And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.
The verse stands in the instruction of the first, second, and third chapters of First Corinthians, which is of the greatest importance to all who have entered the Lord's army. In it Paul adds that he baptized also the household of Stephanas and remembers baptizing no one else besides Crispus and Gaius. He did very little baptizing on purpose so that no one could say they were baptized in his own name, because he was not crucified for believers and they were not baptized into Paul but into Christ. Christ sent him not to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made of none effect.
The verse belongs to his rebuke of the contentions at Corinth, where each said I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ, withdrawing from some and binding up with others from imagination, and he declared that such envy and strife are the reason for the weakness of the church. Ministers are only servants by whom people believed as the Lord gave to every man, one planting and another watering while God gives the increase, and he that planteth and he that watereth are one in object, each receiving his own reward according to his own labor. It therefore calls for putting away envy, jealousy, prejudice, evil surmising and discord, with contention and faultfinding and mischief-making, that all speak the same thing with no divisions but be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment, so as not to hinder the Spirit of God. It warns that lack of self-denial and self-sacrifice in the ministry leavens the church with selfishness, unduly praising some and demeriting others, producing spiritual disease by unsanctified selfish leaven. The remedy is cleansing of heart and mind in the time of atonement through earnest self-examination and humble earnest prayer, bringing more of Christ and less of self.
The verse stands in the instruction of the first, second, and third chapters of First Corinthians, which is of the greatest importance to all who have entered the Lord's army. In it Paul adds that he baptized also the household of Stephanas and remembers baptizing no one else besides Crispus and Gaius. He did very little baptizing on purpose so that no one could say they were baptized in his own name, because he was not crucified for believers and they were not baptized into Paul but into Christ. Christ sent him not to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made of none effect.
The verse belongs to his rebuke of the contentions at Corinth, where each said I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ, withdrawing from some and binding up with others from imagination, and he declared that such envy and strife are the reason for the weakness of the church. Ministers are only servants by whom people believed as the Lord gave to every man, one planting and another watering while God gives the increase, and he that planteth and he that watereth are one in object, each receiving his own reward according to his own labor. It therefore calls for putting away envy, jealousy, prejudice, evil surmising and discord, with contention and faultfinding and mischief-making, that all speak the same thing with no divisions but be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment, so as not to hinder the Spirit of God. It warns that lack of self-denial and self-sacrifice in the ministry leavens the church with selfishness, unduly praising some and demeriting others, producing spiritual disease by unsanctified selfish leaven. The remedy is cleansing of heart and mind in the time of atonement through earnest self-examination and humble earnest prayer, bringing more of Christ and less of self.