Baptism - 1 Corinthians 1:9-16

A woman named Chloe is called out for letting Paul know “that there are contentions among you.” Disputations are very common among human run organizations, even when in God’s church. While sometimes doctrine or culture is disputed, Paul addresses the kind of negativity effecting the early church and this makes sense considering the relatively new structure. This type of disputation also arose during the early history of our church today, and that was the loyalty felt by certain individuals to the person who taught them the gospel. I mean, we really even have this today, I have known about many times when people were baptized but became inactive once a certain missionary left their area.

This makes sense, we ask these missionaries to be leaders, and when someone gives up or changes a significant portion of their life for the message that is being preached, then definitely the messenger can be a strong influence in that person’s life and ability to stay with the new message. Some people are charismatic, some people speak in a way that really resonates with certain individuals, some people just click with each other. There are many way in which people bond and when it involves a large commitment to a life style change, the person could be considered a coach or a mentor in that change.
In the early church, many people became attached emotionally to the church leadership instead of the gospel. I think that’s one of the main reasons why Joseph Smith couldn’t have been the one to take the early saints to the rocky mountains, it had to be someone else. There would have to be a weeding out of members who were truly a part of the church because of their belief in the gospel doctrine and those who were members of the church because of their affection and trust in Joseph Smith.
I read a thing once about an early church member who’s family asked them “why are you do obsessed with Joseph Smith?” And the answer was, “I’m a member of the Church because it brings me closer to Jesus. It has nothing to do with Joseph Smith.” That’s the way that many people view our us, as obsessed with certain church leaders, but ultimately it is about our belief in and relationship with Jesus Christ that keeps us involved.
Similarly, Paul cites, “that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.” So this is an issue that Paul was informed of among this congregation, but it really is a human concept because we do form relationships and feel close to other people. And it’s kind of difficult because forming a relationship with Jesus is pretty abstract because he’s not here with us physically; we bond with him through feelings and inspirations and through study and prayer.
But Paul’s response to this human problem within the church is really straight to the power and very powerful. He asks “Is Christ divided?” Did Jesus form a church based on different people and different personalities? Did he say “if you like how this person handles church business then follow him?” No, he didn’t say anything like that at all. In fact, pretty much every other church out there, the congregation chooses who they follow as leadership based on personality types.
This causes a lot of problems for that leadership then, especially if they make their living from the donations of the church members. In our Church, by requiring people to be subject to the leadership that they are assigned to, it requires not only the congregants but also the actual leaders to rely on the Lord for their testimonies. It’s really an interesting concept.
One aspect of Paul’s statement that I completely missed was that when he quotes the other people as saying, “I am of…” Paul or Apollos or Cephas or whoever, what he really was referencing was the person who baptized them. They were dividing themselves up and following the person who baptized them instead of following Jesus Christ. The IM says that one of the specific problems facing the church in Corinth was, “church members were dividing into factions, and some of these divisions were based on who had performed their baptisms. Paul taught that there was no status gained by receiving baptism from a specific individual… Paul later taught the Saints that the disputes and divisions among them occurred because some of them were carnal rather than spiritual.”
When I was younger, or even after I got divorced and thought about getting remarried, I used to think about what temple I would get married in. In fact when I was younger and my friends were getting married, which temple they got married in was such a big deal to them because they wanted the pictures to look a certain way or because one had beautiful landscaping and all that. I would think “well this temple has significance to me, so I want to get married there.” It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that the ordinances were the same and that if I were ever to find a man to marry again, I should take him to the nearest temple as fast as I can before he can get away.
This is also similar to when we worry about who will baptize who or who will ordain who or who will bless which baby. My dad wanted to let his dad bless my 4^th brother because his dad had never been able to bless anyone or anything before and he was old and he thought that he would die before he ever got the chance again, and turns out that he did die before the chance came up again. Anyway, my mom freaked out because she didn’t want the rest of the ward members to think that my dad had become unworthy to bless his own son, so she wouldn’t let him.
My dad went about proposing the idea all wrong, and my mom cared too much about what other people thought, and it was a sore spot for some time. But the whole point is that ordinances are ordinances and what matters is that they get done. And while there is some sentimental value for having certain people involved in certain aspects, ultimately, the covenants are the important part.  That is what ensures salvation, not the special person, not the special place, and not the special time.
Paul next says something even more profound, “was Paul crucified for you?” This hit me right in the feels. I imagine being Jesus and having performed the atonement and then establishing the gospel to bring people peace and joy and happiness, and then having them completely disregard all that by following some person who they happen to like. Paul’s statement really cuts to the core of the issue because he’s pointing out that the foundation of the gospel is the atonement of Jesus Christ and if anything else over takes that as the main focus of our worship, then we are wrong.
Really, I know that I am guilty of this quite a bit. I will focus on some other aspect of something gospel related and get all in a huff about it. I left the church for many years and a huge contributing factor to that was some poor treatment that I received at the hands of a bishop and a stake president. One of my friends asked me why I left and I told them that I would go back when I would be strong enough to stay even if someone did something awful to me. I recognized the importance of having my focus be on Christ and not on the people around me. I guess this is something that I should re-evaluate because I sure am letting my perception of other people color my spiritual experiences at church lately. And it’s not because of anything that they are doing, but it’s because of my own weirdness. I’m going to have to work that out in my mind.