Watch How You Build Series

Let us RECAP THE CONTEXT.

• Paul has been addressing the divisions in the Corinth church, honestly and directly.

• The believers were taking sides, glorifying certain leaders and human wisdom.

• Paul said it clearly in 3:1 “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.”

They are “brothers” in Christ but “people of the flesh” and “infants in Christ”. They are not spiritual but worldly in their conduct.

• Any works that destroy the unity of the church and create factions are not spiritual, not of the Lord, but the flesh, carnal and immature.

There is nothing wrong with being spiritual infants. We all went through that stage when we first got to know Jesus. But we don’t stay there.

• It is quite another thing to remain as an infant for long. Something is wrong if we are not learning and growing in the things of God.

• We cannot serve God to our fullest potential, the way God intends us to if we remain as children in the faith.

The Corinthians were not behaving like spiritual adults when they boast about human wisdom and quarrel over their favourite leaders.

• They side-lined the wisdom of God, which is the centrality of Jesus Christ and the Gospel. They have shifted their focus from Christ to men.

• Paul has to explain “WHAT are the WORKERS” (3:5) in last week’s text, and what are the spiritual WORKS that matter in today’s text.

Last week’s text was about the WORKERS. Let’s recap.

• Paul did not ask WHO are they but WHAT are they, directing at the Corinthians’ error in focusing on their performance.

• 3:5 “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.” [KJV uses WHO but more accurately, it is WHAT in the original Greek.]

• Why are you glorifying their achievements, when they are servants given assigned tasks? One plants and the other waters, as the Lord has so arranged.

Paul uses the analogy of agriculture, which illustrated his point perfectly.

• “I can plant and Apollos waters but only God can give the growth.” (3:6)

• We are instruments assigned by God to work in His field for one common goal. God is the true ACTOR who brings about the harvest.

• The salvation and the growth of the Corinth church come from Him, not the leaders. We are subordinate to the role of God.

So why exalt the leaders?

• “We are not heroes to be adored or masters to be followed, we are simply servants of God whom God assigned by His grace to be instrumental in your coming to Christ. So whatever that is being achieved here is accomplished by God.”

• It is absurd to place our emphasis on leaders, regardless of their gifts, talents, eloquence, or styles of leadership.

• It is absurd to pit them against one another when one plants and the other waters because the Lord assigned them.

• They are not competitors but partners in ministry working towards the same goal. And the truth is, they are both important. We need both of them to make it work!

• They complement each other in the work of God!

Beware of the spirit of comparison and competition, it divides.

• It draws our attention away from Christ and onto human wisdom and achievements.

• Division happens when we forget that we are all servants under one Lord and that the workers, the field and the harvest are all His.

Having said all he needs to say about the WORKERS in God’s field, Paul now turns his attention to the WORKS the Corinthians are engaged in. WHAT ARE THEY DOING?

• He shifts his analogy from agriculture to construction, from farming to the building of God’s building.

• He made that switch in 3:9 when he said “You are God’s field, God’s building.”

1 Cor 3:10-15

10According 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. 11For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — 13each 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. 14If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.