A Spirit-Led People 1 Cor. 3:1-9

1. Unity in the Church is from the Spirit (vv.1-4)

A. Cutting away the bad spots

Paul introduces for us the reality of the flesh and Spirit in the life of a believer. He is talking to the church, those whom “have been called into the fellowship of his Son (1:9). Paul is not calling into question their conversion to Christ, but he is calling out the sin in their midst. Paul is highlighting for the church in Corinth and us today the spiritual battle of the Christian life.

As Christians, we are saved from our wages of sin that we committed against a holy God. Our Lord has disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them (Col 2:15). This means that Christ defeated the reign of sin and death in the world but its effects are lasting until Christ returns. Sin has lost its sting but not its influence over those saved. The Spirit has come upon the life of the believer, but the flesh still remains.

Paul calls the flesh in other places:

-the old self:

Romans 6:6 ESV

6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Paul teaches the Romans that their slavery to sin has been defeated. They can have victory over the temptation to sin but the temptation still resides in the old man, our flesh. That flesh will remain a constant nagging on our new life in Christ until He returns to make all things new. That victory on the cross defeated sin’s enslavement and it guarantees sin’s defeat on a daily and moment by moment basis.

Paul’s message to the Corinthian church is a rebuke of their disunity. Their divisions and factions, which emanated from the cultural ideologies and spilled into the membership at Corinth, was a mark of flesh living and not spirit-living. In other words, their factions were driven by the sinful flesh still present within them.

Paul states that he cannot “speak to them as spiritual people…but as infants in Christ.” Again they are in Christ, but acting like children because infants are not mature. This plays on their opinion of themselves that Paul earlier addressed in calling them “mature” which in fact they were immature spiritually because they failed to see the sinful division that existed among their congregation.

Paul uses the image of feeding them with milk, like a baby, instead of solid food like a maturing adolescent because they were not able to handle such things in their diet yet. In other words, Paul is saying, “you still have much to learn.”

The overall point in these verses is to expose their “strife” and “jealousy” as evil and reflective of rotten fleshly fruit of their old lives and not representative of the Spirit’s work in their new life in Christ.

When we live according to our flesh, we are dishonoring Christ and therefore being led astray in our sin! Paul mentions one major component of their disunity is the jealousy that they have that leads to their strife or division. Jealousy is translated from a GK word that means zeal or being zealous for something. Colin Brown defines zeal as “the intense and earnest efforts to reach a goal” withe positive side leading to enthusiasm and the negative leading to envy and jealousy. For Corinth, their jealousy was a worldly jealous that came from competition against one another in the church.

Church is not about competition but about complementarity in the body of Christ. We are brought together as one body and therefore any jealousy we have towards one another is really a dissatisfaction in what God has done for us. Jealousy comes from selfish discontentment.

Therefore Paul is calling out their sin and wants them to turn from it. With this challenge before us, we must consider ourselves and evaluate if we also have sin among us as a church. God will not bless a church that allows sin to remain among its midst. Oftentimes its hard to address such situations, but for the glory of God’s holiness and his Son’s work of redemption, we must deal with any sin that dwells in our hearts individually and corporately.

-This leads me to the action for believers- Fighting our Flesh as we live by the Spirit!

B. Fight the Flesh

Paul does not give them steps of positive obedience like he will do with other issues he addresses with the Corinthians. For example:

1 Corinthians 5:13 (ESV)

13... “Purge the evil person from among you.”

1 Corinthians 6:18 (ESV)

18 Flee from sexual immorality.

But we can derive the command from other verses of Scripture in relation to the fight we have with our fleshly sin.

Paul states in Eph 4:22-24 “22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Paul tells the Ephesians that we have to put off the old self. This requires an action of obedience for the believer…to fight the flesh by putting off or repenting of our sin. It literally means to de-robe or physically take off clothing. The old life and all its habits and customs and worldviews can easily creep back into our lives as we strive to live holy. The life of the believer is the consistent process of removing the old grave clothes that we wore when Christ rose us spiritually from the dead. We are no longer bound by those grave clothes, constricted and immovable. But they still need removing.

Paul states Put them off to the Ephesians and the Colossians and by rebuking the Corinthians, he likewise is calling them to this change.

Application: you and I have defeated sin all day long today. Maybe you overlooked an offense from your spouses mouth this morning. Or you showed patience instead of anger with your kid writing on the wall or talking sarcastically to you. Maybe you men turned your gaze away from a beautiful woman or ladies from a immodest article of clothing that would tempt your brothers to stumble. The point is that Christ has gained us the victory over the flesh when we rest in him and we live by the Spirit. We must be resolved to fight the flesh moment by moment, day by day, until Christ returns, knowing that He is our strength in our daily battle!

