Thematic Bible: Dissensions in

For I am afraid that perhaps, when I come, I may find that you are not what I want you to be, and, on the other hand, that you may find that I am what you do not want me to be. I am afraid that I may find quarreling, jealousy, ill-feeling, rivalry, slandering, back-biting, self-assertion, and disorder. I am afraid lest, on my next visit, my God may humble me in regard to you, and that I may have to mourn over many who have long been sinning, and have not repented of the impurity, immorality, and sensuality, in which they have indulged.

For I have been informed, my Brothers, by the members of Chloe's household, that party feeling exists among you. I mean this, that every one of you says either 'I follow Paul,' or 'I Apollos,' or 'I Kephas,' or 'I Christ.' You have rent the Christ in pieces! Was it Paul who was crucified for you? or were you baptized into the Faith of Paul?

While there exist among you jealousy and party feeling, is it not true that you are worldly, and are acting merely as other men do? When one says 'I follow Paul,' and another 'I follow Apollos,' are not you like other men?

To begin with, I hear you and, to some extent, I believe it. Indeed, there must be actual parties among you, for so only will the men of real worth become known.