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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 651. His Corinthian Ministry
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His Corinthian Ministry
1. He could not have chosen a place more suitable for his work. St. Paul had established a branch of the Church in Corinth, but it was a city where gross idolatry and immorality were conspicuous. Further, it was a place where Apollos's talents would have a peculiar usefulness. It was a centre of commerce; it was a town also of great intellectual activity. And in both these respects it resembled Alexandria, with whose inhabitants Apollos was so familiar. From his early experience he knew precisely what methods would avail best, both with the merchants and with the philosophers. Within a short time he gained a position of great influence.
“The gods sell anything and to everybody at a fair price,” says Emerson; and he might have added that they give nothing away. Whatever a man secures in the way of power or fame he pays for in preliminary preparation; nothing is given him except his native capacity; everything else he must pay for.2 [Note: H. W. Mabie, Essays on Work and Culture, 102.]
2. But the very success of his work had an unexpected and unfortunate result. Against his wish, he was made to figure as the rival of St. Paul. To many of the educated thinkers of Corinth the lofty eloquence of Apollos seemed greatly superior to St. Paul's simple and unpolished manner of speech. Thus there grew up an Apollos-party and a Paul-party in the Corinthian Church. We may be quite sure that the admirers of Apollos lost no occasion of telling him how much they preferred him to his predecessor, and nothing would have pleased them more than if he had proclaimed himself the head of this party, and St. Paul's avowed rival.
The First Epistle to the Corinthians was occasioned by internal conditions in the Church which arose shortly after St. Paul's departure from Corinth for Ephesus, and was written from the latter city, when he was contemplating a visit to them. He had received information as to the situation from various persons. Some dependents of “the house of Chloe” had told him of “contentions” (1Co_1:11). Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus had visited him (1Co_16:17), and Apollos had come, and was with him when the Epistle was written (1Co_16:12).
Unable to persuade himself that parties are even indifferent means to useful ends, Stanley felt that all, especially in religion, are combined of truth and falsehood, and that to join any is to accept the evil as well as the good. He believed that “the man who loves Christianity better than truth is on the highroad to love his own sect better than Christianity, if not to love himself better than either.” He detested the principle of party, as the great rival in the minds of men to the love and pursuit of that truth which was “to be sought, above all things, for itself, and not for any ulterior object.”1 [Note: R. E. Prothero, The Life of Dean Stanley, i. 376.]
3. The question at issue may have been only the relative importance of St. Paul and Apollos in the founding of the Corinthian Church; but it seems likely that there was also a difference in the manner in which the gospel was presented by each; and it may be (though for this there is no proof) that some doctrinal differences appeared after the lapse of years. The teaching of Apollos's followers may, e.g., have degenerated into Antinomian Gnosticism. However that may be, the Corinthian Church was agitated by bitterly opposed factions as late as the time of Clement of Rome. But it is unlikely that there was any personal disagreement between St. Paul and Apollos. It has indeed been suggested that in 1Co_2:1, St. Paul has the eloquent Apollos in his mind, and again in 2Co_3:1, where he declares that he at least needed no commendatory letters; and it is curious that Apollos is not mentioned at all as one of the founders of the Christian society at Corinth in 2Co_1:19. But, however we explain these passages, they do not prove anything like serious estrangement.
General Grant had been for several months in front of Petersburg, apparently accomplishing nothing, while General Sherman had captured Atlanta, and completed his grand “march to the sea.” Then arose a strong cry to promote Sherman to Grant's position as lieutenant-general. Hearing of it, Sherman wrote to Grant, “I have written to John Sherman (his brother) to stop it. I would rather have you in command than any one else. I should emphatically decline any commission calculated to bring us into rivalry.” Grant replied, “No one would be more pleased with your advancement than I; and if you should be placed in my position, and I put subordinate, it would not change our relations in the least. I would make the same exertion to support you that you have done to support me, and I would do all in my power to make your cause win.”1 [Note: O. S. Marden, Architects of Fate, 448.]
4. Now the question arises-and in estimating his character it is quite essential to answer the question-whether this party-spirit which was developed at Corinth was in any way the fault of Apollos, and whether, when it was developed, he encouraged it at all. Here another passage from the latter part of the same Epistle presents itself to our attention, and supplies the answer. The Apostle writes: “As touching our brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren; but his will was not at all to come at this time; but he will come when he shall have convenient time.”
It is not hard to see the reason of Apollos's refusal, which was simply his fine sense of loyalty to St. Paul. He knew only too well the present temper of the Corinthian Church, and he was sure that his presence in Corinth at this juncture would do more harm than good. His arrival would cause the party feeling to break out again with fresh vigour, and St. Paul's detractors would once more become active. With equal unselfishness, St. Paul bade him disregard any such fears and go, but Apollos was firm in his refusal. To preach in Corinth might be to make some converts, and certainly it would add to his reputation; but it would tend also to lessen the authority of St. Paul. Therefore he would not return until length of time had allowed this spirit of faction to die down. Then, according to the tradition preserved by St. Jerome, he did revisit Corinth, becoming bishop of that city.
Weary of all this wordy strife,
These notions, forms, and modes, and names,
To Thee, the Way, the Truth, the Life,
Whose love my simple heart inflames,
Divinely taught, at last I fly,
With Thee and Thine to live and die.
Forth from the midst of Babel brought,
Parties and sects I cast behind;
Enlarged my heart, and freed my thought,
Where'er the latent truth I find,
The latent truth with joy to own,
And bow to Jesu's name alone.1 [Note: Charles Wesley.]