C. Be Led by the Spirit

Paul makes this distinction in our passage, that a believers we can be people of the flesh, giving into our sin, or people of the Spirit, being led by the Spirit through the word of God.

Paul uses this language in Galatians 5 in the famous passage re: the Spirit-controlled life. Turn with me.

Notice that Gal 5:16, 18, 25

Paul uses synonymous terminology that encpasulates a new life in Christ that is fighting the flesh. When one fights the flesh, he is ..

Walking in the spirit (16)

Being led by the Spirit (18)

Living by the Spirit (25)

In step with the spirit (25)

All of these commands are referring to a believer’s life that is engaged in Spirit-led activity that is centered, not on emotion or feeling, but on the word of God and a spirit of prayer. The idea of concurrent acts of the Spirit in us and the obedience of the believer works together so that one walks in the Spirit and fights the desires of the flesh.

**It is important here to state that genuine believers in Jesus Christ cannot remain in sin. Some might say that a wayward child, spouse or friend is just not “fighting their flesh.” I think a good picture of a true fight is that punches are being thrown by both opponents inwardly. What I mean is that a person fighting the flesh will reveal a heart that seeks holiness and might be struggling in weak moments, where they fall into sin.

But some, out of fear for the damnation of their loved ones, convince themselves that people who have turned their back fully on Christ, are just wayward and fighting the flesh. Those who reject Christ, turn from his word and his church, are satisfied in the world’s grasp are not fighting the flesh, they are of the flesh, controlled and happy in it. They are lost and we need to see them as such. Then and only then, will we do more than just invite them back to church. Instead, we will preach to them the only true message that saves-the gospel.

Unity is Spirit Led

So then, Paul is calling the Corinthians, once again to turn from their division and factions, and turn towards unity. Their sects of loyalty to Paul or Apollos was dishonoring Christ and his church. Paul writes in v 4,

1 Corinthians 3:4 ESV

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

The Spirit of God leads God’s people to be unified because God is unified as Father, Son and Spirit. There is unity in the Godhead that models unity in the church. God’s people should not collect themselves in cliques, or small group kingdoms that disassociate with the rest of the body. Being divided only cripples the purpose and work of the church from fulfilling its mission on this earth. Being led by the Spirit is being unified as a body.

So then, we have to fight our flesh when our desire might be isolate ourselves into sub groups in the church, thinking our small group bible study is better than the next. Or we have to fight the flesh when showing loyalty to one particular leader but not the other because we have more in common with them than the other elders. Or even divide generationally, not seeing the benefit that the younger generation can learn from the older, or the singles can learn from the married couples. There are many ways to divide in the church but unity is a fruit of the Spirit.

2. Humility is Spirit led(vv. 5-9)

Secondly, points out that not only is unity a fruit of the Spirit in the church, but so it humility among its leaders and its people.

1 Corinthians 3:5–9 ESV

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.

A. God’s Sovereignty Humbles Us

Paul calls these leaders in the Corinthian church including himself…servants that the Lord assigned. The GK word here is the same word we get for the DEACON in the church…it means servants. Paul and Apollos were not deacons in the formal sense, but they were servants that the Lord chose to us for his glory.

Paul’s attitude is one that we can all respect and emulate and that is one of humility. While the Corinthians were fighting with each other as to which leader in the church was best, the leaders themselves were calling a timeout and saying...”guys we are just servants of the Lord.” we don’t need those designated parking spots....give those to people who can’t walk very far. Notice how Paul interprets their work in Corinth....”as the Lord assigned to each.” That was just the assignment they were given. God could have sent another and gotten the same results.

This humility is spirit born and it comes from an understanding that God is the one glorying himself in his sovereign rule. When we think of God’s sovereignty, we think of him purposing and planning, ruling and reigning, bringing all things to pass according to His good pleasure. What Paul and Apollos accomplished, they accomplished only by the sovereign will of God.

Remember that God chose to use Paul, convert him from enemy of the church to champion of Christ. He caused Paul to be born again and eventually travel throughout that area preaching the gospel, making disciples and starting churches. He was guided by the Spirit and he ended up in Corinth, where he would encounter Aquila and Priscilla. There they would serve with Paul and accompany him to Ephesus. By God’s plan, Aquila and Priscilla encounter Apollos in Ephesus. They disciple this brother in the Lord and he ends us going to serve in Corinth after Paul. Both Paul and Apollos had a great impact in that city and both by God’s sovereign plan, did so that Christ would be glorified.

