Good morning. So after Paul tells them to all agree and that
there be no divisions among them, He says: I have been informed concerning you
by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that
each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,… and I am of Christ“. Has Christ been
divided? We have that today in the church, in that people will say I am of this
evangelist or of that apostle or this Pastor. And what’s worse, if you don’t
agree with what my idol is saying, then you are not a good Christian. Paul was
not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I
thank God that I baptized none of you except…, so that no one would say you
were baptized in my name. For Christ did not send me to baptize (remember that
in the book of John people were saying that Jesus was baptizing, but John said
that it was not Jesus, but rather His disciples that were baptizing), but to
preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ
would be not be made void. We are not sent to wow people with our great
oration. We are sent to proclaim the gospel, and it will do the work to bring
about salvation. Father thank You that it’s all about You and Jesus. If we
proclaim Christ, and Him crucified, people will come to salvation.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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