Why is not Paul concerned about baptizing those who heard his Gospel, when Jesus had commanded to baptize everyone to whom the gospel was preached?
Jesus has commanded to baptize everyone (those obey the good news) to whom the Gospel is preached in Matthew 28:19. Then why did Paul say that Christ had not sent him to baptize?
1 Corinthians 1:14 - 17
ESV - 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius. 15 So that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.
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Asked August 25 2014
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Arun Kumar
For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Danny Hickman
Paul is a preacher; he's a writer, but there is no designation as writer listed anywhere in the scriptures. Neither is there a job listing for baptizer.
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ (Eph 4:11,12). (nothing said about their responsibility is to baptize).
He said nothing about any gift of being a baptizer. Paul was not a baptizer. I've only read of one in all of scripture; he is John the Baptist.
I'm not saying Paul wasn't concerned or didn't care about new converts being baptized; maybe he thought highly of it. But I don't think he'd care much for being called a baptizer.
If Paul thought a new convert was in danger of missing the bus to paradise if he didn't get baptized I think we'd know; I think he would have made that real clear. He didn't make a lot of fuss about it. And neither did Peter, John, Jude or any other writer in scripture.
The scroll with the 'Ye must be baptized' commandment hasn't been discovered yet. I don't think it's out there anywhere.