Do you fit one, two, or three of the ‘strikes’ in 1 Corinthians 1?

By Dean Collins

Well, it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out at the ole ball game!

I don’t remember striking out a lot when I played baseball as a kid. I was usually good for a single, which kept me in the lineup. Being in the lineup is what every baseball player wants. Sitting on the bench gets old, especially if you are putting in lots of hard work in practice yet never see the field of action.

Called by the will of God

Paul opens his letter to the Corinthians with clarity and a list of three strikes you might think would keep you out of the most important game of all.

Paul was called by the will of God to be an apostle of Jesus. Nothing about this suggests being an apostle was a career aspiration as a child. No mention that he was looking for a job in a new career field. Nothing to indicate he was the perfect match in a career personality assessment. All of these potential deficits might keep Paul from making it onto the roster and being in the lineup of leadership in the church.

However, one thing changes everything as we consider Paul’s qualifications and his performance: “He was called by the will of God to be an apostle.” When God makes the appointment he also equips the leader to do the work. When we live by the Spirit and not by the flesh and walk in our calling, God does his transformative work in our lives allowing us to fulfill our calling.

Called and equipped

From our perspective, Paul was obviously qualified. We can read his letters, see his exceptional ability to explain the Old Covenant and introduce the New Covenant to both Jews and pagans. We know of Paul’s endurance, his evangelistic and church planting expertise, and that he was never one to back away from addressing problem behaviors. What we don’t get to fully see are the years when Paul‘s continuing preparation was more remote.

God doesn’t waste our past experiences when he calls us to service. And neither does he call us and simply leave us to figure out our next steps. He meets us where we are and does his healing of our past. When we accept God’s assignments, he also continues to develop us as we walk through challenges and open doors, and even as learn from the doors shut in front of us.

Called to unity

In the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, calling is mentioned five times. It opens with Paul’s calling (v.1) and says the church of God in Corinth was called to be saints together with all who follow Jesus (v. 2). This suggests all churches are called to be saints together with all who follow Jesus. Just as individual Christians are not called to be Lone Ranger types of Christians, neither should churches ever isolate. We are called to fellowship and to unity with all believers as well as fellowship with Jesus (v. 9).

Paul spends several verses correcting the church regarding the divisions they are creating by choosing to align with different leaders in the church. Apparently, some were choosing to align with Apollos, others claimed to follow Paul, some lined up behind Peter, and some suggested they were clearly behind Jesus. But Paul makes clear that claiming Jesus as the leader means behaving like Jesus, which is more than just saying his name.

At the end of this section, Paul reminds the church that Jews and Gentiles together were called. Paul was teaching what we are still struggling to understand. In Christ, there must be unity. Loyalty to ethnicity, gender, religious background, skin color, along with any other preference or bias, must bow to Jesus. He is Lord of all and has called all together in Christ.

Called despite ‘three strikes’

Paul’s last use of “called” comes in verse 26. There Paul reminds us to consider what we knew and did not yet know when we were called by God. I can certainly check all the boxes with what Paul says next:

Not many were wise by the world’s standards
Not many were powerful
Not many were of noble birth

For me, that’s three swings and three misses. I came to Christ (and I suspect many of you would say the same) without much of the world’s wisdom. I certainly didn’t come from a gene pool that had any power based on money, name, or fame. Nothing about my background would have predicted that God could or should use me to lead anything. Yet when God calls he also prepares, and he sends us into various places of ministry for his glory, for the expansion of his kingdom, and by way of demonstrating that his love brings unity and not division.

Take a moment and consider your calling. If you find yourself doing work that is dividing more than bringing unity in the body of Christ, now is time to repent. God’s will is for us to be together in ministry, focused on bringing the love of Christ to all. If those outside of Christ see us fighting, divided, chasing various agendas, and trying to unify based on anything other than the Christ and him crucified, then we must repent and get back to the basics Paul has outlined in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians.

Otherwise, it’s one, two, three strikes, and we are out. The world will have missed what Jesus called us to show them. He is the one who saves and unifies. And when we walk in unity, he is glorified and the world will quickly discover the transforming power of the gospel.

Your time with God’s Word
1 Corinthians 1:1-17, 23-24, 26 ESV

Photo by Eduardo Balderas at Unsplash

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