1 Corinthians 3
1 Corinthians 3
[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome to God's Plan, your part, year two, where this year we're reading through and studying the entire New Testament, one chapter at a time. Thanks again for joining us in discovering God's plan and your part in it. Today we're looking at first Corinthians chapter three, where I think Paul is wrapping up some earlier points he was making, uh, talking about divisions in the church and how we handle them.
So actually today is a pretty short chapter, but as we were reading through it, I noticed there's a lot packed in here. And I think Paul switches pretty quickly without warning. Like, what? visual or metaphor he's trying to use to describe the church. So just to be like, helpful before we even get started, if you read the chapter yourself before you started listening, or if you have yet to, just to kind of track with us a little bit, I was looking in, um, logos today just because I had to wrap my mind around it.
It is a lot about spiritual maturity, uh, but the first part of it really talks about, like, [00:01:00] individual understanding of God and how he works. Um, and then there's like this like plant metaphor that he uses in order to help make that understanding a little bit more complete. Then he moves into a different way of explaining it by like talking about how things are built and how they will be tested over time.
And then finally, it, to me, it just seemed kind of like a minister's warning, like his, uh, His call out to be like, Hey, slow your roll. All you preachers out in Corinth, like you got to pull it together. Yeah. It's interesting. We talked about the, uh, the characterization of this book, like this group of people that Paul is writing to.
These are very new, believing. Christians, like this church has not existed for a very long time. And they're heavily influenced by, uh, kind of like spiritual understanding. Uh, but they're also susceptible to like becoming like personality cults, like liking one person over another person, uh, he's [00:02:00] already addressed how they like people.
their favorite pastor. We talked about that the other day. Um, and he alludes to again, just, I actually more than alludes to, he calls out directly, like some people say they're following Apollos. Some people say they're following Paul. Some people say they're following Peter Cephas. Some people say they're following Jesus.
So the church is kind of a mess and Paul is trying to get this straightened out because ultimately. He just wants people to follow Christ and come to maturity in Christ. And I think there can be a lot of really slippery slopes here because this is like recent history, like the death of Jesus did not happen like a super long time ago, but what's interesting is that after we read this chapter, I talked to Ryan about this, like although this was a problem for them then, being super close in history to the death and resurrection of Jesus, We fall into this a ton today, but with tons of history in between knowing these like hard, fast facts about Christ, his death, his resurrection, all these [00:03:00] followers and men and women that have dedicated their lives to following Christ.
So it's interesting that we can fall into some of these same things. It was very prominent in Corinth. However, it is super prominent in today's world, which is like, dang, I don't know. We don't learn super well. CS Lewis has this, I think it's a really compelling phrase called chronological snobbery and chronological snobbery is when you just assume that you don't deal with the problems that like old timey people used to deal with.
And a lot of times we do approach the Bible unintentionally with chronological snobbery. And I have seen, and I have thought on my own, like, Oh, these Corinthian people, like they're so immature. Why can't they just be mature and solve their problems? Or even back to old Testament, like those stupid Israelites, why did they do so many dumb things?
And when we're falling into that, it is chronological snobbery. Uh, sorry, Mr. Lewis for stealing your phrase so many times. Um, it's, it's something that like clouds our vision of scripture. And so this is a valuable [00:04:00] thing for us to read over. We do still wrestle with it today. I would say it's possibly more prominent today than it was For them, like certainly if I had to make the case, uh, of a letter that at least in the United States, I know that there's other people out there listening, but at least in the United States, um, if I had to say there's a letter that I resonate with most from what I see in the church today, I would say first Corinthians is wildly applicable to us and we should pay attention to it.
Well, so we move right into the chapter then, like the first nine verses one through nine talks about this spiritual maturity. And how there is that, that issue that many of them face where they are willing to, like, stand behind a person rather than stand behind God. And Paul has this really good metaphor, I think, just because I have children, like, lots of children.
I have a lot of them. Our fifth one's on the way. Yeah, it is. But anyway, um, he uses this idea of, he's given them, like, the best, like, Basics, like a baby needs milk, not solid food. If you try to [00:05:00] give an infant solid food, it's not going to turn out well. They're going to choke, they could possibly die. It'd be terrible.
So in verse two, he's pulling that out. He's like, listen, I gave you the foundation for your faith. I gave you milk because you weren't ready for it. Um, so I like essentially made that foundation for you. Then servants like Apollos in verse five, he also was willing to help raise them up in their faith.
