Should Anyone Say, ‘I Am of Calvin’?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:04.000 | I am of Calvin.
00:00:07.000 | Are we forbidden from making such a claim?
00:00:10.000 | I am of Calvin.
00:00:12.000 | Karen, a listener who loves DG and who recently was in the room with us in Nashville for our first ever live recording together,
00:00:18.000 | asks it quite pointedly.
00:00:20.000 | "Hello Pastor John, and thank you for Ask Pastor John.
00:00:22.000 | In what ways is saying 'I am a Calvinist' or 'I am of Calvin' different than saying 'I am of Paul' or 'I am of Apollos' as Paul warns against in 1 Corinthians 3-4?
00:00:34.000 | Is it different?
00:00:35.000 | It's an honest question for me, and I hope it does not come across sounding like a personal challenge.
00:00:39.000 | It's not meant to be.
00:00:40.000 | I thank God for you and your reformed convictions and focus on God's glory, beauty, and all-surpassing worth.
00:00:47.000 | Pastor John, what would you say to Karen?"
00:00:49.000 | Is the statement—this is my understanding of what's being asked—
00:00:53.000 | Is the statement "I am a Calvinist" different from the statements in 1 Corinthians
00:01:01.000 | "I am of Paul," "I am of Apollos," "I am of Cephas," which Paul scolded as inappropriate?
00:01:09.000 | And the answer is, "I am a Calvinist" might be guilty of what they are guilty of.
00:01:19.000 | It might be.
00:01:20.000 | And that statement might not be guilty of what Paul is scolding.
00:01:27.000 | So we need to see what Paul was really criticizing and how "I am a Calvinist" might not be sinful
00:01:39.000 | the way some of the Corinthians were and how it might be.
00:01:43.000 | Here's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians, "I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
00:01:50.000 | 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.
00:02:00.000 | For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you."
00:02:08.000 | What I mean is this, that each one of you says, "I am of Paul," "I am of Apollos," "I am of Cephas," or "I am of Christ."
00:02:18.000 | So what's at issue here?
00:02:21.000 | What is it about these teachers or the way they are perceived that is creating this quarreling
00:02:30.000 | and the divisions here in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians and really through the first four chapters?
00:02:39.000 | Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?
00:02:47.000 | Wow! Those questions that Paul says, that really does point us to part of the issue, doesn't it?
00:02:55.000 | It seems to me they are magnifying their chosen leaders or celebrities to the point where it's almost as though
00:03:07.000 | they are in the place of Christ. Otherwise, why would Paul say, "Is Christ divided?" or "Was Paul crucified for you?"
00:03:15.000 | Was Paul crucified for you? No! Christ was! So stop treating these other teachers as though they were Christ.
00:03:24.000 | Were you baptized into the name of Paul? No! You were baptized into the name of Christ.
00:03:31.000 | So that's the first tip-off of the problem. The allegiance to a leader is starting to compete with allegiance to Christ.
00:03:40.000 | Things are out of proportion. And then Paul gives another clue. 1 Corinthians 1:17,
00:03:46.000 | "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom."
00:03:54.000 | That's a key phrase. "Not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."
00:04:00.000 | This is a clue that what the parties were focusing on, these divisions, these quarreling divisions were focusing on,
00:04:09.000 | was not different messages from Paul and Apollos and Cephas. Like, they preached three different theologies.
00:04:17.000 | These were not competing theologies. There's no mention in the first three chapters of 1 Corinthians
00:04:25.000 | where this problem is all front and center. There's no mention of any difference between Paul and Cephas and Apollos
00:04:33.000 | as to the content of what they preached. What's mentioned is eloquence, verbal giftedness, debating powers.
00:04:43.000 | Chapter 1, verse 20, "Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age?"
00:04:49.000 | Chapter 2, verse 1, "When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom."
00:04:58.000 | Chapter 2, verse 5, "So that your faith might rest not on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."
00:05:07.000 | They seem to be bragging—these groups, these divisions, factions—they seem to be bragging on the superior,
00:05:16.000 | gifting, rhetorical gifting, eloquent gifting of their favorite leader.
00:05:22.000 | Who's the better preacher? Who's the better debater? Who's the better writer? Who's the better blogger?
00:05:28.000 | Who's the wittiest? Who's the most culturally savvy? Who's the funniest?
00:05:34.000 | Who's got the best illustrations? You get the idea.
00:05:39.000 | Corinth was full of this kind of thing. One celebrity entertainer exalted above another because of the skill,
00:05:48.000 | the rhetorical skill and eloquence and savvy that they brought to their message.
00:05:55.000 | And America today is full of this kind of thing.
00:05:59.000 | So Paul's response is this. This is 1 Corinthians 3, 5.
00:06:05.000 | "What then is Apollos? What is Paul?
00:06:10.000 | Servants, servants, slaves, through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each.
00:06:20.000 | I planted, Apollos watered, God gave the growth.
00:06:25.000 | So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything,
00:06:33.000 | but only God who gives the growth."
00:06:38.000 | So the whole focus of the divisions in Corinth is not on the content of the teaching of these men.
00:06:48.000 | It's on their relative effectiveness in communication and debating and eloquence.
00:06:53.000 | And Paul's answer is, first, everything that counts in these men's lives is a gift of God, not human ability.
00:07:00.000 | And then he blows the Corinthians away with this crazy, wonderful, beautiful, glorious statement.
00:07:08.000 | Chapter 3, verse 21. "So let no one boast in men."
00:07:14.000 | So stop having this vicarious sense of self-exaltation by identifying with your favorite eloquent preacher.
00:07:25.000 | "So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours,
00:07:32.000 | whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future.
00:07:38.000 | All are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."
00:07:43.000 | Which is an interesting irony. You don't belong to them.
00:07:49.000 | They were saying, "I am of Paul. I am of Apollos. I am of Cephas. I belong to them."
00:07:54.000 | I'm in their camp. And Paul turns around and says, "You don't belong to them. They belong to you."
00:08:01.000 | Wow.
00:08:02.000 | You are children of God. You own the universe.
00:08:06.000 | Stop puffing yourself up as though you were paupers and need to have yourself propped up
00:08:14.000 | with some ersatz, vicarious celebrity preacher that you want to belong to.
00:08:23.000 | So the biggest difference with "I am a Calvinist" and "I am of Apollos" is that Calvinism is a theology,
00:08:34.000 | not a standard of eloquence. That's the difference.
00:08:38.000 | "I am a Calvinist" may mean, "I believe all that the Bible teaches,
00:08:45.000 | including the glory of the sovereign grace of God and salvation." It may mean that.
00:08:50.000 | That's certainly what I would mean by it. "I believe all that the Bible teaches,
00:08:55.000 | including the glory of the sovereign grace of God in salvation."
00:09:02.000 | But all Calvinists and Arminians are sinners. And so it is very possible, indeed it happens,
00:09:12.000 | that someone might say, "I am a Calvinist," and have the very same sinful attitude
00:09:18.000 | as the Corinthians, thinking, "I'll be seen as smarter, daring, or more historic, or more whatever,
00:09:27.000 | because I have just declared my identification with the great John Calvin,
00:09:33.000 | or the band of people that I like to associate with called Calvinists.
00:09:37.000 | That would be as sinful as "I am of Paul," "I am of Apollos."
00:09:44.000 | And so, may the Lord give us wisdom and humility to focus on the truth of teachings,
00:09:54.000 | not the appeal of teachers.
00:09:58.000 | Well, I didn't know where you were going to take this one, Pastor John, but that's insightful. Thank you.
00:10:02.000 | And thank you for subscribing to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app or on YouTube.
00:10:07.000 | We appreciate having all of you Calvinists along, and even non-Calvinists along.
00:10:11.000 | Thanks for joining us. Thank you for the incredible and important role that you play
00:10:16.000 | in telling others about this podcast. You really are important in helping us spread the word.
00:10:20.000 | Thanks for leaving reviews in your podcast app to that end as well.
00:10:24.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you on the other side of the weekend.
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