Build Carefully – 1 Corinthians 3:1-23

[Transcript]

If you pay close attention, Paul uncovers the root issue of everything he addresses in this letter within the first four verses. That root is immaturity. Immaturity isn’t complicated. When someone is immature, they behave in a manner that is beneath their age, education, or experience. In this case, the Corinthian believers weren’t behaving according to how Paul instructed them, nor by how far along they should have been had they continued in his teaching after he departed.

“But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 3:1

I’ve found that this isn’t unique to the Corinthians. I see in myself the tendency to behave and respond to things in ways that don’t reflect my age, education, and experience. I mean, it seems like the eighth-grade me still lives rent-free in my brain. And I see this in others as well. Crucifying the flesh, in part, is tying up the eighth-grader like a hostage and putting him in a dark room alone. Unfortunately, he’s a virtual Houdini who always escapes, or I’m not good at tying up hostages. Either way, I hear something, see something, and there he is in all his inglorious immaturity.

It’s not just me. It’s all of us. And what we see in Corinthians is what happened when the eighth-graders were given free reign. I mean, look at this. They started forming cliques, and suddenly the lunch room is divided and this group doesn’t sit with that group.

Paul made an interesting observation about this. He asked rhetorical questions to cast light on the nature of their immaturity. He pointed out that jealousy and strife only revealed that they were still in the flesh and acting like humans. Their divisions only showed that they were “being merely human” (3:4).

The accusation of “being merely human” highlights an oft-overlooked reality. Born again people are becoming more than human. In Christ, we might say we’re becoming human 2.0.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)

“So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” – 1 Corinthians 3:7

The reality that made the Corinthians’ behavior so immature was that they formed fan clubs around fellow workers instead of the Lord, who gave them growth. Paul portrayed himself and Apollos as two men working in the field, each with a different role. One planted, one watered, but both were mere servants. It was the Lordwho caused growth to happen. If you perceived that your faith grew while Apollos was ministering, don’t credit that growth to Apollos. It is the Lord and Him alone who caused that growth.

I think it’s safe to say that if you’re a faithful believer, over time, you develop preferences for this teacher over that teacher. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. I serve in a church with multiple pastors, and I’m one of them. We all get chances to preach on Sunday mornings. I can tell you that in my fourteen+ years of serving here, I’ve heard grumblings from folks about days when the primary pastor doesn’t preach. If that’s you, you’re forgetting that the guy you’re putting up on a pedestal is just a ditch digger trying to get water to the crops. It is the Lord who has grown you, not that guy. If you can retrain your mindset to this, it won’t matter who stands up and teaches because you’re waiting for the Lord, not the man, to give you the Word of Life.

Let’s not minimize the fact that the Holy Spirit gifts people to teach and preach. They must obey and nurture that gift. But preachers and teachers never cease to be ditch diggers. The Lord appoints these gifts to His church; they must be faithful to nurture their calling, and we must be faithful to the One who appointed them.

Paul planted, Apollos watered, but Paul said that they were one (3:8). This doesn’t imply that their roles don’t matter. Their roles are tied intimately to their individual gifts. Apollos was a gifted teacher, but Paul was set apart as an apostle, one who pioneered the spread of the Gospel to new places. Rather, it means that they played equal parts. Their roles are “interdependent and complementary”[1], and they will both be rewarded according to their labor (3:8).

“According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.” 1 Corinthians 3:10

Verses ten through fifteen are often cited to support the notion that every believer will stand before the Lord to be judged on the basis of their works. While this is a reasonable interpretation of the passage, it doesn’t fully capture what Paul intended. When we exegete these verses in the context of the broader discussion, it becomes clear that the individuals being judged by fire are teachers.

Take a look at verse nine: “We are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” The fellow workers are those who build on the foundation, illustrating the stricter judgment of teachers that James referred to.

