Apollos at Corinth
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accepting the faith than there were accessions from the Gentiles. Thus
they excused their opposition to the results of the calm deliberations
of God’s acknowledged servants.
They refused to admit that the work of Christ embraced the whole
world. They claimed that he was the Saviour of the Hebrews alone;
therefore they maintained that the Gentiles should receive circumcision
before being admitted to the privileges of the church of Christ.
After the decision of the council at Jerusalem concerning this
question, many were still of this opinion, but did not then push their
opposition any farther. The council had, on that occasion, decided that
the converts from the Jewish church might observe the ordinances of
the Mosaic law if they chose, while those ordinances should not be
made obligatory upon converts from the Gentiles. The opposing class
now took advantage of this, to urge a distinction between the observers
of the ceremonial law and those who did not observe it, holding that
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the latter were farther from God than the former.
Paul’s indignation was stirred. His voice was raised in stern re-
buke: “If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.” The party
maintaining that Christianity was valueless without circumcision ar-
rayed themselves against the apostle, and he had to meet them in every
church which he founded or visited; in Jerusalem, Antioch, Galatia,
Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome. God urged him out to the great work of
preaching Christ, and him crucified; circumcision or uncircumcision
was nothing. The Judaizing party looked upon Paul as an apostate,
bent upon breaking down the partition wall which God had established
between the Israelites and the world. They visited every church which
he had organized, creating divisions. Holding that the end would
justify the means, they circulated false charges against the apostle,
and endeavored to bring him into disrepute. As Paul, in visiting the
churches, followed after these zealous and unscrupulous opposers, he
met many who viewed him with distrust, and some who even despised
his labors.
These divisions in regard to the ceremonial law, and the relative
merits of the different ministers teaching the doctrine of Christ, caused
the apostle much anxiety and hard labor. In his Epistle to the Corinthi-
ans, he thus addresses them on the latter subject:—
“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions