Paul asks three short questions, and each one exposes the parties as absurd. The first asks whether Christ can be split up and handed out to rival groups. Barnes explains that Paul's point is that "Christ alone ought to be regarded as their head and leader." The second asks whether Paul died for them. Barnes notes that only "the crucifixion of Christ had an influence in saving them" in a way no one else's suffering could. The third asks whose name they were baptized into. Barnes says that in baptism they had been "solemnly and entirely devoted to the service of the only Saviour." Paul uses his own name, not Apollos' or Cephas', so that no one can say he is defending his own party.

The expected answer to each question is plainly no. Paul then addresses the third question directly: "I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius; Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name" (1 Corinthians 1:14-15). He adds, "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel" (1 Corinthians 1:17). Later he gives the full answer: "let no man glory in men... And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's" (1 Corinthians 3:21, 23).

Apollos was "an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures" who had helped the believers in Achaia, the region of Corinth (Acts 18:24, 27). Cephas is the name Jesus gave to Simon Peter, meaning "A stone" (John 1:42). Crispus, one of the few Paul baptized, had been "the chief ruler of the synagogue" in Corinth (Acts 18:8). In the Greek, "divided" is memeristai, "has been divided" or parceled out. "In the name of Paul" is literally "into the name," eis to onoma. Gill explains that because Christ bought them with His own blood, they "were not to be the servants of men," and that those baptized are devoted to Christ's worship and service, not to the service of men.

These questions bring every Christian loyalty back to its center. Christ alone was crucified for His people, and believers are baptized into His name alone. Any group that rallies around a human leader, however gifted, has taken a part for the whole. Gill says Christ's "mystical body, the church," is not "to be torn in pieces by schisms and divisions."

Paul's response is striking. He does not defend his own followers; he refuses them. That humility points past himself to the cross, which he will soon call "the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). Matthew Henry warns that "Satan has always endeavoured to stir up strife among Christians, as one of his chief devices against the gospel." The answer is not to pick the best leader but to remember who died for us.