Much has been said in recent years about the rise of so-called “celebrity pastors” within Christianity, particularly within evangelicalism. Just mention names like Ted Haggard, Rob Bell, Mark Driscoll, Joel Osteen, John Piper, Francis Chan, Bill Hybels and Joyce Meyer, and you’re guaranteed to get a fair share of impassioned praise or heated criticism.

But students of Scripture will know this is not a new phenomenon, that even the early Church developed something of a "celebrity apostle" culture in which Christians were aligning themselves with famous apostles like Paul, Apollos and Cephas. While there is no record of what Paul may have written to Apollos or Cephas about this situation, there is a record of what he wrote to the Corinthians—a...