Wednesday,
July 8 –
In the
middle of the week, we continue our reading thru the New Testament in 1
Corinthians 2:14 – 3:22. We are
beginning the reading where we ended yesterday, but the context is important,
so we’ll start at the end of chapter 2, which might help us understand chapter
3 better. After you’ve read the passage,
please come back, and we’ll walk through it together.
The back and forth of Paul’s writing serves to contrast what Spiritual growth
looks like. He began by asking them to
rethink their ideas about Spiritual leadership.
The Corinthians had formed into several divisions that were nothing more
than personality cliques creating division within the church. The underlying problem isn’t the diversity of
leaders, but the influence they were still under from the culture and its
world-view. The Roman world-view was a
foolish “wisdom of the world,” natural wisdom that was devoid of God’s wisdom revealed
in the Scriptures. We began with the
last few verses of chapter 2 as Paul contrasts the “Spiritual” person (a person
who therefore has the Holy Spirit) and the natural person (an unregenerate
person without the Spirit). The problem
Paul is exposing is that the Corinthians, at times, acted like both. Some have referred to this as “Carnal”
Christians and we need to look closely to see that now Paul puts it all
together and reminds them that they created the problem, but now they need to
fix it.
The
opening salvo is a pastoral rebuke – “But I, brothers, could not address you
as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I
fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now
you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there are
jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a
human way? For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow
Apollos,’ are you not being merely human?” (3:1-4).
The two people Paul had contrasted previously were the natural and the Spiritual
person. Now, he adds a third person –
the person of the “flesh.” A genuine
Christian has “the mind of Christ” (2:21), which does not mean they are
perfect in their faith, but that they are seeking to follow God, despite the
need to deal with personal Sin. A
Spiritual Christian is keenly aware of their own sin, and does something about
it! The mind of Christ means there is an
awareness of the Spirit’s conviction (John 16:7-14), as well as the Spirit’s
indwelling work that would never affirm division. The person of the flesh is, at best, still a
“baby,” not able to eat “solid food”... “Behaving only in a human way”
(3:2,3). The world-view of the
unregenerate person sees no evil in “jealousy” and “Strife” – its natural
behavior in the world. The Spiritual
person understands these, and other things are incompatible with “the mind of
Christ.” Paul is telling them to “grow
up”!
The
heart of the issue is that the leaders – Paul, Apollos - are not to be revered;
the reason why? They are mere “servants”
doing their assigned job (3:5). Paul’s
readers knew that servants were ordinary but never revered. The reason why Apollos and Paul were
respected, but not to be revered, is that behind each of their work is God –
who is working through them. One plants
the seed, the other waters, and both activities are necessary, but in both
cases, it is God who is behind the growth.
Our tendency to exalt some and despise the other is built into the
fabric of a culture that is materialistic and does not believe it is God who is
at work. The Spiritual Christian sees
leaders at work as a God-given and Spirit-directed process that is much like
farming (3:6-9). It is an apt metaphor
because the essential ingredients in agriculture are “workers” in a “field”
(3:9). The Corinthians were allowing
their field to grow weeds.
Paul
continues with a second metaphor that the Corinthian church is like a building
(3:10-15). Paul laid the foundation when
he came to Corinth to preach the Gospel (Acts 18), and after he left, someone
else built on that foundation (3:11). He
cautions that there is no other foundation to build upon than Jesus
Christ. Eugene Peterson makes the
observation: “Paul makes two points in
this metaphor. First, we are workers with
God. Second, we are worked on by
God”.[1]
It’s true that we are both building with
God, and we are being built by God – they coexist in balance. We are the church, and we always becoming the
church.
The most
important part of our participation has to do with what we bring to the
building process. Paul gives two contrasting
ways in building: with gold, silver,
precious stones, or with wood, hay, and straw (3:12). The Corinthians, in relying upon their wisdom
– natural wisdom – had chosen to use wood, hay, and straw. Paul looks into eternity future to point out
that one day their work, and thus, our work also, will be tested by fire
(3:13-15). The fire is God’s judgment
for rewards and will occur when Jesus comes back and takes his place as Judge
of the whole earth (we saw that in Romans 14:10, and will soon see it again in 2
Corinthians 5:10). The issue isn’t
salvation (3:15), for there will be some who are saved without any rewards. The rewards are for faithful service and the wood,
hay, straw will be burnt up as a rebuke for unfaithful service. We have to keep our focus on Christ in
whatever we do, and be willing to answer the question: “Am I building to enable growth, or am I
tearing things down?”
A large
part of how we answer that question will be revealed by what we believe about
the church. Paul switches metaphor to
seriously ask: “Do you not know that
you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone
destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you
are that temple” (3:16-17). Let
me say what Paul is saying to us: It is
a serious thing to be a Christian and participate in the Church. The contrast
is clear: “the wisdom of the world is
folly with God...” (3:19). The
world system cannot effectively lead the Christian. To reinforce this, Paul quotes from the book
of Job (5:13) and the Psalms (94:11).
The
practical application is like a summary of all he has said: “So let no one boast in men, for all
things are yours,” (3:21). Comparing
people is a natural thing to do, but exalting a leader foolishly forgets that
humility is the only quality of authentic Spiritual leadership. As a church member, remember this – leaders
serve the church best when they keep their eyes on Christ as their leader. They serve the believers in the church when they
point them to Christ. It might be difficult for us to see ourselves
as “temple,” but that is what we are, and we would do well to heed the warning
not to participate in anything that would “destroy” the temple God is at work
in.
It has
become fashionable to both avoid Church, as well as to denigrate it. The attitude of those who embrace both
separation and criticism without participation are “foolish”. They are a person who is of the “flesh” and
one who is missing the very thing God is building for the sake of His Kingdom. It’s a good question to ask: “Are we building up the body of Christ, or
tearing it down?”
Peace
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