1 Corinthians Chapter 1

1Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
      2To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:
      3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
      4I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, 5that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, 6even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, 7so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

                                                                                                   1 Corinthians 1 : 1 -9

So in the 2nd verse Paul is reminding the Corinthian Church that they have been sanctified in Jesus and that they are Saints by calling. In verses 5 -7 we see that the Corinthian Church has been blessed with gifts and in verses 8 - 9 Paul is confident that God will keep the Corinthian Church blameless to the end.  So in the first 9 verses we see Paul reminding the Corinthian Church who they are (verse 2) , thanking God for them (verse 4) , reminding them of all that they received from Jesus (verse 5-7) , and being confident that God will keep them(verse 8-9)

  10Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. 12Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” 13Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15so that no one would say you were baptized in my name. 16Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. 17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.


                                                                                                 1 Corinthians 1 : 10-17

Any preacher could do a sermon on verse 10 alone here . The Church is not meant to have divisions , in Romans 16 : 17 they are warned to watch out for those that cause divisions and in Ephesians 4:3 they are to keep the Unity of the Spirit (same mind and same judgement) .  Verses 4 - 6 in Ephesians 4,  then go on to talk about one faith , one body , one God and father above all . The point is that Jesus does not want divisions among the Church In verse 11 - 12 we find out that they are fighting over which teacher they listen to ! Now does this sound familar to any of us? How many of us have ever had a teacher that we prefer over another one? I'm talking about in Church , I know I have before and I'm sure some of you have too . In verse 13 -14 Paul makes the point clear and that point is that we ALL follow Christ not this teacher or that teacher but Christ , after all none of our teachers was crucified for us only Christ Jesus . Verse 17 is interesting : the Gospel and Baptism are different , but the other point I find real interesting is that Paul points out that he preached the gospel without cleverness of speech because he did not want to void the cross of Christ . This is a problem in the Church these days , the gospel has become blurry to some , everyone has a different "requirement" , what is a simple message has been made complex , honestly if we all just preached John 3 : 16 -18 and Romans 10 : 9-10 the Gospel would probably be more clear. Personally I like Acts 16 : 30-31 . We could throw in all the conditions like "repent" or be "be baptized" or "say this simple pray" , but none of that will mean anything if they don't believe in there heart who Jesus is , I mean Acts 16 : 30 -31 makes it simple , believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.