But ultimately in verse six, he's saying, although yes, I gave the foundation, although yes, Apollos was willing to walk alongside you and disciple you. God is the one who is at work in your heart, not either of us men. So a lot of those people that were getting super hung up with like, I'm in this camp or I'm in that camp.
It's just like, it's not about the people. Um, I was reading in. Uh, Logos earlier, Logos Logos, um, they were basically saying, like, we are servants of God's plan. Like, we are, although, like, although we plant the seed, although we water the [00:06:00] seed, God is the one that makes it grow. If you actually think about, like, the process of a seed growing, you can have all those separate things on their own.
But when put together, like God is the only reason that that seed is able to grow at all. So he's really trying to pull that out, like get out of this silly spot and move on to spiritual maturity. I'll tell you, I, I really resonate with this like, um, individuals water, but God makes it grow. That's essentially like a summary of what's going on here.
It's this idea that all of us have a part to play in. Um, discipling other people, sometimes it's evangelism, sometimes it's discipleship, like, like introducing people to Christ versus teaching people to follow Christ. Um, and, and you may be like in and out of someone's life. I, I think probably one of the clearest, um, examples I've had of this in my own life.
I've talked a little bit on the podcast about how I used to work at this boy's camp and we worked with like pretty difficult Um, certainly kids that were not following Jesus. And I had one in particular student, uh, who, when I first met [00:07:00] him, he was like very antagonistic toward God, very antagonistic toward me.
It was like, are we ever going to get anywhere with this guy? And I, by the end of the 18 months that he was with us, uh, I think he was at a place where he was. At least willing to be aware of what God was doing. I don't know that I would say that he was like a faithful follower of Christ. Um, but he was certainly more spiritually aware than he had been and more willing to hear what God intended.
And it was years later, I'm seriously like years later, probably 10 years. Uh, I was sitting eating breakfast at the table and just, just scrolling back when I still had a smartphone, more on that sometime in the future. Um, I was just sitting at the table scrolling and I saw this post from a church nearby here where we live and I saw a picture of somebody getting out of the water, like out of the baptismal.
And like, if you've seen church Instagram posts, like one of those common, like we had a baptism Sunday, but it was that kid. It was that kid that I had sat with in South Florida and it was a hundred percent him. And I was like, [00:08:00] Oh my word. I literally was like in tears at the table eating my breakfast, staring at my phone.
You reached out to him and he was very excited to like, tell you all about it. So it's, it's very cool to see that like I had this God given opportunity to water a seed, but I did not bring it full growth. And obviously this, this person, he's not a kid anymore. Uh, this adult man is experiencing like more holistic growth in following Christ because other people continue to water and God causes it to grow.
Yeah. And sometimes you are even part of the planting of this. Oh, for sure. For sure. Um, what is important is that we don't uplift one over the other because ultimately, like, God ordained that moment for you to be able to plant the seed. Oh, yeah. It had nothing to do with you choosing, like, Oh, yeah, I'm going to be the one that like changes this guy's life.
Well, and that's very tempting. That's a very tempting thing to fall into like tempting thing that happened to these people. Yes. Like it's like, well, like people might feel an allegiance to somebody who led them to Christ when instead they should be allegiant to Christ. And those that are preaching and teaching sometimes feel, and I felt this [00:09:00] myself sometimes feel like individuals should be allegiant to them as leaders and teachers, but actually they should be like following Christ.
So this is. Really valuable good stuff right it is and I think if you like just skim over this for as quick as of chapter It is you can really miss it I think one thing I want to say before we move to the next section is you often say this when you would give Sermons in the past you would often say things like hey guys Like there is no accident that you're hearing this right now And it's not because of you speaking Ryan or me speaking Jenny is everything to do with like There's no accident that you're hearing this message today out of God's word in first Corinthians chapter two, like these verses apply, um, excuse me, chapter three, excuse me.
Um, so there's no accident that that is happening because God is the one that is growing you through what you are, um, either having planted or watered and your own understanding of what God's word said. So if you're not careful, this next pivoting here. Paul takes a pivot as well. [00:10:00] He's still talking about the same things, but he's changing the metaphor.
So he's no longer talking about seeds and watering and growing. He's talking about building a strong church foundation. Well, there's a foundation that Paul has set, right? If you're actually thinking like actual building foundation, and then he's like passing it on. To these other pastors who will take over for him.
Like, it's almost like, if you think about a missionary, they go, they plant the seeds, they try to raise up pastors that they can continue to grow their people in hopes that that will just continue to like chain reaction, go, go, go. So what he's saying is, uh, in verse, let's see, in verse 12, he's talking about all of these things that a, a building can be built with there's gold, there's silver, there's precious stones, there's wood, there's hay or straw.
