“Divinely Drafted”

Friday, April 11, 2014

If the writers of the New Testament were supposed to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, then why would some seem to indicate that they were not inspired in their writings?  For example, Paul, in 1 Cor 7:12, said it was him, not the Lord, speaking.  Also in 1 Cor 1:16, Paul said he forgot who he had baptized.  If he was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, how could he forget?  Why would he make such a statement?

Sincerely,
Uninspired

Dear Uninspired,

1 Cor 7:12 and 1 Cor 1:16 need to be addressed separately because they have different explanations for why they were written as they were.  When the Holy Spirit inspired the apostles, He made sure that every word they wrote down was exactly as it should be (1 Cor 2:13, 2 Pet 1:21).  The Holy Spirit inspired what Paul wrote, but that didn’t change the fact that Paul was human.  The Holy Spirit wanted us to know that Paul couldn’t remember exactly who he had baptized in Corinth – probably because He was emphasizing the fact that it didn’t matter who did the baptizing (1 Cor 1:14-15).  There is no contradiction between Paul the man forgetting who he baptized and Paul, the inspired writer, documenting his own memory lapse.  That explains 1 Cor 1:16.

Now, let’s take a look at 1 Cor 7:12.  In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is addressing marriage questions.  Some of those questions had already been addressed by Jesus when He walked this earth.  When Paul reiterated a teaching that Jesus had already covered (such as the fact that two christians couldn’t divorce for just any old reason), he wrote, “I give charge, not I, but the Lord” because he was referring to Jesus’ previous teachings (1 Cor 7:10-11, Matt 19:3-9).  However, there were some marriage issues that Jesus hadn’t addressed – such as when a christian was married to an unbeliever.  Jesus didn’t address this issue because there was no need to talk about marriage to unbelievers when He was preaching to only the Jews.  Marriage to unbelievers only became an issue once Gentiles (non-Jews) began converting.  When addressing these new marriage issues, Paul clarified that he was providing a teaching in addition to what Jesus had already taught by writing, “say I, not the Lord”.  What Paul was teaching wasn’t opinion; it was simply a new teaching on marriage that had never been addressed.

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