Follow Christ

"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 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?" - 1 Cor 1:11-13.

I read this and can't help but to think that we evangelicals fight and argue about the most senseless things sometimes (and I really do mean we). Some of these things are truly worthwhile and need to be discussed. But these things can get way to far and out of bounds, so much so that we begin to form our own system of "orthodoxy" and "unorthodoxy," no longer based off Scripture, but off our own tightly held opinions and heros of the faith.

We ask questions about the Reformation, what do to with paraenetic material of the Pauline epistles, did Paul and Jesus preach the same gospel, etc., and are so caught up with all these hypothetical, conceptual ideas and thoughts that we stray further and further from Jesus. Why are we so quick to form a debate over NT Wright and Luther, and yet leave the matters of dying-to-self-in-order-to-labor-to-form-Christ-in-other-individuals alone? 

We sing "In Christ Alone," but do our daily conversations, thoughts and actions testify to our melodic proclamation? Let us not fool ourselves into thinking we are wise, but instead dawn the attitude that Paul provokes with the question, "What do you have that you have not received?" Not to Luther, Calvin, Packer, Piper, Wright, Keller, or us but to God be the glory through Christ Jesus, His Son. Let us rightly praise our God for these men, but let us not put them in place of His Son.