cult of personality

Making Much of Man Makes No Sense

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10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. – 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 ESV

It was A. W. Tozer who said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us” (A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy). Our theology will have a direct impact on how we live our lives, and a faulty view of God will end up dramatically influencing our behavior. That was the situation in Corinth and the reason why Paul mentioned God six times and Jesus Christ ten times in the first ten verses alone. He was refocusing their attention back to the nature of their relationship with God the Father and His Son. They were members of the church of God. They belonged to Him, and their very existence was due to Him. Their salvation was the result of His grace and the sacrificial death of His Son. They enjoyed fellowship with God because Christ paid their sin debt with His own life. So, they owed all that they were to God and His Son.

Yet, they were guilty of worshiping men and had become a house divided. It had come to Paul’s attention that divisive cliques had developed within the church in Corinth. People were taking sides and aligning themselves with different leaders, claiming superiority based on who it was that they followed. Some bragged about their relationship with Apollos. Others claimed allegiance to Cephas (Peter). Much to his dislike, some boasted that Paul was their leader. Then some claimed the high road, claiming to be followers of Christ. The end result was petty arguing and prideful posturing. They had missed the point. It wasn’t supposed to be about Apollos, Paul, or Cephas. None of them had been crucified to pay for the sins of mankind. And neither Apollos, Paul, nor Cephas were preaching their own message of salvation. Instead, each was acting as a messenger of God, proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ.

Paul believed that a proper view of God should produce proper behavior. If people had an accurate understanding of God and a future-based focus on His plan of redemption, they would not put all their hopes in this life. They would be less likely to make more of the messenger than the message. God had been using Paul, Cephas, and Apollos, but they were simply the bearers of the good news of Jesus Christ. However, the Corinthians had turned these men into celebrities, and this growing cult of personality was dividing the church. The worship of man was inadvertently replacing the proper worship of God. Without realizing it, the believers in Corinth were boasting in men rather than God and attributing their salvation to men, instead of God. This human-based emphasis tended to focus their attention on the here-and-now rather than the hereafter. Arguing over the significance of who baptized them had become far more important to them than why they had been baptized in the first place. They had given their favorite preacher more prominence than they rightfully deserved, and Paul was going to make sure that they saw the error of their way.

The Corinthian believers were just as susceptible to hero worship as we are. They were making much of the messenger, with some naturally attracted to Paul while others found Apollos more appealing. Some found Cephas’ style more to their liking. But they had all allowed their personal preferences to become points of contention, leading to division within the church. They were elevating style over substance. But Paul was determined to make more of the message than the messenger. In the very next chapter, he writes,

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. – 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ESV

It wasn’t about Paul’s preaching style or oratory skills. It wasn’t about his persuasive powers or ability to craft a clever sermon; it was about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The focus of the message of the gospel is, as it always has been, the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It is about the God-ordained, Spirit-empowered transformation of men’s lives who have placed their faith in Christ, the one who died in their place and on their behalf. When we care more about the messenger than we do about the message, we become guilty of idol worship. When we prefer style over substance, we move from having our hearts transformed to having our ears tickled. We want to be entertained and satisfied, rather than sanctified. We find ourselves living for the moment, hoping our favorite preacher will keep us interested for an hour, while God would rather have us living with a much loftier goal: Our ongoing sanctification and future glorification.

One of the most dangerous enemies of the body of Christ is any kind of division or internal strife that creeps into its midst. Infighting and internal dissension can be highly destructive to the unity of a local fellowship. That’s why Paul immediately addresses a situation going on within the body of believers in Corinth. News of the quarrels taking place between believers forced Paul to deal with it at the very beginning of his letter. Paul doesn’t go into great detail regarding the cause of these factions, but it probably had something to do with the role each of these individuals had played in the conversion of the various church members. If someone had been led to faith by Apollos, they naturally held him in high esteem and viewed him as their mentor. If Paul had been the one to lead them to Christ, they would have developed a natural affinity and affection for him. So people were more than likely choosing sides based on the role these men had played in their spiritual birth and development. It had led to arguments and an unhealthy situation within the church.

But Paul calls them out, exposing the danger of their infighting, and demands that they seek unity. He pleads with them, “Be of one mind, united in thought and purpose” (1 Corinthians 1:10 NLT). There was no place within the body of Christ for factions of any kind, especially man-centered “fan clubs” that seemingly elevated individuals to the same status as Jesus Himself.

