KEY SCRIPTURE: Acts 19:1 “And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,”

Apostle Paul had a great ministry in Corinth but left for Ephesus to continue with the work. Paul left the work at Corinth for Apollos to continue.

Paul’s letter to them shows the happenings in the Corinthian church after Apostle Paul had left Corinth. Although he was not physically present, he communicated with them through writing. He kept following up on them. He wrote the following to them in 1st Corinthians 3:1-3: “And I brethren could not speak unto you as spiritual but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal, for where there is among you envying, and strife and divisions are ye not carnal, and walk as men.” 

   I believe Apostle Paul wrote this letter with a lot of pain in his heart. He had spent a long period teaching these people, expecting them to understand the realities of the divine life, but they didn’t. These people were still living as mere men. He described them as… “and ye walk as mere men.”  He called them babies who could not take meat but milk. Please, milk, we know, is taken by babies who do no work. Taking milk, therefore, means doing nothing with the word of God you hear. Sadly, many children of God are also taking milk. So long as you are not applying the word of God you hear, you are a milk drinker, and therefore, you are a baby.

   Apostle Paul says further that because they refused to apply the scriptures, it manifested in their behaviour. There were divisions, strife and envy in their midst. Some of them started saying, “I belong to Paul,” and others claimed they are for Apollos.  In our modern era, some Christians claim we are the best church. Others say we have the greatest number, and we have the best pastor.  In 1st Corinthians 3:5, Apostle Paul said, “Who then is Paul, who then is Apollos but ministers (servants) by whom ye believed as the Lord gave to every man.”

   We pastors, prophets, or evangelists are ministers, “one who ran errands” or servants of God, used by God. No one must be divided because he belongs to man of God A or man of God B. CHRISTIANITY IS NOT AN ASSOCIATION TO ANY CHURCH BUT A COMMITMENT TO THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST THROUGH HIS CHURCH.

PRAYER

Father, I pray for all children of God to be yielded to the Lordship of our Lord Jesus Christ, and do those things that bring glory to His name.

FURTHER STUDY:

 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 ” I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So, then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase”.

Hebrews 5:12 “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat”.