The whole argument seemed madness.  The Corinthian church was fighting over who they followed.  Some boasted Paul, others Apollos.  These arguments were insignficant.  Worse, they took away from Jesus Christ.  Paul had to rebuke and correct them.

Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.  You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?  For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.  I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.  The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.  For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

These stupid jealousies and quarrels were signs of worldliness, not godliness.  Would they not understand?

It wasn’t that there were disagreements, there always will be.  The problem was the conflict was motivated by jealousy and the fruit was quarreling and dissension among believers, not unity.

If Paul was only here today, he would probably have to write so much it would be published in a multi-volume set.  Today, there are jealousies and quarreling about many things.  Social media just adds that to the fire where people even debate each other in front of the whole world.  How do we walk this out?

For Paul, he wanted to make the point and give them the bigger picture.  It wasn’t about Paul.  He was the one who planted the seed.  Nor was it about Apollos, he was the one who tended the young shoot and made it grow.  Both had a purpose and each of their purpose’s was unique.  But the foundation was Jesus Christ.  He was the one who made it grow.  So only he gets the glory.  It isn’t Paul’s field or Apollos’ field, it is only God.  “God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building” (v. 9).

The worship of personalities has not ended much.  It’s still today.

But there’s a question for each of us.  Where in our hearts are we wrestling with jealousies?  Jealousy is running wild but it is rarely named.  Where are you running out of a basis of jealousy?  Or am I?  Are we Spirit-led, or is jealousy quietly fueling our actions?

And where are we engaging in meaningless quarrels?  Social media has made it so that we don’t need soap operas anymore.  We are the soap opera.  Are you foolishly following and engaging in controversies that don’t matter?  Or are you engaged in the ones that truly have eternal consequence?