TEACHING NOTES Introduction In 1 Corinthians 1:10-17, Paul introduced a serious problem that existed in the Corinthian church. The church was divided into fan clubs or groupies of certain teachers. In chapter one, Paul tells them that they should be united around Christ and not divided around human teachers. Now in chapter three, Paul will return to this issue and give a more lengthy response to this problem. ‌ Context from Last Week: ‌ 1 Corinthians 2:14–15 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‌ Unspiritual people have no understanding. Spiritual people study Christ, evaluate themselves, and grow up. ‌ 1 Corinthians 3:1–3 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, 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? ‌ Spiritual people = Grk. pneumatikois - Literally, “Spirit people.” ‌ People of the flesh = Paul uses the Greek word sarx or sarkinos (flesh, fleshly) to refer to sinful desires and worldliness. This is contrasted with “spiritual people” or “people with the Spirit.” Throughout this letter we find that the Corinthian Christians were struggling to leave their paganism behind. They are still holding on to worldly thinking and behaviors. ‌ Infants in Christ = Paul is essentially saying, “You guys are acting like babies.” ‌ Jealousy and strife = Grk. zelos kai eris - The Greek word zelos is related to our English words “zeal” or “zealot.” It is translated “jealousy” here to communicate a kind of envy that leads to fighting. The Greek word eris refers to contention and divisive conflict. Not only were the Corinthians divided in mind or opinion, they were also physically divided and causing strife between the groups. ‌ Behaving in a human way = Grk. peripateite kata anthropon - Literally, “walking/living according to man.” ‌ 1 Corinthians 3:4–6 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 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. ‌ “I follow Paul” = Back in 1 Cor. 1:10-17 Paul introduced this problem of dividing the church into followers of certain human teachers. Now Paul is going further explain why this kind of division wrong. ‌ Servants through whom you believed = When Paul asks, “What is Apollos? What is Paul?” he is reminding the Corinthians that the apostles and teachers are humans. They are simply servants who brought the message of the Gospel. ‌ I planted, Apollos watered = Paul sees the ministry as a team effort. Some are planting the seeds of the Word of God and others are watering those seeds. The Church was never designed to be a “one-man show.” The Church is designed to be the body of Christ with each member serving as a vital part of that body. ‌ God gave the growth = While it is popular in the western church to attribute growth to the pastor, the music style, the building design, or the marketing, none of these human elements cause spiritual growth. Also, Paul is not referring only to numerical growth, but spiritual growth. Paul is clear that God is the source and cause of growth in the people of the church. ‌ 1 Corinthians 3:7–9 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. ‌ Neither he who plants, waters is anything = The leaders and teachers are not tasked with growing the church. We are nothing. It is God who gives growth. No human being should ever get credit for the growth of the church—whether numerical or spiritual growth. All glory goes to God alone. ‌ He who plants, he who waters are one = The one planting and the one watering are equal and are on the same team. In a biblical church the leaders, teachers, deacons, singers, and all volunteers are equal members of the body of Christ. ‌ Each will receive his wages = Although we do not take credit for the church’s success, God will reward those who serve Him faithfully—whether in this life or in the new creation. Nothing we do for the Lord is in vain. ‌ God’s fellow workers = When we serve the church we are working with God and partnering with Him to do His will. This was always God intention from the beginning. In Gen. 1-2 we see that God created humanity to rule the world according to His will. We were made to be “God’s fellow workers.” Obviously, we failed in Gen. 3, but God never gave up on His mission. In Christ, we are now given the ability, through the Spirit, to do what God always wanted. ‌ God’s field = Jesus used the same imagery of a wheat field that is ripe for harvest. We are being planted and cultivated as God’s harvest. ‌ God’s building = God’s building was always understood as the temple in Jerusalem. However, Jesus declared that the temple in Jerusalem was corrupt and empty of God’s presence (Matt. 23:37-38). Now the church is the temple. We are God’s building or house, because the Spirit now lives in us. ‌ 1 Corinthians 3:10–11 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. ‌ I laid a foundation = The imagery assigned to the church in Revelation is of a New Jerusalem whose walls have twelve foundations on which the names of the apostles are engraved (Rev. 21:9-14). The apostles brought Christ and His Gospel to the world. ‌ Someone else is building = All members of the church are called to be active and responsible members of God’s household. The first sign of an unhealthy church is having leaders who do all the ministry and a congregation who only consumes what the leaders provide. A biblical church is full of people who share resources, responsibility, and accountability (see Acts 2:42-47). ‌ Take care how he builds = Building the household or family of God is a serious matter because it involves God’s people. If we are careless, we will negatively effect God’s family. If we get it right, we will lead people to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Being part of the church is a high-stakes endeavor. ‌ Jesus Christ is the foundation = If we build the church on anything other than Christ, we are doomed to fail. Jesus must be the point of the church—not numbers, marketing, music, light shows, etc. The point of the Sunday gathering is to meet with Jesus and help others to meet with Jesus. The church is built on Christ, not on impressive leaders and teachers. ‌ 1 Corinthians 3:12–13 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. ‌ Gold, silver, stones, etc = Modern churches often get distracted into building the church by worldly means. We often focus on material or physical things and forget that we are on a spiritual mission. Gold, silver, and precious stones are things that the lost world values. Paul is saying that we should not value what the world values. And we should build the church with what the world values. ‌ Each one’s work will become manifest = The Greek word for “manifest” here is