I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 

1 Corinthians 1:10

As we read the first of the rebukes given by the apostle to the Corinthian church in this letter, it is worth noting that it starts with an “appeal” (1:10a).  Clearly Paul is commanding them with authority given to him by Jesus (“by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”; see also 1 Cor. 14:37 and John 16:12-15) to repent of their divisive cliquishness (1:10b), and yet at the same time God inspired him to give this apostolic command in the form of a plea that beseeches them to do the right thing.  There is a lesson here for us (2 Tim. 3:16-17).  While there is a time for sharpness (cf. Tit. 1:13), that time tends to be after all other avenues have been exhausted in our efforts to exhort each other towards righteousness.  When we rebuke, let us do so primarily with tender appeals based on biblical authority (cf. 2 Tim. 2:24-26).

Chloe’s people had informed Paul of Corinth’s argumentative clannishness (1:11), and divine inspiration had clearly confirmed the veracity of their story.  The Corinthian saints had apparently aligned themselves after their favorite “brotherhood giant,” those being Paul himself, Apollos, Cephas (the Aramaic word for stone and the equivalent of the Greek term petros, i.e., Peter), or Christ himself (1:12).  With many Corinthians, it was likely the person that had taught them the gospel and had baptized them.  What hints at this is Paul’s rhetorical query “Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1:13) and his subsequently stated relief that he had baptized only a few of them (1:14-16), as does Chloe’s report that Paul and Apollos were among those to whom some were giving undue allegiance.  Paul had planted the Corinthian church when he had preached the gospel there (Acts 18:1-18a), and so some Corinthians had put him on a pedestal.  Not long Paul left Corinth, Apollos – after being corrected in Ephesus by Corinth residents Aquila and Priscilla concerning his teaching on baptism – had made his way to Corinth and had “greatly helped those who through grace had believed” while also spreading the gospel (Acts 18:24-28; 19:1a).  Paul would again speak of Cephas in this letter to Corinth (9:4), thus showing their familiarity with him; it is probable that Peter at some point had also converted some of the Corinthians.  Of course, Jesus himself had never traveled to Corinth and taught any of them personally, so the fact that some of them were still rebuked by Paul for giving Jesus their allegiance hints that they were doing so with erroneous motives.  Perhaps the ones saying “I follow Christ” were doing so simply to “one-up” their brethren who were giving their loyalty to others.  By asking “Is Christ divided?  Was Paul crucified for you?  Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1:13), the apostle wanted to get their allegiance back to the only One who actually required and deserved it.

On the night before he died, Jesus had prayed that all of his followers be “one” and “perfected in unity” (John 17:20-23).  By now directing the Spirit to inspire Paul to command his followers, “that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment” (1:10c), Jesus wanted the Corinthians to be the answer to his prayer.  He wants the same for us today…yet the doctrinal divisiveness of denominationalism and the contentious disagreements found even within some local congregations of the Lord’s church remain.  Two of the major reasons for this unfortunate fact lie in how 2 Timothy 4:3-4 applies to many and how Philippians 2:1-5 does not apply to many.  In order for Christians to agree, banish all divisions from among themselves, and have complete unity in “mind” (nous, intellectual understanding, cf. Lk. 24:45) and even in “judgment” (gnome, advice, opinion or personal views, cf. 1 Cor. 7:25; 2 Cor. 8:10), all who purport to follow Jesus must have rightly divided Scripture as the sole foundation and center of their lives and hearts (2 Tim. 2:15; Ps. 119:11, 105).

— Jon