1 Corinthians 1:10-17
A divided church forgets that it belongs to Christ, not to its favorite servants.
10 Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
11 For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.
12 Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” and, “I follow Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?
14 I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius,
15 so that no one should say that I had baptized you into my own name.
16 (I also baptized the household of Stephanas; besides them, I don’t know whether I baptized any other.)
17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News—not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void.
A divided church forgets that it belongs to Christ, not to its favorite servants.
Paul appeals for the Corinthian believers to abandon their factional loyalties and recover visible unity under the sole supremacy of Christ and the gospel.
After his thanksgiving, Paul moves immediately to the first major problem within the Corinthian church: division. Reports from Chloe's household revealed that believers were aligning themselves with various Christian leaders, forming identity groups around personalities rather than Christ. Paul responds by appealing to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, grounding unity in shared allegiance to the crucified Lord. The rhetorical questions he asks expose the absurdity of factional thinking. He also clarifies his own role, emphasizing that Christ did not send him primarily to baptize but to preach the gospel. This prepares the reader for the coming section where the message of the cross will be contrasted with worldly wisdom. Thus this passage introduces the central corrective theme of the early chapters: the church must be shaped by the cross rather than by cultural patterns of status, rhetoric, and loyalty to prominent figures.
The Corinthian church was experiencing internal divisions fueled by cultural patterns of allegiance to rhetorical leaders and philosophical teachers. In the Greco-Roman world, followers often identified themselves with particular teachers or schools of thought. These cultural habits appear to have influenced the Corinthians, who began aligning themselves with Christian leaders such as Paul, Apollos, and Cephas. Paul responds by redirecting attention away from human figures and toward Christ, emphasizing that the gospel message—not the messenger—is central to the church's identity.
The Cross of Christ Against Boasting, Division, and Worldly Wisdom
God confronts a divided and boastful church by centering it again on the crucified Christ, whose cross destroys worldly pride, redefines wisdom and power, and leaves no room for boasting except in the Lord.