1 Corinthians 3: 1 – 23
You big babies
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. 18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”; 20 and again, “The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 21 Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. 23 And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
In case you have never been to the City of Brotherly Shove, I mean ‘Brotherly Love’, let me give you some pointers. For one thing when you approach someone and want to give a greeting, just nod you head and say, ‘How U Doin.’ In response you say, ‘how U [emphasis on the U] doin’. Under no circumstances do you try to tell the Philly person how you are really doing. They will know that you are an out of Towner. In addition, if you look at someone and they respond, ‘Who you looking at?’ Do not say ‘nothing’. Them are fighting words. Just nod your head, smile and say ‘how U doin’ and move along your business.
In today’s study we are going to learn from the apostle Paul of his observation of the Corinthians in their Christian walk. Unfortunately, their present behavior shows a sign of their immaturity. For the objects of their devotion, the leaders and teachers are but instruments of God. Their eyes are fixed in the wrong place. So, a Philly way for Paul to comment to these Corinthians is to say, ‘Hey, who you looking at?’
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
As we have learned in the previous chapters, Paul has stressed the spiritual nature of the Gospel and the men who truly preached it, and of those who are united with Christ. So now he now turns to the Corinthians themselves and presents his diagnosis of their condition. They probably boasted that they were ‘spiritual’ because of their manifestations of ‘spiritual gifts’ as we glean from chapter 14. He informs them that they are not in fact revealing themselves to be spiritual at all, but to be ‘fleshly’. This latter is not quite the same as the ‘natural man’, but only one step from it. We are taught from Paul’s letter in Galatians chapter 5.16-17 that the fleshly man has the Spirit but yields to the flesh, rather than being devoid of the Spirit, “say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
Nevertheless, the difference is significant. He can still say to them, ‘you are a Temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you’ which Paul says in verse 16.
To be spiritual means to be illuminated by the Spirit, to have an understanding of the wisdom of God in His divine activity, to be concentrating on the crucified and risen Christ, and responding to Him, and, as we have seen in the previous chapter, to be able to judge all things, and not to be judged by any. But Paul can see none of this in the Corinthians. He cannot address them as ‘spiritual’. He sees them as being deficient in this important condition.
I refer again back to chapter 2 verse 14 which says, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”. This verse refers to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as ‘the Spiritual One’, and their relationship with Christ is such that they are not drawing on Him, not walking in the Spirit but walking in the flesh which Paul goes on to elaborate in Galatians 5.16-19, “16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness.”
Thus the Corinthian’s are not drawing on our Lord Jesus’ spirituality which they have in Him. We can understand why he can say that they are not ‘spiritual’. They are not making use of the spirituality that they have in Christ, therefore they are not ‘spiritual’, and he cannot speak to them as though they were.
The Corinthians seemingly could not, or would not, receive such spiritual truths for they were like ‘babes. In Paul the word ‘babes’ does not mean what many mean today when they speak of ‘babes in Christ’ but always indicates those who lack the fullness of a position in Christ. In Romans 2.20 it parallels ‘the foolish’, those not having the full truth. In 13.11 it speaks of when Paul himself was a ‘babe’, believing childish things, prior to achieving adulthood. In Galatians 4.1, 3 it describes those still under the Law and under the elements of the world. In Ephesians 4.14 it speaks of those carried around on any wind of doctrine, deceived by crafty men after the wiles of error. And yet here he can speak of them as being ‘in Christ’. They are thus a contradiction in terms. They are those who have the Spirit and yet are muddled as to the truth. It possibly suggests that he is holding his verdict on them somewhat in the balance. They are not ‘natural men’ but they certainly seem to think like it. And yet they have believed.