Notice also how Paul’s humility shines forth

“…I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”

This is an astonishing passage about way that God brings forth glory for his name and growth in his kingdom. Paul didn’t do it, Apollos didn’t do it, God gave the growth. Let this be our church growth strategy. We cannot win the masses and keep the masses with entertainment, fancy property, celebrity pastors. We might get them to come for that reason, but it doesn’t keep people around. Entertainment gets stale, buildings get old, celebrity pastors move on to new places.

But when Paul and Apollos trusted the Spirit and the word of God to have its effect, they preached and discipled and they left the results up the moving of King who sits on the throne. Its his kingdom and He will grow it when and how He see fit.

Daniel 4:34–35 (ESV)

34 ... I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; 35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

This humbles us church when we consider ourselves in light of God’s great work in this world. When we consider his majesty and his glory, we must ask, who are we? As David proclaimed, “what is man that you are mindful of him?”

God’s sovereignty humbles us and we come to understand that God reveals himself as a king does not need his creation, his subjects provide no power for him. He is transcendent and self-sufficient. This puts our life into perspective and therefore when He sends his Son, providing His Son’s life in exchange ours, we are humbled. When he looks on our sin, and passover our sin because He lays it on his Son, we are humbled. When we consider all that God has made and the infinite ways He could bring himself glory, we are humbled that we receive rescue in the manner that He chose to make his glory known to all of creation-through His Son.

B. Our Kingdom Participation Humbles Us

But secondly, consider how our participation in that work humbles us. God rules, He brings to pass all that he desires, but He chooses to use vessels like us, those he saved, those he rescued from the death and gave new life. It is a humbling thing to see God’s sovereignty but then reflect on our participation in service to HIm.

God gave the growth, but Paul and Apollos were gifted with the wisdom to teach and preach the mystery of the gospel. The Holy Spirit gives this insight, but not to everyone. It is a privilege to know God and to understand his word. To know his message is not to know the latest coupon code for 20% at Academy Sports. That might give you a slight advantage, but its not earth shattering.

Knowing the gospel is earth shattering. Being called to preach and teach the gospel to others is mind blowing and ego crushing. Who are Paul and Apollos that God would use them? The Corinthians have no reason to idolize these men because they are just men. They need to shift that worship onto Christ, the one who is worthy of our worship.

The pivotal moment in the life of the disciples is on the mountain, before Christ ascends to heaven. He gives this commission, passing the baton of his kingdom to them…

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Now the mission was passed to them… with the power of the Spirit coming upon them shortly to empower them to accomplish the task. These men, just 40 days before that, were running scared at Jesus’ crucifixion. Now they are being given the authority to carry the message of the kingdom. Man that is humbling moment!

That is our moment as well. We have been given that task and it should humble us in accepting the responsibility, being willing to put in the hard work in serving the Lord, knowing that God is glorified in our service.

Each one of us is a servant of the church, the Lord has assigned to us a specific task to expand and glorify his kingdom. That may lead a small group, host a prayer mtg, sponser a missionary, be a missionary oversees. Be humbled and be faithful to the task before us.

C. Our Eternal Reward Humbles Us

1 Corinthians 3:8 ESV

8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

By the mouth of the Holy Spirit, Paul mentions in v 8 what God’s servants need to hear…our reward awaits us in heaven. On earth, our reward may be little to none. Instead of financial gain, its loss. Instead of physical security, its persecution. Instead of respect, its scrutiny. Paul knew all too well those difficulties

2 Corinthians 11:23–28 ESV

23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

Those rewards then await us in the eternal kingdom. What we experience here on earth in small doses, we will enjoy fully in the presence of Christ. We find joy in the Scriptures as they teach of Christ but yet an unexplainable joy awaits us as we sit at his feet. We find contentment in the riches we are promised in Christ but it will be the coffers full of God’s love and grace that we will relish in beyond the scope of time itself. These things await those who labor until the end, who persevere until the end…even through difficult days before Christ’s return. You may die at the hands of persecution or cancer but Christ will greet you at the end stating

Matthew 25:23 (ESV)

23 ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

Conclusion

Unity and Humility are marks of the Spirit’s work in the church. As we see that fruit in His body, we know the Spirit has made such a thing sprout life. In the contrary, rotten fruit hanging from the vine is a sign of disease and death.