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!

Do you realize that if you have given your life to Jesus you have been filled with his Spirit and therefore, you have the mind of Christ?!?!? That’s right!!! You have the mind of Christ so your life should reflect that. When we look at the church at Corinth, whom Paul calls holy, they are lacking in the category! There are things going on that do not reflect Christ in that church and Paul is saying to them, “What are yall doing? Why do yall have divisions among you? Yall should all be focused on Jesus and nobody else!” Why? Because they have been given freely the Holy Spirit of God and through the Spirit, they have the mind of Christ and God reveals His secrets to them through His Spirit.

Paul was dealing with a lot of stuff with the church at Corinth but one thing in particular he was wrestling with was the local philosophers. These philosophers were engrained in the Corinthian culture, especially with the rich. These philosophers would come to town with their fancy speeches trying to persuade young men to become their followers so they could teach them their ways and they too, could sound educated and impress the crowds. They would charge the rich families a fortune to send their children to their school. Paul says to the church at Corinth, “I came to you with a simple thought...the gospel, and I let the Holy Spirit do his thing.”

Paul tells the church at Corinth the power is in the cross of Christ. He says to the Greeks the cross is foolish and they refuse to believe while to the Jews, the cross is foolishness and they seek a sign to prove that it is true. This is nothing new for this was going on when Jesus was there among them performing miracles. There are so many people today trying to gain power, doing whatever they can to climb the ladder to get power. All they have to do is look to the cross and the gospel yet, they reject it. Sure they will climb the ladder and have power, even a lot of money, but like Jesus said, “What is your soul worth? You can gain the whole world and lose your soul.” Then what? When we take our last breath, none of that power will help us. When we cross into eternity, the only thing that will matter is Jesus and whether we had a relationship with him or not.

The first issue Paul brings up to the church at Corinth is their division. One thing we understand from what he says is these people are playing favorites. Someone shared the gospel with them and they were baptized by that certain person. Paul even shares some of their names! However, Paul tells them they are focused on the wrong person and their division isn’t necessary. They are to be focusing on Jessus, the one who died on the cross and saved them from their sins. He is the most important person and the others are not important at all.

When we studied Titus, Paul talked about the Holy Spirit being poured upon God’s people from the depths of God’s bosom and he said God gives His spirit “generously,” He gives an endless supply to His people! Why? So we can endure to the end as he leads us. There are people who teach we have nothing to do with our salvation and this is absolute false. Paul says, “and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Paul is talking to the church in Corinth, the ones he called “holy” at the beginning of the letter. He makes it clear that Jesus has the power to keep us and will keep us, if we keep in partnership with him. It’s called free will. If we look at other scriptures, they will support the idea. We will do a deep dive in this podcast...take a listen then share it with others!