1 Corinthians 1:10.— There were great disorders in the church of Corinth, caused chiefly by a faction raised there against St. Paul; the partisans of the faction mightily cried up and gloried in their leader, and did all they could to disparage St. Paul, and to lessen him in the esteem of the Corinthians. The Apostle makes it his business in the first part of this Epistle, to take off the Corinthians from siding with, and glorying in this pretended apostle, whose followers and scholars they professed themselves to be; and to reduce them into one body as the scholars of Christ; united in a belief of the Gospel, which he had preached to them, and in an obedience to it, without any such distinction of masters and leaders, from whom they denominated themselves. He also here and there intermixes a justification of himself against the aspersions which were cast upon him by his opposers. See 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. Many are the arguments used by St. Paul to break the opposite faction, and put an end to all divisions. The first before us, from this to 1 Corinthians 1:16 is, that in Christianity they all had but one Master, namely, Christ; and therefore were not to fall into parties denominated from distinct teachers, as they did in their schools of philosophy. Locke.
By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ——Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is, and ought to be named. If any one has thought St. Paul a loose writer, it is only because he was a loose reader. He who takes notice of the Apostle's design will find, that there is scarcely a word or an expression which he uses, but with relation and tendency to his immediate subject:—as here, intending to abolish the names of leaders, by which they distinguished themselves, he beseeches them by the name of Christ,—a form which we do not remember that he uses any where else. Instead of in the same judgment, some read, in the same sentiment. It was morally impossible, considering the diversity of their educations and capacities, that they should all agree in opinion; norcould the Apostle intend this, because he does not use any argument to reduce them to such an agreement, nor so much as declare what that one opinion was, in which he would have them agree. The words must therefore express that peaceful and unanimous temper which Christians of different opinions may and ought to maintain towards each other; which will do a much greater honour to the Gospel and to Christian churches, than the most perfect uniformity that can be imagined. See Locke and Doddridge.