More

Commentary on Acts 6:1-7

As the new community grew, so did its need to develop new structures.  With its growth came a more complex membership.  It is likely that some time had elapsed between today’s passage and those we were reading during the past week.

For the first time, the word ‘disciples’ is used to describe those who had become believers in Christ; up to this, it had only been applied to those who had actually been with Jesus during his public ministry.

The issue in today’s reading is that the Greek-speaking Jewish members began complaining that their needs were being neglected by the Hebrew-speaking Palestinian members, from which the founding core came.

At this stage of its development, the Church was still entirely Jewish in its membership.  However, they were divided into two distinct groups:

However, it is possible that the Hellenists were not Jews from the diaspora, but Palestinian Jews who only spoke Greek. The Hebrews were Palestinian Jews who spoke Aramaic/Hebrew, but may also have known some Greek. Both belonged to the Jerusalem Jewish Christian community.

In either case, it is possible that the Greek speakers were to some extent looked down on by Aramaic/Hebrew speakers. Even at this early stage in the life of the Church, we can see the ugly head of ethnic-cultural divisions surfacing.

From its very beginnings, the Church has consisted of flawed human beings. It should never cause us any surprise and it does not weaken the central message of the Good News.

In general, however, the purpose of the passage seems to be to introduce Stephen as a prominent figure in the community.  We will meet him again in the readings of Monday and Tuesday next week.

In particular, the Hellenists complained about the neglect of the widows in their group.  Widows were among the most pitiable group of people in Jewish society at that time.  They were not necessarily old, but they had lost their husbands, and remarriage for nearly all of them was out of the question.  In the absence of any kind of social welfare, their only means of support was the charity of their community.

The Apostles felt that this kind of material responsibility was not really theirs.  In the beginning, the Apostles were responsible for church life in general, which included both the ministry of the word (evangelising) and the care of the needy in the community.  As the community grew, this clearly became more and more difficult a responsibility for such a small number of leaders.  It was time for delegation and applying the principle of subsidiarity!

So it was suggested that the Greek-speaking community choose carefully selected people from among themselves to take care of these needs.  This met with general approval and seven men were chosen.  Not surprisingly all of them have Greek names and all, except for one, Nicholas of Antioch, who was a convert, were born Jews.  It is significant that a proselyte was included in the number, and that Luke points out his place of origin as Antioch, the city to which the Gospel was soon to be taken and which was to become the “headquarters” for the forthcoming Gentile missionary effort.

It is also worth noting that it was the community who chose the seven men, but it was the Apostles who ‘ordained’ them by prayer and a laying on of hands.  These are the first recorded ‘ministers’ appointed in the Christian community and the pattern of their formal initiation will become the norm: the Apostles prayed and laid their hands on them—as we see in Acts and the letters of Paul.  This still is done in the conferring of ministries today. At this stage they are not actually called ‘deacons’, but the word diakonia, meaning ‘service’ is used twice in the passage.

Finally, as was mentioned, we will be hearing more about Stephen next week and, later on, Philip also.

In the meantime, the number of Christians continued to increase enormously.  Now, even some of the priests, probably Sadducees, were being converted to faith in the Risen Jesus.  They were prepared to give up the temple sacrifices and rituals around which their lives up to now had centred, and replace them with a new liturgical celebration centred on the community Eucharist, celebrated wherever Christians gathered together.

Given the limited human and material resources of the early community, it is amazing how its message was wholeheartedly accepted by so many.  The finger of God was certainly there.

More

Commentary on Mark 16:9-15

This passage, known as the ‘Longer Ending’ of Mark’s Gospel, is a kind of summary of all that we have been reading during the past week. The end of Mark’s Gospel has verses many commentators believe are not part of the original text. Most commentators believe the original text ends with verse 16:8. However, this ending is so abrupt that many feel the original ending was somehow lost and this ending was put in its place.

Although the style shows it was not written by Mark, it has long been accepted as a canonical part of the Gospel, and was defined as such by the Council of Trent. It was known to Tatian and to Irenaeus in the 2nd century, and is found in the vast majority of Greek manuscripts.

The text consists of brief summaries of longer stories which appear in the other Gospels (Luke 24 and John 20), e.g. the appearance to Mary Magdalene, the disciples going to Emmaus, and Jesus’ appearance in the upper room.

