Close Menu X
Navigate

Gospel Building or Cultural Building - 1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon Series: Confused?

My brother and I grew up in a great neighborhood as kids. In regards to size it was just right – it wasn’t overly big, but it was big enough that we had about 6-8 other boys in our neighborhood who were our age and who we loved to play with. It was also in a portion of Charlotte that at the time wasn’t overly developed, so it was surrounded by wooded areas almost all the way around it. This made for summers full of fantastic adventures as we spent countless hours exploring the woods, exploring the creek, and of course building forts! I’m pretty sure that just about every summer began with the construction of a new fort. And for some reason whenever we constructed a new fort we felt the obligation to assign leadership titles – so we always had a president and a vice-president. Thinking back though it’s interesting to think about how those titles really had no significance. You see the president wasn’t standing around delegating tasks and doing all of the important decision making with the others looking to him to do all the work himself. If you knew where your dad’s hammer was and you had access to a couple of nails then you counted it a privilege to help build and construct the fort. Everybody wanted to hammer; everybody wanted to help saw! Everyone (regardless of whether or not they had a title) wanted to be a part of building the fort where we would gather to and from for all of our adventures that summer.

It’s funny how things change when we become adults. When we get older titles and positions become more important and we become much less likely to involve ourselves in regularly working on a project unless we are going to get paid for it. When we get older we often expect those in leadership to do the heavy lifting in regards to the work that has to be done, and we don’t pick up our hammer and nails unless our efforts are going to be rewarded with pay, with promotions, or with special recognition. This is certainly a result of how our culture conditions us as adults. But why isn’t this an issue when 8 little boys set out into the woods with hammers, nails, and scrap lumber? Why is it that as little boys our satisfaction and enjoyment comes simply from being a part of the building process and we are willing to labor and sweat to build a fort where we can gather to and scatter from for the sake of adventure and mission? And perhaps more importantly, what should the building of the church look like? Should building the church rely on leadership that does the heavy lifting and workers who won’t work unless they are re-imbursed, or should building the church take place in an environment where titles and positions really aren’t all that important and where we all find satisfaction in laboring together to build a place where we can gather to and scatter from for the sake of mission? These are some important questions that we’ll look to our text this week to answer for us.

Having completed an examination of the first two chapters of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth we move on this week to chapter three. But remember that these chapters aren’t isolated from one another (they are all part of one letter which was originally written without any chapters or verses). Paul is continuing to build on a series of thoughts as he works to address some problems that he has been made aware of within the church at Corinth. Remember that he has made several things certain up to this point: (1) He is writing to those who are followers of Christ. In other words the genuineness of their faith and salvation is not being questioned. (“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus . . .1:2) (2) These genuine believers in Christ have fallen into a pattern of behavior and a way of thinking that does not reflect behavior and thinking of those who are believers in Christ. (“. . . it has been reported to me . . . that there is quarreling among you . . . What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos’ . . .1:11-12) (3) At the root of this problem was the high value and emphasis the Greek culture put on the pursuit of ‘worldly’ wisdom. The believers in Christ were trying to wed the Gospel with ‘worldly’ wisdom and as a result they were placing themselves in the camps of individuals who they believed best embodied or who possessed the greatest amount of wisdom. The Gospel wasn’t a message that made sense from the perspective of worldly wisdom though. It was a message of a crucified Christ, which Paul said was “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to the Gentiles” (1:23). It had not been ‘worldly’ wisdom that lead the believers at Corinth to saving faith in Jesus – it was only because God had chosen them that they were in Christ Jesus (see 1:27, 30). (4) Having been chosen by God, God was making a different kind of wisdom known to them. It wasn’t wisdom of this world but rather it was wisdom from God and hidden away in Him from all of humanity. Still Paul says that God had made this different wisdom known to some through the work of the Holy Spirit (the third Person of the Trinity). The Holy Spirit was taking the wisdom of God – wisdom that no human eye had ever seen, nor ear heard, nor heart or mind of man imagined – and He made it known to some. This wisdom that had been hidden in God had everything to do with God’s plan for salvation – that atonement for sin would be made and reconciliation with God would come through the crucifixion of Jesus.

Last week we noted that Paul declared that one of the things which he had been called by God to do was to work in cooperation with the Holy Spirit to impart this wisdom of God to those he called “the mature” (see 2:6). These were those who had received God’s gift of salvation because they had come to an understanding of what Jesus had accomplished for them through His death, burial, and resurrection and they had believed wholly in His saving work alone. Paul considered them “spiritual” people (see 2:13) because they had been given the Holy Spirit as a marker of their genuine faith in Christ. He also noted the difference between those who were not believers in Christ, calling them “natural” people and declaring that they were (and are) completely unable to comprehend and understand the wisdom of God on their own (without the help of the Holy Spirit). The gift of the Holy Spirit factored big into 2:6-16 because He is the One who determines our ability to understand. Those who have the Holy Spirit are ‘spiritual,’ “have the mind of Christ” (2:16), and the ability to understand some of God’s revealed wisdom, while those without the Holy Spirit are ‘natural’ and can’t accept the things of God.