In the case of Corinth, some of these people were calling themselves followers of man, rather than followers of Christ. Somewhere along the way, they had missed the point. Paul, Cephas, and Apollos were simply tools that God had used to bring the gospel to the Corinthians and assist them in their spiritual growth. These men were essential to the process, but were never intended to be afforded rock star status. But it happens all the time. Cults of personality exist in churches all across the country, with people becoming followers of men rather than followers of Christ. In larger churches with larger staffs, you can end up with factions based on the particular minister or ministry heads and the role they play in the lives of various individuals. Younger people can end up with a natural affinity for younger pastors. Older members of the congregation might tend to prefer a minister closer to their age demographic. If a particular minister played a role in someone’s salvation, it is only natural for that individual to hold that pastor in higher regard. But all of this can lead to divisions and a lack of unity. Again, that is why Paul appealed to them to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.

Unity and division were common topics in many of the letters Paul wrote to the various churches he helped to found. Disunity was always a threat to the integrity and health of these new congregations. In his book, The Story of God As Revealed in the Holy Bible For All Mankind, Raymond Anderegg writes, “…the apostles make it clear that two of the biggest threats to the kingdom of God are false teachers and division within the Church, and both threats are treated as equally important. Thus, two of the worst sins a Christian can commit are to reject the gospel of Jesus Christ for another gospel (religion) and to cause strife and division among our brethren, the body, or Church, of Christ.”

Disunity is destructive. Division is deadly. It robs the church of its power. It diminishes the body of Christ’s influence among the lost, providing the enemy a foothold and an opportunity to sow strife and dissension in place of love and forgiveness. Christianity is not a man-centered religion based on personality, but a Christ-centered faith based on His sin-defeating work on the cross on our behalf. When we start making the church a cult of personality by making much of men, we diminish the sufficiency and singularity of Christ as the sole focus of our faith.

Father, from the very beginning, humans have struggled with a self-focused obession that strives to make ourselves the point of the story. We tend to worship ourselves or someone else instead of You. We find it easy to make much of men and elevate them to positions of prominence and importance because it gives us hope for ourselves. But it was never meant to be about us. We make lousy gods and even worse saviors. We are incapable of providing long-term, sustainable help and hope for anyone, including ourselves. That is why You sent Your Son, and we are to make much of Him. We are to worship Him and Him alone. Forgive us for the divisions and silly factions we create based on personalities. Help us remember that we are followers of Christ and no one else. Create in us a unity that is focused on Him alone. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Faithfulness, Not Fame.

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This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. – 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 ESV

Paul is still concerned with the divisive factions within the body of Christ in Corinth. In his estimation, the believers in Corinth have a faulty view of Christian leadership. They are basing their assessments of those who minister to them on worldly criteria. In the end, some had chosen to follow Paul, some Apollos and others, Cephas. It had become a popularity contest. But Paul wanted them to understand that each of these men, himself included, were servants of Christ. The Greek word Paul uses is ὑπηρέτης (hypēretēs) and it refers to “an underrower or subordinate rower” – one of the slaves who served as a rower in the hold of a ship’s galley (“G5257 – hypēretēs – Strong’s Greek Lexicon (KJV).” Blue Letter Bible). They served under the direction and authority of a superior. This same Greek word was used to describe a servant or “any one who aids another in any work”.

Paul wanted the Corinthians to see himself and the other men who ministered to them as servants of Christ. He even compares them to household stewards – οἰκονόμος (oikonomos) – the manager “to whom the head of the house or proprietor has intrusted the management of his affairs” (“G3623 – oikonomos – Strong’s Greek Lexicon (KJV).” Blue Letter Bible). Paul, Apollos and Cephas were nothing more than stewards of the message of the gospel entrusted to them by Jesus. And Paul tells the Corinthians, “This is how one should regard us” (1 Corinthians 4:1a ESV). There was no reason to idolize these men. And Paul also wanted the Corinthians to know that there was no reason for them to view these men as somehow working for them. They were “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1b ESV). And as a steward, Paul knew that he had only one person to whom he must answer: God. His ministry was being judged by God, and that was all that mattered to him. He was determined to be faithful in the execution of his God-given assignment to reveal “the mysteries of God.”

At the heart of the factionalism that existed in the Corinthian church was a spirit of judgment. In order to elevate one man over another, the believers in Corinth were judging their value and worth based on external criteria. They were choosing sides solely on the merit of things such as speaking skills, charisma, physical appearance, intelligence, persuasiveness and popularity. They each had their favorite. Some may have preferred Apollos because he was a dynamic speaker. Others chose to follow Cephas because he seemed more in touch with the common man. Those who followed Paul did so because they found something about him that they liked. But Paul said, “As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority” (1 Corinthians 4:3 NLT). He didn’t care what they thought about him. He wasn’t concerned with their evaluation of his abilities. In fact, Paul wasn’t even willing to trust his own judgment of himself. He knew himself to be a lousy judge of his performance or effectiveness. While he may feel free to give himself a high score for his efforts, he knew his evaluation meant nothing. Which is what led him to say, “My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide” (1 Corinthians 4:4 NLT). Paul followed the advice he had given the believers in Rome, “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3 ESV). And even then, after having judged himself soberly and seriously, Paul knew that the only judgment that mattered was what Christ would have to say when He returned.

