1 Corinthians 1:11 Commentary and Bible Study

Paul has received a report from them which are of the house of Chloe. Some people think Chloe is a place, but our translators are probably right: it is a person, the head of a family. But this isn’t tittle tattle or telling tales, because the apostle Paul has been told with a view to correction and godliness, and the teller doesn't mind their name being mentioned. ‘Contentions’ is a powerful word. These divisions are mentioned again in chapter 3, and they involve hostility, arguments, and quarrelsomeness, as people try to promote their favourite teacher. But the question is, why? Why did they do it? What was the engine that drove this dividing up? Well, you could say, it was just fleshliness. The apostle says that in chapter 3. It’s like children in the playground and they have got to form into groups, and you have got to be in one person's group or another’s. It is a mixture of pride, of fear, and of nervousness. We want to be in a group against everybody else to look after ourselves. There are a number of reasons for it, but the reason which comes out most prominently in the case of Corinthians is that in Corinth, just as in Athens there was this love of Greek philosophy and oratory. The gospel of Christ was of no account, and it was derided, and the Corinthians seem to have said to themselves, ‘What can we do to promote our message? What can we do to overcome this being despised and disparage and set at nought? What we need are conspicuous personalities, as preachers. We need people who the general population can admire, and regard as great people, people who are cultured, educated, or with some power of appeal. That is really what is behind it, and we know this because of the long answer that the apostle gives to them, which promotes the sole power as the cross of Christ. People often say, by the time you leave his comments on baptism in verse 16, he does not mention this question of divisions again until 1 Corinthians 3:3. What a long digression! People have been known to say that Paul goes off the point for all those verses, and strays onto other matters of tremendous importance, and then he comes back to the point. But actually he never loses the point; he has not changed the subject. The reason for the divisions was because they underestimated the sole and inherent power of preaching the cross of Christ. That was why they were all championing different personalities. That was what they were looking for: power and respect and acceptability. They don't understand. The preaching of the cross of Christ has a power in the hands of the Holy Spirit, beyond all these put together, and that is what the apostle answers from verse 17 on, in effect. So he is on the point the whole time.