Let us not fear, then, to consider more nearly the high privileges which, as Christians, we enjoy:  let us endeavour to understand, not merely generally, but in detail, the exalted language of the text, where it is said, that all things are ours; Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, the world, and life, and death, the things of time, and the things of eternity.  These are ours because we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s; they are ours so long as we are Christ’s, and so far as we are his truly.  They are not ours so far as we are not his:  they are ours in no degree whatever the moment that he shall declare that we are his no longer.

“Paul, and Apollos, and Peter, are ours.”  This, perhaps, is the expression which we should understand least distinctly of any.  It is an expression, however, of deep importance, though perhaps less so here than in congregations of a different sort.  I need not, therefore, dwell on it long now.  But the Corinthians, as many Christians have done since, were apt to think more of their being Christians of a certain sort, than of being Christians simply:  some said, “We have Paul’s view of Christianity, the true and sound view of it, free from superstition:”  others said, “But we have Peter’s view of Christianity, one of Christ’s own apostles, who were with him on earth; ours is the true and earliest view of it, free from all innovations:”  and others, again, said, “Nay, but we have been taught by Apollos, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures; one who best understands how to unite the law and the gospel; one who has given us the full perfection of Christianity.”  No doubt there were some differences of views even between Paul, and Peter, and Apollos; for while, on the one hand, they were all enlightened by the Spirit of God, yet, on the other hand, they retained still their human differences of character and disposition, which must on several occasions have been manifest.  But St. Paul does not tell us what these were, nor how far they extended, nor to what degree they had been exaggerated by those who heard them.  He does not insist upon the truth of his own view, nor wish the Corinthians to lay aside their divisions, after the manner so zealously enforced by some persons now, namely, that those who said they were of Peter, or of Apollos, should confess that they had been in error, and declare themselves to be now only of Paul.  Such a condemnation of schism he would have held to be in itself in the highest degree schismatical.  But St. Paul was earnest, that schism should be ended after another way than this, by all parties remembering, that whatever became of the truth or falsehood of their own particular views of Christianity, yet, that Christianity according to any of their views was the one great thing which was their glory and their salvation.  “Paul, and Apollos, and Peter, are all yours:  but you are Christ’s.”  You should not glory in men; that you belong to a purer church than other Christians; but that you belong to the church of Christ; that church, which, in its most pure particular branches, has never been free from some mixture of human infirmity and error; nor yet, in its worst branches, has ever lost altogether the seal of Christ’s Spirit, nor ceased to believe in Christ crucified.