I start with an aside of sorts. The JFB commentary notes Zenas as being 'one of the seventy.' By this, he refers to the seventy disciples sent out by Jesus. It seems that over the course of church history there has been a felt need to either find a greater legacy for these seventy, or to create a greater pedigree for one who came later. Thus one can find a number of saints, as declared by the Catholic church, being identified as 'one of the seventy.' Yet, there is also the clear statement by an author closer to the times that no list of the seventy existed then. A search of the web will now turn up such a list, but one has to suspect that whatever its origins may be, it remains a work of whole cloth.
That such efforts are made to identify the seventy, or to identify with the seventy, seems indicative of human nature more than any search for real significance. The issue that plagued the Corinthian church was hardly unique to that place and time. This chasing down of the seventy is but an extension of the same problem: we want the workers of Christ to be famous, and we want our particular favorites among his workers to have greater place than is likely theirs. How far is this from the thinking of the mother of James and John, who sought that Jesus would grant them a place of particular honor in His kingdom (Mt 20:20-21)? It is our nature. We have our favorites and we want them to be recognized as better than most. Sadly, this does not even reflect a concern for the ones we promote. No, our concern is for ourselves, as always. We want our own judgment to be praised in seeing the ones we have chosen being so honored.
Now some, or perhaps even all, of these assignations to the roll of the seventy may be true. Some of the references may come from those motivated by more proper reasons, perhaps historical interest in recording what was truly known of this group. But membership in that group is not indicated by Scripture as conveying to the member some special degree of authority. Only the apostles have claim to such an authority, delegated to them by Christ. And even this has been abused in the history of the church through this very day, as various parts of the church seek to show an unbroken line in their leadership, descending back through the ages to one apostle or another. Then, they can all battle proudly as to which apostle was the greatest, so that they can show their own pedigree to be of better vintage than another.
There can be valid reasons for investigating the history of the roots of the church, but this vying for position is not one of them! All this tracing back lines of church authority, all this justifying of declaring certain saints saints, and leaving the rest unacknowledged, is nothing but the Corinthian problem revisited. Worse, it is taking the traditions and speculations of men in favor of the infallible Word of God. Scripture declares all believers saints. The words are synonymous in this sense. On what basis, then, does any man take on the authority to decide whether this believer or that is a saint? On what authority does such a one devise his list of qualifying conditions for his declaration of sainthood? No such list is given us in Scripture! It is not given to us because no such distinction exists! To be a believer in Christ is to be a saint. There is no further requirement, nor is there any greater esteem to be sought.
It is not, or ought not be, the purpose of the Christian to be recognized as more Christian than any other. This is human ambition, not anything spiritual. The purpose of the Christian is to display Christ, to live Christ. There is that phrase that has gained popularity of late, 'to be Christ in the flesh.' I'm not so sure about the soundness of that phrase, but there is a truth underlying the thought: Christ in us. All that is good in us is Christ. We should understand this as Scripture declares it: If there is anything good in me, it is clearly not my doing, but the work of Christ who indwells me. I am nothing. Christ is all. Paul, when he was faced with this recognition in that blinding light on the Damascus road, was led to change his name. He bore a proud name from birth, the name of a king, a name describing one who demands, one who is inquired of. It was a name that promoted self. Faced with the glory of Christ, Saul became Paul, the small one. He must increase, I must decrease. The words were John the Baptist's, but the reality belongs to every Christian. Paul bore this message with him in every moment, declaring this truth by his very name. His whole life was spent as a declaration that the messenger is nothing, the message is all. His own reputation was of no worth to him, only that the Gospel be heard and accepted, only that the message of the Kingdom of God was established, and Truth prevailed in those who came to Christ.
This is the whole thrust of his message to Corinth. Here was a church being torn apart by pride. Men sought to bolster their own pride by declaring the superiority of their chosen teachers. Some declared themselves followers of Paul, others of Apollos, and others still of Peter (1Co 1:12). Then there were those who sought to sound really holy in this competition, and declared that they followed Christ. The words sound good, but the setting makes them an awful thing. This was just pride. This was just a seeking to look better than the next guy. And, in the end, it only made them worse. They were all missing the point. "We are nothing, Apollos and I," Paul declares farther along in this letter. "So I planted the church there. So Apollos came and added wisdom upon wisdom, building up the church" (1Co 3:5-6). "None of this would have amounted to anything had God not been working through us both." Neither were those who claimed Christ as their teacher any better off. They were no closer to truly coming into obedience to God. No, they were simply trying to establish an elite order among the rest of the church. It was pride rising up and declaring, "we have no need of other teachers, because we can understand Christ Himself. You others may need these lesser teachers to explain things to you, but we've progressed beyond that point already."
The word of Christ is indeed powerful, but only as Christ indwells that word, only as the Holy Spirit works upon us to make the message plain. How He works is His prerogative. Through the wisdom of God, the church has been established upon the Gospel, and upon the ministries of preaching and teaching. These graces have been given us to encourage our growth in Christ. They are a ministry of watering, that we, the seedlings, might grow to fullness, to full maturity. Whatever the means applied to our own lives, growth has come only "as the Lord gave opportunity." It's not the messenger, and it's certainly not us. It's the Message.
As Paul continues in this letter, he points out unequivocally that every minister of God is but a servant, a steward of God's truth. He adds, also, to the description of the problem with what was happening in that place. In all this comparison shopping amongst the teachers, they were not only bolstering their own pride by putting forth their man, they were also guilty of passing judgment against those not chosen. In this, they were judging matters for which they were unfit judges, indeed judging matters that required no judging. The apostles, the evangelists, all those who labored in the Gospel field, were servants of the Most High God. They were His bond-slaves, and to Him they would answer. "By what right do you judge the slave of another?" Paul asked the church in Rome (Ro 14:4). It is up to his master to decide whether his actions deserve praise or punishment. It's not yours to decide.
Learn from us, Paul tells the Corinthians (1Co 4:6). Learn from both I and Apollos, who consider ourselves coworkers, who consider ourselves likewise slaves of the same God, neither worthy of any more or any less. In who we are, as opposed to who you seek to make us, learn not to exceed what is written. Scripture has been given as your guide, the final arbiter, the only arbiter. Don't allow your imaginations to add to its own clear message. Don't get all puffed up with your 'special teachings,' or your 'greater impartations.' It's nothing but pride and arrogance! Christ is all!
What has this to do with our present text? Only this: Of Apollos we read much in Scripture. He is given great testimony by both Paul and Luke, as one well versed in Holy Scripture, and adept at presenting the Gospel - one greatly used in establishing the early church. Of Zenas all we have is this one brief mention. Which of them is greater in God's eyes? For that matter, is Zenas any greater than the countless number who worked to establish the early church of whom no mention is made? I have no doubt but that those who did the work saw no such distinction. There was order, to be sure. There were those who oversaw the work, as Paul and Peter and James did, and there were those who took up their tasks as these assigned them, such as Titus and [apparently] Zenas. Yet, for this, I think they knew they were not of lesser import. Like Paul and Apollos, they understood that they likewise were only servants of the Lord Almighty. There was no question of rank, only of seeing the work done, and done well.
"Let no one despise you because of your youth," Paul told Timothy. It was as if he was saying, "You know full well that the authority you have in teaching is the very same authority as I have. Don't allow those you are teaching to think somehow that you are less than I. It's all Christ. It's all about the message, not which of us is declaring it. The Truth is not changed by the lips of one who speaks truly."
The issue hasn't changed over the years. We still suffer from the same problems today, perhaps even moreso in this age of mass media ministries. We all seem to have our favorite famous teachers, our favorite forms of Christianity that we pursue. In Paul's day, things were unsettled, yet in many ways things were far more clear. There was the Church, and there was any other teaching. Today, mired in denominations too numerous to catalog, we have almost infinite variety as to what we would like the Church to look like, what we would like it to believe. In many cases, the variations are slight, and their significance perhaps even slighter. In other cases, the choice is between Truth and nonsense. Yet, all wander forward claiming the right to bear the banner of Christianity. For some, that banner marks a movement stripped of Christ. For others, the banner simply gives the appearance of authority to whatever they may wish to propose at the moment.
Look, we have a 'bishop' at present telling us that "God says" he wants a homosexual in the place of authority. Never mind what the revealed Word of God has to say on the subject. Never mind that He has declared that there is no way that such a deviant shall enter the Kingdom of God. This 'bishop' has special knowledge. He no longer needs the Word of God to guide him, he's got the direct line going. What has this to do with Christianity? If the Bible has no particular import in defining our belief and our morals, if Christ is no longer of any concern, in what way is this a Church of Christ? In what way is it Christian? The early church was filled with those who would rather die than forsake the Truth. Today, the church seems to be filled with those who would rather die than accept it.
Here's the point for us, then. Don't get all worked up over teachers. Get worked up over Truth. Don't worry about having your place in history, even your place in Church history. Zenas was, near as we can tell, an unknown. He remains so today. Yet, the one thing we know of him is enough: he was working for the Lord. If that much can be said of us at the close of our days, if it can be said that we served the Lord, and served Him in Truth, it is enough. There can be no greater praise. Even if those words are recorded nowhere on this earth, even if the only record of our deeds lies with Him who created us, Him who set out those deeds that we might do them, Him who is at work in us both to will and to work those deeds, it is enough. Indeed, that is the only praise that matters, the praise of our Lord and Master, whose bond-slaves we are. If He is pleased with our service to Him, what else matters?