They had been ‘fleshly’, wrapped up in themselves and their own wants. And the trouble was that they did not seem to be emerging from their condition. Rather it was getting worse. They were still fleshly, too wrapped up in their jealousies and constant bitter arguments to fully appreciate the truth of the cross. They were being controlled by the fleshly side of their nature and concentrating on personalities and their emphases and their different approaches to teaching, and on the outward trappings of their religious observations. And they were especially proud that they had been baptized by a influential ‘spiritual’ person. And this concentration meant that they were not looking at Christ, except possibly dimly and vaguely, but were taken up with concentrating their efforts on upholding, against all comers, their heroes, and what they taught in distinction from the others. They were thus not experiencing the word of the cross with its power. They were too taken up with strife and division on secondary matters. And because their link to the Spiritual One was weak their spirituality was low. They had not advanced their spiritual side, the spirituality that they had in Christ in the Spirit.
These adult ‘works of the flesh’ are described in Galatians 5.19-21, and they do not make pretty reading - Strife, jealousy, bad temper, divisiveness, behaving like children without self-control. And if they continue like this, they are warned, it will be testimony to the fact that they are not really God’s children, that they ‘will not inherit the kingdom of God’ (Galatians 5.22). Thus it is now time that they grew up and proved that they really are children of God, by revealing that they possess ‘the things that accompany salvation’ (Hebrews 6.9), the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, self-control, and that they have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5.22-24). What they must do is let Christ’s spirituality take over in their lives, and let the cross do its work.
Look again at the verse which Paul comments to the Corinthians ‘- as to fleshly, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with meat, for you were not able.’ This refers first to when he had previously known them, but it is then described as being still applicable. They had clearly not been fully receptive to true doctrine, to the full significance of the word of the cross. What they had received had been to them milk and not meat. Paul had not deliberately fed them milk. That was how it had turned out because of their fleshliness. This is not describing first principles taught to the new Christian. Paul would expect those to be taken as meat. It is describing what they actually received because of their inadequacy.
In addition, it may be that the Corinthians had in fact accused him of only giving them milk because he had not taught them ‘wisdom teaching’ and that he is being sarcastic. He could be pointing out that it was only because they were babes in their ability to receive doctrine that what he fed them had to be milk. Either way, the fault is theirs, and not because Paul chose to feed them only milk. For the fact seems to be that they were to be blameworthy even in this, as ‘fleshly’ demands.
‘No, even now you are not able.’ These still seemed not to be able to take what he taught as ‘meat’, the deep truths of the Gospel. They still would not fully receive the word of the cross. They did not learn from it to die to self and live to Christ (Galatians 2.20). They did not give the impression of abiding in the true vine (in Christ) and of producing Christ-like fruit (John 15.1-6). They were too concerned with other things, which showed that they were still controlled by ‘the flesh’ (human aims and desires, the feeding of the ego and the gratifying of the senses, the acceptance of teaching devoid of the Spirit), rather than with divine aims and ideas, with spiritual doctrine and to be part of Christ’s pure and mutually loving people. It may be that their spiritual gifts made them think that they were spiritual. Paul makes clear that that is not so. Having Christ’s spirituality would result in their being like Christ, and had they had that sufficiently they would not behave as they do.
‘For you are yet carnal.’ This is here defined in terms of human emotions and reactions, ‘jealousy and strife’. Their human side is on top and they are too concerned about earthly things, and this has led them to be jealous about such things and to fight among themselves as rivals, splitting up into different parties and fighting for personalities. They are behaving as though they were just ordinary people not affected by the word of the cross and its message and power, and not appreciative of it. They are behaving as though they were earthly and not heavenly. They walk after the manner of men who are devoid of the Spirit.
4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?
Instead of concentrating on learning about and knowing The Lord Jesus Christ, loving one another, pleasing God, and dying to themselves, they have taken sides supporting one or another particular approach to things, and to certain particular men, and have caused dissension on the basis of it.
‘Are you not men?’ That is, are you not behaving like mere men who have had no spiritual illumination.
“I am of Paul.” And another, “I am of Apollos”. The names of Paul and Apollos are given as examples to represent all who preach in Christ’s name (4.6). The point is that to lay too much emphasis on any man of God is wrong. They do not belong to Paul or Apollos. All are servants of the One on Whom attention should be set, that is, Christ. They belong to Christ (verse 23).
