1 Corinthians 3
3
Laying a true foundation
1And yet, I myself, brethren, did not speak to you as spiritually minded beings, possessing the mind of Christ, but I spoke to you as to carnal men, still entangled in the mind of the flesh, and in Christ the merest babes, 2needing milk, not real meat. That was your condition. You were not able to receive what I might have told you. And that is still your state. 3The mind of the flesh works in you still. You are not spiritual, you are the human being, the human rent by division and strife, 4one of you saying that he is Paul’s disciple, another that he is Apollos’. 5-6That is not the divine unity, wherein Paul planted and Apollos watered, and wherein all life and growth is of God. What is Paul or Apollos? Servants of your faith, each one according to the task assigned by God. 7-9In this great oneness each receives the fulfilment and reward of his own function, sower and tiller all belong to one unity which is God’s field and harvest, or God’s building. In ourselves we are nothing. 10What if I, resembling a good and skilful architect, laid a foundation on which another is building? My function was an expression of God’s own grace imparted to me, and all the building similarly is of God, its parts expressing the grace which He confers. 11If a man misapply his own mission, and attempt to lay a foundation other than that already laid which is Christ Jesus, let him be sure he will receive the appropriate reward for such a corruption and reversal of the grace God gave him. 12Or if, instead of building on this foundation gold and silver and costly marble and stone, he build wood, thatch, straw, 13he shall certainly receive the appropriate reward of this faithlessness. The fire will burn up his work. 14-15The great day of truth will dawn, and reveal his faithless evil work, and the havoc he has made of the Church. It will all be destroyed, all pass away, yet shall he himself thereby be saved. 16For this is God’s temple, God’s building, the Spirit of God dwells here, 17and you yourselves are the one building of God, and therefore not one shall perish though the evil doer reap his own destruction.
Self-deception to be guarded against
18Cleverness and the wisdom of the world are not sufficient for these things. Thereby you may become self-deceived. 19And if one must become a fool in order to be wise, this is the wisest course, for the world’s wisest is a species of folly. “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness” (Job v. 13.). 20“The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity” (Ps. 94:11.). 21There is nothing in merely human wisdom, and why? because you already have the wisdom that includes all, 22that includes Paul, Apollos and Cephas, yes, and the world, life, death, the present and the future; 23it is yours because it and you are Christ’s, who is of God, and who therefore includes it all.
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Translated in 1916, published in 1937.
1 Corinthians 3
3
Fellow Servants of God
1#Ro 7:14; 1Co 2:14–15Brothers, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to worldly, even as to babes in Christ. 2#Jn 16:12; 1Pe 2:2I have fed you with milk and not with solid food. For to this day you were not able to endure it. Nor are you able now, 3#1Co 1:11; 11:18for you are still worldly. Since there is envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not worldly and behaving as mere men? 4#1Co 1:12For while one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not worldly?
5#2Co 6:4; 1Co 3:10Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one? 6#Ac 18:4–11; 1Co 9:1I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7#Gal 6:3So then neither is he who plants nor he who waters anything, but God who gives the increase. 8#Ps 62:12; Mt 16:27Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9#2Co 6:1; Eph 2:20–22For we are laborers together with God: You are God’s vineyard; you are God’s building.
10#Ro 12:3; 15:20According to the grace of God which has been given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, but another builds on it. Now let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11#Eph 2:20; Isa 28:16; Mt 16:18For no one can lay another foundation than that which was laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or stubble, 13#1Co 4:5; 2Th 1:7–10each one’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. 14#1Co 3:8; 4:5If anyone’s work which he has built on the foundation endures, he will receive a reward. 15#Jude 1:23If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss. But he himself will be saved, still going through the fire.
16#1Co 6:19; 2Co 6:16Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy. And you are His temple.
18#Isa 5:21; Gal 6:3Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise. 19#Job 5:13For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness,”#Job 5:13. 20#Ps 94:11and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”#Ps 94:11. 21#1Co 4:6; Ro 8:32Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: 22whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours, 23#2Co 10:7; Gal 3:29and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
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