Divisions and Personalities in the Church
A verse-by-verse explanation of this section.
The Folly of Church Celebrities
An overview of the principles and applications from this section.
Tying the section to life with God.
Historical, geographical, and grammatical enrichment of the commentary.
Suggested step-by-step group study of the section.
Zeroing the section in on daily life.
“Those that extol men above measure, strip them of their true dignity. For the grand distinction of them all is…that they gain disciples to Christ, not to themselves.”
John Calvin
Human leaders in the church are ordained by God and serve a vital role. But human leaders also present dangers. It is easy for sincere believers to give their loyalties to human leaders above loyalty to Christ.
“She'll make a great leader,” the teenage boy assured his friends on election day. “She's got all it takes: looks, brains, popularity, and a great smile.”
“Yeah,” Sally said as she handed back the mock election ballot. “She's got all it takes to be a celebrity, but I'm not so sure she's a leader.”
More and more we seem to forget that celebrities—people whom we celebrate—are not necessarily good leaders. They may not have what it takes to lead others.
One of the things that separates good leaders from celebrities is that celebrities often believe their press. They think more of themselves than they should. Leaders, however, know their limits and understand that they are not all that others think they are or want them to be.
At Corinth, Paul faced a problem with celebrities. The Christians at Corinth were dividing the church by pledging their loyalties to different celebrities. Each group claimed to be better than the others, and a party spirit began to grow in the church. One of the celebrities was Paul himself. Some believers at Corinth actually claimed to be his followers.
Paul, however, was a good leader; he knew better than to believe those who wanted to make him a celebrity. He insisted that believers should follow only one person: Christ himself.
Divisions and Personalities in the Church
MAIN IDEA: Having shown that the gospel of Christ opposed the arrogant wisdom of this age, Paul warned against the celebrities whom worldly wisdom had created in Corinth.
The Worldly Practice of Divisions (3:1–4)
SUPPORTING IDEA: The apostle complained that the Corinthian believers did not behave like people taught by the Holy Spirit. Although they were believers, they acted like unbelievers by quarreling and being jealous.
3:1. Paul began this portion of his letter with a conciliatory address: brothers. In Paul's epistles, as elsewhere in Greek writings, this terminology included the women of the congregation. The term brother expressed Paul's sense of the familial unity that all Christians should enjoy with one another. He was about to rebuke the Corinthians, but he wanted them to know that his words were motivated by strong affection for them. This address also reminded the Corinthians that they were all brethren of one another, and that they should have been united rather than divided.
In this passage Paul remembered the time when he had first brought the Corinthians the gospel. Then, he had not treated them as spiritual but as worldly because they were mere infants in Christ. When men and women first become believers, they begin lifelong journeys toward spiritual maturity (Eph. 4:14–17; Heb. 5:11–14). New believers often think and live much as they did before they believed in Christ. In this sense they are worldly. The Holy Spirit had indwelt the Corinthian believers, but the Spirit's sanctifying work had not progressed very far when Paul had first ministered to them. At that time the Corinthians could not receive much in the way of the Spirit's matters because they were spiritual infants in Christ.
3:2–3a. Continuing the analogy, Paul said that earlier he had given the Corinthians milk, not solid food. Just as newborn infants choke on solid food, the Corinthians were unable to take the solid food of Christian teaching. The Corinthian believers had first received only the simple, introductory teachings of the Christian faith because they had not been ready for deeper, more difficult matters. This had been an understandable and appropriate condition for them at the time.
The difficulty for Paul was that the Corinthians were still not ready. Though they should have abandoned worldly practices long ago, they remained immature in their faith. As a result, they were still worldly, acting like unbelievers. While unbelievers have the excuse that they lack the Holy Spirit, the Corinthians behaved like unbelievers even though they possessed the Holy Spirit.
