The Question Isn’t Whether You’re Right

We are discipled by Christian influencers who don't know our name, and it makes us disagree with people in our own church who do.

We're beginning a seven-month series in 1 Corinthians, and Pastor Jim Essian opens with the letter's central diagnosis: the church in Corinth looked too much like Corinth and not enough like the cross.

Paul doesn't start with their mess — and there was plenty of it. He starts with their identity. Sanctified saints, together. Because identity precedes behavior, for a person and for a church.

Then he names the division. Four tribes, each claiming a teacher, each quietly convinced they were the better Christian. Paul's real concern wasn't doctrine. It was self-exaltation, and the posture underneath it: I have no need of you.

The hard question isn't whether you're right. It's whether you need them to be wrong.

Corinth's symbol was the wreath. America's is the platform. Ours is the cross — and a wreath tells you what you won, while the cross tells you what you're worth.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:1-17

Preached by Jim Essian at The Paradox Church in Fort Worth, TX

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