Paul is very upset to hear that splinter groups have appeared in the church and are based on comparisons being made between one apostle and another. 'One says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Peter"; and another, "I follow Christ". Christ has been divided into groups!' Paul is particularly angry with the group who claim to follow him. They seem to be boasting that because they follow Paul, they are in some way superior to all the other Christians. When we try to understand what was dividing these four groups, we can see that in the first two which are named, the personalities of Paul and Apollos may have been the main attraction. In the third group, some Christians were saying that they followed Peter, leader of the original twelve apostles; there is no evidence that he had visited Corinth. In the case of the fourth group, these may have been Christians who were annoyed with the claims of the others and had decided to keep to themselves. Whatever was dividing the Corinthian church into four groups; it was bringing disastrous disunity and quarrelling.

Paul says sarcastically that he is glad that he himself baptizes two of the converts, implying that those who had been bap by him might boast that their baptism was superior to that of others. Proper understanding of baptism would have made splinter groups impossible, for all are baptized into Christ's death and Resurrection. Paul says that he used no attractive oratory and philosophy, such as Greeks loved, when he preached at Corinth, but spoke plainly of Christ’s death on the cross, trusting in that alone to touch his hearers. Paul did nothing to attract the Corinthians to himself, but only to Christ.