Chapter 3
Spiritual Immaturity and Division Within the Church
3:1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
After building a case that God’s wisdom is available to all believers through the Holy Spirit, Paul throws a proverbial brick in the church’s front window and tells them they don’t have what they need to be spoken to as spiritual people. Does that mean that they are not saved? Let’s revisit that question later. Paul says they were “people of the flesh” and that when he taught them he fed them with milk, meaning just the basics, just as infants can only digest milk for their nutrition. They weren’t ready for solid food back then when he taught them (anything of theological substance), and apparently they still have not grown spiritually.
3:3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
Paul chastises them by writing “you are still controlled by your sinful nature.” (NLT) He reports that some are jealous of others while there is disagreement and quarreling going on between them. Paul asks them, isn’t that living and acting like people of the world do? Behaving like humans? He uses the argument from chapter one about how they boast about who they follow as an example (see 1 Corinthians 1:12).
3:5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
Paul explains that he and Apollos are only servants of God through whom they were taught and subsequently believed. Their roles were assigned by Him, Paul did the initial presentation of the gospel message, and Apollos followed up with further instruction and encouragement. But the direction, the information, the instructions, and the power to change lives, comes from God. Paul uses the illustration of a gardener planting seed (Paul), watering (Apollos), and the ability to grow (God), to point out that the person who plants the seed and nurtures it have one goal in mind (to spread the gospel message) and will receive their reward based on their work. Paul identifies himself and Apollos as coworkers for God, they are God’s field and God’s building (which Paul will explain in the following verses).
3:10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Using the church of Corinth as a metaphoric building that belongs to God, Paul states he laid its foundation and someone else is building on it. Each builder needs to pay attention to how they are building on it because the foundation has already been laid and that foundation is Jesus (see also Isaiah 28:16; Ephesian 2:20).
3:12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
Paul lists six building materials, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw, a list that ranges from the ornate to the mundane (or useless). Before we discuss the adequacy of these as building materials we need to ask ourselves a question about life, namely, what is important to us? How important is to you to serve God and obey Him? Gold and silver are obviously not your normal building materials but we might apply them on something we cherish or value highly. If something or someone is important enough to us we might consider spending money to adorn them with gold or silver. Plus the term translated here as ‘precious’ refers to valuable stones that would be used in construction, not jewels. So if we wanted to build on Jesus something that would last, we would consider gold, silver and some good stones. These represent those things that are worth our investment (of time and effort) and would last a long time, impacting people for an eternity. We might even consider wood but we probably would draw the line on hay and straw. Although hay and straw would make it a little easier as we might get away with just scattering some around (little to no time or effort spent). But when the day believers appear before the judgment seat of the Messiah (see 2 Corinthians 5:10), the work they did for Jesus will be fully disclosed. Paul notes that each effort will be revealed by fire, which will be evaluated and tested to see if their work has any lasting value.
3:14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
If the work that was done for the kingdom of God survives, then the believer will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, he will not receive an reward. They will still receive salvation because Jesus did all the work, but Paul adds that they will be saved only as through fire, a statement that reflects someone surviving a house fire without any of their clothes or belongings. Job might say they made it into heaven by the “skin of their teeth” (see Job 19:20).
3:16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
Paul reminds them that each believer is God’s temple since the Holy Spirit dwells in them. If someone kills a believer they are destroying God’s temple, and He will destroy them. All believers are holy temples! Many attempt to connect these two verses to the preceding fifteen verses, it appears that Paul is making the second point of a four-part truth (which he will reveal in last three verses of the chapter).
3:18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
No believer is to deceive themselves, especially thinking that they are wise. They are to become a fool from the world’s perspective and become wise from God’s perspective, since God traps those that are worldly wise in their own cleverness. The thoughts and ideas of the wise are therefore futile, a waste of time.
3:21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
The foundation of any Christian believer is Jesus (verses 1-9), the building that each believer is building (a metaphor for the believers life’s work for the kingdom) belongs to God (verses 10-15), the believer’s body is God’s temple (verses 16-17), and each believer’s ability to think and reason belongs to God (verses 18-20), so there is nothing left to boast about! And since all things are God’s, as we have been adopted as His children (see Romans 8:12-17), all things belong to us too. Whether regarding if an issue is about Apollos or Cephas, or about the world, or life, or death, or the present time, or the future, it doesn’t matter, all things are yours. But you belong to Jesus, just like He is His Father’s.
Considerations
The Eternal Building Code
Paul describes work being done by believers for God’s kingdom as a building project. He mentioned that Jesus is the foundation, but what if the foundation wasn’t the real Jesus? Or if the building materials were subpar? The work done could have eternal consequences! As workers in His kingdom we need to know how to read and interpret the Bible properly. Later Paul wrote to his protégé Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15, ESV, emphasis added) What we ‘build’ for Jesus needs to be built according to code, the Bible. How is that done? By reading, studying, and applying the Bible correctly. Paul will address several issues in this sobering epistle of admonishment.