“My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” James 3:1 (NKJV)

Now, I also believe this applies to all believers. We are all given spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:11) and are all given works prepared in advance to walk in (Eph 2:10). We will experience a day of reckoning before the Lord over how we used the gifts He gave us to accomplish the works He prepared for us. I’m only trying to follow the rules of exegeting the passage, finding out what the author meant, and only then investigating whether there is a second layer of meaning.

The judgment of all believers for their works is secondary in this case. I don’t think that makes it less important or less true, but we’ve got to train ourselves to seek the original intent of everything we read in Scripture. So, I’d say FIRST, we must start by saying this judgment Paul speaks of warns those who build – teachers – to build with things that will endure the scrutiny of Christ’s judgment. Then, ALSO, all believers should be careful to walk in the works prepared for them using the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives them because we will ALL experience a day of reckoning with Jesus. Teachers, though, will have a stricter standard, so build carefully.

“If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” 1 Corinthians 3:17

Take another look at verse nine: “You are God’s field, God’s building.” This helps clarify verse sixteen, which uses the plural “you.” You are God’s temple. Later in this letter, Paul states that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (6:19), but at this point, he’s referring to the entire congregation. Together, we are God’s field, His building, His temple. This makes the gathering of the saints a sacred matter and clarifies why we are instructed not to neglect our assemblies (Heb 10:24-25).

Due to the sacred nature of the congregation, anyone who intentionally divides her – destroys God’s temple – is in danger of his own destruction. This is a stern warning to those who build, and more broadly, anyone who would stir up division over anything. God’s temple is holy. Profaning it comes with consequences.

I think that should behoove us to walk in the light with one another. That should cause us to consider our words to one another. We should constantly ask ourselves if our grievances are because the Holy Spirit is grieved, or because something within our personal space has been transgressed. I read once that we should consider if we’re angry because the Lord’s kingdom is violated, or because our kingdom is violated. There’s a big difference. I’ve heard people say, “I love Jesus, but I can’t stand the church.” The church is His Bride. I can’t speak for anyone else, but if you have a problem with my wife, you automatically have one with me. We are one. Likewise, it’s inconsistent to hate the church and love Jesus. We are becoming one with Him. We are His temple. I get it that church hurt is the worst hurt, but that hurt can’t become contempt.

Much hurt in the church comes from careless builders. They will be held to account. Don’t get yourself held to account because you threw the baby out with the bathwater.

For the remainder of this chapter, Paul shifts back to the congregation. Don’t boast in men. Don’t divide yourselves according to your favorite teachers. If I could say it this way, don’t think like eighth-graders and form these cliques. Think maturely. If your teachers think they’re wise, God will humble them. If you think you are wise for picking the right faction, you’ll also get humbled. “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”

Don’t boast in men. Why? Because you already possess everything you need. All things are yours, regardless of who you are in Christ. We have all things in Him, and He is in the Father. Peter echoes a similar sentiment.

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” – 2 Peter 1:3-4

“If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” 1 Corinthians 3:15

Verse fifteen continues to be a source of discussion. What does Paul mean by this? This is tied to the subject of rewards in heaven. Jesus taught us that we should not store treasure on earth where thieves, moths, and rust can destroy it, but we should store it in heaven (Matt 6:19-20). It appears here that if we build carelessly, we will suffer loss.

Are we losing rewards? If so, how did we store those rewards in the first place if our work was careless? Paul clearly says this isn’t a loss of salvation because “he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” So, the person who suffers losses isn’t losing salvation but is losing something for sure. What is it? It would seem that Paul suggests they’ll show up in the new heaven and earth smelling like smoke but safely in.

This is a complex subject, and there are varied thoughts. Some say that the loss is evident when we become aware of the rewards we could have obtained. Others say that it concerns our granted authority in the new creation and cite that those who are faithful with little will be faithful with much (Luke 16:10).

Should Christ’s promise of rewards be the motivator for faithfulness, or should Christ alone motivate us? If Christ alone, why do you think He mentioned the rewards at all?