1 Corinthians 1:13 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Corinthians 1:13

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The answer to these questions is so obvious. ‘Is Christ divided?’ How can he be when as Paul teaches elsewhere, ‘There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling’ (Ephesians 4:4). Christians are commanded to love one another, and love is a uniting affection, but the implication of these parties is that the believers in Corinth would prefer to occupy different corners in heaven, which is foolishness. ‘Was Paul crucified for you?’ The logic is that only one was crucified to make an atonement for sinners; there is only one Saviour of the world who by his being lifted up on the cross draws all men to himself. Having reconciled them to God which is the great effect of the cross, he does not intend that they should squabble with one another and be divided within themselves. ‘Were ye baptized in the name of Paul?’ I thank God I baptised none of you. He thanks God. He believed in baptism. Christ commanded baptism, the apostle Paul teaches baptism, but he thanks God that in Corinth, somehow, circumstances ruled by God meant that he did not do the baptising. Others did it. Now he looks back and says, ‘It was of the Lord, because I can see that if I had baptised too, it would have strengthened this party spirit.’ ‘Oh, but I was baptised by Paul, even in the name of Paul’, some might have claimed. ‘I thank God I have escaped that because God so overruled that baptisms did not fall to me because I was concentrating on the preaching.’I like the suggestion of some of the old commentators and writers, though nobody can be certain, that Stephanas was the jailer of Philippi, who was baptised at Philippi, and subsequently moved to Corinth, and that's why he's put in a separate category, not because the apostle forgot and suddenly remembered him. But because two of the people he mentioned were baptised in Corinth and one who is among them was baptised elsewhere by the apostle Paul, so is added separately. It's not an afterthought. There is no afterthoughts in the inspired apostle. But the key thing is verse 17. ‘For Christ sent me not to baptise’ – which he did send him to do, but you’ve got to read the whole sentence – ‘but to preach the gospel.’ And in Corinth that was his chief concern.

Application

Questions

These verses actually troubled some people on quite a different basis. They say, ‘But I believe the Bible is inspired, infallible and it is God-given, and Paul seems to be stumbling along remembering things as he goes here which doesn't seem to match my doctrine of Scripture.’ Here he is in one verse saying he baptized only Crispus and Gaius, and then in a later verse that he baptized Stephanas too, and he was not sure whether there were any others. ‘I baptised Crispus and Gaius’, he says, but why didn't he include Stephanas too at first? Perhaps because Stephanas was not actually baptised in Corinth. He was the first fruits of Achaia, but it does not necessarily mean that he was baptised along with the first Corinthian wave, though he was associated with Corinth and did much for them.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

1 Corinthians 1:13 Commentary and Bible Study