Paul starts this letter like his others: celebrating who the recipients are in Jesus, and what Jesus has done for them. In v4 he writes of the grace given in Jesus, v5 the enriching in Jesus, v8 how Jesus will keep them to the end, and v9 how God has called them into fellowship with His Son - Jesus. Paul is only able to write to them as believers because of what God has done through Jesus. Paul's original job in Corinth was to bear witness to Jesus, the rest was God's work through Jesus to those in Corinth - who now believe and are a collection of people to write to. In short it is all about Jesus, and God's work through Jesus.
And yet, even though it is all about Jesus, for the Corinthian Christians living out their faith in the everyday world in all its diversity, the potential for division is there, and fracture lines have already appeared. So in v10 Paul appeals for unity. The line of thought is simple: it is all about Jesus, so let's keep it all about Jesus.
Verse 10 literally in the Greek says something like 'All of you should say the same thing'. Yet we know in practice this will never apply to literally everything - we all have differing opinions on all kinds of things! One Bible commentator suggests Paul's intent here was that 'all of you should hold quiet accord', learn to sit quietly with your differences. This makes some sense because later in the same letter we will see Paul writing about believers who hold different views and practices (some profound) and yet he seems okay with it. In those cases he writes to give instruction on good ways for believers to conduct themselves in the face of these differences. Paul's desire is that 'there is no division', using the Greek word for 'tearing apart', and continues 'that they might be restored together'. The Greek word here is the same word for mending fishing nets, giving that sense of rather being a net torn apart, he wants us to be mended and meshed together. That meshing is all in Jesus, because of His grace, His enriching, His holding us to keep us in the calling He has for us.
That is why in v11 Paul says 'Labels make no sense'. Already people were forming factions: word had come from Chloe's little church-group in her house how people were aligning themselves with different leaders. Today's equivalent would be "I follow Nicky Gumbel", or "its Gavin Calver's podcasts for me", or "No way - Bill Johnson on Bethel TV and nothing else!". There is nothing wrong with the podcasts, the YouTube streams, the Bible devotions that leaders with international status produce - their material may well help you - the mistake is to let the importance subtly subvert the place of Jesus. So yes listening/watching may help you grow closer to Jesus, but when it no longer does that helpfully ask Jesus directly "what next in following YOU?".
Paul writes that yes he was leading among them, and there was Apollos, and somehow Cephas (Peter) on the scene ... but the only thing that matters is are you in Christ? So much so that Paul is not bothered who baptised who - his job was to bear witness for people to discover Jesus, from which baptism followed but it is irrelevant who did it.
Paul is urging them to hold the right perspective. Be clear on what is primary, and all other stuff is actually secondary. The fact that Jesus is the Son of God, born in the flesh, lived, died and rose again - he died that we might be saved (and we conclude his death is the only way for all to be saved) ... these are primary. The other stuff is secondary. This series in 1 Corinthians will touch on stuff where people across the church will certainly disagree! But we can hold quiet accord and need not be torn apart because we are all united and say the same thing on the primary truth that Jesus is Lord.
Spurgeon - the 1800s famous baptist preacher - kept this principle. In the late 1800s a big rift developed between him and other baptist leaders across the country, which became known as the 'Downgrade Controversy'. Spurgeon was worried that other leaders were not clear on the primary of the saving faith only in Jesus, and so he was prepared to (and in fact did) split away from them. And yet Spurgeon had many other disagreements and different views on many other things (some were key doctrinal points), through all of which he argued for them to hold together. The only reason to split was on the primary issue, but he worked for unity over many secondary points.
So for us, how does the primary of saving faith in Jesus as Lord affect our lives - hence the key question:
[UP] How does the life, death & resurrection of Jesus set the tone for everything you do?
Challenge: Reflect on who you are in Christ
Through the ministries of this church we have many occasions where people of no faith can ask big questions out of the blue. It is important for us to accept that these questions will come, but to not jump to shooting them down or trying to argue our way through (even if we have lots of scriptures and good points to call upon). Instead it is better to pause and ask the person to say more, i.e. to listen to where they are coming from. That might lead to some awkward assertions being made, but we are better off then holding those in tension (this may be uncomfortable) and then giving our best shot in the moment at trying to draw attention to Jesus and who He is. Having done that, maybe let that rest there!
Our basic task is to point people to Jesus - to saving faith in Him. It is not to advocate for or against a particular label or badge. There are lots of badges to wear, e.g. baptist, evangelical etc. These have their place, but when talking to a friend, colleague or neighbour these badges make no sense to them and are unimportant compared to revealing who Jesus is.
Remember that is is all about Jesus: His grace towards us, His enriching us, His holding us, and His faithfulness to the calling He has already made on our lives. At the end of the day, when Jesus returns, that is the badge on our lives that He will be looking for.
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