The Ground of Unity in 1 Corinthians 1

“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.” (1 Cor. 1:10-11)

Paul had to deal with faction in the Corinthian church, and in 1:10-11 he exhorts them to give up their squabbling in submission to the Gospel and the power of the cross of Christ (v. 17). Paul appeals for their agreement “by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Their unity was to be under their master (“Lord”), a master whom they all had in common (“our”).

1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Take 1

In his appeal for them to put this agreement and unity into practice, he echoes the phrasing by which he described in vv. 1-9 what was in principle already the case. In those opening verses, Paul repeats five times that Jesus (and not Paul or Apollos or Cephas) is Lord, repeating the phrase even when not syntactically necessary, so that the reader is forced to confront the fact. In four of those instances, the first person plural possessive is attached to it.

There are two elements to note here, then: it is Jesus who Lord, and he is held as Lord by his people together, in fellowship. Their fellowship is predicated on mutual gathering around his name (v. 2), and it is a fellowship that is “of” him (v. 9).

Παῦλος κλητὸς ἀπόστολος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ διὰ θελήματος θεοῦ καὶ Σωσθένης ὁ ἀδελφὸς 2 τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἡγιασμένοις ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, τῇ οὔσῃ ἐν Κορίνθῳ, κλητοῖς ἁγίοις, σὺν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἐπικαλουμένοις τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ αὐτῶν καὶ ἡμῶν· 3 χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.

4 Εὐχαριστῶ τῷ θεῷ μου πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν ἐπὶ τῇ χάριτι τοῦ θεοῦ τῇ δοθείσῃ ὑμῖν ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, 5 ὅτι ἐν παντὶ ἐπλουτίσθητε ἐν αὐτῷ, ἐν παντὶ λόγῳ καὶ πάσῃ γνώσει, 6 καθὼς τὸ μαρτύριον τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐβεβαιώθη ἐν ὑμῖν, 7 ὥστε ὑμᾶς μὴ ὑστερεῖσθαι ἐν μηδενὶ χαρίσματι, ἀπεκδεχομένους τὴν ἀποκάλυψιν τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ· 8 ὃς καὶ βεβαιώσει ὑμᾶς ἕως τέλους ἀνεγκλήτους ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. 9 πιστὸς ὁ θεὸς δι’ οὗ ἐκλήθητε εἰς κοινωνίαν τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν.

Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Unity of the sort that Paul envisions, then, never arises from Paul himself or anyone else in the community, but always from Jesus himself, who is the common center of all of the Christian people.

1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Take 2

This kind of grounding of unity and fellowship in and around the Lord can be seen to be emphasized by two other sets of words that appear with frequency in the opening verses. Here is the same passage again, with the searchlight turned in a different direction:

Παῦλος κλητὸς ἀπόστολος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ διὰ θελήματος θεοῦ καὶ Σωσθένης ὁ ἀδελφὸς 2 τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἡγιασμένοις ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, τῇ οὔσῃ ἐν Κορίνθῳ, κλητοῖς ἁγίοις, σὺν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἐπικαλουμένοις τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ αὐτῶν καὶ ἡμῶν· 3 χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.

4 Εὐχαριστῶ τῷ θεῷ μου πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν ἐπὶ τῇ χάριτι τοῦ θεοῦ τῇ δοθείσῃ ὑμῖν ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, 5 ὅτι ἐν παντὶ ἐπλουτίσθητε ἐν αὐτῷ, ἐν παντὶ λόγῳ καὶ πάσῃ γνώσει, 6 καθὼς τὸ μαρτύριον τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐβεβαιώθη ἐν ὑμῖν, 7 ὥστε ὑμᾶς μὴ ὑστερεῖσθαι ἐν μηδενὶ χαρίσματι, ἀπεκδεχομένους τὴν ἀποκάλυψιν τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ· 8 ὃς καὶ βεβαιώσει ὑμᾶς ἕως τέλους ἀνεγκλήτους ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. 9 πιστὸς ὁ θεὸς δι’ οὗ ἐκλήθητε εἰς κοινωνίαν τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν.

Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

In this instance, the echoes are clearer in Greek than they are in English. The first thing we might notice is that are gathering is a response to God’s action, to his call. Twice in v. 2 this call is associated with sanctification (underlined without bold above), in the sense of being set apart for  God’s special purposes: the “church” (ἐκκλησίᾳ), the “called out” body, is in apposition to those “sanctified” or “set apart” in Christ Jesus; and again, later in the verse, those people are said to be “called [to be] saints.” God’s people are gathered to Him through his call to them rather than vice versa. It is the Lord who calls us and the Lord who keeps us, such that no one will be able to bring a charge against us–we will be ἀνεγκλήτους, ultimately < καλέω–on the Last Day because God has called us (ἐκλήθητε) into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ, who is the Lord and can perform what He commands.

Second, this call by which God’s people are gathered underneath their common Lord as head–that is, are gathered as the “church”–is a result of God’s free and unmerited favor rather than of God’s response to anything virtuous that we have done. Grace has been given to God’s people (v. 4), but only in Christ Jesus and never apart from Him. Just as God takes the initiative in calling, God takes the initiative in freely giving us his favor. In the period between the First and Second Comings, God’s grace (χάρις) also is made manifest in the gifts (χαρίσματι) that sustain and nourish the waiting and hopeful church. God’s gracious activity towards his people causes Paul to give thanks (Εὐχαριστῶ. v. 4)–the proper human response to God’s prior action–and enables him to wish the blessing of grace and peace upon the Corinthians (v. 3), again tied explicitly and unalterably to the source of grace and peace in God himself.

Discussion: Lord, Word, Community, and Charity

As Paul sets the matter out in these opening verses, the things to which he refers are objectively true already. Unity of Christians with one another is to be found in the mutual submission of the body of believers to the risen Lord Jesus. In principle, God has made it so by his gracious calling of believers in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone, “whom God made our wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1:30). Insofar as God’s action is prior in his calling out of a people for Himself, and his calling of them in Christ, we can see that the fellowship into which He calls us can only make sense as a fellowship in and under Christ the Head, to whom all are subordinated.

The proper ordering as outlined above makes sense, then, of the problem Paul goes on to identify in the next section of the first chapter: there is an objective grounding to unity, which is the call of God in Christ, but sinful man is fully capable of making a mess of it in his subjective appropriation and practice, which is exactly what the Corinthians were doing.

For the Corinthians had formed factions around various leaders, with some saying “I am of Paul,” others “I am of Apollos,” others “I am of Cephas,” others “I am of Christ.” Certainly the error could not have been that some of them claimed to follow Christ. Rather the error seems to be that these men of party-spirit put Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ on the same level, as though one could choose between them.

But this is blatantly to misunderstand the proper order and relationship between Christ and his people. There is an unbridgeable gap between the Head and the members that cannot be relativized. Paul, Apollos, and Cephas are servants, as Paul goes on to say in chapter three. They are God’s “fellow workers,” but they can in no sense be put on a level with Him. It is God who gives the growth.

Because they are servants, they can be followed insofar and only insofar as they attest to Christ and do Christ’s work, which is to proclaim Christ’s message; this is perhaps why Paul says, immediately after his initial description of Corinthian faction, “I thank God (εὐχαριστῶ) that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name….For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel (εὐαγγελίζεσθαι)…” (1:17).

Does Paul mean by this seemingly stark antithesis that he is opposed to baptism? Of course not. It means that baptism does not forge some sort of tie between the baptized and the human instrument of baptism, such that the subject then “belongs” to that person or becomes a subject of a particular human order. He is subject to Christ, to whom baptism must be referred if it is to have any meaning. Thus in Matthew 28, Christ gives only one name into which disciples are to be baptized: the triune Name of God.

As Paul says in Eph. 4:5, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. The people of God find their unity as they are graciously called out of the world by their common Lord, upon whom they themselves call in common, a call that comes about through the faithful proclamation of his message. Those people are to then give thanks, and to manifest their thankfulness by walking in charity under Christ’s authority.