Christ Is Not Divided

October 14th, 2026
by Lance Waldie

1 Corinthians 1:13 Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Obviously Paul was quite displeased with the divided church in Corinth. Whether they were rallying around him, Apollos, or Peter, it was divided. Yet Christ’s church is to be united! Paul therefore begins a series of questions that work to show the absurdity of the division in Corinth.

The first question in v. 13, “Has Christ been divided,” could, grammatically speaking, be a statement of condemnation: “Christ has been divided!” This fits the context in Corinth because Christ, though in and of Himself cannot be divided, within the church at Corinth He was divided. Since the next two sentences in Greek begin with “not,” expecting a “no” answer, there is no doubt they are intended as questions. “Paul was not crucified for you, was he?” The expected answer is “no.” Also, “You were not baptized into the name of Paul, were you?” Paul was not crucified for them, Christ was, and they were baptized in the name of Christ, not Paul. Though the first part of v. 13 does not have to be posed as a question demanding a “no” answer, most English translations do render it as a question. Either way, the meaning does not change.

A second interpretive issue in v. 13 concerns the meaning of the verb translated “divided” (merizō), different from the previous Greek term rendered “divisions” (schisma) in v. 10. This term not only means “to be or become separated into parts,” it also has the meaning of “to distribute.” Paul would thus be asking, “Do you assume there are pieces of Christ that can be distributed among yourselves?” Fee says, “Has Christ been distributed/apportioned out as one among many?” Taylor says, “If Paul is still thinking about the so-called Christ-party, then the meaning might be, ‘Has Christ been divided up and distributed only to some?’ ” He continues, saying, “Some think that Paul’s language here evokes the metaphor of the body of Christ, which he will develop later in the letter (12:12), and that Paul shocks them by portraying Christ’s body as torn to pieces.” If this was in Paul’s mind, then this imagery presents a shocking rebuke.

Now in Paul’s second and third questions, both of which clearly demand a “no” answer, he only refers to himself, not Apollos or Cephas. He does this in order to highlight his irritation with their attitudes and set aside any notion that he will take part in their conflicts. How absurd that anyone but Jesus Christ could be crucified on behalf of anyone! Yet the church in Corinth treated mere men as if they were on par with Jesus, the Crucified.

In sum, Paul is telling a divided church that there ought not be anyone in any church at any time who follows a mere man. Only Christ, the God-Man. Paul, as important an apostle as he was, was only a man (along with Apollos and Cephas) sent by Christ to preach the gospel, not to be the gospel. Since Paul was not crucified for the Corinthians, nor anyone except Christ, it was absurd for there to be any divided camp between a man and Jesus Christ Himself. Then or now.

Food For Thought
Those who were divided in the church at Corinth were proud people, very much like us in the modern Church. They believed, like us, that they were right while everyone else was wrong, no matter which pastor they favored. Some of their pride was fueled by who had baptized them, not who had been crucified for them. Ironically, it was their baptism by Christ with the Spirit (Matt. 3:11) that enabled them to believe and be baptized with the water that signified Christ’s death and resurrection. Yet they favored men alongside Christ. Chuck Swindoll says, “Amazingly, in the midst of conflict, this ordinance of Christ that should have marked the believers’ unity in one body (Eph. 4:4-6) had deteriorated into a basis for arrogant boasting.”