One of the words for such people was ‘sophists’. That word has a bad sound to us, indicating someone who gives themselves airs, who is a bit puffed up with their own self-importance. And one of the reasons we think of sophists like that is because of this very letter. Paul is about to launch an attack on such ‘wisdom’, and to show that you have to make a choice between the world’s wisdom and the power of the Messiah’s cross.

But the key point here is this: the ‘sophists’ who travelled around the ancient world were keen on making disciples for themselves, and their followers often quarrelled and scrapped among themselves as to which teacher was the greatest. Paul has realized, with the report from the family of Chloe, visiting him in Ephesus, that the Christians in Corinth have begun to treat him, Apollos, Peter, and even King Jesus himself, as a bunch of teachers to be played off against one another. And that is to miss the whole point. The church still (God help us!) sometimes makes the same mistake today.

but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought