Back to Corinth: 1 Cor. 1:11-18

Verse 13: “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”

The college conference that my alma mater belongs to is the SEC – Southeastern Conference. Each member school is proud of its standing, accomplishments, and strengths. You can hear it especially when any teams from any two of the schools play each other. But come college playoff / post-season bowl time, if a member team is up against a member of another conference (especially one that thinks that they’re better than the SEC), the conference pride comes out, and you might well hear the cheers of “S-E-C! S-E-C! S-E-C!” No matter the intra-conference college rivalries, the conference usually stands together.

That is somewhat a loose analogy as to what should be happening in Corinth. Paul is dismayed to discover that, although the church was founded on Jesus Christ, personality divisions have begun taking over: “I am of Paul…I am of Apollos…I am of Cephas…” and some still would say “I am of Christ”. Paul wanted them ALL to say “I am of Christ”! He is reminding them that Jesus Christ is the One who died for their sins, rose again, and lives that we may live in Him! It was not important how they came to Christ…only that they came to Christ! Or, to put it colloquially, Paul wanted to remind them to keep the main thing, the main thing!

Do you belong to the Savior? The introduction is surely not as important as the conversation.

Something to think about.

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Back to Corinth…1 Cor. 1: 1-10

I checked recently, and I last went through the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians sometime around 2009 (wow, almost a decade). After I completed the last study, I felt called by God to revisit those twin set of letters from Paul. You see, back when my church did a summer reading walkthrough of Psalms, I started sharing revelations that God showed me through the study. When we finished, I had several friends on the list ask me, “Well, you’re not going to stop now, are you?” The very next study we went through in this almost 10-year-old ministry was the Corinthians. Seeing how God’s Word is “active and sharper than any two-edged sword”, I thought it might be interesting to revisit these books to see what God wants to show us. So…back to Corinth!

I Cor. 1: 1,2,9:
“Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,”
“To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:”
“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We answer calls in different ways; take the following 2 examples:

The other morning, I logged into my work computer to find out (so I thought) that I had to report to the Disaster Recovery drill we hold twice a year. “Oh, great.” I thought. Not only was I not prepared, I thought it was someone else’s turn at this. So, I trudged over to the building to report to the drill room, not looking forward to spending hours in this room until our responsibilities were discharged. I vented to the Lord on the way…but He was already ahead of me. Turns out the tag-team oncall who took the first watch for our team had already verified all that we had to do (he had just not told me!) Furthermore, my manager later apologized and told me my name was listed for DR by mistake. As I left, I looked heavenward and prayed, “Thank you, Lord…and I’m sorry I had to the wrong attitude about this.”

Contrast that with Eugene Judd, a bouncer for a Canadian bar. He and the bartender had observed one of the waitresses getting manhandled by a couple of punks, so he went over to correct them. The punks laughed at first, because Judd was a dwarf, only a few feet tall, However, Eugene Judd was also the secret Canadian operative code-named Puck! He soon manhandled the two punks right out of the bar! No sooner had the dust cleared than a hypersonic signal came across a device implanted behind one of Judd’s ears. “The call”, he whispered, “THE CALL!” He went happily cartwheeling out of the bar and down the street. You see, the call was from the Canadian super-team known as Alpha Flight, whom Judd thought had disbanded…but now, with the call, he knew it would be time for action against some menace. (This was from my recollection of Alpha Flight #1 from Marvel Comics).

2 different calls, one real, one fictional. Both were answered, but the attitude was different. You’ll note in the Scripture verses above the verbs “called” and “call”. Paul and the Corinthian church were called by God, and they in turn call on the name of Jesus Christ. Both calls are important, laden with responsibility. Paul was reminding the church about how important it is to “answer the call”. And, we Christians know, that at all times, Jesus is just a call away in prayer.

Have you answered the call today? Have you already answered the most important call you could get (to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior)? If not….better answer that call before it’s too late!

Something to think about.

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