Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ (1Corinthians 1:10-12)

Corinth was very much a Roman city in Greece. The original Greek city had been destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC. A century later it was resettled mostly by veterans of Pompey's and Julius Caesar's legions.

At the core of Roman social order - amplified within military families - was the patron-client relationship. Economic opportunity, political protection, and social welfare were largely dependent on a web of mutual dependence and deference.

At its best the system was a very practical means for sharing risk and reward. It was, however, an innately unequal and exploitive social order. By the time of Julius Caesar these webs of relationships had degenerated into ongoing divisiveness and civil unrest.

Much of Corinthians can be read as Paul struggling to deal with this preexisting worldview.