But I brothers could not address you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ I fed you with milk but not solid food for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each. I planted Apollos watered, but only God gives the increase. – 1 Corinthians 3:1-7
Around the Thanksgiving table, you have that one Uncle that unrelentingly will give his speeches of when he was young, and what is wrong with young people these days, yada, yada, yada. Everybody rolls their eyes, and you just know you will have to white-knuckle it for another year. Imagine if you were in ancient Greece, getting ready for the Thanksgiving football game between Athens State and Athens U. You studied under Epicurus at State, and your Uncle is always going on about studying under Plato at the U, back in the good old days when philosophy was philosophy. This year, Aunty Stoic is chiming in with her two drachmas. While that is going on, a knock on the door signals the arrival of the redneck in-laws from the poor side of town, who tell crude jokes and make everyone uncomfortable.
Do you feel that you would rather celebrate with that family than your own? Recently, some people have concluded that holidays have become impossible. Google queries like ‘How to have a peaceful thanksgiving when my family are _______________s ?’ have trended. Would it surprise you to find out that this situation (and worse) existed in Corinth?
“one says ‘I follow Paul’, and another, ‘I follow Apollos’ and another ‘I am of Peter’” – 1 Cor 1:12
When you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you. – 1 Corinthians 11:18
Paul describes the Corinth church as a diverse one with strong opinions on everything. It was a port city five times larger than Athens, located 60 miles west of Athens. Obviously, this affected their philosophical opinions. Various Greek philosophies dominated the culture, as strongly as any political views we have today. They used their education against those with a different philosophy.
Division didn’t end there. People’s backgrounds went with them to church, and Corinth was a dumpster fire. The poor people lived down by the ports, while the elites lived on the hill. But it got much, much worse. On the top of the hill was the main temple to Aphrodite, which employed a thousand temple prostitutes.
“Don’t you know that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a prostitute?” -1 Corinthians 6:15
It would appear some people were still involved in unspeakable activities. It’s even possible that some of the prostitutes had become Christians. Awkward! Even the ‘mature’ Christians name dropped their favorite preachers to show superiority.
We customarily invited people to our home for holidays, but Ukrainians liked Thanksgiving the most. Thanksgiving is a holiday that is purely American, as is the menu. I never realized how much Americans like cinnamon until a Ukrainian pointed out that we put it in everything! Ukrainians loved getting to have a peek into such a staple of American cultures and traditions. Pumpkin pie (or ‘butternut pie’, since pumpkin wasn’t available) was a whole new concept for them. Many Ukrainians didn’t like butternut squash, until they tried it in a pie!
It’s a little easier to get along with those of different cultural backgrounds, but it’s a little harder when political or religious views collide. Corinthian Christians came from a deficit, in that they had to unlearn a lot of pagan philosophies and traditions. To them, Paul and Apollos were likely crazy uncles who taught things that they’d never heard before.
‘Paul planted‘. Into the middle of this culture, like a lightning bolt, Paul came with a whole new way of thinking. This certainly helps us understand why they weren’t ready for solid food. Let those seeds of experience and knowledge be planted in you. You might find that uncle is trying to instill in you positive attributes, that you can implement into your own life.
‘Apollos watered’. We can take some of the stories and craziness, and let the pieces of our diverse church family influence and help us grow to be a complete, and mature person.
How does God give the increase? Some people take this only to refer to the numerical growth of the church, however, I think it can be referring to my personal growth as a Christian. Sometimes it’s a painful process, and we might feel vulnerable, but when we lay down our pride, politics, our degrees, positions and our wealth, then God can cause us to grow to where we can all sit at the same table in unity.
In 2 Corinthians Paul, again wrote to the Corinthian church just a year after his first letter. He seems to indicate that they still had some growing to do. But there are some encouraging notes:
“You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men.” 2 Corinthians 3:2
” And in this I give my advice: it is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago. But now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have.” 2 Corinthians :10,11
There were some problems with follow through, but one year later, Paul is confident about the progress they are making. If we make it our objective to sit down with others in unity and grow from them, eventually, it will be our turn to be the older ones who impart ‘crazy ideas’ to those who grow from our experiences.