Theme: Misplaced affections

Exegetical note
Paul continues to concern himself with the party loyalties that have arisen at Corinth, and perhaps the charge that his teachings have been too simplistic, especially as compared to the professional rhetoricians who abounded and appealed to the affections of the "mere mortals" who were "still of the flesh." In the process he now wishes to relativize both himself and his chief rival Apollos, on the grounds that it is really God who deserves the credit for the growth o…