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
Elsewhere Paul will tell Christians that they must honor those who labor in preaching the Gospel and teaching the church the word of God (1 Timothy 5.17). But here he is concerned because too much emphasis is being placed on them to the detriment of the Corinthians. It is preventing them from concentrating on Christ. They are making too much of preachers, even good preachers, and their slants. So, he points out that different men play their part in ministering the Gospel and the word of God, but that any success is not theirs but God’s. Thus none are to be exalted. They only do what it is their duty (and privilege) to do (Luke 17.10).
‘Ministers through whom you believed, and each one as the Lord gave to him.’ He, Apollos and others (and it is probably mainly the others that he has in mind) are merely ‘diakonoi’. The word means servants, waiters at table, those who are there to help. Thus, they must not make much of themselves or attract attention to themselves but humbly carry out the task given to them by Christ. They only have the opportunity because the Lord gave it to them. They should be grateful and not seek prominence. And this how the Corinthians, and we, should see them (while at the same time giving them respect because of Whose servants they are. This does not encourage disdain, but true recognition of what they are).
‘I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.’ See Acts 18.1-11; 18.27-19.1. Paul first entered Corinth and preached in the synagogue. But due to the poor reception he received, although a number believed, including Crispus the ruler of that synagogue, he deserted the synagogue and began to preach in a private residence with great success, thus founding the church at Corinth. And he labored there for one and a half years ‘teaching the word of God among them’. But inevitably he had to move on. Then Apollos later came to Corinth and ‘helped them much who had believed through grace’ and powerfully used the Scriptures to show that Jesus was the Messiah (Acts 18.27-28). Thus, just as plants have to be planted and then watered and tended, so Paul planted, and Apollos watered and tended, each helping in establishing the church.
‘But’, says Paul, ‘it was not us who did it.’ The reason for the success was God’s activity. It was God who ‘went on giving the increase’. The sower sows the spiritual seed, and the gardener waters the spiritual plants. But it is God Who continually makes them grow and establishes them. Therefore the credit should go to Him and not to Paul and Apollos. We do not glorify the sower for sowing. We do not glorify the irrigator or the gardener for watering their seeds. They do what all do. It is to God then that the glory should go for the spiritual harvest.
7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
So while we must properly appreciate what ministers do, if they do it humbly and faithfully, we must remember, and they must remember, that they are merely earthly vessels. Sometimes their work will prosper, and sometimes it will seem to languish (although the seed grows secretly). It will all depend on God’s activity, without which their work is useless. And sometimes work will seem to prosper which is earthly work and not heavenly work at all. But anything worthwhile that comes out of it will be God’s work, not theirs. It will be accomplished through the word of the cross, not through the word of men.
Paul now puts all these teachers, including him, firmly in their place. They are but domestic servants whose responsibility is to point to the foundation Jesus Christ and to build on Him. Christ is all. Their works and teaching will one day be tested and either rewarded or dealt with as rubbish, but the foundation will endure forever, and that foundation is Christ.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
Paul continues his illustration and then changes it to a new illustration. He is dealing first with the illustration of agricultural work. Then he changes to the illustration of a building.
So Christians are first depicted as land prepared for the growth of crops. And men of God, if they are true men of God, labor on them, planting and watering. And they are all one in the work. Their aim is one, and their unity is one. Each will benefit individually according to how they labor. They work together as one, but as each is responsible individually, so each will be rewarded individually. For only God can see the heart. But the stress is also on the fact that they are only laborers in a small part of the field. It is Christ Who is central to it all. They are not of great importance, He is all important.
‘We are fellow-workers of God.’ ‘Of God’ may mean ‘who belong to God’, or ‘who act together as fellow-workers on God’s behalf’ or ‘as fellow-workers with God’. The point is that they work together under God’s management to fulfill God’s work. It is the prepared land and the building which are important, not the farmers and builders. But we may also see the point as being that both the fellow-workers and the cultivated land/building belong to God. They share the same level as being His possessions. It is both a glorious fact and a great leveler.
Then he changes his illustration to that of building, because he now wants to stress the centrality of Christ. ‘God’s building.’ The new illustration is necessary to bring Christ into the picture. The church of Corinth (and all churches) are seen as something being built. Initially therefore the following verses apply to Paul and Apollos and all those who labor like mindedly. But clearly in the final analysis they apply to all who work for God.
‘You are God’s cultivated land.’ God’s people are the cultivated, fruitful land. The workers are privileged to have been called to work on that land. They dig, plough, sow, and water. But it is God Who gives the increase. Without Him all their work would be in vain.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
Following up the illustration Paul sees himself as the wise master-builder. This is a reminder of the high position God has given him. He is not inferior to these other preachers some of whom make so much of themselves. The master builder was in overall control with many builders under him. By ‘wise’ he probably means expert and efficient while also having in mind his previous references to God’s wisdom. He ensures that he builds as a good master builder and builds in accordance with God’s true wisdom. Along with his helpers, for as a master builder he has others working with him, he has laid a sound foundation, and he intends to use sound materials. Then others (in this case including Apollos by name) build on it. Each is hopefully doing the work of God, and each has one purpose in mind, to work with the others in making the building the best that it can be for God.
‘According to the grace of God which was given to me.’ Paul reminds them of his special calling, while recognizing that it was all of God. He had been especially chosen as the master builder, and God had uniquely called him so that even the twelve Apostles had acknowledged his equality with them in taking the Gospel to the Gentiles. He was not arrogant at the thought of being a preacher, and especially of being a church founder; he was humbled by the thought. He recognizes what a great privilege it was. And he recognizes that he did not deserve it. In fact, he expresses the opposite in chapter 15.9). It was all of the unmerited favor of God freely bestowed on him, and what had been accomplished was also all His doing.
Paul also recognizes his continued dependence on that grace, ‘And not only so’, that unmerited favor of God for he knows that he can do nothing without it and hopefully others would do the same.
11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now comes the crux of the illustration - there is only one foundation. All centers on Christ. They all profess to be laboring for God but woe to anyone if they build on any other foundation - For there is no other. All who does God’s work properly must do so basing all they do on the one true foundation as Paul did, and that foundation is Jesus Christ! That is the foundation Paul initially laid for the Corinthian church by his preaching of the cross and the Crucified One. That is the only sound foundation that any man of God can lay for any church. There is no other. Thus the attention of all must primarily be on Jesus Christ.
Thus all of his fellow-preachers are, if they are true, to be united in looking to and building on that one foundation. Jesus Christ must be all. And the Corinthians themselves must be looking towards that Foundation, and resting on Him and not be gazing at the workers. For one day how they build will be tested. But the foundation will not need testing. The foundation is secure, permanent and true. Christ is beyond testing. He is the Truth.
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
Paul now moves on to consider building on the foundation that has been laid. Christ is the foundation. Christians are God’s building (verse 9). Now he comes to the adornment provide by the teachers. All who teach the word of God and the testimony of Jesus in any way must take heed of the materials that they use on the building .Their teaching, and all that they do, may be like gold, silver and costly stones, precious and valuable, surviving the test, precious, revealing the glory of. Or it may be like wood, hay and stubble, temporary materials which are burned up and finally fail the test. It may consist of the wisdom of God which stands permanent in all its glory like the great Temple in Jerusalem, bejeweled, splendid and permanent, or it may consist of the wisdom of men and be like the booths erected at the Feast of Tabernacles, temporary and fleeting.
We see here about how much Paul foresaw of the future. He foresaw the building up of churches on sound teaching which would produce flourishing and spiritual Christians, and which would thus prosper, and, sadly, he foresaw the building up of churches on unsound and fallacious teaching which would not produce satisfactory fruit, and would wither and die inwardly, even if they continued to appear fine outwardly, and he knows that they will one day be destroyed, and that the destruction of them will be great.
So everyone who teaches God’s word must beware how he teaches, for their teaching can consist of wisdom and understanding that is permanent, based on the One Who is the Wisdom of God, the true foundation, or it can be that which is only fit to be destroyed.
‘Each man’s work will be revealed for what it is, for the day will make it clear to us, because it is tested out in fire.’ ‘The day will make it clear to us.’ With daytime comes light. All is to be seen in the light of the Day, the great Day of the Lord when God Himself will act openly and when all will be shown to be what it is, both men’s teaching and their behavior and obedience
‘It is tested out in fire, and the fire will prove each man’s work of what sort it is.’ The fire will test all doctrine and wisdom that has been taught, and the lives and motives that lie behind them, and will either approve them or destroy them. There is no thought here of direct judgment on people. No person is strictly thought of as being destroyed or refined. It is the person’s work that is destroyed. The ‘fire’ is the penetrative eye of the One Who has eyes like a flame of fire searching out and passing judgment on the teachings and activities of men of God, from Whom nothing can be hidden.
14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
The fire tests the work; it does not destroy the men
The statement ‘If any man’s work shall remain’ has in mind the building work that has stood the test of fire, the gold and silver and costly stones. For such work the teacher will ‘receive a reward’. It is not a deserved reward. Go is in debt to no man. It is the reward of grace as we see in the book of Romans 4.4-5. While strictly applying to the work of teaching true doctrine and wisdom the principle can be applied more widely to all means of testimony including the shining light of a godly life as our Master and King Lord Jesus points out in the Gospel of Matthew 5.16.
‘If any man’s work shall be burned he shall suffer loss.’ This refers to the building work built with the wrong materials, which has not benefited the church of Christ. The teacher suffers loss because he has achieved nothing (the case is exaggerated for effect). But his salvation is not in doubt.
‘He himself shall be saved.’ This is not referring to false teachers who ‘even deny the Master Who bought them’, but to those who, while to some extent true to the central faith, have not taught wisely or in a spiritual way (2.13). They have allowed themselves to be esteemed more than they should be, and built up theories for man’s admiration. They have turned eyes on themselves and their ideas rather than on the crucified Messiah.
The fire has removed the work that counted against them so that they can now come before the Judge without stain having come through the fire, although also sadly without reward, for they do so as those escaping from the flames but leaving all their life’s work behind. They have had their reward on earth.
One purpose of the whole passage is to bring out that true servants of God can in fact be at fault in the content and method of their teaching and in the way they seek to build up the church of Christ so that, even though they hold the central truths, their labors are of little value. It is partly to make such men consider their ways, and to make the church more discerning in the teaching it accepts, that Paul speaks like this. It is to stress the need to centralize on the preaching of the cross and of Christ the Crucified One, and to recognize that it should be central in all ministries. For the lack of this latter was the besetting sin of the Corinthians.
Paul now applies his building analogy to the idea of the Temple. When men seek to establish a religion they build a Temple. Well this is what God is also doing. On the foundation of Jesus Christ He is building His Temple, and this Temple is His people. It is not quite the same illustration. Previously the building being constructed was a general one (although the Temple could well have been called to mind) for Paul wanted the Corinthians to think of buildings that they knew. That building was God’s people (‘you are God’s building’ - verse 9) but the construction was pictured as being adorned with gold, silver, precious stones and so on. It was a picture of the church being adorned and established by the teaching and wisdom (either true or less true) of those who took responsibility for it. Now the building has become the whole people of God, established by God, in whom God has come to dwell by His Spirit.
16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
A favorite expression to the Corinthians by Paul is ‘Do you not know.’ He is stressing that they do not appear to know, or are ignoring, what they ought to know.
The thought of God’s building leads on to the thought of His people being built together as His temple. The thought has been progressive - God’s cultivated field, God’s building, God’s temple; growth, establishment in truth, indwelling by the Holy God. The temple has not specifically been in mind up to this point, or it would have been mentioned earlier, but the idea springs from the previous idea of God’s building.
Verses 16-17 are in fact advancement and an added warning. We come back to the main point in verses 18-23. But as Paul contemplated God’s building he was filled with awe at what the people of God, His ‘church’, represented. They are the holy temple of the living God, His dwelling-place on earth, sanctified as belonging to Him. And he is filled with apprehension as to what would happen to those who sought to destroy it
‘Do you not know that God’s temple you are?’ The word for temple is ‘naos’, the sanctuary, the innermost and most holy part of the temple, the part where God was most seen as dwelling. For that is the thought that is being stressed, that they are the dwelling place of God through His Spirit. Just as God descended on the Tabernacle of old which we learn in the book of Exodus 40.34-35, so has He descended on His people revealed in the book of Acts 2.1-2.
‘And that the Spirit of God dwells in you.’ This is a reference to the presence of the Spirit in all who are His (Romans 8.9), but the emphasis here is different. Here it is less on what benefit we have received by receiving the Spirit, and more on the holy position we have been put in by His indwelling. We are God’s holy, set apart and unique dwelling-place on whom God has descended in glory. We are sanctified by God. The earthly temple has been thrust aside and has been replaced by the temple which is God’s people, wherever they are, and they are one and indwelt by the holy God. They are precious and under God’s specific protection. That is why those who minister to them must especially beware of how they minister. They are dealing with God’s holy dwelling-place. ‘For the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.’
‘If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.’ Again, the thought has moved on. This is not a reference to the builders, whether adequate or inadequate, but to the preciousness and sacredness of God’s people in His sight, and the assurance of full judgment on those who seek to destroy them, whether the persecuting Jews, the antagonistic Romans, belligerent peoples of other religions, or, worst of all, deceitful philosophers and the false preachers and teachers who have removed the heart from the Gospel and totally distorted it
It is noteworthy here, in view of what we have seen earlier, that Paul still sees the Corinthians as God’s Temple. Lacking they may be, but they are His dwelling place. They are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called His holy ones (1.2). He is not in total despair of them. But what he does dread is the terrible fate that awaits those among them who seek to lead them astray. For them he can only forecast the worst. The Greek is emphatic ‘if anyone the Temple of God destroys -destroy him God will’. He will receive what he has sown.
Having made the point the thought now moves back to those who are true ministers of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus
18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”; 20 and again, “The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
Paul comes back to what has been his theme all along. The need to recognize the wisdom of God, that is, to recognize in Christ crucified the wisdom of God which must be central in all they teach (1.30), and not to be taken up with the wisdom of the world. There is to be no doubt about it. They must not deceive themselves. The man who thinks himself wise must deliberately become a ‘fool’ in the world’s eyes and in the eyes of the times in which he lives, to become wise. He must recognize in the foolishness of the cross his central message. Then he will be truly wise.
‘If any man thinks.’ - Men thinks so much of themselves. Well let them think truly. If they think they are wise, or knowledgeable, or spiritual, let them consider. Let them be sure that they are right.
For if a man tries to build up a reputation for wisdom in any other way than through God’s wisdom (and how we love to be thought wise) let him remember that whatever men think of it, the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God. Paul is not of course denying the usefulness of practical knowledge; he is speaking of ‘wisdom’ with regard to metaphysics and the things of God. Religion without the centrality of Christ the Crucified One is folly in God’s eyes.
The word ‘fool’ was used by Stoic and Cynic philosophers to describe those who showed no interest in philosophy. Paul turns the idea on them. He claims that they, and all who philosophize about God apart from Christ, are in fact such fools. That the real fool is actually the pagan philosopher, for he ignores God’s message and God’s ways now revealed in Christ.
Paul now establishes his position from Scripture ‘For it is written. ‘This is not just an afterthought. He has been leading up to this. What he has been saying is in fact what the Scripture, God’s revealed word to man, it says, and that is that man’s wisdom can only get him into trouble when he is thinking and talking about God.
For those who think themselves wise, but are not wise in Christ, have a bleak future to look forward to. God’s views on earthly wisdom are clearly given in the Scriptures. The thoughts and aims of the ‘wise’ are vain, for they finally get them nowhere and accomplish nothing. They are trapped in their own crafty inventions, their own clever reasoning’s. And they end with nothing, receiving the only end possible for those who have rejected God’s wisdom.
