Holy Apostle Andrew

1 Corinthians 4:9-12 (11/30) Epistle for the Feast of the Holy
First-Called Apostle Andrew
Apostolic Imitation: 1 Corinthians 4:9-16, especially vss. 15, 16: "For
though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not
have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the
Gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me."
The long-standing practice of Orthodox Christianity passes on the Faith
principally through elders and spiritual fathers. Transmitting the
Gospel has never been so much at the level of ideas, but by what Father
Alexander Schmemann calls "supra-individual...ecclesial and
eschatological" experience.
From Kiev this counsel of a father to a son: "In the city where you are
living...seek a God-fearing man - and serve him with all your strength.
Having found such a man you need grieve no more; you have found the key
to the Kingdom of Heaven; adhere to him with soul and body; observe his
life, his walking, sitting, looking, eating....first of all....keep his
words."
The present reading reveals such Apostolic beginnings in Orthodox
Tradition. The Apostle calls on his disciples at Corinth to follow the
spectacle of his living (vss. 9-13). Then he points to his special
relationship with them as a father rather than as an instructor (vs.
15). It is from this personal, discipling relationship that he bids
them, imitate me (vs. 16).
Rather than examine the dramatic details of the Apostle Paul's life,
turn your attention to Saint Paul relationship as a father to the
Christians at Corinth. He defines fathering by contrasting it to
teaching. In the Church there are tens of thousands of instructors in
Christ, but Saint Paul points to his relationship with them was as a
father (vs. 15). In chapter eighteen of Acts, there is a brief account
of his founding work with the Corinthians (Acts 18:1-18), which
illumines this distinction between teachers of the Faith and spiritual
fathers.
When the Apostle Paul first arrived in Corinth, he became acquainted
with a couple, Aquila and Priscilla, fellow Jews and recent deportees
from the city of Rome (Acts 18:2). The three discovered that they shared
a common trade, and so established themselves as tent-makers (Acts
18:3). At the same time Saint Paul made himself known at the local
Synagogue as an expositor of the Scriptures, both with Jews and with
interested Greeks. Significantly, at first, he did not directly testify
"...that Jesus is the Christ...", the Messiah (Acts 18:4,5); but, by the
time his Apostolic companions arrived, he was beginning to feel
constrained to do so (Acts 18:5).
When he did witness to Jesus, opposition swiftly developed and he
withdrew from the Synagogue to devote himself to the Gentiles (Acts
18:6). Saint Paul then worked with a group who "...believed on the
Lord..." and many were baptized (Acts 18:7-8). In a vision, the Lord
Jesus also encouraged Paul to continue his witnessing (Acts 18:9-10). Do
you see that at first he began by teaching and that only later he began
witnessing to the living Lord Whom he knew?
In the Tradition, we have seen the requirement that one must "...join a
God fearing man..." to receive consolation from the Lord. Teaching about
the Faith is not the same as discipling, a distinction the Lord Himself
makes in His Great Commission: "Go therefore, and make disciples of all
the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, [then] teaching them to observe all things that I
have commanded you..." (Mt. 28:19,20).
Teaching is necessary, but discipling is essential. Ultimately one is
"...begotten...through the gospel" (1 Cor. 4:15). Teaching surely must
precede, then accompany, but also follow discipling; yet fathering,
which begets, must have greater weight in each disciple's life so that
all rational learning about the Faith is formed within. Orthodox
disciples mature as they imitate the living substance of their fathers
in God, rather than as they learn many facts from their teachers.
O Lord, help me to imitate those who know Thee, that I may be made
worthy of Thee.