1 Corinthians 3:5-4:21 (Part 15a) Achieving Unity by Considering the Nature of Christian Service
I Corinthians 3:5-4:21 (Part 15) 11252018 [Sunday AM & PM]
Achieving unity by considering the nature of Christian service—3:5-4:21
• The worker is only a servant in the hands of God—3:5-9
o The issue is function not person—v. 5—“servant”
One who is an instrument
One who is assigned a position—“Lord gave”—what?
v Results—vv. 6-8
v You do not judge servants based on results
Service will be rewarded in harmony with quality—vv. 10-17
o The foundation of the church
The person who laid it
The one who completes it
The one who comprises it
o The superstructure of the church
The process of building
The quality of materials
The results of the building
o A warning to the church
When one does damage to the body, God takes it very seriously and is not passive.
• The worker must be assessed by God’s standards (not man’s)—vv. 18-21
o “Temple”—(v. 16)—not the believer’s individual body in this context (the individual indwelling is taught elsewhere)
o All three pronouns are plural (you all) and “temple” is singular
God is the one who gives results
• Principle—results are solely the work of God
• Conclusions . . .
o The worker is nothing
o God is everything
*They are one:--v. 8
• In nothingness
• In message
• In office (servants)
• In aim
Deception—it is the creation of a belief in one’s mind or in the mind another that is contrary to fact
• How can you deceive yourself?—mental dishonesty and fantasy (spiritual)—v. 18 (we are to be in control of our thought life)
• Deceived about what?—they aren’t seeing the absolute contrast between the church and the world—v. 18
Not individual believers judgment—vv. 10-17—why not?
• “Work” (v. 13)—singular with the article
• Literally—(vv. 13-14)—“the work of a man”
• “Each man” (v. 13)—taken in the context of v. 10—“wise master builder”—God given ability to teach
• “Another”—in the context it is another teacher (he is talking about teachers as builders)
• Who is the building?—the Corinthians church (v. 9)
• The issue is the quality of the work a teacher does in the body of Christ