Building on the Foundation of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:1-17, 4:1-2) BIG IDEAS: ● Paul's critique of Corinthian immaturity ● Roles of Paul and Apollos as servants ● The Church as God's building and temple ● Divine judgement of our work First Corinthians 3 sees Paul's teaching that only spiritual people can understand the wisdom of God. Paul cannot fully call the Corinthian Christians spiritual people because they continue to live of the flesh, as if they were still infants trapped in an immature condition. Evidence of this includes the divisions among them. Paul insists that he and Apollos are both servants of the same master. 1 Corinthians 3 highlights the necessity of spiritual maturity and unity in Christ. Verses 1-4: Critique of Corinthian Immaturity 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? Paul compares them to a person stuck in infancy, who should have matured enough by now to be ready for the solid food of deeper Christian teaching. Instead, they're still on a newborn's all-milk diet. Hebrews 5:11–14: 11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. 1 Corinthians 3:1 where Paul confronts their condition. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. And I, brethren: These people are part of the family of God (he calls them brethren), and that is the problem. Though they have the Holy Spirit (unlike the natural man of 1 Corinthians 2:14), (But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned), they are not behaving like spiritual people, but like carnal - or fleshly -people, like immature Christians or babes in Christ. Paul speaks about three categories of men. There is the natural man (1 Corinthians 2:14), who is patterned after Adam and rejects the things of the Spirit; there is the spiritual man (1 Corinthians 2:15), who knows the things of God; and there is the carnal man who knows the things of God, yet in some significant ways is still characterized by the flesh (1 Corinthians 3:1). (1 Corinthians 3:3-4) Evidence of their carnality. For you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? Verses 5-8: Roles of Paul and Apollos 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. I planted, Apollos watered: Christian workers have different jobs and see different results, but God is the one who gets the work done. Only God gives the increase. The two are not in competition with each other. They work together and both will be paid by the master. We see Christian workers work together but are rewarded according to their own labor. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. Verses 10-15: The Church as God's Building In verses 10–15, Paul shifts his analogy from agriculture to building and the emphasis from God’s part in the work to the need for those who work in the church to be responsible. 10 According to the grace of God, which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Paul also referred to this great testing in 2 Corinthians 5:10: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. When our work is tested before the Lord, we will be rewarded according to what remains. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17: The church as a temple. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. 1 Corinthians 3:18-20: Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”; and again, “The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 1 Corinthians 3:21-23: Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come — all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. 1 Corinthians 4:1 Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. TAKE AWAYS: ● Are you working in the position God has placed you or are you desiring what someone else has? ● Are you causing dissention in the body, or do you strive for unity in the Spirit? ● Are you a steward who is found faithful?