Who then is Paul? A Meditation on 1st Corinthians 3

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos,

but ministers by whom ye believed,

even as the Lord gave to every man?

I have planted, Apollos watered;

but God gave the increase.

So then neither is he that planteth anything,

Neither he that watereth;

but God that giveth the increase.

It is easy to observe the general ways of the world, and conclude that charisma and power are the way things get done in nearly every sphere of life.  Political parties solicit spokespeople who can convincingly promote their platforms, and motivate people to support them.  Businesses seek out polished chief executive officers and chairmen of their boards who can influence others to help them achieve their goals.  Governments often appoint individuals to head departments and offices who have the persuasive or coercive skills of moving people toward governmental objectives.  When most human institutions measure their success in terms of revenue, influence, power, and membership, the leaders of these institutions or movements can take on a certain mystique in the minds of those who follow them.  This certainly is not new to our age, as those who lived with Alexander the Great, Julius Cesar, Genghis Khan, Charlemagne, or any other charismatic and effective world leader might attest.  Charisma, power, and wealth appear to drive human institutions, and those who lead them, for better or worse, are often chosen for their embodiment of those traits.

The Church of Jesus Christ, however, was not instituted to follow this model.  As St. Paul reflects above while writing to the Church at Corinth, the honor or prestige of those leading the churches is practically insignificant.  Paul, as an Apostle, makes himself equal to Apollos, another preacher or pastor, and by extension to every other pastor or preacher in the Church, by pointing out that nothing he does actually grows the church at all.  Paul was exceptionally well educated, capable of grand and soaring rhetoric, given the power to work miracles and see prophetically into the future, and yet he is emphatic that no matter what he does in the Name of Jesus, it is only God who gives the increase.  The same, he says, is true of Apollos, and everyone else who plants the seed of God’s Word and waters it by their preaching, teaching, and practice among the people.  While every one of those preachers and pastors will be held to an excruciatingly high bar of judgment by Christ for what they have believed, taught, and confessed (a point made later in the same chapter,) Paul is adamant that it is not the leaders of the Church who grow it or maintain it or give it birth; rather, it is God alone who brings the Church into existence, grows it, and sustains it until the Last Day.

Despite how clear St. Paul, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, is on this point, modern churches far too often forget, ignore, or disregard him, and that to their own peril.  Our Roman friends have been enamored of electing Bishops of Rome for all sorts of political purposes over the last 1500 years or so, sometimes with devastating effect.  What good is a Pope who tries to rule every diocese of the Church and every kingdom of the world like an Italian mob boss in drag, even if he manages to unite the whole world under the brutality and heresy of his rule?  Thanks be to God that our Roman friends have elected better Popes in the last 100 years than they did in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but the tendencies of the Roman Papacy toward a Theology of Glory needs constant watch and resistance.  Of course, the Reformation churches are glass houses from which rocks ought not be thrown—how many Protestant churches have yielded to the heresies and abuses of charismatic leaders they have elected just to grow their membership, their coffers, and their social influence?  Be they Lutheran, or Calvinist, or Anglican, or Methodist, or Baptist, or Pentecostal, or whatever flavor of sect is born in between, Reformation churches are rife with false teachers and petty kings who would make themselves popes of their own fiefdoms, or mobs ruling according to their own passions and avarice.  Each is guilty of failing to hear the clear words of St. Paul written nearly 2000 years ago, which reflect the clear teaching of Christ in the Gospels, and the witness of the Hebrew people of God before them:  it is only God who gives increase in the Church.

But if the Church is not born, grown, and sustained by the works of man, how is it that this is done?  Paul is clear in this regard, too—by God’s Word and Spirit.  It may be easy to forget, but the earth on which we stand was born, formed, and sustained by the Word and Spirit of God, just as is the air that we breathe, the sky above us, and the universe in all its extravagant expanse.  There is nothing in creation which came to be of its own power, gave itself form and meaning by its own power, sustains itself by its own power, or will judge itself on the Last Day by its own power.  The illusion of the rise and fall of kingdoms, businesses, and even civilizations by the efforts of men distracts from another central reality given to us by the Word of God:  that the whole of history is moving toward the ends for which God created it.  To be sure, we as individuals and even as whole societies may be found more or less faithful, more or less culpable for the judgment which comes upon us, more or less obedient to our God who desires to bless us, but the true underlying reality of the universe has always been and shall always be the Word and Spirit of God.  It is to this deep and inescapable reality that the Church of Jesus Christ continues to bear witness by its very existence, adorned by the scorn and derision of men for its simplicity and humility, but always born, grown, and sustained by the living Word and Spirit of God.

To those in the church who have lost sight of this truth, and made a mess of themselves and their witness to the world, repent and be of good cheer:  Christ, the Eternal Word of God, as has died and risen again to forgive you.  To those in the world who have lost hope in their ability to move the cosmos toward the ends they thought they could achieve by charisma, power, or influence, repent and be of good cheer:  Christ, the Eternal Word of God has come to seek and to save you.  To those who inhabit the small and disdained churches of the world, scattered and battered and derided by those whose gods have become money, power, and influence, whose faith hangs by a thread and wonder if God will really save them from their surrounding enemies, remember and be of good cheer:  Christ, the Eternal Word of God continues to be your eternal birth, your eternal growth, your eternal sustenance, and your eternal blessing forevermore.  There is no pastor, no preacher, no consultant, no businessman, no potentate, no politician, no committee, no commission, nor any other human being who will be your hope and victory.  Let the shadows of man’s prideful manipulations and machinations recede from your mind, that your eyes might see the Eternal Word which has always been given and shed for your forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Hear Him call to you today.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.