Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro:
Transition:
Context:
READ
The text assumes three things about believers in Christ.
First, we are God’s holy temple, built on the foundation of Christ’s work, and filled with God’s Spirit (3:9–11, 16–17).
Second, we are still capable of profound spiritual immaturity, and of living like “people of the flesh” (3:1–4).
Third, because the Spirit is at work in us (2:14–15), we are capable of responding with repentance when confronted with our sin.
Because of these truths, we neither deny our sin nor despair when it is revealed.
Instead, knowing that we belong to Christ (3:23), we are free to take both sin and repentance seriously.
(3) ability for faithful labor comes from our new identity as “God’s temple” (3:16).
The foundation of the church was not the church leaders but Jesus Christ.
Each person builds on this foundation.
What is built may be something valuable or something worthless.
Final evaluation of the value of one’s work will be revealed at the day of judgment.
Paul explained the condition for rewards (3:10–17) with appropriate warnings for leaders and followers (3:18–23).
Corporate identity
Manifest presence of God v.16-17
(Talk about ways God would make His presence known in the OT then through Jesus now the church)… you/we are the church.
LEADERSHIP LESSON: To everyone it impacts no one… We each have to take ownership of this… church is not merely an organization...
COMMENTARY BELOW:
Jesus had referred to His physical body as a temple ().
In another letter Paul applied the same imagery to Christ’s spiritual body, the universal church ().
Paul also called the body of each individual Christian a temple ().
In this passage, however, it was the local church which he described as a building of God, a temple in which God’s Spirit lives (3:16).
Lowery, D. K. (1985). 1 Corinthians.
In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.),
The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol.
2, p. 511).
Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
3:16–17.
However, a local church (you here is pl.) might come to the point where its structure is so weak that it collapses entirely or exists in name only, that is, it is destroyed.
Paul did not want this to happen in Corinth (2 Cor.
11:3, 13).
If it did, the false minister would be paid back in kind by God Himself (an application of the OT lex talionis [Gen.
9:6; cf. 2 Cor.
11:15]).
The destroyer would be destroyed (Matt.
13:41–42).
The words Don’t you know (1 Cor.
3:16) are the first of 10 occurrences of the clause in this letter (cf.
5:6; 6:2–3, 9, 15–16, 19; 9:13, 24; each time it introduces an indisputable statement).
3:16 Don’t you know.
Implies that the Corinthians had been taught this already.
God’s temple.
The “building” (v.
9) that the church represents; the place where God is present ().
dwells.
God’s Spirit mediates God’s presence.
Here Paul speaks of the community of Corinthian Christians as God’s temple; in 6:19 he speaks of the individual Christian as a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Moo, D. J. (2015).
The Letters and Revelation.
In D. A. Carson (Ed.), NIV Zondervan Study Bible: Built on the Truth of Scripture and Centered on the Gospel Message (p.
2333).
Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
3:16, 17 Here is a severe warning to any who would try to interfere with or destroy the building of the church on the foundation of Christ.
See notes on Matt.
18:6, 7.
3:18, 19a deceive himself.
See notes on 1:18–25.
Those who defile the church and think they can succeed in destroying it by their human wisdom, would be far better to reject that wisdom and accept the foolishness of Christ’s cross.
The church is God’s temple, and the image applies because “God’s Spirit lives in you.”
Jesus associated the temple with his body (John 2:19–21), and Paul refers to the church as the “body of Christ,” which is constituted by the Spirit (1 Cor 12:12–13, 27).
The reference to the Spirit in 3:16–17 continues what has already been emphasized from 2:4, 6–16 and prepares for further teaching on the Spirit in relation to the church in 6:12–20; 12:1–14:40; and 15:42–49.
Paul is discussing the building of the local church, the temple of God.
(In 1 Cor.
6:19–20 the individual believer is God’s temple; but here it is the local assembly that is in view.
In Eph.
2:19–22, the whole church is compared to a temple of God.) Paul points out that one day God will judge our labors as related to the local assembly.
“The fire will test the quality of each man’s work” (1 Cor.
3:13, NIV).
Paul challenges the church with the fact that they together (note the plural constructions) are the spiritual temple of God, because the Spirit of God dwells in them (Eph 2:22; 1 Peter 2:5).
Therefore anyone who builds this temple in a shoddy way deserves the destruction of his doctrine and false testimony described in v. 15.
Implicit in this is a warning against any false teachers coming in among the believers.
More pointedly, Paul states (v.
17) that anyone who actually destroys or tends to destroy (i.e., defile or damage) God’s temple will be destroyed by God (cf.
Lev 15:31).
The reason is clear: God’s temple is holy, sacred, set apart (Isa 28:16; Rev 3:12).
God in his justice and holiness cannot allow part of his holy work to be damaged without bringing retribution.
Here is a fitting warning to every Christian minister and worker.
All the “you’s” of these two verses are plural; corporately these Christians form one temple.
“In you” at the end of verse 16 would be better translated “among you.”
Just as Jewish and pagan temples were believed to be the dwelling place of God (or the gods), so also the Christian fellowship is the special place of the Spirit’s presence.
That is why the threat of verse 17a is so harsh.
Here Paul warns against any who would try to destroy the church.
These are clearly different people (potentially some of the patrons or local leaders of the Corinthian factions) from those who used poor building materials in the previous paragraph.
Here people are trying to tear down the structure!
Understandably, God’s response will significantly differ as well: he “will destroy” (i.e., eternally condemn) them.
2. Owner of All Things v.18-23
3:23 Christ’s … God’s.
Knowing that believers belong to Christ and therefore to each other is the greatest incentive for unity in the church (6:17; John 9:9, 10, 21–23; Phil.
2:1–4).
The conclusion of the matter is that no Christian is to boast or glory in the wisdom and attainments of men—not even Paul or Apollos.
We are not to put our trust in anything human.
The reason is that all things—yes, all the blessings of God in the whole universe—belong to the redeemed church.
So the ministry of Paul, Apollos, Cephas (Peter), and any other Christian worker belongs to God’s people.
Also the kosmos (the world itself), the processes of living and dying, the present and the future—all are to be viewed in relationship to God’s purposes and plans for his redeemed people.
So Paul can say, “All things are yours.”
Everything is for the believers’ benefit, everything belongs to them.
23 “And you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.”
Though all things belong to the Christian, they are not centered in him, for all things actually and finally belong to God.
They belong to the Christian, then, as he himself belongs to God through the mediatorship of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Christ and the Father are one John 1:1; 10:30), yet Christ was sent by the Father into the world (John 10:36; 17:18) to effect our redemption so that we may “inherit the kingdom” (James 2:5).
3. Trusted by God 4:1-5
The key criterion in evaluating stewards.
Stewards must be faithful to the gospel of Jesus, the crucified Messiah and Savior (1:18–2:5; 3:10–11).
4:1.
“Stewards” (“those entrusted”—NIV) were often servants, as here, or freedmen.
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