And he warned the Corinthians believers to “not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes” (1 Corinthians 4:5a ESV). In other words, they were not to pre-judge prematurely. James gives us a sobering warning against judging one another: “There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?” (James 4:12 ESV). It wasn’t up to the Corinthians to judge one man’s effectiveness over another. It wasn’t their responsibility to determine the worth or value of one of God’s servants based on outward appearances or earthly criteria. They needed to remember that God alone “will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart” (1 Corinthians 4:5b ESV). God Himself claims, “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds” (Jeremiah 17:10 ESV). And according to that same passage, we are incapable of knowing the condition of our own hearts, let alone the heart of someone else. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV)

Just as Paul was attempting to be a faithful servant of Christ and a trustworthy steward of the mysteries of God, he called on the Corinthians to faithfully focus their attention on God and not men. They were to see themselves as followers of Christ and Him alone. They were to respect Paul, Cephas and Apollos as servants of Christ, but not revere and worship them. Like the believers in Corinth, we have the habit of making much of men. We also tend to judge our leaders based on external, worldly factors. We can be easily swayed by soaring rhetoric and lofty words. We can be taken in by a winsome personality and fall prey to the cult of personality. But Paul would have us remain focused on the message, not the messenger. What makes the good news great is its content, not the communicator. Men don’t save, God does. Men don’t change lives, the gospel does. And long after Paul, Cephas and Apollos disappeared from the scene, the message of salvation through Christ continues to spread. Many messengers have come and gone, but the message remains the same, and the promises of God, unwavering.

 

The Cult of Personality.

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I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. – 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 ESV

It was A. W. Tozer who said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us” (A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy). Our theology will have a direct impact on how we live our lives, and a faulty view of God will end up dramatically affecting our behavior. That was the situation in Corinth and the reason why Paul mentioned God six times and Jesus Christ ten times in the first ten verses alone. He was refocusing their attention back to the nature of their relationship with God the Father and His Son. They were members of the church of God. They belonged to Him. Their very existence was due to Him. Their salvation was the result of His grace and the sacrificial death of His Son. They enjoyed fellowship with God because of Christ’s payment of their sin debt with His own life. They owed all that they were to God and His Son.

And yet, they were guilty of worshiping men. They were a house divided. It had come to Paul’s attention that divisive cliques had developed within the church there in Corinth. People were taking sides. They were aligning themselves with different leaders and claiming superiority based on who it was that they followed. There were those who bragged about their relationship with Apollos. Others claimed allegiance to Cephas (Peter). Much to his dislike, there were some who boasted that Paul was their leader. And then were those who claimed the high road, claiming to be followers of Christ. The end result of all this was petty arguing and prideful posturing. They had missed the point. It wasn’t supposed to be about Apollos, Paul or Cephas. None of them had been crucified in order to pay for the sins of mankind. None of them were preaching their own message of salvation, but each was acting as a messenger of God, proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ.

For Paul, a proper view of God should result in proper behavior. If people had an accurate understanding of God and the future-based focus of His plan of redemption, they would not put all their hopes in this life. They would be less likely to make more of the messenger than the message. God had been using Paul, Cephas and Apollos, but they were simply the bearers of the good news of Jesus Christ. But the Corinthians had turned these men into celebrities, and this growing cult of personality was dividing the church. The worship of man was inadvertently replacing the proper worship of God. Without realizing it, the believers in Corinth were boasting in men rather than God. They were attributing their salvation to men, instead of God. And they were focusing all their attention on the here-and-now rather than the hereafter. Who baptized them had become far more important to them than why they had been baptized in the first place. They had given their favorite preacher more prominence than they rightfully deserved. And Paul was going to make sure that they saw the error of their way.