The common theme is the incredulity of the disciples, who could not accept that Jesus was truly risen. Right to the very end of his Gospel, Mark continues to be harsh on the disciples’ lack of understanding. It is, of course, not about them he is writing, but about us.

The passage seems directed at many of the early Christians’ contemporaries who would not accept the message of Christ risen. But, as we can see from the First Reading today, the disciples very soon not only found faith, but were more than ready to suffer and die for it.

In our times of doubt, let us remember their experience and their example and the fruits of their work. It is a work that still urgently needs to be done.

More

Commentary on Luke 20:27-40

Today we move on to the middle of chapter 20 of Luke’s Gospel. In previous passages which are not included in these readings, Jesus had rebutted a challenge to his authority and left his critics literally speechless (Mark 11:27-33). This was followed by his speaking a parable about tenant farmers (Mark 12:1-12). He was clearly referring to his questioners and identifying them with the wicked tenants who abused all the emissaries (the prophets) sent by the owner of the vineyard—an episode which culminated in the killing of his son. The identity of the tenants and of the Son is clear. This is followed by Jesus’ being confronted with a seemingly innocuous question about paying taxes to Caesar which again resulted in the silence of his critics (Mark 12:13-17).

Today another group, the Sadducees, thought they might do better. The Sadducees, among whom were numbered some of the most powerful Jewish leaders, including high priests, restricted their beliefs to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, reputedly written by Moses and containing the essence of the Jewish Law.

For that reason, unlike the Pharisees, they did not accept some beliefs which occur only in later books of the Old Testament. Among these, for instance, were the existence of angels and the resurrection of the dead.

The Sadducees thought then they could stump Jesus with an unanswerable conundrum. They first quote a prescription from the Law of Moses by which a man was expected to marry the widow of his eldest brother, if there had been no children by the marriage. They then propose an imagined situation of seven brothers. The first brother married, but was childless when he died, so in accordance with the requirements of the Law the second married the widow, then the third and so on. Eventually, all seven brothers married the woman but there were still no children.

The unanswerable question they proposed was that, if there really was a resurrection after death, which of the seven men would be the woman’s husband in the next life? For them, there was no problem; they did not believe in the resurrection. Death was the end of everything. For one who believed in the resurrection, it was an embarrassing difficulty—or so they thought.

Jesus quickly brushes the problem aside. To begin with, in the next life there are no marriage relationships:

Those who belong to this age [i.e. those who belong to this world] marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

In the new life, all live face to face with God in a life that never ends. All are equally children of God—brothers and sisters to each other—taking their life and existence from him. That is now the focus of their relationship and it is through that relationship that they are bound together.

Jesus then goes on to challenge the Sadducees’ unbelief about life after death. He shrewdly quotes from a part of the Bible which they recognise as true. He reminds them of the scene where the voice from the burning bush identifies itself to Moses:

I AM the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. (Ex 3:6)

God, says Jesus, is the God of the living and not of the dead (i.e. of those who no longer exist). If Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive, then the Sadducees’ argument fails. Perhaps we would not be convinced by such an argument, but it clearly worked in this case.

Some scribes who were listening in were delighted at the refutation of the Sadducees. Most of them were Pharisees and believed in the resurrection. At the same time, after these replies of Jesus to both the Pharisees and the Sadducees:

…they no longer dared to ask him another question.

We, of course, believe in the resurrection not so much because of Jesus’ arguments here, but because of his own resurrection and his promise to share his life with us forever.

More

Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Paul continues to explain the basis on which he was proclaiming Christ to the people of Corinth. When he first arrived among them from Athens about the year 51 AD, he did not come as a polished orator with convincing arguments. Perhaps Apollos, a Jewish exile from the sophisticated society of Rome who became one of the leaders of the community, had led the Corinthians to place more emphasis on eloquence and intellectual arguments. Paul more than once acknowledges his weaknesses in this area. Was this the “thorn in the flesh” which distressed him so much?

The only message Paul had to bring was that of Jesus Christ and him crucified. On the face of it, it did not look like a very encouraging message. This was not a message crafted to attract followers in large numbers, especially given Paul’s acknowledged weakness as a persuasive speaker.

