1 Corinthians 3:1. AND I, BRETHREN, COULD NOT SPEAK UNTO YOU AS UNTO SPIRITUAL, BUT AS UNTO CARNAL, EVEN AS UNTO BABES IN CHRIST those in whom the spiritual principles, like the higher faculties in a babe, lie all undeveloped. Spiritual, indeed, they were, for they were “in Christ;” but it was only... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:2. I fed you WITH MILK the elementary truths of the Gospel. NOT WITH MEAT the profounder aspects of Christian truth. FOR YE WERE NOT YET ABLE, ETC. See Hebrews 5:12-14.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:3. FOR WHEREAS THERE IS AMONG YOU JEALOUSY each party for its favourite preacher. AND STRIFE engendered by such jealousies (the next words in the received text, “and divisions,” are feebly attested, and indeed are out of place). ARE YE NOT CARNAL, AND WALK AS MEN? unrenewed men.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:4. FOR WHEN ONE SAITH, I AM OF PAUL; AND ANOTHER, I AM OF APOLLOS; ARE YE NOT _AS _ MEN? [1] men who have never passed into the new life. [1] Not, as in the received text, “are ye not carnal?”... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:5. WHAT THEN IS APOLLOS, AND WHAT IS PAUL? MINISTERS mere _‘_ servants.' THROUGH WHOM (as instruments) YE BELIEVED, AND EACH AS THE LORD GAVE TO HIM.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:6. I PLANTED: YES; the first ground at Corinth was indeed broken by me, and I am your spiritual father. APOLLOS WATERED following up what I began. But though in husbandry planting goes before watering, each is necessary at its proper stage. Yet something above both was needed. BUT... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:7. SO THEN NEITHER IS HE THAT PLANTETH ANYTHING, NEITHER HE THAT WATERETH; BUT GOD THAT GIVETH THE INCREASE.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:8. NOW HE THAT PLANTETH AND HE THAT WATERETH ARE ONE _Gr._ ‘one thing,' co-operating to one end. BUT EACH SHALL RECEIVE HIS OWN REWARD ACCORDING TO HIS OWN WORK. While the work is one, in one field, to one Master, on one principle, and to one end, each has his own sphere in it, his... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:9. FAR WE ARE GOD'S FELLOW-WORKERS: YE ARE GOD'S HUSBANDRY, GOD'S BUILDING. After sinking himself, with his fellow-workers, to the level of mere servants, he now lifts them up to the dignity of co-operators with God Himself in one field, to one end. But the new figure of a “building... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:10. ACCORDING TO THE GRACE OF GOD WHICH WAS GIVEN UNTO ME, AS A WISE MASTER-BUILDER, I LAID A FOUNDATION alluding to our Lord's parable of the “wise man who built his house upon the rock” (Matthew 7:24-25). But he takes care to ascribe the “wisdom” shown in this to “the grace of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:11. FOR OTHER FOUNDATION CAN NO MAN LAY THAN THAT IS LAID, WHICH IS JESUS CHRIST. The allusion is to that grand announcement, Isaiah 28:16, “Behold, I have laid in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner _stent,_ of sure foundation: he that believeth shall not... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:12. NOW IF ANY MAN BUILDETH UPON THE FOUNDATION GOLD, SILVER, PRECIOUS STONES, WOOD, HAY, STUBBLE. The highly artistic form of this statement should be noted. Two triplets of materials are supposed to be built on the same _true_ foundation. The one set of materials as incombustible a... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:13. EACH MAN'S WORK SHALL BE MADE MANIFEST: FOR THE DAY SHALL DECLARE IT not ‘some day' sooner or later (as some critics), nor (with Calvin and others) ‘the day of clearer light' or advancing knowledge; least of all, that never-failing refuge of poor critics, ‘the day of Jerusalem's... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:14. IF ANY MAN'S WORK SHALL ABIDE WHICH HE BUILT THEREUPON as being built of the incombustible materials and on the true foundation, and hence able to abide the fiery trial. HE SHALL RECEIVE A REWARD with the welcome word of the Master Himself, “Well done, good and faithful servant... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:15. IF ANY MAN'S WORK SHALL BE BURNED as consisting of the inflammable “wood, hay, stubble,” HE SHALL SUFFER LOSS loss of his time, his pains, his hopes, his credit; his whole ministry, even though right at bottom, yet all of it which is of this character, disappearing. BUT HE HI... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:16. KNOW YE NOT THAT YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD? a sudden transition, apparently, from the _teachers_ to the _taught;_ yet this is more in appearance than reality. For the transition is simply from warnings against a dangerous pandering in teachers to the corrupted taste of their heare... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:17. IF ANY MAN SHALL DESTROY THE TEMPLE OF GOD, HIM SHALL GOD DESTROY. The sin and its punishment are in the original purposely expressed by the same word; but this cannot be represented in English. FOR THE TEMPLE OF GOD IS HOLY, AND SUCH ARE YE not, as in the Authorised Version, “... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:18. LET NO MAN DECEIVE HIMSELF. IF ANY MAN AMONG YOU THINKETH THAT HE IS WISE IN THIS WORLD in the world's sense of wisdom, LET HIM BECOME A FOOL (as to such wisdom), THAT HE MAY BE (truly) WISE.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:19. FOR THE WISDOM OF THIS WORLD IS FOOLISHNESS WITH GOD (see on ch. 1 Corinthians 1:20). For it is written (Job 5:13), HE THAT TAKETH THE WISE IN THEIR OWN CRAFTINESS.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:20. AND AGAIN (Psalms 94:11), THE LORD KNOWETH THE REASONINGS OF THE WISE, THAT THEY ARE VAIN.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:21. WHEREFORE, LET NO ONE GLORY IN MEN in one preacher as opposed to another. FOR ALL THINGS ARE YOURS.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:22. WHETHER PAUL, OR APOLLOS, OR CEPHAS including all the characteristics of each; for as Christ's donation to the Church, each and all are its common property. There is probably as much diversity in the gifts and graces of the Christian ministry as in the capacities, sympathies, att... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 3:23. AND YE ARE CHRIST'S (possession), AND CHRIST IS GOD'S (possession). What a climax, and an anti-climax too, from all things _down_ to ourselves, and from ourselves _up_ again to God! But while all things are ours, by a seeming paradox there is something which is not ours. “We are... [ Continue Reading ]