1 Corinthians 3 - The Danger of Destroying God's Church

This morning we are going to pick back up in 1 Corinthians Chapter 3. Last week we didn’t get to cover it in as much detail as we wanted so we decided to take one more week to work through chapter 3 in more detail.

To set the stage, remember the Apostle Paul is writing this letter to the church at Corinth. He has gotten word that the church is is full of all kinds of sin which we will see unpacked as we walk through the rest of the letter.

However, in chapters 1-3 he is primarily dealing with one primary sin, or issue.

Does anyone remember what that issue is?

Division, the church at Corinth is being disrupted and divided, because members of the church have began to follow after individual teachers, instead of being united in their devotion to the Master Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ!

If you remember in light of this issue in

1 Corinthians 1:11 ESV

For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.

He calls for the church to

I. Pursue Unity

1 Corinthians 1:10 ESV

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

The primary way he calls for the church to pursue unity it through,

II. Preaching Christ Crucified.

1 Corinthians 2:1–2 ESV

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

This then brings us to chapter three, where Paul ultimately provides the church,

II. Protection Against Deception 3:1-23

Notice what Paul writes in verse 18

Corinthians 3:18 ESV Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

Do you see what he does, he say in the midst of all of this division among the church, amidst all of you dividing over different teachers, you are deceiving yourselves because you think that you and your favorite teacher are wiser than the others. You think more highly of yourself and your teacher than others. You are being foolish, and apart from becoming a fool to the world, recognizing that you are not as wise as you think you are you will learn the hard way.

What Paul does is in chapter 3 leading up to this verse is explain to the Corinthians the foolishness with which they are acting. He wants them to see why their division is folly both Scripturally and logically.

Paul does this by laying out a 3 analogies that offer a threefold means of protection against deception.

First he provides a,

A. Proper Understanding of God’s Field (3:1-9)

Paul lays out the problem again in,

​1 Corinthians 3:1–4 ESV But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 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? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

First, Paul reminds them of their brotherhood in Christ, again. He builds them up to prepare them for the coming rebuke. Remember, when Paul and the other missionaries had began the work of church planting in Corinth these men and women were being saved out of lives of depravity, lives full of debauchery. So in the early days, Paul and the other teachers had to focus on the core doctrines of the faith, on the gospel of Jesus Christ. They were still coming to the realization that

They were sinners in need of salvation

Christ was the only means of their salvation

Christ had to be put to death to atone for their sins

Christ rose again in order to defeat the enemies of sin, death, and the grave.

They were now new creatures in Christ, regenerated by the Spirit of God

They didn’t yet have the full counsel of God that we had.

They didn’t have a fully developed ecclessiology yet.

They were still deceived by their own indwelling sin.

Do you see how this could turn into fractures, schisms, and division?

Paul then, reminds them they are a bunch of babies....

He writes, I cannot address you as spiritual, mature, wise men of God. You are still on the bottle, because you have not been able to handle the meat of the truth. There is still jealousy and strife among you. He reminds them again they are all following men and not the Man!

Since they had yet to understand the meatier doctrines they were still living in the flesh, feeding their own desires, not devoting themselves to the Word of God. Or as Paul tells the Romans they were walking in the flesh not in the Spirit.

And what was the result?

1 Corinthians 3:3 ESV

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?

Here is what I want us see about Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we know there are some serious sins coming up in chapters 5, 6, and following.

But before Paul brings the hammer on sexual sin and even abusing the Lord’s table he addresses their immaturity, their jealousy, and their strife within the body. Now I am not saying these sins are worse than what we will ready about in chapter 5, but Paul sees this division in the church as dangerous and what we will see later as bring damnation on those who would refuse to repent.

How did the immature following after the flesh play out.

1 Corinthians 3:4 ESV

For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

Paul says, when you follow after these individual teachers, your are acting according to human wisdom not the wisdom of God. You are failing to see how our common confession, our justification, and adoption through Christ has united you as a body, as a family.

Therefore quit fighting with your family! You are brothers and sisters in Christ.

Next, Paul begins to flesh out the foolishness of the churches falling into the trap of uniting to the servants of Christ, not the Suffering Servant himself.

