O Lord, You have made it clear that you desire your Church to be united. Break down the walls which separate us and build us back up again as one body in Jesus Christ, through whom we pray, amen.
Read: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18
1 Corinthians 1:10-18 New International Version (NIV)
10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Taking an oath is a part of our contemporary lives. Not in the sense of oath as foul language (although that may be a reference that shows my age. . .), but oath in the sense of a promise, especially a promise to governing authorities. For example, the Constitution requires that people who work for the US Government take a loyalty oath. Current US law says this:
An individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services, shall take the following oath: “I, ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”1
The president has a different loyalty oath. These oaths are to the Constitution. Older historical oaths were taken to individuals, instead.
As we read again from the first chapter of the first Letter to the Corinthians, it’s clear that Paul is writing to a church that was starting to come apart. There were competing loyalties running through the group, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ,” 2 the people declared. These divisions that had little to do with the relationships between those to whom they are declaring loyalty. Paul, Apollos, and Cephas— that is, Peter—all declared loyalty to Christ.
But what seems to have caused Paul even more concern was that it seems that baptism had started to be a loyalty oath to whoever baptized a parson, rather than to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What should have been a point of unity seems to have become a point of contention. Paul was not poo- pooing baptism itself, but a practice that seemed to turn the point of baptism on it’s head. It’s not about by whom someone is baptized. It’s about the Gospel of Jesus and the faith in God into which that person is baptized. Our loyalty isn’t to the one who baptized us. Ultimately, our loyalty isn’t to the church where we were baptized, either—whether we think of that as the local community of faith or the denomination on the sign out front. Our loyalty is to the Church, all believers across time and space, and to the Gospel we share. And as Paul states it, the essential point of that Gospel is that Jesus was crucified. No matter who baptized us, we share this in common—Jesus died for us and our salvation.
It seems that message wasn’t well thought of by many in the city of Corinth. In a culture where winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing, the message of the cross isn’t well thought of by many in our day either. But that’s no reason to abandon it, to try to turn the essence of the Gospel into something else. Because as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, the truth still rings clear:
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. —1 Corinthians 1:18 New International Version (NIV) Thanks be to God!
Have you done a personal loyalty check recently?
May the God of love break down the walls to unite you with the world in Jesus’ Name. Amen. ______1. Neal, Jeff. (October 24, 2019) The Oath of Office and What it Means. Retrieved from https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2019/10/the- oath-of-office-and-what-it-means/ 2 1 Corinthians 1:12b New International Version (NIV)