The Corinthian believers were just as susceptible to hero worship as we are. They found themselves susceptible to making much of the messenger. Some were naturally attracted to Paul. Others found Apollos more appealing. There were those who found the style of Cephas more to their liking. But they had allowed these personal preferences to become points of contention, leading to division within the church. They were elevating style over substance. But Paul was determined to make more of the message than the messenger. In the very next chapter he writes,

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. – 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ESV

It wasn’t about Paul’s preaching style or oratory skills. It wasn’t about his persuasive abilities or clever crafting of a good sermon. It was about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The focus of the message of the gospel is as it always has been: the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It is about the God-ordained, Spirit-empowered transformation of men’s lives as they place their faith in Christ, who died in their place and on their behalf. When we care more about the messenger than we do about the message, we are guilty of idol worship. When we prefer style over substance, we are no longer interested in having our hearts transformed, but simply want to have our ears tickled. We want to be entertained and satisfied, rather than sanctified. We find ourselves living for the moment, hoping our favorite preacher will keep us interested for an hour, while God would rather have us living with a much loftier goal: Our ongoing sanctification and future glorification.

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

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The Danger of Division.

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. – 1 Corinthians 1:10 NLT

One of the most dangerous enemies of the body of Christ is any kind of division or internal strife that creeps into its midst. Infighting and internal dissension can be highly destructive to the unity of a local fellowship. That’s why Paul immediately addresses a situation going on within the body of believers in Corinth. He had received news that there were quarrels taking place between believers and he was disturbed enough to deal with it at the very beginning of his letter. It seems that factions had developed within the church and they were centered around personalities. “Some of you are saying, ‘I am a follower of Paul.’ Others are saying, ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Peter,‘ or ‘I follow only Christ'” (1 Corinthians 1:12 NLT). The church had become a personality cult, with various factions choosing a different individual as their “leader.” Paul does not go into a great deal of detail regarding the cause of these factions, but it probably had something to do with the role each of these individuals had played in the conversion of the various church members. If someone had been led to faith by Apollos, they naturally held him in high esteem and viewed him as their mentor. If Paul had been the one to lead them to Christ, they developed a natural affinity and affection for him. So people were more than likely choosing sides based on the role these men had played in their spiritual birth and development. And it had led to arguments and an unhealthy situation within the church.

But Paul calls them out. He exposes the danger of their infighting, and demands that they seek unity – “be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.” There is no place within the body of Christ for factions of any kind, especially man-centered “fan clubs” that seemingly elevate individuals to the same status of Jesus Himself. In the case of Corinth, some of these people were calling themselves followers of man, rather than followers of Christ. Somewhere along the way, they had missed the point. Paul, Peter and Apollos were simply tools God had used to bring the Gospel to the Corinthians and to assist them in their spiritual growth. These men were essential to the process, but were never intended to be afforded rock star status among the Corinthian believers. But it happens all the time. Cults of personality exist in churches all across the country. People become followers of men rather than followers of Christ. And in larger churches where you have larger staffs, you can end up with factions based on the particular minister or ministry heads and the role they play in the lives of various individuals. Younger people can end up with a natural affinity to younger pastors. Older members of the congregation can end up preferring a minister closer to their demographic. If a particular minister played a role in someone’s salvation, it can become natural for that individual to hold that pastor in higher regard. But all of this can lead to divisions and a lack of unity. Again, that is why Paul appealed to them to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.

Much of what Paul had to deal with in his letters to the various churches had to do with unity and division. Why? Because it was always a real threat to the integrity and health of these new congregations. In his book, The Story of God As Revealed in the Holy Bible For All Mankind, Raymond Anderegg writes, “…the apostles make it clear that two of the biggest threats to the kingdom of God are false teachers and division within the Church, and both threats are treated as equally important. Thus, two of the worst sins a Christian can commit are to reject the gospel of Jesus Christ for another gospel (religion) and to cause strife and division among our brethren, the body, or Church, of Christ.” Disunity is destructive. Division is deadly. It robs the church of its power. It diminishes the body of Christ’s influence among the lost. It gives the enemy a foothold and an opportunity to sow strife and dissension in place of love and forgiveness. Ours is not to be a man-centered religion based on personality, but a Christ-centered faith based on His sin-defeating work on the cross on our behalf. When we start making the church a cult of personality by making much of men, we diminish the sufficiency and singularity of Christ as the sole focus of our faith.

Father, from the very beginning, mankind has wanted to make it all about man. We tend to want to worship ourselves or someone else instead of You. We find it easy to make much of man. We so want to elevate men to positions of prominence and importance because it seems to give us hope for ourselves. But it was never meant to be about us. We make lousy gods. We make terrible saviors. We are incapable of providing long-term, sustainable help and hope for anyone. Which is why You sent Your Son. We are to make much of Him. We are to worship Him and Him alone. Forgive us for the divisions and silly factions we create based on personalities. Help us remember that we are followers of Christ and no one else. Create in us a unity that is focused on Him. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org