That leads us this week to the next portion of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth. Chapter three begins with Paul saying, “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ” (3:1). In 2:13 Paul had just implied that the church he was writing to was made up of ‘spiritual’ people. Now, four verses later, he said he couldn’t address them as spiritual people. What’s going on here? It’s important that we pay careful attention to what Paul is saying. Paul did not say that these individuals were not spiritual people – only that he could not address them as spiritual. Make sure that you also note that he never calls them ‘natural’ people either. In 3:1 Paul isn’t saying that these believers making up the church at Corinth are no longer believers in Christ, he is saying that they are acting as if they are not believers in Christ, and therefore he can’t address them as he would others who are thinking and living as those who are using the wisdom and discernment made available to them through the Holy Spirit. When Paul had come earlier to make the Gospel known to the city of Corinth and to establish a church there he had only introduced them to the basics of God’s grace and mercy made known through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection because that was all that they were able to grasp and understand at the time. The message would have revolved around the initial work of the Holy Spirit in bringing individuals to an understanding of their personal sin, its consequences, and how Jesus’ death was a substitutionary one on their behalf. Now, sometime later, Paul expected to see greater maturity in their faith and a greater understanding of the Gospel. He expected to be able to unpack more of Jesus’ person and mission in order to help those who made up this church love, treasure, and worship Him more. But Paul said that even now they weren’t ready because they were thinking and living in a way that showed that they were still in pursuit of ‘worldly’ wisdom - demonstrated primarily in their declarations of “I follow Paul” and “I follow Apollos.”

This division and the growing trouble that it was causing perplexed Paul. Why were those who had received the Spirit and who possessed the mind of Christ divided over such things? And how should one who possessed the Holy Spirit rightly understand the roles of leadership in the church? Paul helps the believers at Corinth begin to process this with his question in 3:5, “What then is Apollos? What is Paul?” Then he immediately provides them with an answer – servants! That’s it. They were “servants through whom you believed” (3:5). They weren’t masters or lords to which certain people belonged, nor were they great philosophical leaders or teachers raising up a school of their own disciples and followers. Paul and Apollos were nothing other than servants who God was using to carry out certain tasks. Notice how Paul uses language to emphasize God’s role in establishing the church and to diminish his and Apollos’ role. We noted that he gives himself and Apollos the title of ‘servant,’ but then he goes on to emphasize God’s role in bringing them to faith in Christ, “as the Lord assigned to each” (3:5). In other words Paul and Apollos hadn’t actually brought anyone to saving faith in Jesus – God was bringing them to faith in Jesus through the proclamation of these two servants. He goes on to make this more clear with an analogy in 3:6-9. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field . . .” In verses 6-9 Paul uses a farming/gardening illustration to emphasize some important truths. In these verses Paul points out that while some of the individuals in the church have divided themselves over Paul and Apollos, there is no actual division between Paul and Apollos themselves. He says in verse 8, “he who plants and he who waters are one,” and in verse 9, “we are God’s fellow workers.” It seems that both Paul and Apollos understand their calling to be proclaimers of the Gospel and an understanding that God is using both of them in different times and stages of a person’s understanding of the Gospel. As a result they don’t see one another as competitors who are competing against one another to see who can gather the greatest number of followers or who can have the greatest impact in Corinth. They see themselves as co-laborers who are working for the same purpose. (I’ll touch on this common purpose in just a moment.) Note also that Paul clearly states in the second part of verse 9 that, “You (plural – you all) are God’s field.” The division over whom they belong to as individuals and as a church has been an argument that has been misunderstood by both parties. They are God’s! God is the One who drew them to saving faith! God is the One who caused them to grow! They are God’s and the glory is to go to Him – not Paul and not Apollos. When other’s look at the church at Corinth they aren’t looking at the work of Paul or Apollos – they are looking at the work of God. And so Paul exhorts the church at Corinth to make sure they are rightly attributing the transformation of their lives to the One who was responsible for it.

At the end of verse 9 Paul also calls the church at Corinth, “God’s building” which sets the stage for another illustration that he is going to use in verses 10-15. Paul says in these verses that by the grace that God had given to him he had laid a foundation in the city of Corinth. He goes on even further to explain what this foundation was, “for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (3:11). Paul says that there is only one foundation designed for mankind to build their lives upon – Jesus Christ. And that is the foundation that he laid when he first came to Corinth. Paul came to Corinth, and as he said in 2:2 all he declared was Christ crucified. But after proclaiming the good news of salvation in Jesus and after establishing the church in Corinth, Paul continued on to other cities and other countries to make the good news of Jesus known in those places as well. The work of proclaiming the Gospel and making disciples had not ended when Paul left Corinth though – it continued on through others. One of those individuals was obviously Apollos, but the text here suggests that others were also doing the work of building the church. Paul says in verse 10, “Let each one take care how he builds upon it (i.e. the foundation of Jesus which Paul had laid).” And in verses 12 and 13 he says, “Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw – 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.” Paul didn’t assume that he alone would be responsible for the building of the church in Corinth. In fact, Paul makes it sound as if his responsibility did not extend beyond laying the foundation for the church. In these particular verses it sounds as if Paul anticipated and expected others to build on the foundation which he had laid. The concern in these verses isn’t if others are going to build on the foundation laid (that’s assumed and expected). The concern in these verses is in regards to how one builds on the foundation that has been laid. Were the individuals who were part of the church at Corinth going to build on the foundation Paul laid with gold, silver, and precious stones (i.e. materials that would hold up and endure under the testing of fire); or were they going to build on the foundation Paul laid with wood, hay, and straw (i.e. materials that would burn up and be consumed when tested with fire)? Paul exhorts the church at Corinth to build on the foundation he has laid with the good, lasting materials, because those whose work survives the fire will receive a reward. On the other hand, those who build on the foundation with cheap, perishable materials will see their work burned up and will lose the satisfaction of seeing their work stand the test of time. They, themselves, will not be destroyed (i.e. the individual won’t lose his/her salvation and suffer eternal separation from God in hell), but their work won’t last.

