“Paul said that Christ did not send him to baptize. If baptism is essential to salvation, then Christ did not send him to save people (1 Corinthians 1:17).”
But then by your reading, Paul thanks God that he saved NONE OF THEM.
14 I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius;
15 Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name.
16 And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.
17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
Verse 15 is the 2nd half of a sentence. It explains the 1st half in verse 14.
The first couple of chapters of I Corinthians are addressing a problem in that church: claiming to be of men rather than of Christ. If Paul had baptized them all, they might’ve decided to call themselves a church of Paul! (Sorta like Wesleyan churches, Lutheran churches, etc.)
He goes on to list two questions that must be answered “Yes” before anyone can say, “I am of Paul” (or Apollos, or anyone else):
1. Was Paul crucified for you?
2. Were you baptized into the name of Paul?
If you can’t answer Yes to these two questions, then you can’t say “I am of Paul.”
The questions we need to ask are:
1. Was Christ crucified for you?
2. Were you baptized into the name of Christ?
If you can’t answer Yes to these two questions, then you can’t say “I am of Christ.”
“I Corinthians 1:17 cannot be understood without reading I Corinthians 1:14-16 where you will quickly see that Paul did baptize people. Because of these schisms Paul finds it a blessing that he had not personally baptized very many in Corinth. He could think of only Crispus, Gaius, and Stephanas’ household. Paul feared that if there were more it might have lend credence to the idea that he had personal disciples among the Corinthians.
There are groups who attempt to use these verses to claim that baptism is unessential because Paul was thankful that he had not baptized people in Corinth. Clearly such a contention is contrary to the context of the passage. Paul had baptized several and his other writings, such as Romans 6:3-7 and Galatians 3:26-27 make it clear that Paul saw baptism as essential for salvation. What Paul was concerned about was the possibility of some twisting the events into baptisms into Paul instead of baptisms into Christ.
I Corinthians 1:17 is frequently misread as people ignore the ellipses present in this statement. “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect” (I Corinthians 1:17).
An ellipse takes place when an essential word or phrase is left out of a statement. You can determine from the statement that the word was meant to be there, but the very fact that it was left out causes the listener to focus on the missing part. It engages the mind of the listener to participate in the discussion by supplying the missing word.
A common style of ellipses in Greek is of a “not ... but” construction, where both the “not” and the “but” modify a shared verb. Often the shared verb does not appear after the “but,” but is implied as an ellipse. This type of sentence construction is idiomatic in Greek. When you see it, you should read it as “not only ... but also.” The idiom stresses that what comes after the “but” is considered to be far more important than what comes after the “not.”
An example of this construction is found in I Peter 3:3-4. The common verb is “let be.” Some translations supply the missing words. Peter is not saying that styling your hair, wearing jewelry, or dressing up is forbidden. He is saying that they aren’t very important when compared to dressing up the spirit with gentleness and quietness. The latter make a far greater impact on beauty, especially in God’s eyes, than outward adornments.
In the case of I Corinthians 1:17 the common verb is “did send.” Paul did not claim that he wasn’t supposed to baptize. To claim that is to contradict what he just stated in the verses prior. What Paul is saying is that his duty to Christ was far broader than just baptizing people. He had the more important job of preaching the gospel, so he focused on this and let others do most of the baptizing.
Paul is not disparaging baptism but talking about the focus of his mission for Christ. Paul is stating that his primary purpose was not to just baptize people. His chief mission was to teach the gospel. Such teaching obviously leads baptism (Acts 2:40-41; 18:4, 8). But Paul’s mission was to preach the gospel in a simple, straightforward manner so that the focus of the message remained on Christ’s death.
It appears that Paul, like Peter in Acts 10:48, had others do the actual baptisms while he continued to preach.”