INTRODUCTION.
The church at Corinth had many problems—problems that are often seen in our churches today. They were a church infected with sexual immorality (see I Corinthians 5:1, 9-12), split into factions (see I Corinthians 1:10-12), taking each other to court (see I Corinthians 6:1-6) and debating over which spiritual gifts were more important (see I Corinthians chapters 12-14). The members of the Corinthian church were true believers, but they had a lot of growing up to do (see I Corinthians 3:1-3). Far too many Christians have experienced the pain of division within a church. Often trouble starts over issues of personality rather than issues of principle. People rush to the defense of their friends and the church is polarized or divided. The church at Corinth was a divided church. People were lining up behind their favorite preachers at the expense of unity in Christ. In this week’s lesson the Apostle Paul attacked the problem of division in the church. He strongly warned against dividing the church around personality issues.