Living His Word

1 Corinthians 3:4 ERV: One of you says, "I follow Paul," and someone else says, "I follow Apollos." When you say things like that, you are acting like people of the world.

There were many problems in the church at Corinth. The members were jealous of each other and they were always arguing with each other. There was also the serious problem of factionalism. As our verse for today makes clear, the church was divided into fact ions that identified themselves according to the particular ministry and perspective of the leader they favored. Some favored Paul, some favored Apollos, and there were probably others as well.

Paul says that when they divide themselves into factions they are “acting like people of the world.” That is, although they were Christians born of the Spirit, they were not acting like it. Instead of being led by the Spirit, they were being led by their own selfish desires. Paul said that they were mere “babies in Christ” and he could not address them as adults (I Corinthians 3:1).

There is always a struggle within every Christian person between the old sinful spiritual state and the new life of the Spirit. In the case of the Corinthian Christians, although they participated in the new life of the Spirit, the old spiritual state still seemed to have the upper hand. They were what some call “carnal Christians.” Christians who are mature in the faith and the new life of the Spirit are not like that. For them, the Spirit has the upper hand and the old spiritual state is kept under control for the most part.

As a result, mature Christians do not easily fall into the sin of factionalism. They realize that true ministers of the gospel are mere servants of God who help us to believe (I Corinthians 3:5). None of them is anything in and of themselves. None of them is more important than the God who sent them. As Paul put it, “Only God is important,” and the ministers sent by God are “not important”(I Corinthians 3:7). Indeed, God sends more than one minister because no one minister can fully give and express everything God has for His people.

We should always be grateful for the ministers of the gospel who are sent to help us believe, but we should never elevate them to the status that belongs only to God.