Verse 18. For first of all. That is, I mention as the first thing to be reproved.

When ye come together in the church. When you come together in a religious assembly; when you convene for public worship. The word church here does not mean, as it frequently does with us, a building. No instance of such a use of the word occurs in the New Testament; but it means, when they came together as a Christian assembly; when they convened for the worship of God. These divisions took place then; and from some cause which it seems then operated to produce alienations and strifes.

I hear. I have learned through some members of the family of Chloe, 1 Co 1:11.

That there be divisions among you. Greek, as in the margin, Schisms. The word properly means a rent, such as is made in cloth, (Mt 9:16; Mr 2:21;) and then a division, a split, a faction among men, Joh 7:43; 9:16; 10:19.

It does not mean here that they had proceeded so far as to form separate churches, but that there was discord and division in the church itself. See Barnes "1 Co 1:10, 1 Co 1:11.

And I partly believe it. I credit a part of the reports; I have reason to think, that, though the evil may have been exaggerated, yet that it is true at least in part. I believe that there are dissensions in the church that should be reproved.

{b} "hear" 1 Co 1:11,12 {2} "divisions" "schisms"