1 Corinthians 3:1-23

1. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

Their spiritual part had not grown strong, their old carnal nature still had the preponderance, as Paul was obliged to address that which was the bigger half of them.

1 Corinthians 3:2. I have fed you with milk,

That is a blessing.

1 Corinthians 3:2. And not with meat:

That is not a blessing. It is a great privilege to be fed even with the simple doctrines of grace, with the milk of the gospel; but it is a higher boon to have such a spiritual constitution as to be able to eat the strong meat of the Word.

1 Corinthians 3:2. For hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

As ordinary, unregenerate men.

1 Corinthians 3:4. For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Is not this just how common, ordinary men would do? Where is your spiritual-mindedness if you so act?

1 Corinthians 3:5. Who then is Paul,

Mark, it is Paul himself who asks this question. He puts his own name here in order to show that he does not despise Apollos any more than he despises himself.

1 Corinthians 3:5. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that waterereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry.

Ye are God's tilled ground. Then the apostle works out the same thought under another image turning from agriculture to architecture.

1 Corinthians 3:9. Ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.

Paul began the churches; he was the first preacher of the gospel in Corinth, and also in other places; and other preachers followed in his footsteps. When a man lays a good foundation, he always feels anxious that those who come after him should build in the same substantial manner as he has begun. It is a great grief to a man if he sees that, after he her laid a foundation of truth, somebody else follows, and builds up an error on the top of it. Alas, men do that still sometimes.

1 Corinthians 3:10. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

If he be a good man, he builds for God; though he may build mistakenly, and say much that he ought not to have said. He shall escape, as a man flies out of a burning house, but all his work is gone. What a dreadful thing that would be, at the end of life, to get into heaven, but to have seen that all your life's work had been a failure; to have been building a great deal, but to see it all burned; or to know, as you die, that because it was not God's truth, it would all be burned!

1 Corinthians 3:16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroy the temple of God,

For so it should run,

1 Corinthians 3:17. Him shall God destroy;

If any man should pull down that which Paul built for God, if any man shall pull down that which any faithful minister of Christ has built before him,

«him shall God destroy;»

1 Corinthians 3:17. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

For that kind of folly is the doorstep of true wisdom.

1 Corinthians 3:19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

All that which calls itself philosophy, and talks about its culture, and so on, is foolishness with God, just as much today as it was among the Greeks.

1 Corinthians 3:19. For it is written, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

They call themselves wise, but they shall all be taken in their own craftiness.

1 Corinthians 3:20. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men.

Men are poor things to glory in.

1 Corinthians 3:21 ; 1 Corinthians 3:23. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

Glory be to his holy name!