Go Apollos! No, go Paul!

1 Corinthians 3:4-9a

⁴ When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?

⁵ After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. ⁶ I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. ⁷ It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.

Imagine a culture which is incredibly competitive, obsessed with having followers or defining themselves by who they follow, and spending their time running down people who follow someone else. Could be twenty-first century Australia … but Corinth took it to a whole new level.

Corinth hosted the Isthmian Games – their version of the Olympic Games. It included public speaking (oratory) as a competitive event. Imagine something like the tribes of English football fans, all chanting the name of their man, booing and howling down their opponent, delighted or appalled by the twists and turns of the battle between … two men giving speeches. Paul says he intentionally avoided playing that game when he brought the gospel to Corinth (2:1-5). But a truly gifted Christian speaker called Apollos came after him and the church in Corinth fell into that whole competitive madness, dividing into Paul supporters lined up against Apollos supporters, and maybe Peter supporters too (1:10-17).

Now Paul puts it all in perspective: there’s only one team – God’s team. Paul and Apollos (and Peter) are all doing their part of what God is doing amongst them – like labourers doing the jobs the farmer (God) gives them to plant his crop that only God can make grow in his field – his church.

I confess there are some Christian speakers that I love to hear on podcasts, YouTube or whatever, and some – not so much. But the challenge for me is to remain open to the insights God gives to speakers I like less … or church traditions that are different to mine … or ways of telling God’s truth which are less familiar to me. And especially, never to treat Jesus’ followers who like other speakers, or belong to other traditions, or do church differently to me as anything but members of the same family as me – God’s family. Jesus came to restore relationship with God as father – and between all the members of God’s family.

Holy Spirit, please give me openness to hear people I resonate with less, wisdom and discernment to hear the things you’ve given them to say to me, and love so that I respond to things that are not from you with grace and clarity. Thank you for the brilliant diversity of ways you’re working through others in my life and in the church.

Written by David Cornell