However obliquely, they referred to real situations within those faith communities. We have few resources to decipher exactly what those circumstances may have been when these letters were composed. It would appear from the context of this passage that there was a considerable amount of bickering and quarreling going on in this congregation. Either that, or the letter was addressed to faith communities in general who were in great conflict over the issue of whether Jews and Gentile could fellowship together. As someone put it in a comment on last week's lesson, the issue was peace, not unity, although the unity of Christ's body, the church, is named as one of the main themes of this letter.
People also seem to have been taking advantage of one another.
When people are riled up about issues, they often criticize and condemn one another mercilessly. His antidote to that kind of talk is worth noting. That's what gives it colour and flavour. He certainly made direct reference to the Spirit as the seal of our future redemption, a phrase that occurs in the Pauline corpus many times. That, of course, would require considerable change of heart and perhaps some personal sacrifice of pride, especially for those who had been hurt by harshly spoken words.