No wonder, then that he had come among them “in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” (a common biblical expression), for he had none of the eloquence which they might have expected and to which they were accustomed from the intellectuals of the day.

All Paul had to offer was the persuasiveness that came “with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power”. He came to proclaim to them the “mystery of God”. ‘Mystery’ here is not so much something that is difficult to understand as it is a truth which had previously been hidden but is now made known to those who are ready to hear it. Greece at the time had its ‘mystery religions’, where the beliefs of the religion were only made known to initiates, something akin to some secret societies today. The ‘mystery’ here was the revelation about what God did for us through the life, death and resurrection of God’s Son made man – something that could never be discovered by the most sophisticated philosophers.

As Paul discovered in time, his deficiency was, in fact, his strength. All he had to offer was his personal knowledge and experience of Jesus as his crucified Lord and that was all that was needed. Paul was only the fragile “vessel of clay” through whom God did his work. As a powerful orator, the focus would have been more on himself and his arguments. His message proclaimed that:

…your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

“The power of God” was clearly visible even in his weaknesses.

What Paul says here is of great importance to us in communicating our faith to others. There are those who try to convince non-believers or those who have fallen away by piling on apologetic arguments and proofs of God’s existence or the validity of the Church’s teaching. Ultimately, though, the only really effective way to lead people to Christ is by the sharing of our own experience of knowing him and by the witness of a life that is clearly influenced by the vision of the Gospel.

It is also consoling for us to realise that the success of our evangelising does not depend on our own abilities. As Paul would say elsewhere:

…whenever I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:10)

It is not a matter of intellectual power, but of our integrity, which allows God’s truth and love to shine through us.

At the same time, as one commentator reminds us, this does not give preachers a licence to neglect study and preparation. Paul’s letters reveal a great deal of knowledge in many areas of learning, and his eloquence is apparent in his address before the Areopagus in Athens (see Acts 17:22-31). Paul’s point is that unless the Holy Spirit works in a listener’s heart, the wisdom and eloquence of a preacher are ineffective. Paul’s confidence as a preacher did not rest on intellectual and oratorical ability, as did that of the Greek orators. Our communicating of Christ and his vision to others will also depend much more on the inner truth of our message than on our powers of persuasion.

More

Commentary on John 3:1-8

Today we go back to the early part of John’s Gospel and begin reading chapter 3.  In the coming Easter weeks we will be going through John’s Gospel more or less in order.

Today we see the encounter between Jesus and the Pharisee, Nicodemus, who was also a member of the Sanhedrin—the governing council of the Jews.  He was, then, a very highly placed official.

Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.  This, on the one hand, indicates his fear of being seen by others, but on the other, probably also has a symbolic meaning.  Religious man though he was, when he came to Jesus he was in a kind of spiritual darkness.  But his virtue is that he comes to seek light.  Jesus, of course, is the Light of the World. On the other hand, in the next chapter, the Samaritan woman will meet Jesus in the full blaze of the midday sun. It is interesting to contemplate the underlying meaning of this as well.

Nicodemus begins by praising Jesus.  No man, he says, could do the things that Jesus did if he did not come from God.  Given the fact that at this stage of John’s Gospel Jesus has hardly begun his public life, it is odd that Nicodemus can make this statement.  But it shows that the events described in this Gospel are not to be taken with a strict chronology.  This Gospel is rather a set of themes about the role of Jesus for us and the world.

Nicodemus sees in Jesus a prophet, a man of God, but has yet to recognise the full identity of Jesus.  Jesus counters by saying that no one can see the Kingdom of God “without being born from above” (or “born again”—both readings are possible, and the meaning is basically the same).  Though very common in the other Gospels, the term ‘Kingdom of God’ is only used here in John (vv 3 and 5).  Its equivalent in the rest of John’s Gospel is ‘life’.  To be truly in the Kingdom of God, i.e. to be fully integrated in the Reign or Rule of God, is to be fully alive.

Nicodemus hears Jesus literally, and asks:

How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?

His misunderstanding gives Jesus the opportunity to lead Nicodemus to a deeper understanding.  To be born again is to be born of “water and the Spirit”, a clear reference to Christian baptism.  Flesh only produces flesh (as in natural birth), but the Spirit gives birth to spirit and that is the second birth we all need to undergo:

You must be born from above.