I think you can pretty much like. Hear those materials and think of the ones that you would hope your building is built with because ultimately in verse Let's see. What is this? I believe it's 13. Yep. It's all gonna be tested with fire I would not want [00:11:00] my building to be tested with fire if it's made out of wood, hay or straw It's gonna be destroyed.
Well, so the important thing here is like These ministers need to be so focused on representing God and not themselves. Think about how many large celebrity pastors fall. They there's some kind of mistake, really sad. You find out that something crazy was going on in the background and how quickly their churches disappear.
And that's because they were churches built on straw. It's not that those individuals are straw. It's that that particular community of expressing Christ. Falls apart because they were built on following that personality instead of following that worshiping that person. We worship God, right? And so what Paul's saying is hey when when you teach good Theology when you teach a good understanding of who God is when you draw people's affections toward Christ You stand the test of time you stand in this case You stand the test of fire and that test of fire is coming for all of us.
Yeah So, to, to piggyback on [00:12:00] that, the final section is then talking about, like, actual ministers. It's like a call out to the preachers, the pastors of those places where the foundation has been laid, where we want to grow the people around us in Christ. And he's saying, hey, like, you can be drawn to the wisdom of the world.
But, I love how Logos, I was reading a, uh, commentary in Logos and it said, The wisdom of the world is foolishness and it reflects the mind of Satan. Okay, so that's verse 19, like, oh, that's so gross. It really is. So, it's saying, like, it is so easy to wrap yourself, I would say for pastors especially, to wrap yourself up in like a really strong TED talk that's like, Full of wisdom of the world when in reality, he's just saying like don't be this self centered spirit That focuses on what the world wants focus on God and glorifying him and not yourself.
So this last little section I don't know. How does it feel for you being like? Or having been in pastoral [00:13:00] ministry to hear that, I feel like that's a really strong conviction. I should be the one answering the pastor questions. I don't know, you've been there. Um, you know, it's, it's just so important to stay focused on the right things.
Um, I know not all of you are pastors that are listening, but I think probably a lot of you have some level of Christian influence. You know, it might be in an individual's life, your family's life, whatever. Or even interaction with. It's so important to draw people's attention and affection towards Jesus Christ, and it is very Tempting to draw it toward yourself thinking that you'll draw it to yourself first and towards Jesus eventually And what I have noticed in my own life honestly in my own life and the lives of other Christian leaders around me That when the way that you handle things is I'll draw their attention to me first, and then eventually to Jesus, you'd never get around to making sure they focus on Jesus.
You end up with like a posse of people that think you're really cool. They think you're a good person. They think you're a wonderful person, but if their faith is built on you, It will fail. And so, [00:14:00] you know, it just, just be careful, be careful and make sure that you're building a strong foundation and a house that is not built with wood, hay and stubble.
Yeah, none of that stuff. So I think a verse that would be really fitting for today goes back to that first metaphor is in verse seven. It says, so neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth because it's ultimately God who was working through the waterer. God, who is working through the one who is planting and God who ultimately grows you spiritually, um, toward himself.
So today, think about that as you are listening to, uh, as you're listening to us, as you're listening to other pastors around you, as you are trying to understand who God is. Yes. Remember that there are a lot of planters and a lot of waters, but God is the one who is ultimately growing you and drawing you to himself.
So thanks for joining us for today. We'll be back again tomorrow with chapter four. Thanks for listening to today's episode. Before we get to the reading, I want to recommend another podcast that I'm a part of called [00:15:00] God's whole story. This year, we're releasing one episode a week on Monday mornings, overviewing one book of the Bible each week.
So God's plan. Your part is a deep dive chapter by chapter where God's whole story is taking it one book at a time. If you enjoy this podcast, you'll enjoy that one. Go check it out. Now here's the reading. 1 Corinthians, Chapter 3 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 ready, 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? For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human?
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants, through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, [00:16:00] 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.
Amen. For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I lay the foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, or any other 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. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God's [00:17:00] 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. Let no one deceive himself.
If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in his age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, He catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, and they are futile. So, 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 the present or the future, all are yours.
And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of God's Plan, Your Part. Don't forget, you can find us on just about every social media platform and YouTube. Let us know what you thought of today's episode, and if you have any questions, go ahead and post them there.
You can also reach out to us directly at godsplanyourpartatgmail. [00:18:00] com. As always, if you don't have a Bible, or if you'd like to use the one that we use, reach out to us via email and we'll be happy to send one to you. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you again tomorrow.