phaneron, which means “to become visible, evident, known.” Churches who build their ministry by worldly means will eventually be shown to be unsuccessful at making true disciples of Jesus. Worldly methods may build a large audience, but cannot make disciples who stay faithful to Jesus. ‌ The Day will disclose it = The ESV capitalizes the “Day” here because Paul is referring to the final Day of judgment. The Bible teaches emphatically that every person will stand before Christ and be judged. On that Day, our actions and our true motives will be “disclosed” (Grk. delosei - revealed, made clear). ‌ Revealed by fire = In the Bible, fire if often used as an image of testing. Gold is refined or purified by fire. The heat burns away what isn’t gold. As impurities come to the top (revealed), they are removed and only the gold remains. This is how the Bible describes suffering, temptation, and judgment. The purpose of Judgment Day is to purify the earth so that the new creation will be without evil. ‌ 1 Corinthians 3:14–15 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. ‌ The work that survives = Only what is done for God’s glory and what is done in obedience to God’s Word will survive Judgment Day. In other words, only what is built on the foundation of Christ will remain. ‌ The work that burns up = Every Christian will have sins, distractions, misplaced priorities in this life. Those things will be exposed and removed on Judgment Day. One of the goals of following Christ is to remove those things in this life as much as possible before Judgment Day. ‌ Saved as through fire = Those who rejected Christ and wanted nothing to do with God will not survive the fire. Those who were faithful to Christ will survive and inherit eternal life, even though the fire burned away certain things that are not allowed in the presence of God. ‌ God’s Dangerous Presence: In the Torah, God’s presence is “the appearance of fire” that leads His people and resides in the tabernacle/temple (Num. 9:15-23). This fire was a visible indication that the Creator of life was among them. However, this fiery presence of God was also dangerous. Nothing and no one profane was allowed in the presence of God. To rush into God’s presence in a way that is against how God instructed is to be consumed by His fiery presence. When the high priest entered God’s presence on the Day of Atonement in accordance with God’s instructions, it resulted in atonement for all God’s people. However, when Nadab and Abihu (the high priest’s sons) ignored these rules and entered God’s presence, the fire consumed them (Lev. 10). Only what is holy can survive the holiness of God. ‌ 1 Corinthians 3:16–17 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. ‌ You are God’s temple = The main reason that Paul is correcting this division is not a matter of preference or “can’t we all just get along.” For Paul, division is against the very foundation and identity of the church as the temple of God. God’s temple cannot be divided because God’s Spirit cannot be divided. This implies that if we are divided, then we are not being God’s temple. ‌ God’s Spirit dwells in you = The presence of God’s Spirit within us is what makes us God’s temple. In the Old Testament, God’s presence resided in the tabernacle and later in the temple in Jerusalem. Over time, Israel profaned God’s temple through disobedience and idolatry. The book of Ezekiel begins with God’s presence leaving the temple, proceeds with prophesies about Israel’s destruction, and ends with a prophesy about a new temple. Jesus built this new temple by dying as a sacrifice for sin and giving us the Holy Spirit. The Church is the new temple where God’s Spirit dwells. ‌ Destroying God’s temple = In Israel’s history, the temple had been defiled multiple times and completely destroyed twice (by Babylon in 586 BC and by Rome in AD 70). Every nation that defiled and destroyed the temple was later destroyed themselves. In the same way, if we divide and destroy the church (God’s new temple), we are asking for our own destruction. God dealt harshly with Israel for defiling His temple and He will do the same to us. ‌ God’s temple is holy = Holiness is mostly about uniqueness or being set apart for a divine purpose. In the Old Testament, God’s temple was holy because it was set apart from every other building in the world. Even the furniture in the temple was considered holy to the Lord. In the same way, the Church is set apart for a divine purpose to live like Jesus and spread God’s kingdom over all the earth. ‌ 1 Corinthians 3:18–20 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.” ‌ Let no one deceive himself = This obviously implies that we are easily deceived. This has been the case since Gen. 3 where Eve was deceived by the serpent. Then Adam—seeing that Eve did not immediately die—deceived himself into eating the forbidden fruit. While the devil can certainly deceive us, we can deceive ourselves without the devil’s help. ‌ Wise in this age = Grk. sophos en touto to aioni - Paul uses “this age” to refer to a time period in which the world is ruled by sin. Being “wise in this age” is to be deceived by the worldliness around us. ‌ It is written = Paul quotes from Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11. Both of these passages teach that human wisdom is foolishness when compared to the wisdom of God. The use of “craftiness” from Job 5:13, a story about the satan and a righteous man, should remind us of Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more crafty…” The craftiness of men originates with the serpent. ‌ 1 Corinthians 3:21–23 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. ‌ Let no one boast in men = We should never tie our identity to another human, nor should we brag about being a follow of another human. This is what the Corinthians were doing—boasting and dividing about which teacher they followed. ‌ All things are yours = What Paul is saying here is that human leaders and teachers belong to the church, not the other way around. The leader of a church is to be a servant of the church. In the church we are all on level ground under Christ. ‌ You are Christ’s = We do not belong to some human teacher. We belong to Christ alone. This will come up again when Paul is correcting sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 “19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” ‌ Conclusion ‌ The Church is the temple of God, the body of Christ, and the family of God which cannot be divided. ‌ Therefore, a divided church is not being the Church. ‌ The church does not belong to its leaders. The leaders belong to the church. ‌ Next Week: 1 Corinthians 4:1-21 ‌