1 Corinthians 1:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Why do you take pride in baptizing, when I thank God that I did not perform Baptism?

By these words he wisely casts down such arrogance. He does not diminish the power of Baptism. May it never be.

Rather, he diminishes the pride of those who exalted themselves for performing Baptism. First, he shows that this is not their gift. Second, he gives thanks to God for himself.

Baptism is important, but the one baptizing does not give it importance. The One invoked in Baptism does.

The performance of Baptism means nothing with respect to human labor. Indeed, it is much less than preaching the Gospel.

Baptism, I repeat, is an important thing, and without Baptism it is impossible to receive the kingdom of heaven.

Yet even a man of no great distinction can perform it, while preaching the Gospel requires great labor.

Why, he says, do you take pride in baptizing, when I thank God that I did not baptize? He says this not to diminish the importance of baptism, but to restrain the Corinthians, who boasted in baptism. For baptism is a great thing, but to baptize is not great.

"I thank God that I baptized none of you."

I know many false teachers who customarily boast that they have baptized many and have gained many disciples for themselves.

But I thank my Creator and Provider that I cannot boast in such external advantages.

I had no suitable occasion to exercise myself in fulfilling these duties.

Therefore, during the whole time of my stay with you, I found no occasion to make any of you worthy of grace-filled Baptism, except only Crispus (Acts 18:8), the ruler of the Jewish assembly, and Gaius, who was my fellow traveler in my journeys.

"Is Christ divided?"

Christ is the Head, and all Christians make up one body. Each Christian is a member of the body.

Therefore a Christian's life is rightly ordered only when he obeys his Head, Christ, and lives by His spirit and His powers.

The Lord and Master is one. Those who believe in Him must also be of one spirit and must serve Him alone.

It is not right to choose one of men as one's leader, thereby lowering Christ. It is not praiseworthy to cling to a man until God is forgotten, whether that man is Paul the Apostle or Peter.

"Was Paul crucified for you?" the Apostle Paul says of himself. "Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?"

Christ the Lord was crucified for us and for Paul himself. All believers were baptized into Christ and pledged themselves to serve Him forever.

The Apostle thanks God that he baptized few of the Corinthians, because by this he himself did not fall into error.

Otherwise error under his name would have existed among many, as they disputed about those baptizing and those baptized.

By doing this, to the humiliation of the Savior's Baptism, they would attribute His grace to men and ascribe to them the cause of glory.

Such things happened also, as now with the Novatians and Donatists. They attribute Baptism to themselves, do not recognize those baptized among us, and transfer glory to their own baptized in their own person.

For this reason, having denied the name of Christ, they call themselves Novatians and Donatists, and glory in this.

Crispus and Gaius are Corinthians whom Paul names as witnesses. They were baptized by the Apostle in such a way that they attributed no glory to him on that account.

The Apostle strengthens the accusation with each added word, yet he does not strike the accused severely. He puts his own person in place of the Corinthian teachers. He also gives them to understand that they named themselves not only after teachers, but also after those who baptized them. He then presents the reason why he did not baptize many.

Crispus was the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth, where Paul baptized him with his whole household.

Three men named Gaius are found in Holy Scripture. The first was a Macedonian, Paul's companion in Ephesus (Acts 19:29).

The second was a Thessalonian, who followed him even as far as Asia (Acts 20:4).

The third was his host and the host of the whole Church (Rom 16:23).

Since he says, "none of you," that is, I baptized none of you Corinthians except Crispus and Gaius, it follows that Gaius also was a Corinthian, like Crispus.

From this one may conclude that he is not speaking here of the Macedonian or the Thessalonian, but of the Gaius whom he called his host.

He received both Paul himself when he was in Corinth and all the faithful who came there.

Then the Apostle sets forth how groundless the Corinthian disagreements are (1 Cor 1:13-16).

"Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Cor 1:13).

By the first question the Apostle wanted to show the Corinthians their groundlessness.

If their various teachers do not preach different Christs, but on the contrary one and the same Christ is the subject of their common preaching, then it is extremely unreasonable to place oneself under the headship of one teacher in preference to another.

By the remaining questions the Apostle directly sets forth the obvious absurdity contained in their thought. Yet this thought could be attributed to the Corinthians because of their divisions, as though their teachers were also their redeemers.

Turning to himself and to similar persons, the Apostle proclaims that the circumstance of who performed the Baptism of this or that person gives no occasion for division.

In entering Christianity, from the human point of view, the more difficult work is not Baptism, but preaching the Gospel and preparing for it.

Thus, when the Apostle Paul sends up thanksgiving to God that he baptized few, he does not diminish Baptism or those who perform it.

On the contrary, he even exalts it, and at the same time removes every possibility of finding in himself an occasion for divisions.

For division according to those who baptize may seem in Christianity to have greater significance than division according to the dignity of teachers.

He thanks God that he did not baptize. This is not because he considered the performance of Baptism unimportant, nor because he diminished the power of Baptism.

Rather, through this he was delivered even from innocently giving occasion for division, or for strengthening the opinions that divided the believers there.

One must suppose that among the reasons why a person chose one man as head over others was that he had been baptized by him.

If, although the Apostle had baptized almost no one, a party arose that counted him as its head, what would have happened if he had baptized all whom he had converted?

Therefore he thanks God that he did not baptize, and through this gave no one an occasion to turn his attention away from Christ the Lord.