​1 Corinthians 3:5–9 ESV What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

Paul says, we are all just sharecroppers in God’s fields All we are doing is what he assigned to us. I, Paul planted the seed.

Paul came in and scattered the seed of the gospel. He was the sower of the seed. But all he can do is sling the seed out their he cannot make it take root.

Any of you that have ever done any farming understand this. You get the dirt ready, you plow, harrow, lay off your rows then drop your seed in. It doesn’t matter if you hand plant, us a two row planter, or a 12 row planter once the seed is in the ground the farmer can only do one thing, and this is what?

WAIT. Wait on God to cause the seed to germinate and sprout. There are times you may get a 90-100% stand, there are times you may get a 40-50% stand but there is nothing you can do about it once the seed is in the dirt.

Paul goes on to flesh out this analogy.

Apollos watered. Now, sometimes you plant and as soon as you get out of the field God sends the rain, and sets the seed and within just a few days you see the seed sprout and take off. But some times a dry spell comes and you have to roll out the irrigation to get the seeds enough water to sprout. Or the seeds may sprout and come up and it turns off dry and you need some means of watering the seed to keep the plan healthy and make sure they are able to produce the fruit needed. However, even in that the on watering is not responsible for the production of the fruit. All they are doing is what a good diligent farmer can do to be a good steward of the field God his given them.

Let me give you a reverse illustration of this concept.

Back a few years ago, my Dad was planting green beans with a few farmers. The way they managed this operation is they would plant 12 acres a day in a rotation so that when the harvesters came up from south Florida they could pick 12 acres a day and process the beans in the same order.

One year my 12 acres of Dad’s beans were in line to pick the next day. They had planted them right, watered them right, and everything was right on track. However, God sent a rain that night and caused the beans to grow an extra 1” or 2 and the next morning the harvesters said the beans were to long for the fresh market and they were left in the field. All of the work the farmers did was still overcome by the work of God. Now I don’t know the purpose God had in that, but I do know that was the last year my Dad planted fresh market green beans...

This is why Paul reminds the Corinthians,

We are nothing but God’s servants,

God is the one who provided the seed, the field, and the fruit. God is the one who gives the growth, don’t get caught up following us!

God is the Landlord,

God is the Farmer the provides the Fruit

God is also the Master over the servants of the field.

Paul explains, the planter and waterer are nothing it is God who deserves the glory for the good fruit produced in the field, follow Him!

You are God’s field. You are the land in which God has given us the seed to plant, you are the field which Apollos was assigned to stay and water. You are the field which God will fill with spiritual fruits and vegetables.Paul moves from the analogy of God’s field to the analogy of God’s building. And if the church wants to protect herself from deception and division she must have,

B. Proper Understanding of God’s Building. (3:9-15)

​1 Corinthians 3:9 ESVFor we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

Paul close verse 9 proclaiming the church is the building of God. Not only are we to learn how God is responsible for the fruit in His field, he is also the foundation of His own building.

​1 Corinthians 3:10–11 ESV 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. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Paul say’s I came to you and I laid the ground work, I laid the foundation, I poured the slab that the entire building rests on. The foundation that squares and supports the church. This foundation is who? Jesus Christ. He is the one who is the strength and surety of God’s building the rest of us are just general contractors. We have just been sent to do what God has called us to do. To proclaim the wisdom of God, by the Spirit of God, which is salvation through the Son of God!He then goes on to remind them, he has left them to keep the building project going. But they are to remember, they best build out of the best materials. They better not go cheap on what they build onto the foundation of Jesus Christ.

​1 Corinthians 3:12–15 ESV Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 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. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

He reminds the Corinthians, there is a Day coming where God’s building will be put through fire. Whatever you have built upon the foundation with will be exposed. If you build with worthy material it will withstand the fire, if you build with junk the fire will consume your work. You will then be left standing there covered with the smell of smoke and covered in smut. You will see the folly of your ways and the foolishness of your faulty building materials. Although you yourself will be saved. There is hope in this text, those who are part of God’s building will not be cast aside as long as they are built on the foundation of Christ, but the work they have spent their life engaged in will be burnt up if it is not built on biblical material, that points people to salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone!Paul has used the analogy of God’s field, God’s building, and now in verse 16 he turns to God’s temple. Paul again wants the church to have a,

C. Proper Understanding of God’s Temple. (3:16-23)

Notice how he opens verse 16,

​1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

Here Paul brings out the the analogy or the truth that the people, the church, is the temple of God.

