Christianity, according to Paul, is an escape from the world. Gal. 1:4. All human distinctions are comparatively unimportant. "There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female." Gal. 3:28. Such a doctrine might seem logically to lead to fanaticism. If the Christian is already a citizen of heaven, may he not be indifferent to the conditions of life upon this earth? Such a conclusion was altogether avoided by Paul. In First Corinthians Paul is revealed as the most practical of men. All human distinctions are subordinate and secondary—and yet these distinctions are carefully observed. Paul was a man of heroic faith, but he was also possessed of admirable tact.
It is not that the one side of Paul's nature limited the other; it is not that common sense acted as a check to transcendental religion. On the contrary, the two things seemed to be in perfect harmony. Just because Paul was inwardly so entirely free from the world, he was also so wise in dealing with worldly affairs. The secret of this harmony was consecration. Human relationships, when consecrated to God, are not destroyed, but ennobled. They cease, indeed, to be an end in themselves, but they become a means to Christian service. The Christian man has no right to be indifferent to the world. If he is, he is no true son of the God who made the world, and sent the Lord to save it. The Christian, like the man of the world, is profoundly interested in the conditions of life on this earth. Only, unlike the man of the world, he is not helpless and perplexed in the presence of those conditions; but from his vantage ground of heavenly power, he shapes them to the divine will. He is interested in the world, but he is interested in it, not as its servant, but as its master.
So in First Corinthians Paul lays hold of certain perplexing practical problems with the sure grasp of one who is called to rule and not to serve. Everything that he touches he lifts to a higher plane. In his hands even the simplest things of life receive a heavenly significance.
The problems that are discussed in First Corinthians stood in a special relation to the environment of the Corinthian church. Most of them were due to the threatened intrusions of Greek paganism. They are closely analogous, however, to the problems which we have to solve to-day. Paganism and worldliness are not dead. The Church still stands in the midst of a hostile environment. We can still use the teaching of Paul. That teaching will now be examined in a few of its important details.
1. THE PARTIES
Paul mentions four parties that had been formed in the Corinthian church—a Paul-party, an Apollos-party, a Cephas-party and a Christ-party. These parties do not seem to have been separated from one another by any serious doctrinal differences, and it is impossible to determine their characteristics in detail. In the section where the party spirit is discussed, Paul blames the Corinthians for intellectual pride. This fault has often been connected with the Apollos-party. Apollos was an Alexandrian, and probably had an Alexandrian Greek training. He might therefore have unconsciously evoked among some members of the Corinthian church an excessive admiration for his more pretentious style of preaching, which might have caused them to despise the simpler manner of Paul. Even this much, however, is little more than surmise. At any rate, Apollos should not be blamed for the faults of those who misused his name. He is praised unstintedly by Paul, who was even desirous that he should return at once to Corinth. I Cor. 16:12. Paul blames the Paul-party just as much as any of the other three.
The Peter-party was composed of admirers of Peter, who had either come to Corinth from the scene of Peter's labors elsewhere, or simply had known of Peter by hearsay. It is unlikely that Peter himself had been in Corinth, for if he had Paul would probably have let the fact appear in First or Second Corinthians. The Christ-party is rather puzzling. A comparison with the false teachers who are combated in Second Corinthians has led some scholars to suppose that it was a Judaizing party, which emphasized a personal acquaintance with the earthly Jesus as a necessary qualification of apostleship. In that case, however, Paul would probably have singled out the Christ-party for special attack. More probably these were simply men who, in proud opposition to the adherents of Paul, of Apollos and of Cephas, emphasized their own independence of any leader other than Christ. Of course, the watchword, "I am of Christ," if used in a better spirit, would have been altogether praiseworthy, and indeed Paul desires all the parties to unite in it. I Cor. 3:21-23.
Perhaps it is a mistake to attribute to these parties anything like stability. On the whole, the passage gives the impression that it is not the individual parties that Paul is condemning, but the party spirit. That party spirit was manifested by watchwords like those which are enumerated in I Cor. 1:12, but that that enumeration was meant to be complete, does not appear. The whole effort to determine the characteristics of the individual parties—an effort which has absorbed the attention of many scholars—should perhaps be abandoned.
Paul's treatment of the party spirit exhibits his greatness not only as an administrator, but also as a writer. The subject was certainly not inspiring; yet under Paul's touch it becomes luminous with heavenly glory. The contrast of human wisdom with the message of the cross, I Cor. 1:18-31, where a splendid rhythm of language matches the sublimity of the thought, the wonderful description of the freedom and power of the man who possesses the Spirit of God, the grand climax of the third chapter, "For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's"—these are among the passages that can never be forgotten.