Hinge Verses: 1 Corinthians 1:26-27
I am determined to get this series finished, even if it takes me forever! The last entry I wrote was titled July 28, 2026, and was posted on August 14. 👀👀👀 Writing a detailed blog every day in the month of July was a hard goal, and I'm pretty proud I may it 27 days before my big pause. So here we go. July 29, 2026, written on October 18.....
Paul was in Ephesus for his third missionary trip when he wrote this letter to the church in Corinth. (Did you know Corinth was located in Southern Greece? I love all the details.) Paul planted the church in Corinth during his second missionary journey, where he stayed and ministered for about a year and a half. Paul spends a good part of his letter to the Corinthians reminding them how important they are to him. Because many of them were rescued by Jesus from their sins and born again under the ministry of Paul, Paul cared for the Corinthian church as a (spiritual) father to a child. There were other leaders involved in the church Paul planted, and this division has brought Paul to his first point.
Apparently, there was something like an old cheer battle going on within the Corinthian church: "I love Paul, yes I do! I love Paul, how 'bout you?" The next group said "I love Apollos, yes I do! I love Apollos, how 'bout you?" Still another group screams "I love Cephas, yes I do! I love Cephas, how 'bout you?" And the last group (probably the Sunday School teachers' pets who get the answers right because they always answer "Jesus") yells "I love Christ, yes I do! I love Christ, how 'bout you?"
Paul sides with the teacher's pets ONLY. Jesus Christ does not divide and disperse His glory to another. Paul, Apollos, and Cephas shared the gospel and ministered to the churches, but they had no part in rescuing the people who only had in their hand a paycheck from sin written for the amount of death. Only Jesus could do that. Paul, Apollos, and Cephas are only messengers. Paul--in his self-deprecating way--reminds them that the message he brought them wasn't even presented in any flowery, impressive way. It was the cross of Christ ALONE that had drawn them.
The Corinthian church's claim to infamy was their division. They couldn't quite wrap their mind around a new life, so they kept dragging old practices into their church. They lived and worked in a sophisticated culture. Their metropolitan location gave them access to the world's news, and they often debated new ideas in the public square. When it came time to tell of their rescue, their story likely felt lowly in the crowd, compared to the flashy stories of others.
Paul reminded them that God was with them and had faithfully gifted them with every spiritual gift needed to spread the gospel to their lost city. They had no need to compare themselves to the teachers, the philosphers, the ones who knew all the latest talking points. God may have drawn a ragamuffin bunch of Corinthians together under His Name, but He had plans for them. All the way back in Isaiah 29:14, God had promised that although His plan to send His Son to die for the sins of many might seem foolish, it will overcome the wisdom and intelligence of the world. Because even if God would be called foolish and weak--perish the thought-- He would still be wiser and stronger than another the world had to offer.
This church, built of primarily Gentile believers who may not have ever heard of Isaiah--a Jewish prophet--had a beautiful part to play in the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. By human standards, they were ignorant, insignificant, lowly. BUT GOD....The Kingdom He called them to is an upside down kingdom. He CHOSE the unexpected to humiliate the expected. He CHOSE what was lowly and despised to cancel the lofty and popular. The lofty and popular boast in themselves, but the ones who are called to new life boast in their Rescuer.
We are so like our Corinthian brothers and sisters. Quick to choose sides, quick to align ourselves with our favorite preachers and teachers. But CHRIST JESUS ALONE is the wisdom from God, true wisdom. The only wisdom we need.
He is our righteousness. Our holiness. Our redemption.
My one defense. My righteousness. Oh God, how I need You.
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