» 3:1-4
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, 3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men?

Paul first went to Corinth around 51 AD on an evangelistic mission. The people he met and ministered to were, of course, carnal because they had not yet learned the truth of Christ. He adapted his initial message to them accordingly – feeding them baby food to help them grow. That was appropriate. They were babies.

But that was about 6 years ago! By now they should have grown into the type of people he just described in 2:15 – spiritual people who understand spiritual things. If you still have to feed your 6-year-old child from a jar of Gerber’s there is something wrong.

But that is what he was faced with – believers whose growth was stunted. Paul longed to talk to them as mature Christians, but they were still worldly. They still brought the attitude of the world around them into the church, and it was affecting the way they lived.

Something struck me as I read that. It means that this letter that we’re studying is essentially Christian baby food. As awesome as it is, as challenging as its truths are to our lives, it is only the Gerber’s rather than prime rib. It’s the alphabet rather than words. It’s the times tables rather than calculus. It helps us develop spiritual depth, but it does not contain the spiritual depth we should aspire to. God has so much more to teach us once we master it.

Although these believers had now been born of the Spirit, they were still being controlled by the flesh. They were still acting like spiritual babies. They demonstrated that by the fleshly desires that they allowed to control their actions – jealousy, strife, and divisions over which teacher they followed. This has been Paul’s theme since 1:10-12.

FOR POSSIBLE DISCUSSION: How can you imagine a Christian at that church would justify or explain away these fleshly indulgences?

Instead, Paul wanted them to tap into that deep wisdom of God he mentioned in Chapter 2 – the secret wisdom by which God wants to glorify us (2:7), a wisdom that the world cannot understand (2:9) because it is accessible only to spiritually mature people (2:10). See Ephesians 4:14 and Hebrews 6:1ff for more about spiritual maturity.

» 3:5-11
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

vv. 5-8 No man deserves to be elevated except Christ. Paul and Apollos were merely servants (the Greek word here is diakonoi, or “deacons”). Preachers like Paul, Apollos, and Cephas weren’t anything special. They were mere servants. Who would put a servant up on a pedestal? God does the real work. He makes the planted and watered seed grow. The work of the planters and waterers is inconsequential compared to that. Like all faithful servants of God, Paul and Apollos will be rewarded for their labor because they are co-laboring with God. But they do not get glory. Their work would be useless if God didn’t do His part. Nothing they planted would grow unless God caused it to do so.

vv. 9-10 Paul says he laid the foundation “like a wise master builder.” The Greek word behind “master builder” is architekton, from which we get the word “architect,” but it does not mean architect here. God is the designer/architect of the church. The word here means something more like “general contractor.” Paul was responsible for the work, not the design.

v.11 The church – the body of Christ – can only be built on the one foundation of Jesus Christ. Foundations are meant to be built upon. Paul said he did so and that others should do so - with the warning that builders must be careful how they build.

FOR POSSIBLE DISCUSSION: So what does it mean to “build upon” the foundation of Jesus Christ? What “materials” might people add to the foundation of Jesus Christ in order to build the church?

» 3:12-15
12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

The message in these 4 verses is quite intense, challenging, and important to understand clearly. Paul used the analogy of fire sweeping through a building and consuming everything that can be burned.

Whatever we use to build upon the foundation of Christ must be fireproof.

Imagine a concrete building full of “stuff.” A terrible fire begins to grow within the building and it seeks, as fire does, every pathway it can find in order to spread. The “stuff” in the building is destroyed, but the foundation and walls remain because they are fireproof. Malachi 4:1 puts it this way: “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the Lord Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them.”

FOR POSSIBLE DISCUSSION: When will the material used to build on the foundation be tested with fire? What will happen to the Christian who builds on the foundation with destructible materials (see v. 15)?


SIDE NOTE: Catholics use v. 15 to justify the idea of purgatory, “a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.” But in this verse, what the man built is consumed by fire but the man himself is not. Purgatory doesn’t fit.