1 Corinthians · chapter 3 of 16
Updated on
1 Corinthians 3 rebukes the Corinthians for acting like infants in the faith, divided between Paul and Apollos. Paul explains that he planted, Apollos watered and God gives the growth, that Christ is the only foundation on which every worker builds, and that the church is God's temple, where his Spirit dwells.
After showing that God's wisdom is the cross and that the Spirit reveals it, Paul applies that truth to Corinth's concrete problem: divisions around leaders. The chapter corrects how the Corinthians viewed their teachers and reminds them that everyone's work belongs to God and will be evaluated by him.
Paul says he could not speak to them as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ, to whom he gave milk and not solid food because they were not ready. As long as there is jealousy and strife among them, they are still behaving in a merely human way. When one says he follows Paul and another Apollos, they show they think like anyone in the world.
Paul asks what Apollos and he are: servants through whom they believed, each as the Lord gave. Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters are one, and each will receive a reward according to his labor. They are God's fellow workers, and the Corinthians are God's field and God's building.
As a skilled master builder, Paul laid the foundation, which is Jesus Christ, and someone else builds on it. Each must take care how he builds, for each one's work will be tested by fire on the day of judgment: work of gold, silver and precious stones will last, and work of wood, hay and straw will burn. The builder whose work survives will receive a reward, and the one whose work is burned will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, as through fire.
Paul adds that they are God's temple and God's Spirit dwells in them. God will destroy anyone who destroys his temple. He urges that no one deceive himself: whoever thinks he is wise by this age's standards should become a fool in order to become wise, for the world's wisdom is folly with God. No one should boast in men, since everything belongs to them: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present and the future. They are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Paul planted and Apollos watered, but God made it grow. Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything important: the growth comes from God, which removes every reason for rivalry among his servants.
No one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. Teachers may build on it in different ways, but none can change the base.
Paul reminds the Corinthians that they are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in them. The plural matters: he speaks of the whole community, which makes dividing or damaging it a serious matter.
No one should boast in men, because everything belongs to believers, and they belong to Christ, and Christ to God. Leaders are a gift to the church, not masters to be followed as party banners.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Milk and not solid food, because they were not yet ready. — 1 Corinthians 3:2
Answer: God is the one who gives the growth. — 1 Corinthians 3:6
Answer: God's field and God's building, while Paul and Apollos are God's fellow workers. — 1 Corinthians 3:9
Answer: Jesus Christ. — 1 Corinthians 3:11
Answer: Gold, silver and precious stones, or wood, hay and straw; the fire of the day will test them. — 1 Corinthians 3:12-13
Answer: To Christ, and Christ belongs to God. — 1 Corinthians 3:23
1 Corinthians 3 invites us to see the leaders of our church as servants of God, not stars. The person who teaches, leads worship or visits the sick is a fellow worker. When we speak of favoring one person over another, it helps to remember who gives the growth.
It also challenges us to care about the quality of what we build. In a Sunday school class that can mean teaching faithfully to the gospel without adding personal fancies. And since the church is God's temple, protecting unity, reconciliation and respectful treatment among believers is a way of protecting a holy place.
1 Corinthians 3 ends by saying everything belongs to believers because they belong to Christ. In chapter 4 Paul continues on how to view God's servants: as stewards of his mysteries, whom only the Lord will judge.
According to the text, no. Paul says the builder whose work is burned will suffer loss of reward, but he himself will be saved, like someone escaping through fire. The passage is about the quality of Christian service, not about losing salvation.
The church as a community. The pronoun is plural, and the warning that God will destroy anyone who destroys his temple is aimed especially at those who damage the church's unity with divisions and pride. Another passage in the letter applies a similar idea to each believer's body.
It is the day when Christ judges the work of his servants. Most interpreters connect it with the Lord's return, when each Christian's work will be revealed and tested by fire.