There is clear warning here. Beware of operating away from God’s word. Go running off on your own in order to establish how wise you are and you will finish up falling over yourself. That is in fact what philosophy today has indeed accomplished. It has brought itself to a standstill. God is no longer at the centre of its program. They disdain the idea that God can be known. Thus, Paul is saying, the truly wise will be those who are not such as to deserve the acknowledgement and anointing of God by being caught up in their own cleverness.
Paul is very knowledgeable of the Scripture. To make his point he refers to Psalm 94.11 where we read, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are a breath (that is, temporary and passing).’ Paul speaks of ‘the wise’ instead of ‘man’ because he is directly connecting the verse with his argument. The substitution, however, simply brings out the idea of ‘the thinking man of the world’ (the thoughts of man) which is inherent in the Psalm. Both agree that the thoughts of such men are vain. Thus the word of God, says Paul, confirms that men’s thoughts in contrast to God’s thoughts are nothing but a passing breath.
21 Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. 23 And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
So their eyes are not to be turned on men and their supposed wisdom, nor must they glory in men. They are but passing. Indeed such things are not of real importance. They are merely the possessions of those who are God’s. Rather they are to glory in the Lord (1.31). They are to recognize that because they belong to Christ, and Christ is God’s, they possess all things. They actually possess Paul, Apollos and Cephas because they are but God’s servants. They actually possess the world which is God’s creation. They possess life which is under the control of Christ their Master, and they possess death which He has conquered. And they possess things present and things to come. For both the present and the future are under His control, because He Is the One Who Is, and Who was and Who Is to come, The Almighty, the One Who Is all in all.
Men’s destinies are controlled by greater powers than they know, but they, Who are Christ’s need not be afraid for He controls all and all are subject to Him
‘All things are yours.’ Not because they had an intrinsic right to them but because they belong to Christ, to Whom all else belongs. Thus in Christ they are above both earthly and heavenly creatures and teachers, and need and should look to none but Him.
‘And you are Christ’s, and Christ Is God’s.’ They belong to Christ and are in Him. They are His own treasured possession. That is why they share all that is His. Why then look to men’s wisdom when they can know Christ Who is the wisdom of God, and indeed belong to Him? Not only that but they share with Him in the glory of His presence, dwelling in Him and He in them. They are His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all. And what is more He Is of the Godhead and dwells in God and God in Him (John 14.11). He belongs wholly to God. And as He Is in the Father so we are in Him and He in us. And God is supreme over all things.
‘And Christ is God’s.’ Here we reach the ultimate of existence. Christ is the connection between God and men, not only because He Is the Supreme Man, the Spiritual One (2.15) but also because he belongs to God. He Is of God and He Is The Mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2.5). For the new revelation is that He can only be this because He Is both God and Man. He Is enveloped in the Godhead. In the beginning He already existed as God in full communion with the Father (John 1.1-2). Before creation was, He was. But in His manhood He took the form of a servant, thrusting aside His equality with God (Philippians 2.6-8).
In His Godhood (to the manifestation of which God restored Him - John 17.5), He is Lord over all, Yeshua, to Whom every knee shall bow (Philippians 2.9-11). Yet in His manhood He could say in His humiliation as man, ‘My Father is greater than I’ (John 14.28). In His Godhood He Is One with the Father, in such a way that he who has seen Him has seen the Father (John 14.9-11), so that He has essentially the right to equal honor with the Father (John 5.23). He and the Father are One in all things (John 10.30). Indeed in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form (Colossians 2.9), a fullness revealed as He tabernacle among us (John 1.14, 18).
Thus when He, having become man and representing man, has finally gathered all together to reconcile them with the Father, He Himself as representing Man and creation will subject Himself to the Godhead, and God will be all in all (15.27-28). The Triune God will, as it were, have taken all to Himself.
So how foolish it would be to glory in men and the puny wisdom that they teach. And this now leads on to the final reminder that all such men will have to give account of them to God.
