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I. TO CONQUER A MALADY WE MUST ASCERTAIN ITS CAUSE. St. Paul lays bare the causes of the divisions which exist among Christians.

1. Strife: faction; party spirit; the desire to promote the success of a cause rather than to be guided by the Holy Spirit into that which is true.

2. Vain-glory: personal vanity; the desire to be noticed, and the hatred of owning one's self to be wrong. These are the solvents of Christendom. Often the theological disputes which have been the apparent causes of separation have not been the real causes.

II. Remedies.

1. Humility. Many controversies proceed from an endeavor to explain that which is beyond definition.

2. Consideration for others. Controversy would, to a great extent, cease if each man would be satisfied with bearing witness to the truth, which has made itself a living thing to himself, without insisting that his experience must be that of every one else. - V.W.H.

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KJV: Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

WEB: doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself;