The Importance of Dialog
A guest blog by Shawn Blythe.
They are seven short words buried in the middle of I Corinthians that are very easy to overlook. After extolling the Corinthians about divisions in the church, wisdom and sexual immortality, Paul begins chapter 7 with the statement: “Now, for the matters you wrote about . . . “
We are very used to reading the letters in the Bible as one-way correspondence from church leaders to the churches. We are less familiar with communications in the other direction. In this case, the Christians in Corinth clearly sent a letter to Paul asking for guidance on some issues of concern for them. History has not preserved this letter, so we know little about its contents other than indirectly through Paul’s response.
From I Corinthians 5:9, we learn that I Corinthians is at least the second letter Paul has written to this church. It would seem reasonable to assume that the letter Paul refers to in I Corinthians 7:1 may very well have been a response from the church to that previous letter. In addition, there would appear to be additional communication from individuals who may have been traveling back and forth between Ephesus (Paul’s likely location when he wrote the letters to the Corinthians) and Corinth – e.g. Chloe’s household representatives mentioned in I Corinthians 1:10. What we appear to have is a dialogue between a church and its founder.
I can almost imagine the committee that put the church letter to Paul together and the potential iterations of the correspondence – e.g. “Don’t ask it THAT way!”, “Why are we asking about X?”, “Why aren’t we asking about Y?”, etc.
The fact that there was apparent agreement to address this letter to Paul shouldn’t be too surprising given that he was the one who established this local congregation – and wrote the first letter to which they may have been responding. What is more surprising to me is that they wrote the letter at all. I think we have a general reluctance to ask for guidance or clarity. Many of us are long-time believers with significant Biblical knowledge and experience. We are certain in our beliefs, understanding and the proper way forward. Asking questions could jeopardize our leadership credentials. Others are relatively new to the faith and may be reluctant to acknowledge uncertainty for fear it will make us look less mature in our faith.
Both views are clearly flawed and identified as such throughout scripture. We should be eager to ask questions and carefully consider the responses of others. We should have a driving curiosity to learn more and more fully understand what we already believe we know. Clearly, personal Bible study and prayer play an indispensable part of this process. But equally as important is asking questions, hearing other’s perspectives and discussing difficult issues.
Of course, the letter from the Corinthian church could have been a direct reflection of Paul’s difficult writing. Even Peter acknowledges that Paul’s writings can be hard to understand (II Peter 3:16). One can imagine the same church committee described above poring over Paul’s first letter and glancing nervously at each other cautiously waiting for the first person to acknowledge that they have no idea what he is talking about.
But the important thing is that they asked. They acknowledged their questions and sought answers through a respectful dialog. A dialog that ended up benefiting the local church – as well as providing guidance for churches over the next two thousand years.
There will always be differences of opinion within a church. One of my favorite stories was of a church whose congregation had split into two opposing views over a significant issue involving the wooden pews: Should they get pew pads to make them more comfortable? After much debate – with each side attempting unsuccessfully to persuade the other – they eventually agreed on a compromise by putting pew pads on every other pew. I don’t know how many decades ago this decision was made, but pew pads remain on every other pew in that church to this day.
As noted above, the most important thing is for us to discuss our differences, concerns and questions. We may disagree about music, altar calls, methods of collecting offering or even which ministries should be our focus. We may also disagree about politics, supreme court decisions, or public policy. But we should never forget that what unites us is far greater than any of these disagreements. The church at Corinth provides an example of a dialog that was sometimes painful (II Corinthians 2:1-4), but always constructive.
I would encourage you to find a mechanism to ask your questions. Whether it’s in a New Members Class, small group, or perhaps just one of our informal hangouts at the Sandbox this summer. Maybe it’s as simple as coffee with somebody to discuss varying perspectives.
I find it interesting that we have no record of Jesus actually writing any letters or leaving any written documentation during his ministry on how we should live. Clearly if anybody was going to provide written guidance to the newborn church it would be the Savior. But letters are inefficient means of dialog and conversations was what Jesus was all about. He spent his time discussing difficult issues with people directly. He asked questions. He encouraged others to ask questions – even asking the questions himself when they were reluctant to ask out loud. Spreading the good news to non-Christians or discussing difficult items like pew pads with our local church family is all about the dialog. It’s a model that we can all likely utilize more than we do.