e., human judgment doesn’t count. In other words, I may seem to myself perfect, but I may have a thousand faults. The judge is God, and when God lets the light shine, he brings out some spot I don’t see in the dim light of my wisdom. You remember David’s prayer, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults," i.e., not faults that I am keeping hid from my wife and my friends, but faults secret to me. "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?"

The eighteenth and last argument is this: Preachers deserve no credit for difference in gifts, and yet they were making their different gifts the ground of their division: "For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" One of the greatest blessings in this world today is the difference of gifts that God gives to the church and his preachers. Two of the most important chapters in the Bible are devoted to a discussion of that question (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12). God has never yet called a man to preach who cannot do some things better than anybody else in the world. He never gives two men exactly the same gifts. I am conscious that I can do some things better than other people. I am sure that God has given me the gift of interpretation of his Word. But others can do some things better than I can. I would hate it very much if I were the best sample in the kingdom all along the line. It would be a very sad thing for the world if some of God’s preachers could not beat me in some things. They had made this difference in gifts the ground of their factions. Now, call each man up and say, "Paul, where did you get your gifts?" He answers, "God gave them to me." "Did you earn them?" "No, they are free grace." "Apollos, where did you get your gifts?" "God gave them to me." "You did not purchase them from God?" "No, they came through free grace."

One of the greatest preachers I ever heard stood up in the pulpit and pointed to a homely old Baptist preacher in the crowd and said, "Brethren, I would give all I am worth in the world to be able to preach like that man." The most of the crowd would have said, "You beat him." He could beat him, but not in all things. That man could preach a sermon by the way he got up in the pulpit and opened the Bible. The humility and tenderness of soul with which he looked into the faces of the sinners was marvelous. That fact alone ought to keep down the jealousy of one preacher against another preacher. There is such s, thing as improving one’s gifts, and for that a man does deserve credit. A man may have a gift, and by disuse of that gift it will go into bankruptcy; one may be lazy and won’t study, and for that he is to be blamed. I care not how dull a man is naturally, if God has called that man, he had a reason for calling him. He has some work for him to do that Michael and Gabriel could not do. That man is responsible for just what gifts he has, and he ought to try to improve those gifts, and not try to imitate somebody whose gifts are different from his.

I am glad our Lord did not, in this matter, imitate a candiemaker who brings a great tub full of tallow and pours it into one mould. All candles come out of candle-moulds exactly alike. I am glad the Lord’s preacher-material is not like a tub of tallow, and that it is not all run into one mould. We want diversity of gifts and division of labor. Some have the gift of exhortation; others, exposition, pastoral power, tactfulness in visiting the sick and the strangers. Some have the evangelistic gift, and some one thing and some another. Thus we have the eighteen arguments which Paul gives against the first of these ecclesiastical disorders – factions.

The second ecclesiastical disorder was a revolt against apostolic authority (1 Corinthians 1:8-21; 1 Corinthians 9:1-27). In order to unify this discussion, I have taken everything in the letter that bears upon the revolt against apostolic authority. But who questioned Paul’s apostolic authority? Visiting Jewish professors of religion, coming from Jerusalem and having that Judaizing spirit, which would make the Christian religion nothing but a sect of Judaism, came up to Corinth. In the second letter we have this same topic for discussion. These visiting brethren brought letters of recommendation from people in Judea, as we learn in the second letter, and they questioned Paul’s apostolic authority. On what grounds did they question his apostolic authority?

1. Because he was not one of the original twelve apostles, and had not seen the Lord in his lifetime.

2. He did not exercise the apostolic powers when his authority was questioned. Ananias and Sapphira tried to fool Peter and they were struck dead by exertion of apostolic power. But Paul did not use the power of an apostle to strike men dead in Corinth that differed with him.

3. He had not claimed apostolic support for himself, therefore it was evident that he did not count himself as deserving it. The twelve apostles, particularly Cephas and the brothers of our Lord, being married men, as apostles, for devoting themselves to the apostolic office, demanded support for themselves and their families.

4. His suffering proclaimed that he was not an apostle. If he were God’s apostle, he would not get into so much trouble, for the Lord would take care of him.

5. His was not the true gospel. The true gospel was given to those who accompanied the Lord Jesus Christ, beginning with the baptism of John down to the time he was taken to heaven. Paul was not even a Christian when that took place.

6. His folly. He did a great many foolish things in the way of expediency.

7. His bodily infirmities and weaknesses. He was a little sore-eyed Jew, bald-headed, with no grace of oratory and no rhetorical form of speech.

8. He was against Moses and the Mosaic law.

9. He was a preacher to the Gentiles. These are the nine distinct grounds upon which these living, visiting brethren, who had done nothing for that church, came over there to work up a case. Whenever I read about it I always feel indignant against that scaly crowd. This is a part of Paul’s great controversy to which Stalker devotes a chapter in his Life of Paul. The letters which are alive with the items of this controversy are 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans. Later it comes up in another form in Philippians, Colossians, and Ephesians, and the same matter in yet a different form later in Hebrews. We will see how Paul replies to this question of his apostleship in the next chapter.

QUESTIONS

1. Restate the first six arguments against factions.

2. What is the seventh argument against division predicated on superior worldly wisdom, and how does Paul here bring in the thought of the Trinity?

3. How is Christ our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption?

4. What is the eighth argument, relating to the gospel, and what illustrations given?

5. What is the ninth argument, relating to spiritual progress?

6. What is the tenth argument, relating to the instruments of their faith?

7. What is the eleventh argument, relating to God’s field, or building?

8. What is the twelfth argument, relating to the foundation?

9. What is the thirteenth argument, relating to incongruous material?

10. What is the fourteenth argument, relating to the temple of God?

11. What is the fifteenth argument, relating to church ownership, and what sermon noted on this as a text?

12. What is the sixteenth argument, referring to the deposit of the gospel?

13. What is the seventeenth argument, referring to human, judgment, and how is this text often misapplied?

14. What is the eighteenth argument, referring to gifts, and what special blessing in the diversity of gifts?

15. What is the second ecclesiastical disorder at Corinth, and who caused it?

16. On what grounds did they question Paul’s apostolic authority?

17. In what letters of Paul do we have this great controversy?