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? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
1 Brothers: Almost ready to rebuke them, Paul reaffirms his familial affinity for them.
1 Address / not / spiritual / but as people of the flesh: Paul could not speak to them as he desired, for their carnality got in the way of the message. They were still operating as infants in Christ.
When Paul initially came to Corinth, the people were naturally infants in Christ and were not ready for the solid food of stronger doctrines and practices. But unfortunately, they were still not yet ready, still of the flesh.
Three types of people in this passage: the natural person (2:14), the spiritual person (2:15), and the person of the flesh (3:1).
Believers can only be two of the three (spiritual or fleshly).
Flesh in New Testament:
Physical world (1 Corinthians 15:39), the human body (1 Peter 4:1), humanness (John 1:14), or the seat of sin (as here).
Galatians 5:16–17 (ESV) — 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
But carnality is a fundamental cause of dissension in the church.
Ex: “If you don’t change xxxxxxx we are leaving!”
What is a person of the flesh like?
1 They must be addressed as infants in Christ (1).
2 They follow their flesh, rather than the Spirit (1).
3 They are not ready for solid food, but must instead drink milk (2).
Justification only? But they needed sanctification?
Paul sought to move the Philippian church beyond mere milk: Philippians 2:1–4 (ESV) — 1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
4 They allow attitudes like jealousy and strife to drive them, behaving in a a merely human way.
Rather than humility, concern for others, and the way of the heavenly man.
5 They allow factions to develop (I follow Paul/Apollos, 4).
Watch out for the marks of a carnal Christian in yourself.
You won’t be hungry for the word of God (Bible studies, reading, etc.). You have been filled with other things.
Ex: If I dig in on buckets of ice cream before coming home for dinner.
Reasons For Divisions — Misunderstanding The Messenger (3:5-4:21)
Paul will write for a moment about these messengers they had begun to form camps around. The Corinthians focused too much on men when God was their source of life and blessing.
Reasons For Divisions — Misunderstanding The Messenger — Fellow Workers With God (3:5-17)
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
5 Servants through whom you believed: The Lord gave his assignments, and Paul and Apollos were merely vessels or conduits of the message.
The Corinthians had not believed in Paul or Apollos, but in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul and Apollos were merely fulfilling the roles Christ had given them.
1 Corinthians 3:5 (HCSB) — 5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.
Ephesians 4:11 (ESV) — 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
6 I planted: Paul will use the metaphor of the church as a field.
6
Paul had at one time planted the Corinthian church,
while Apollos had come after and watered the church for a season,
but it was God who continually gave the growth.
See Acts 18:1-18 and 18:24-19:1.
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.
7-8 Paul’s conclusion?
1 The planter and the waterer are not anything, but only God who gives the growth.
2 The laborers, no matter their role, are one.
They do not complete, but complement, one another.
3 The laborers will each receive wages according to their labor.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
Paul will now use a different metaphor: You are God’s field, God’s building, specifically in reference to the temple (see 3:16).
The local church is a building of God, a temple in which God’s Spirit lives.
9 We are God’s fellow workers: Amazing.
Paul and Apollos were certainly fellow workers with one another, but he seems to suggest they were, together, fellow workers with God!
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.
10 According to the grace of God given to me: Paul had a special calling from Jesus. He knew it to be grace, Christ endowment of divine power for the task.
10 I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it:
Paul had spent eighteen months laying the foundation of the Corinthian church. Others would build on that foundation.
This is true of Paul in Corinth, but also of the apostles and the church.
10-11 Let each one take care how he builds upon it: There is no other foundation than the one already laid down, which is Jesus Christ.
Some did come, perhaps even already, to Corinth preaching another gospel than the foundation of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:4–5 (ESV) — 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. 5 Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.
Popes, including this one.
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. 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.
12-15 Paul ventures into the subject of eternal rewards.
1 — 12 Some will build with gold, silver, and precious stones.
2 — 12 Others will build with wood, hay, and straw.
3 — 13 The fire of the Day will disclose and reveal the work each one has done.
The Day:
The Day of the Lord:
Mentioned nineteen times in the Old Testament, but also is mentioned in the New Testament.
1 Thessalonians 5:2–4 (ESV) — 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
The day of man will end, and the day of the Lord will replace it.
Marks of the day of the Lord:
God’s involvement in world affairs more directly and dramatically than he has been since the earthly ministry of Christ.
Day of wrath (Isaiah 2:12,13:9-11, etc.).
All nations are involved (Ezekiel 30:3 doom for the nations, Obadiah 15).
Israel specifically involved (Romans 11:25).
Romans 11:25 (ESV) — 25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
An Elijah-like forerunner (Malachi 4:5).
A world-wide rebellion (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
The Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 (ESV) — 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
Dramatic signs from heaven (Joel 2:30-31, Matthew 24:29).
Hebrews 10:25 (ESV) — 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
2 Corinthians 5:10 (ESV) — 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
4 — 14 There is a reward for those who have a work that survives.
This refers not to salvation, but service.
5 — 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, they will suffer loss, but still be saved.
Fire is often associated with Christ’s second coming.
2 Thessalonians 1:7–8 (ESV) — 7 …when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Revelation 18:8 (ESV) — 8 …she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.”
Revelation 20:15 (ESV) — 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Matthew 3:11 (ESV) — 11 …He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Jesus will snatch up some of his followers from the fire.
Amos 4:11 (ESV) — 11 “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD.
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.
16 Do you not know: First of ten occurrences of this phrase (5:6; 6:2–3, 9, 15–16, 19; 9:13, 24).
16 You are God’s temple: Paul will revisit this concept on a personal level in a few chapters, but here he seems to use it for the entire Corinthian church.
Paul is exhorting them not to defile the temple of God. He comes back to this subject, directly related to sexual immorality (6:15-20).
Do not defile yourself and the whole body.
17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him: Here is a third person; not the one with eternal or temporal works, but destructive works. This person does not have lasting works, nor are his works merely burnt up, for his works have destroyed God’s church.
Reasons For Divisions — Misunderstanding The Messenger — Accountable To God (3:18-4:5)
Paul will now spend a little time describing his ministry.
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 [from Job 5:13], “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again [from Psalm 94:11], “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
18 Let no one deceive himself:
Ministers (like Paul and Apollos) should avoid self-deception, become a fool, and continue to study and proclaim the folly of God and reject the wisdom of this world/age.
A word to servants of Christ:
Recognize the wisdom of God will contradict the wisdom of the age.
Become wise in God by becoming a fool to the world.
Remember the thoughts of the wise are futile.
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.
21 So let no one boast in men:
Churches (like the one in Corinth) should not boast in the messenger, for they have so much more than a messenger.
21-22 All things are yours:
Paul / Apollos / Cephas:
World / Life / Death:
Present / Future:
23 And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s:
My goal: To be a messenger who shows you all you have in Christ.
Matthew 13:52 (ESV) — 52 And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”