Christian Leadership and a Crucified Messiah in Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians

The Christians in Corinth were quarrelsome and cliquish. Some claimed to follow Paul, others Apollos, others Cephas, and still others claimed to follow Christ himself (1 Cor. 1:12). The congregation had become a collection of fan clubs, with personality cults developing around various preachers of the gospel.

How does Paul respond to such foolishness? He points them to another kind of foolish­ness–the foolishness of the gospel, the message of Christ crucified (1:17,18). “Human wisdom” seems to have captured the Corinthian Christians1, undermining the impact of the gospel in their midst. As a result, they had misunderstood the nature of Christian leadership.  Paul con­tends that our understanding of Christian leader­ship must be shaped by the Christian gospel itself, a message that runs contrary to the wisdom of this world.

As early as the fifth century B.C., the Greek historian Herodotus had said, “All Greeks were zealous for every kind of wisdom.”2 Apparently, that tradition endured, for in the time of Paul, there were those who made a living satisfying that popular passion–the Sophists, the profes­sional purvey­ors of Sophia. These traveling teachers went from city to city, giving paid lec­tures, speaking on the art of wisdom. This wisdom would equip the listeners with the skills needed to get on in the world and to be successful. The Sophists were especially noted for their rhetorical abilities, through which they entertained large crowds. Some enjoyed great success in telling others how to succeed, and the best of them amassed large fortunes.3 They set the standard of wisdom in much of the Mediterranean world and, apparently, in the city of Corinth, for Paul’s words in 1:18-2:5 seem to have a Sophist’s understanding of wisdom very much in view.

This worldly perspective on wisdom, with its emphasis on human knowledge, wealth, power, and pride, left the Corinthians as spiritual infants in Paul’s mind (3:1-4). Beginning in 3:5, the Apostle seeks to construct a Christian understanding of leadership, which contrasts with the foolish hero-worship based on the wisdom of the rulers of this age (2:6). “What after all is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe,” he writes (3:5). And again in 4:1: “So then, men ought to regard us as servants and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.”

Paul develops this notion of Christian leadership as service through a series of metaphors. He speaks of the Christian leader as a farmer in God’s field (3:6-9) and as a con­struction worker in God’s building (3:10-15). He even portrays his own role as that of a father over God’s children (4:14-17). But perhaps his most startling image–and the one that is most at odds with contemporary culture (Paul’s and ours)–is the metaphor of the Christian leader as a fool, as a clown in God’s world. This image may most profoundly reflect the distinctive dimension of Christian leadership.

This model emerges in a passage filled with biting sarcasm (4:8-13). The Corinthians, it seemed, just didn’t get it. Their understanding of what it meant to be a Christian was funda­mentally flawed. Certainly, they had responded to the gospel in faith. They knew Jesus as their Savior; they declared him to be their Lord. But the Corinthian Christians mistakenly be­lieved that the glory of their risen Savior was already theirs in all its fullness. They thought of leadership in terms of power and appearance, resulting in worldly prestige and honor. They didn’t understand that though our glorious destiny as Christians is assured, it is not yet ful­filled. We now live in hope of what is still to come–in hope of the return of Christ and the resurrection of our bodies so that we may indeed be­come like him in glory. But that has not yet happened, and until it does, we are called to follow in the footsteps of our Lord by taking up our own cross and giving up our lives in love.

The message of Christ crucified–this wonderful wisdom of God–is not just the message of how we are to be saved; it is the message of how we are to live. And the Corinthians appar­ently had missed this important truth. Their lives were shaped much more by the values of Corinth than by Christ. They loved Corinthian wisdom more than divine wisdom. It is Corinthian glory that inspired them rather than the glory of God. And so their image of the Christian leader was one of power, glory, riches, and honor. These views had caused them to become smug, self-satis­fied, and arrogant–attitudes that had resulted in rivalry and back-bit­ing in the church.

In an effort to disabuse them of their false notions, the Apostle Paul resorts to a rhetori­cal flurry of his own: “Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings–and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you!” (4:8). No, Paul says, as Christian leaders, we’re not kings–maybe you are, but we aren’t; not yet, not in this world. No, in this world, we are something else–“We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are hon­ored, we are dishonored!” (4:10) You see, in this world, Paul tells them, we follow a crucified Messiah–and in the eyes of this world, that makes us nothing but fools.

And it gets worse. In v. 9, Paul uses the imagery of the triumphal processions of return­ing Roman legions. In their parades, the victorious senior military officers would come first, followed by their juniors. Behind them would come the spoils of war, with the captured prisoners in de­scending order of rank. In the rear would come the lowest slaves–those destined for the coli­seum where they would face the gladiators or be thrown to the wild beasts for the entertain­ment of the crowds. Paul writes in v. 9: “For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on dis­play at the end of the pro­cession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men.”

“So you think Christian leadership is a proud and prestigious profession?” Paul seems to be asking. Have you ever dreamed of what it would be like to be the Apostle Paul? How great it would be! But let me tell you what it’s really like:

“To this very hour, we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment, we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world” (4:11-13)

This is the life of an apostle, according to Paul–a life of deprivation and humiliation, of physical and verbal abuse, being treated like the lowest of the low, like human sewage–the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world. Paul’s model of the Christian leader is not Christ glorified–seated at the place of all honor at the right hand of the Father. No, his model of the Christian leader is Christ crucified, the one who was rejected by this world, the one who was mocked and jeered, spat upon and beaten, the one who endured humiliation and hardship out of obedience and love. Paul’s model was the Messiah prophesied in Isa. 53:2–“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,  nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

If you want to find esteem in the eyes of the world, do not aspire to Christian leader­ship, Paul says. If you want the adoration and rewards that this world offers, then steer clear of this calling, for it is not like that at all–at least, not for any Christian leader who aspires to fol­low in the footsteps of his Master. You must not seek honor for yourself in this world but must be willing to enter into the lowliness and shame of a King who became a slave for the sake of those he came to serve. You must be willing to become a fool–a clown–for the cause of Christ.

There’s a lot written on leadership these days in books sold by Christian publishers. However, I have found very little that deals with this dimension of Christian leadership. There is much more written about the principles of Peter Drucker than the principles of the Apostle Paul. I confess that I find what Paul says here extremely challenging–for I like to be liked, to be admired, to be honored–don’t we all? But whom do we serve? Who is our master? Whose word of commendation truly matters? Why should we think the world will receive us any better than it received the very Son of God, our Master?

So, what are you looking for in a Christian leader? A Christian celebrity–loved by all–someone who is smooth, successful, self-assured–someone who is attractive and entertaining? A leader who fits the profile for the Fortune 500? Or are you looking for someone who fits the profile of a fool in the eyes of the world–one who fits the profile of Christ crucified?