The Greek word for “you” in this statement is plural and therefore directed to all, not just to Nicodemus.

And once we are reborn in the Spirit, we let ourselves be led to where God wishes:

The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

The “wind”, the ‘breath’ of the Holy Spirit, is the sole Guide for our lives.  He brings about our renewal in his own way.  The word for “wind” here is a word which also means ‘breath’ and ‘spirit’ (in Greek, pneuma).

Once we are guided by the Spirit, we have put ourselves totally in God’s hands, ready to be led wherever God wants us to go. This is the message being given to Nicodemus.  He must be ready to move in a different direction from that which has guided his life up to this point.  This readiness will lead him to see in Jesus the Word of God. We, too, wherever we happen to be right now, must ever be ready for God, through his Spirit, to call us in a new direction and to follow his lead.

More

Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2:10-16

Paul discusses the true nature of the genuinely spiritual person. Not surprisingly, the source of his spirituality is the Spirit of God:

…the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

The Spirit does this, not in order to know them better—for the Spirit knows all things. Rather, he understands fully the depth of God’s nature and so is fully competent to reveal them to us. And just as only a person alone knows what is going on in the depths of his or her heart, so only the depths of God can be known by God’s own Spirit.

What distinguishes the true followers of Christ is that they are not imbued by the spirit of the world around them. The “spirit of the world” is that “wisdom of this age” which is alienated from God and all he stands for (1 Cor 2:6). It is the attitude of ‘sinful nature’ as described in the Letter to the Romans (8:6-7). Instead, true followers have received the gift of God’s Spirit which helps us to understand the gifts and the love that is constantly being showered on us. So Paul’s teaching is not, as he said before, based on philosophical speculations, but comes in the way the Spirit communicates, that is, straight to the heart and not just in the mind.

In the verses which follow (including some which are not part of today’s reading) Paul explains why many fail to grasp true wisdom. It is because such wisdom is perceived by the spiritual (i.e. mature) Christian. The Corinthians, however, were unspiritual, worldly (infant) believers (1 Cor 3:1-4), and the proof of their immaturity was their division over their human leaders (1 Cor 3:3-4).

The unspiritual person is described as one who is closed to the working of the Spirit. The Greek term here is psychikos, a person who depends on his own natural resources:

…who walk…according to the flesh… (Rom 8:4)

This person is dominated by the physical, worldly or natural life.

Such a person—and we have surely met such individuals often—rejects the Gospel teaching as nonsense. In fact, he or she does not understand it because understanding only comes through being open to the promptings of the Spirit.

Persons who are spiritual, on the other hand::

…discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.

The Spirit gives the follower of Christ deep insights into the meaning of life, and a vision of what is really important. Paul himself, as a ‘spiritual’ man, is not to be judged by the Corinthians who are ‘sensual’ and immature, only able to be:

…fed…milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. (1 Cor 4:2)

Many a truly Spirit-guided person will, as Jesus and Paul were, be frequently criticised. Such individuals may be rejected and even removed altogether by exile or death. But as long as they remain true to the guidance of the Spirit, they do not feel effectively judged by such people.

Christians must never be arrogant or contemptuous of others. At the same time, they must not fear or hesitate to be in opposition to the conventional wisdom of their environment. In order to make sure of their integrity, they must constantly discern the voice and the leading of God in all that he says and does.

Paul ends by asking a question posed by Isaiah:

For who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?

Paul answers by saying that, while we may not know the mind of God, and still less dare to teach him, he does claim that he and many of the baptised are those who have:

…the mind of Christ.

To have the “mind of Christ” is to see things the way Jesus sees them, to value things the way he values them, and to totally share his vision of the meaning and goal of our lives. What exactly that mind of Christ is can be found in the lovely hymn that Paul quotes in his letter to the Philippians (2:6-11). Let us pray today that we may be truly spiritual people who share and understand the mind of Christ.

More

Commentary on John 3:7-15

We continue today Jesus’ night-time dialogue with the Pharisee Nicodemus.  Nicodemus, while accepting in principle what Jesus has said about being born again in the Spirit, now wants to know how it can be brought about.