What was the significance of the Temple in the OT? It was were the presence of God dwelled! Here Paul is saying you are as members of the church the place where God dwells.

Do you not know? - used 10 times in the letter of 1 Corinthians.

He goes on to explain, that God’s spirit dwells in you?

Leon Morris writes,

1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary 2. The Temple of God (3:16–17)

The Spirit is God as he dwells in his church. The words are sometimes applied to the individual believer, but the thought is rather that the whole community of believers is God’s shrine. Temple is singular, but you is plural; the reference is to the church (the individual is also God’s temple, as we see from 6:19, but that is not the thought here)

1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

Here is the point, the Spirit of God dwells in the church as a whole, and in us as individuals. Therefore, how foolish is it that we are ever divided over things of the flesh. There are things that we should divide over doctrinally. In other words, their are core doctrines of the faith, that mus not be compromised. But, when it comes to matters of conscience or matters of preference we must think of others more highly than ourselves and not put these things in an improper place of importance.

Do you think when the church was acting in the flesh, fighting over teachers, causing schism amongst themselves they were considering the fact that the Holy Spirit of God resided in them?

John Trapp writes: Next to the love of Christ indwelling our nature, we may wonder at the love of the Holy Ghost who dwells in our defiled souls. Let our care be to wash the pavement of this temple with our tears, to sweep it by repentance, to beautify it with holiness, to perfume it with prayers, to deck it with humility, to hang it with sincerity. The Spirit of God is a delicate being. The Holy Ghost will dwell in a poor, but pure house. COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3:16

Do you hear the rebuke in Paul’s question. Remember how we got here. You have divided over teachers, you are hindered from meaty teaching, you are dividing God’s people.Do you not know that you are God’s people and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

As R.C. Sproul has said, What is wrong with your people?

Don’t you hear Paul saying the same thing. Don’t you know who God is?

Don’t you know who you are?

And you are going to divide the church over your fallible favoritism?????

Look at,

​1 Corinthians 3:17 ESV If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

This may be one of the most frightening verses in all of Scripture. But I bet it is one that not many of us think of often. God loves His church so much he will do whatever it takes to maintain it’s unity, integrity, and purity.

Therefore if anyone acts or speaks in a manner which brings harm or hurt to God’s church, He will crush them...

Here is how reformer Tilemann Hesshus explained this verse,

1 Corinthians: New Testament, Volume 9a 3:16–17 The Temple of God

Here Paul adds a very serious threat that should strongly motivate us to guard against disrupting the church with our scandals and disputes. If anyone, in his wickedness, were to harm violently the palace of a great prince or emperor, he would be punished with the severest of punishments. In a similar fashion, know that God will punish most severely those who profane the most holy temple of the eternal God. Human beings can only kill the body; they cannot kill the soul. But God, when he has decided to damn a human being, hurls both body and soul into the eternal fire. This most serious punishment of all should motivate all pious people not to disturb the church. EXPLICATION OF 1 CORINTHIANS 3:17.

Do you really want to be the one tearing God’s temple apart? Do you want to be the one causing division is God’s church? He will destroy you!

​1 Corinthians 3:18–20 ESVLet no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”

Don’t be a fool, God will not be mocked. You are not as wise as you think you are and God will reveal that to you. He will show you your foolish ways. Paul closes chapter three where he started this section. This I believe is why MacArthur grouped this large text together in one lesson, because he starts with the issue in

​1 Corinthians 1:10–13 ESV I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Then he closes the section in verse 21-21

​1 Corinthians 3:21–23 ESVSo let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Are there any additional reflections or questions you noted at the end of your study guide this week?