1 Corinthians 3 - Introduction

Milk is fit for children. Strife and division, arguments of a fleshly mind. He that planteth, and he that watereth, is nothing. The ministers are God's fellow-workmen. Christ the only foundation. Men the temples of God, which must be kept holy. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

Anno Domini 57.

FROM what is said in this chapter, it appears that the false teacher had represented St. Paul, either as ignorant or as unfaithful, because he had not fully instructed the Corinthians before his departure. The same teacher had also boasted concerning himself, that he had given them complete instruction. The confutation of these calumnies the apostle with great propriety introduced, after having in the former chapter discoursed largely concerning the perfect knowledge of the gospel, given to the apostles by the Spirit. Wherefore, having in that chapter observed, that animal men receive not the things of the Spirit of God, he began this chapter with telling the Corinthians, that, though he was an apostle fully instructed, he could not, during his abode with them, speak to them as to spiritual, but as to fleshly or weak persons, even as to babes in Christianity, 1 Corinthians 3:1. This was a severe blow to the pride of the Greeks. Notwithstanding their boasted proficiency in the sciences, they were fleshly or weak men, and babes in religious matters. It seems their admiration of their own philosophy, their confidence in human reason as the great judge of truth, and the prevalence of their animal passions, had rendered them in a considerable measure incapableof understanding and relishing spiritual things. He had therefore given them milk and not meat, because they were not then able to bear meat; neither were they yet able to bear it, 1 Corinthians 3:2.—That the Corinthians were still fleshly, was evident from the strifes and divisions which were among them, on account of the particular teachers to whom they had attached themselves, 1 Corinthians 3:3.—For one said, I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, 1 Corinthians 3:4. From this we learn, that there were two principal factions in the church at Corinth, the one of which adhered to St. Paul, and the other to a person who is here called Apollos figuratively, to avoid giving offence, chap. 1 Corinthians 4:6 but who, in all probability, was the false teacher: that this teacher boasted of St. Peter, by whom he was converted and baptized, as an apostle superior to St. Paul; and he and his followers, being the disciples of St. Peter, pretended that they were much better instructed than the disciples of St. Paul; and that they possessed superior authority and respect on that account.—But in thus ascribing to one Apostle more honour than to another, and in attaching themselves more to one than to another, the Corinthians were much to blame. For none of their teachers were masters. They were all but servants employed by Christ to convert men. And their success in the work depended, not on themselves, but on the gifts which Christ had bestowed on each of them, and the blessing with which he accompanied their labours, 1 Corinthians 3:5.—Farther, he told them, that in converting the world, the ministers of Christ had different parts assigned them. He had planted, and Apollos had watered, but God made what they had planted and watered to grow, 1 Corinthians 3:6.—So that the whole depended on the co-operation and blessing of God, 1 Corinthians 3:7.—But though the ministers of Christ had different parts allotted to them, he assured them they were all one, in respect of the end for which they laboured; and that each shall be rewarded, according to the sincerity and diligence with which he has laboured, 1 Corinthians 3:8.—The Apostles, therefore, and the other ministers of the word, were joint labourers employed by God; and the people were God's field, whichthey were to cultivate, and God's building, which they were torear, 1 Corinthians 3:9. The building of which the Apostle speaks, is the Christian church, called 1 Corinthians 3:16 and in other passages, the Temple of God; because the Christian church, consisting of all who believe in Christ, was formed for preserving the knowledge and worship of God in the world, and to be an habitation of the Spirit of God, by the graces and virtues, which were to be exercised in it.

Having mentioned God's building, or temple, the Apostle told the Corinthians, that, as a skilful architect, he had laid the foundation of that temple in a proper manner at Corinth; and that the false teacher had only builded thereon. But he desired every one to take heed to the materials with which he builded, that they might be suitable to the foundation, 1 Corinthians 3:10.—Because other foundation of the temple of God, neither Apostle nor inferior teacher could lay, than that which he had laid, namely, that Jesus is the Christ, 1 Corinthians 3:11.—If, therefore, any teacher built on that foundation sincere converts, metaphorically represented by gold, silver, and precious stones; or if he built hypocritical professors thereon, represented by wood, hay, and stubble, he told them, the fire of persecution, which was ready to fall on the temple or church of God, would discover the nature of every teacher's work, 1 Corinthians 3:12.—If any teacher's converts remained steadfast in the day of persecution, through the pains he had taken under the grace of God in instructing them, he should be rewarded, 1 Corinthians 3:14.—But if anyteacher's converts apostatized, they should perish, but the teacher himself would be saved with difficulty; provided, in making such converts, he had preached the gospel sincerely, 1 Corinthians 3:15.—And, that the Corinthians might understand what the building was of which he spake, he told them, they themselves, as a church, were the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelt in them, as a church, 1 Corinthians 3:16.—If, therefore, any teacher wilfully spoils the temple of God, by building wicked men into it, that is, if by knowingly misrepresenting the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel, and by flattering wicked men in their sins, he allures them to enter into the Christian church, as the false teacher at Corinth had done, him will God destroy: for the temple of God ought to be composed of holy persons, 1 Corinthians 3:17.—And although the teacher, who thus builds wicked men into the church, may think himself wise in so doing, he but deceives himself; and to become truly wise, it behoves him to follow the course which the world esteems foolish: he must preach the gospel sincerely, whatever inconveniences it may occasion to himself or to others, 1 Corinthians 3:18.—For the wisdom of the world is folly in the sight of God: according to what is written, He catcheth the wise, &c, 1 Corinthians 3:19.—The work of the false teacher, in building the temple of God at Corinth, being of the sort here described and condemned, this passage was a severe rebuke, both to him and to his adherents. Wherefore, to lead them to apply it to themselves, the Apostle exhorted them, not to boast in any teacher, as if he belonged to them in particular. All the teachers, and all the blessings of the Gospel, belong to believers in general; and believers belong all to Christ as his disciples; which is a real ground of boasting, because Christ belongs to God, 1 Corinthians 3:21. Having therefore Christ for their common Master, and being all equally entitled to the benefit of the labours of the ministers of Christ, and to the privileges of the Gospel, it was wrong to contend one with another, either about their teachers, or their privile