When we read that description of the church at Corinth, we think to ourselves how wonderful it would be to be part of a church like that—a church that was separated unto Christ, mature in its knowledge of the doctrines of the faith and their application, a church in which the spiritual gifts were very evident, a church that was eagerly waiting together for the return of Christ. Is not a church like that a marvelous thing? Well, I dare to say I do belong to a church like that. That is a description of the church of Jesus Christ wherever it is truly found.
But now we pass from verse 9 to verse 10, where we begin to discover that there are things in the Corinthian church that are not quite so good. The thing with which Paul begins is the fact that there were divisions in that church. These were not just little squabbles, but divisions that had grown in a pernicious way to such an extent that the entire church—the same church that has been sanctified and holy and given spiritual gifts—was actually divided into competing factions. Moreover, these factions had been so bold as to even take the names of the great teachers that God had been pleased to send among them. So you had people saying, “Well, I belong to Paul’s party.” And other people said, “I belong to Peter’s party.” And somebody else said, “I belong to Apollos’ party.” And then there were the sanctified ones who sought to rise above everyone else by saying, “Well we belong to Jesus Christ.” Paul says this was all very, very pernicious and divisive.
Basically the split was between what we see in this period of church history, a Gentile-oriented kind of Christianity and a Jewish-oriented type of Christianity. Peter was known as the apostle to the Jews, and so probably those of Jewish background or at least of Jewish sympathies said, “Well, we stand with Peter. We like the way he does things.” And then there was the Gentile side of things that was represented by Paul and Apollos. So some from this side said, “Oh, no, this is a better way. We want to follow Paul.” But of course they were divided, too, because it wasn’t just Jew and Gentile. There were divisions among the Gentile camp, since not only did some of them favor Paul, but others preferred Apollos, who was known as a great orator.
As we look at this, I wish we could say that those were the only problems there were. However, as we begin to go through this book, we discover that this church was riddled with serious additional problems as well. For example, in the fifth and sixth chapters, we find that there was a great deal of immorality in the church. One particular problem was that of a man having sexual relationships with his step-mother. And that was not all of it. Paul writes later on about all of the debauchery that was found there in the church. When he goes on to write 2 Corinthians, in chapter 12 he is still talking about the immorality and perversion that was present there among those who called upon the name of Christ. In chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians he talks about lawsuits. There were Christians suing one another within the church because they could not agree on matters concerning property and such things.