Jesus accuses Nicodemus and his fellow-leaders of a lack of spiritual insight and a refusal to accept his testimony as coming directly from God:

If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

Jesus does not speak simply on his own initiative.  He speaks of what he shares with the Father. It is the Father’s words and teaching that he passes on to us—he is the Word of God. His is not just a speaking Word; it brings all things from nothing, calls the dead to life, hands on the Spirit, the source of unending life, and makes us all children of God. To experience all this we need to have faith in Jesus as truly the Word of God and to live our lives in love.

But the Word is not always easy to understand and it requires, above all, an openness to be received and witness.* It is this openness that Jesus is challenging Nicodemus to have. People respond to the Word in so many ways. Some believe fully, others go away disappointed in spite of the many signs.  One is reminded of the parable of the sower. To which group do I belong?

And, up to now, only the Son has been “into heaven,” that is, with God:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

It is from there that:

…the Word became flesh and lived among us. (John 1:14)

He is in a position, therefore, to speak about “heavenly things”, that is, to speak of everything that pertains to and comes from God.

The only solution is to put all our focus on Jesus:

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

This is a reminder of the incident in the book of Numbers (21:9) where, as a punishment for their sins, the Israelites were attacked by serpents.  God told Moses to erect a bronze serpent on a pole and all who looked at the serpent were saved.

Jesus, in a much greater way, will also be “lifted up” both on the cross and into the glory of his Father through the Resurrection and Ascension.  And he will be a source of life to all who commit themselves totally to him.  Only then will we be washed clean by the water from the pierced side (see John 19:34 and Zech 13:1).

To what extent are we ‘looking at’ Jesus?  Is it merely a sideways glance when we think about him, or at certain fixed times (e.g. Sunday Mass), or is he the centre of our attention in all that we do and say?

Let our constant prayer be:

Lord, grant that all my thoughts, intentions, actions and responses may be directed solely to your love and service this day and every day.

­­­­­­­­­­_________________________________________________

*For numerous references about vv 11-12 of this passage, see the footnote in the New Jerusalem Bible.

More

Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

In today’s First Reading, Paul continues his thoughts on the nature of the truly spiritual person. With regret, he cannot call the Corinthian Christians spiritual people. They are still sensual, governed by their bodily desires and still “infants in Christ”. They are still “fleshly”, like worldly people rather than people of God. They are living by purely human standards. And so, up to this time, he has treated them like infants, giving them milk rather than solid food. They are not ready yet to hear the Gospel in its fullness because they are still so un-spiritual.

On what does he base this evaluation? It is clear there is “jealousy and quarreling” that divide them so badly, and which make them in no way different from their non-Christian neighbours. They are divided into factions, one rooting for Paul and another for Apollos.

To Paul this makes no sense at all. Paul and Apollos were merely the agents by which the faith message was brought to them. And the different ways in which they did that were based, not on a preferred style of operating, but on the different roles that they had been given by the Lord. Their different roles could not be compared with each other.

As Paul puts it, his role was to do the planting while Apollos did the watering. In other words, it was Paul’s role to found and to set up from scratch the Christian community in Corinth, starting something which had never existed before. Apollos, on the other hand, was working in a church already begun and building on the foundation that had been laid by Paul. But the actual growth of the community is the work of God alone and of no one else. Without God, the sower and the waterer are nothing.

So it does not matter who plants or who waters. Each one will be rewarded accordingly as he is doing the task assigned to him. Paul sums up by saying that he and Apollos:

…are God’s coworkers, working together…

They are partners, each one contributing something special to the whole work.

The people, for their part, are God’s farm, the soil in which he works, and all growth is attributable to him alone. And they are God’s building, the place where he takes up his abode; he lives in them. That is what makes them ‘holy’ (hagioi), a people set apart from those around them. Later in the letter Paul will speak of the Christian community as a ‘temple’, the place where the Lord is to be found in a real way.

And so they belong to God and not to Paul or Apollos. They are God’s people and not Paul’s or Apollos’. So, for people to say they belong to Paul or to Apollos makes no sense.

It is certainly not for us to point an accusing finger at the Christians of Corinth. We see the same kind of factionalism at many levels dividing Christians today, both inter-denominational and intra-denominational.

The divisions among the Christian churches, which are often expressed in the most regrettable and un-Christian forms, must be a matter of shame for all of us, not to mention a source of scandal and confusion among non-Christians. This observation is especially salient when we read Jesus’ prayer for unity in John’s Gospel (John 17:20-23).

