For Paul, Christianity is first of all witness, if we are speaking about words; and when words are used just like that, in argument for argument's sake or in argument for self-assertion, then...
For Paul, Christianity is first of all witness, if we are speaking about words; and when words are used just like that, in argument for argument's sake or in argument for self-assertion, then for the apostle such disputes are equivalent to false witness.
Apparently, the recipients of his letter in Corinth did not perceive the situation so unequivocally. It seemed to them that Christianity was not only Christ and the Kingdom, but also something else, whether some new theology, or new morality, or some other new thing that could be argued and debated. And the discussions were conducted with complete seriousness and at times quite heatedly, because it was assumed that fundamental questions of spiritual life were being settled there, questions without whose answer Christianity was unthinkable. In reality, however, they were arguing about secondary things, and during the argument they gradually forgot its subject, trying more and more to affirm themselves and their own point of view.
The apostle, however, tries to bring the disputants back to reality. Indeed, did any one of them, when accepting Christ and experiencing the presence of the breath of the Kingdom in his life, need anything else? Did they then need any further doctrines, any theology, anything at all besides Christ and the Kingdom? And if not, why has all this now become so "relevant" to them that, for the sake of arguments about things secondary in essence, they forget what is most important? Or did they hear some other, new gospel besides the one they heard from Paul and from the other apostles?
The point, Paul says, is not that he does not know how to argue, or that he could not take part in the arguments and debates that had become so popular in the Corinthian church. But to do so would mean acknowledging the importance and value of something that is not at all important and has little value. It would mean recognizing as apostles those who lay claim to apostleship while not being apostles in essence, but only trying to present themselves as God's servants while being merely lovers of argument about topics that have no direct relation to spiritual life. To begin arguing with such disputants on their own level would mean testifying to them and to everyone around that their disputes deserve attention and are important for spiritual life, and recognizing in them a ministry equal to the apostolic ministry - a ministry of which they have no understanding at all. Of course, Paul could not go along with this and had no intention of entering into arguments with people who simply liked to argue.
