1 Corinthians 3:1-15

The Gospel message does not require fancy words or long explanation

The Holy Spirit helps us to know the mind of God

The Gospel seems foolish to a natural way of thinking

1 Corinthians 3:1–15 ESV

1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. 10 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. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Appropriate Spiritual Diet 1-4

In the beginning of our walk with Christ we are like babies.

For healthy growth babies must be fed MILK

Basic stories of Scripture and the work of Jesus

As we grow our diet grows: Trinity, Prophecies fulfilled in Jesus, Apologetics

4— Be careful about placing any teacher above the AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE

Paul used language to describe the Corinthians as behaving like slaves to human masters

God gives the Growth 5-9

Your Biblical teachers are ONLY servants

Be watchful for those that think of themselves as more

As Christ-Followers,

sometimes we will PLANT the seeds of the Gospel message

Sometimes we will WATER the seeds of the Gospel message

Sometimes we will be there at the REAPING of the Gospel message

But, God is the one who PROVIDES the GROWTH

We are simply workers in God’s field

Each Christ-Follower is a block in the building with Jesus being the Cornerstone(Eph. 2:20)

Only One Foundation 10-15

Someone has laid the foundation of the Gospel in your life, and others have built upon it.

That foundation MUST be Jesus Christ, and Him crucified

12-15—These are NOT WORKS FOR SALVATION, but works done AFTER Salvation

In the context of Paul’s conversation the REWARD is a life filled with believers and Disciples that come as a result of PLANTING and WATERING the FOUNDATION of the Gospel Message, and the whole of Scripture.

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 2:8–9 “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”