There are also divisions in our own Catholic Church at many levels from high up to low down. We should especially take cognisance of divisions in the communities to which we personally belong, especially our parishes, organisations and groups within parishes—and certainly our families as well.

Instead, we should be making sure that we do not say or do anything which contributes to such divisions and, where we can do so, let us try to be agents of healing and reconciliation, because:

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)

More

Commentary on John 3:16-21

Today we continue reflecting on the meeting of Jesus with Nicodemus.  The dialogue has given way to a theological reflection in which the words of Jesus and of the author cannot easily be distinguished.

The theme is the relationship between God and the world.  A few very important statements are made:

• God loved the world. He loves it so much that he gave his only Son, who died a terrible death on a cross as proof of that love.  God loves the whole world and not just the “good” parts.  God’s love is total and unconditional for every one of his creatures.  But to experience the life that comes from God through Jesus, we have to believe in him, open ourselves to him and give our whole selves to him in deep faith and trust.
• God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. We must constantly remind ourselves of this.  God’s first and only instinct is to love us and for us to experience that love.  We have been made by him and for him.  He made us to share his life and love forever.
• Those who believe in him—in heart, word and deed—avoid judgement. But whoever does not believe is already condemned. That does not contradict what we have just said above. Judgment does not come from God, but rather from our own choice.  Today’s Gospel states it this way:

  …the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.

It is not God who abandons or dumps us—it is we who abandon him.  We are our own judges when we deliberately choose darkness over light.  We put ourselves beyond the reach of his love, which is there and only waiting for us to turn back.  On the contrary, those who:

…do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.

It is not God’s judgment that we are to fear. Rather it is our own choices which can bring us closer to him or push us away from him. It is our own decision whether we wish to live always in the light or instead choose darkness.

It might be good for us to reflect today on those dark corners of our life—present and past—which we keep hidden from others.  Why do we hide these things?  The person who lives in the light, the person of integrity and wholeness, has nothing whatever to hide.

More

Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:18-23

Again, Paul urges the Corinthians to put aside the “wisdom of this world” and learn to be a fool for Christ in the eyes of that world. To ‘be a fool’ means to turn away from the ‘wisdom’ of the world, which will make one, in the eyes of many, a fool. It is the first step to real wisdom. It is only when we can recognise in the apparent failure and disaster of the Cross the triumph of God’s love that we begin to have true wisdom.

People who chase after the ‘wisdom of this world’ believe that money and material wealth and success and power over others are the ways to fulfilment and happiness. Some are even ready to die for these things, but in the long run such pursuits do not lead to the fulfilment for which we all long.

Quoting from Psalms, Paul says:

The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise,
that they are futile. (Ps 94:11)

God’s wisdom, on the other hand, is conveyed to us through the life and death of Jesus.

So, Paul continues, no one should boast on the level of human beings. He picks up again the call to unity which he raised at the beginning of his letter (1 Cor 1:10-13).

He writes, for instance, about being one person’s disciple versus another’s. The Christian leaders—Paul, Apollos and others—belong to the whole Church. No group can call one leader its very own. In other words, it was quite wrong—as the Corinthians apparently had been doing—to be investing their whole self in someone like Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas (Peter), or in the world in general, in life or in death, in the present or the future. All of these things are mere servants or agents of God and we can never stop at them.

So let there be no more talk that one group is for Paul and another group for Apollos:

…all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Christians are in union with the Church’s true leaders and with Christ, who in turn is in union with the other members of the Trinity.

All, however they came to be members of the community, can have only Christ as the source of meaning for their lives. And it is through Christ, and only through him and not through any other human agency, that they will find access to God from whom they have come and to whom they are called to be finally united.

If the Corinthians were genuinely wise, their perceptions would be reversed, and they would see everything in the world and all those with whom they live in the church in their true relations with one another. On the level of ‘ownership’, one reads: God, Christ, church members, church leaders—in that order. But on the level of service one reads in the opposite direction.

Only when we see Church leadership in terms of service to its members will we avoid the kind of situations which Paul is denouncing. When members must serve leaders, we begin to create the factionalism that was hurting the Corinthian church. We might well apply this idea to the situation of our own church be it on the world, national or local level.