Recently, another brother wrote the following in his blog:

How do we deal with the fact that Paul wrote—
(1 Cor. 1:17) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel — not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
For all the many scriptures that support the traditional position of the Churches of Christ, there is no explaining this passage in light of what we’ve traditionally taught. How can the greatest evangelist in history say — by inspiration — that Jesus did not send him to baptize?
Don’t we send our missionaries out to baptize? Don’t we expect reports from them as to numbers of baptisms? Can you imagine a Church of Christ missionary saying that he wasn’t sent to baptize?

I expressed disagreement in my comments and would like to address the subject here. As one who has been a missionary and is often in missionary situations today, I echo Paul’s statements. The act of physically putting someone into the water is not what I was called to do. I will do it when necessary; as recently as March I baptized several people. But I am not looking for notches on my revolver nor feathers in my headdress.

I preach that people need to repent and be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit. [I, for one, feel that repent is as much a part of what leads to that result as be baptized is.] However, I have seen the dangers of people being baptized by the visiting celebrity preacher. I’ve heard them say, “I’ve got the photo that shows I was baptized by _____.” It’s a danger that we need to work harder to avoid; part of that would happen if we quit giving “credit” to the person who physically immerses the other. It doesn’t matter who puts the person under the water. Look at John 4:1-2:

“The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.”

Paul preached baptism as part of faith in Christ; we see that in Acts 16. He says in 1 Corinthians 12 that all of the Corinthians have been baptized, so that wasn’t the question. In chapter 1, Paul is dealing with the problems that had arisen based on preacheritis in Corinth: I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Peter. He says, “I am thankful that I didn’t baptize many of you.” Note what he doesn’t say:

• He doesn’t say: “I am thankful I never taught you to be baptized.”
• He doesn’t say, “I am thankful none of you was baptized while I was present.”
• He doesn’t say, “I am thankful none of you were baptized because of my preaching.”

He says, “I am thankful that I didn’t physically put many of you under the water, for that would have added to this preacher cult problem you have.”

Remember… context is our friend. Out of context, we can use Paul’s words to say that he didn’t highly emphasize baptism or that he separated baptism and faith, placing faith above baptism. In context, all we can say is that Paul did not feel compelled to be the one to physically immerse someone. He would teach that person that they needed to be immersed, but it did not have to be by his hand.

Personally, I hope that more of us learn that lesson. Someone asked me the other day, “Who baptized you?” I do know the man’s name, but there was no real significance to his participation. He was the deacon in charge of our youth camp. I don’t know that I ever heard him teach a lesson. I don’t know where he is today. And I’m glad.

Who really baptized me? The Holy Spirit, thank you very much. Someone helped me be immersed so that He could do that work.

I would encourage all missionaries to say “I was sent to preach, not to baptize.” I would encourage it of all preachers. We do baptize and will baptize. But we care more that the person be baptized rather than whether or not we do it by our own hand. We learned that from Jesus’ own example and Paul’s words here.