Paul has been dealing with division in the church at Corinth since chapter 1. That means he uses for chapters to confront this issue which means it very important. The division was coming from the people looking at Paul, Apollos, Peter, and others as THE most important person because they are the one who converted them to Jesus. Paul has told them, “We are nothing but simply the ones who plant and water so look to the one who DOES matter, Jesus.” In chapter 4 Paul says, “We are simply ministers who steward the mysteries of God.” When you look at this in the Greek, Paul uses a word that means “under rowers” referring to the ones who are below the deck rowing these big ships he travels on. They are unseen, not heard, and row to their captains command. Let that sink in...that totally goes against our 2026 culture!

The church at Corinth was concerned with who baptized them, which minister of the gospel they liked the best, and this was stirring up jealousy, strife, contention, arguments, and all of this was leading to division. Paul explains to the church that he, along with Peter, Apollos, and any other teacher that came to the church to speak, is nothing. They are all laborers that have a job—to plant and water seed. That’s it. That’s all we can do! We plant seed, we water seed, but we cannot make seed produce fruit! Only God can do that! Therefore, he is telling the church in Corinth, these people you are dividing over are not important at all. The one who is important is Jesus and you should be focusing all of your time and energy on him!

When I was a kid back in the 80s, there was a milk slogan that said, “Milk, it does a body good” It was an advertising slogan used by the American Dairy Association from the 1980s through the 1990s. The campaign aimed to highlight milk's health benefits such as building strong bones, muscle repair, and providing essential nutrients like protein and calcium. Peter talks about consuming the milk of God, even craving it, as we are being built into God’s temple, but Paul tells the church at Corinth they should be off of milk by now and eating solid food. What is he talking about? He is talking about wisdom—the world’s wisdom, which is what the church at Corinth was drinking from, verses God’s wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit...whom, by the way, lives inside them! They were being led by the wrong wisdom!