Let’s touch on verses 16 and 17 and then we’ll pause to make a little application. Paul says in these verses, “Do you [plural – you all] not know that you [pl.] are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you [pl.]? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy and you [pl.] are that temple.” This is some serious stuff right here! At the end of verse 9 Paul had declared that the church was “God’s building.” But the church wasn’t just any old building, like some department store, factory, or office building. The church is God’s temple! It is a place that God causes the Holy Spirit to dwell and to reside! So as those building on the foundation that Paul has laid we need to make sure we are careful of two things. First, we need to be building on the foundation with the best materials we have. We shouldn’t be building the temple of God with wood, hay, or straw – we should be building it with gold, silver, and precious stones. In the OT the temple was an incredible building made of the finest materials because that was where the presence of God resided and the people were unwilling to make a place for the presence of God to reside out of inexpensive, perishable material. The temple was made out of the finest materials and the temple was made to last. Second, we need to take the greatest care to make sure that we are not doing anything to tear down or destroy the church. Paul has an unbelievably strong warning in verse 17, “if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.

Let’s pause here to make some important application to the text. One: you cannot read through verses 16-17 without understanding that the local church is incredibly important to God! This isn’t to say that para-church ministries and campus ministries aren’t important (they are and they exist largely because the local church has failed at some level to do its job throughout history). But Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes in these verses that it is the local church that is God’s temple – not para-church organizations like Desiring God, or The Gospel Coalition, or Samaritan’s Purse, or The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, nor campus ministries like CRU, or FCA, or InterVarsity. These are fantastic ministries that are doing great things for God’s kingdom, but it is the local church that Paul calls God’s temple. It is also in regards to the local church that Paul makes such a harsh warning - that anyone found guilty of destroying God’s temple will be destroyed by God, Himself. Two: you cannot read through verses 10-15 without understanding the expectation that all those who have set apart Jesus as Savior and Lord in their lives will be building and investing into the local church. Listen, we talk a lot about the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ. And too often I’m probably guilty of focusing on what we have been saved from. When we make Jesus our Savior and Lord by believing in faith in His death, burial, and resurrection, we are saved from our sin and from an eternity set apart from God in hell. But the salvation we received doesn’t just save us from something – it saves us to something and for something. We are saved to be a part of the church and to good works. This doesn't mean that we are initially saved by faith in Jesus, but in order to maintain that salvation we have to do good works. Jesus death, burial, and resurrection was all that was needed to accomplish our salvation. But when we are saved we are set apart to live on mission with God and to live lives of faithful obedience, together with one another, in the church. The reason that we are saved to these things is because we are also saved for the glory of God. Our salvation in every way is to point to God’s glory. God is glorified when sinful humanity is rescued from sin, but God is also glorified with once sinful humanity starts living holy, selfless lives that love their Creator with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. So let me say clearly this week – the expectation of Paul is that every believer in Christ would be plugged into a local church and that he or she would be laboring to build on the foundation which he laid. Not half-heartedly with little effort, for when we only build with wood, hay, and straw our works will not stand the test of time. We are to be laboring to build the local church with the best that we have to offer. We should be serving with our best abilities, with the best of our time, and with the best of our energy.

So what about you? Do you love the local church as much as you love para-church organizations or campus ministries? And are you investing in and building in a local church with the best that you have to offer?

Paul ends this portion of his letter with the exhortation to stop pursuing ‘worldly’ wisdom. The pursuit of ‘worldly’ wisdom and the attempt to wed it with the Gospel had led to confusion within the church, and even worse – division. The salvation that the individuals who made up the church at Corinth had experienced was not a result of Paul or Apollos. The growth that the church at Corinth had experienced was not a result of Paul or Apollos. So Paul said to stop boasting in men. All that the church at Corinth had experienced was the result of God’s gracious and merciful work. God saved them from sin and its consequences! God saved them to be a part of His church and His mission! And God saved them for His glory! So the church at Corinth needed to leave ‘worldly’ wisdom, ‘worldly’ thinking, and ‘worldly’ behavior behind them. Instead they needed to think and live as ‘spiritual’ people who were embracing what the Gospel had saved them to and for, and they needed to be building the church together for the glory of God!

Leave a Comment

Comments for this post have been disabled.