For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
For first of all . . . I hear that there be divisions among you. Observe the word "Church," which shows that, in the time of S. Paul, there were places set apart for worship. For the early form of churches, their paintings, use of the Cross, the separation of the sexes, &c, see Baronius in his commentary on this verse.
The Apostle here passes from the subject of the veiling of women to correct the abuses of the Corinthians in the Eucharist.
For there must also be heresies among you. Looking at the fickleness, pride, newness in the faith, and quarrelsomeness of the Corinthians, who were saying, "I am of Paul, I of Apollos," which God permitted to prove them, it was necessary that there should he heresies. So Cajetan, Ambrose, Chrysostom. "Heresies" here denotes the divisions on points of faith and manners, which existed among the Corinthians about the Eucharist, e.g, where they should sit, when the Supper should begin, about the food and drink, about the persons they should sit down w...
Paul tempers his criticism by saying that he only partly believes what he has been told [of their factions] because he wants to encourage them to return to the right state of affairs.
And he says not, For fear that you do not sup together in common; for I hear that you feast in private, and not with the poor: but what was most calculated thoroughly to shake their minds, that he set down, the name of division, which was the cause of this mischief also: and so he reminded them again of that which was said in the beginning of the Epistle, and was signified by them of the house of Chloe. 1 Corinthians 1:11 And I partly believe it.
Thus, lest they should say, But what if the accusers speak falsely? he neither says, I believe it, lest he should rather make them reckless; nor again, on the other hand, I disbelieve it, lest he should seem to reprove without cause, but, I partly believe it, says he, i.e., I believe it in a small part; making them anxious and inviting them to return to correction.
For he shows us that it was owing to the prospect of the greater evil that he readily believed the existence of the lighter ones; and so far indeed was he from believing, in respect of evils (of such a kind), that heresies were good, that his object was to forewarn us that we ought not to be surprised at temptations of even a worse stamp, since (he said) they tended "to make manifest all such as were approved; ".
These were the ingenious arts of "spiritual wickednesses".
If, however, the angels of the rival god are referred to, what fear is there for them? for not even Marcion's disciples, (to say nothing of his angels, ) have any desire for women. We have often shown before now, that the apostle classes heresies as evil
