16:12
Apollos is mentioned in Acts, and in Act 19:1 it says he was in Corinth while Paul went to Ephesus. He is first mentioned in Acts 18:18-28. So it seems that he did eventually go to Corinth. We are not told why he was unwilling to go, probably because he had other things to do.
16:13,14
These two verses give brief and to the point directions. We need to be on our guard. There are always false teachings about, there is always a war against the flesh. So we need to be on our guard. We need to stand firm in the faith. The only grounds for our hope is what Christ has done for us on the cross, we must not be moved from that. We will face much opposition, and encounter difficult circumstances, so we need courage and we need to be strong. Elsewhere, Paul talks about being strong in the Lord. And all this is to be done in love. We can become so concerned about resisting the enemy, which is indeed essential, that we forget about love. We need to love God and to love others, love not being some soppy thing, but a true and real concern for the well being of the object of love.
16:15,16
Paul uses examples of good disciples to encourage and teach the Corinthians. Stephanas and his household are commended for their faith and their service to the Lord’s people. The Corinthians are urged to submit to all people who commit themselves to the Lord’s work. Today we have enormous problems with submission. The primary reasons are twofold. The first is a reluctance to submit to anyone or anything, this is part of the fallen condition of humanity. The second is a misunderstanding of what submission means. We think it means that the one who submits is inferior to the one submitted to. This is not the case. Christ submitted to the Father, but He is not less than the Father. In the New Testament it is often a case of submitting to each other.
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