Despite it being called “First Corinthians,” this is not Paul’s first letter to that community. He had ministered with them for a period of about eighteen months previously. In this text from chapter 1, we find something of a summary of much of Paul’s message in the entire letter—unity in Jesus. It seems factions had developed among the Corinthian community, each with a different leader. Paul decried such party politics, emphasizing that the whole community was under the headship of Christ, not of Paul or Apollos or Cephas.