3:3b. Paul proved his accusation that the Corinthians were worldly and immature. He offered as evidence their jealousy and quarreling. The Corinthians had divided themselves into quarreling parties, employing the pretenses of human arrogance and worldly wisdom to fight one another. This behavior revealed that they lived by the principles of the world rather than by the teaching of the Spirit. They acted like mere men, not like people in Christ who had the Holy Spirit.
By referring to quarreling, Paul began to bring his argument full circle, reminding the Corinthians that so far he had aimed his whole discourse at correcting the false views that had caused their divisions (cf. 1:11).
3:4. To specify his complaint even further, the apostle quoted the claims of factions within the church: I follow Paul…I follow Apollos. Apparently, these words struck deeply into Paul's heart—he had already recalled them in this letter and would do so again later (3:22; 4:6). Earlier, Paul argued that such divisions were unthinkable for a variety of reasons (1:13–17). Here he described them as worldly.
By resorting to such contentious practices as church celebrities, the Corinthians behaved just like the unbelievers around them. In Christ they were called to fellowship. By quarreling and dividing, they lived as mere men who did not have the Spirit or the gospel. They were striving against the goals of the gospel and of Christ.
The Proper Role of Church Leaders (3:5–15)
SUPPORTING IDEA: The Corinthians displayed their immaturity by forming loyalties to certain human leaders in the church. Paul attacked this practice by reminding them of the true nature of Christian leadership. He described leadership by using two metaphors, portraying the church as a plant in need of cultivation and as a building in need of builders.
3:5. Paul began his discussion of church leadership by asserting that both he and Apollos were servants. Jesus said something similar when he insisted that the greatest in his kingdom must be the least (Luke 22:26). Unlike worldly leaders who seek positions of power so they may be served, Christian leaders are the servants of all. As God's servants, church leaders carry out their responsibilities as the Lord has assigned. Worldly leaders seek to force their own ways on others. Christian leaders should seek only to serve the will of God.
By identifying himself and Apollos as servants, Paul reminded his readers that Christ was the true Lord. To celebrate a servant rather than the Lord would be foolishness. The Corinthians should not have taken pride in their human leaders because such leaders had no authority or power of their own. The powerful gospel and preaching which had converted the Corinthians belonged to God alone.
3:6. Employing an agricultural metaphor, Paul explained that he had planted the seed by bringing the gospel to Corinth. Apollos, in turn, watered the seed that Paul had planted. Apollos evidently taught the Corinthians after Paul did. Neither Paul nor Apollos was more important to the church at Corinth. Without a sower, there would have been nothing to water. Without someone to tend the growing seed, it may as well not have been planted.
Paul also designated God's role in the process. Paul and Apollos simply served the Lord, who made it grow. Their human leadership accomplished nothing apart from the Spirit's power. Further, they only planted and watered because God told them to do so. The blessings of salvation on the church at Corinth came through the power and will of God.
Because the church's blessings could not be attributed to its leaders, the Corinthians had no basis for preserving loyalty to any particular leader, and therefore no basis for their divisions. The good they received through Paul and Apollos should have made them loyal to God, not to his appointed servants.
3:7. On the basis of this analogy, Paul concluded that neither the sower nor the one watering was anything —both were incidental instruments used by God, who makes things grow. The importance that the Corinthians placed on human leaders proved their failure to understand that God deserves all the credit for the blessings believers receive.
3:8. To carry the analogy one step further, Paul argued that the planter and the one watering have one purpose —seeing the church grow and bear fruit. The tasks of Paul and Apollos were not at odds, nor were Paul and Apollos themselves. They would never have argued over credit for the work done in Corinth because each expected to be rewarded according to his own labor. Paul and Apollos were unified. They did not oppose one another as the Corinthians had boasted, but all served the same Lord. The Corinthians’ divisions presumably had been based on perceived conflicts between the leaders. Since no such conflicts existed, there existed no basis for the Corinthians’ divisions and quarrels.
3:9. To support his claims, Paul stated that he and Apollos were God's fellow workers. The preceding context suggests that Paul meant that he and Apollos were fellow workers for God. They formed a team, working together in God's service. Each one needed the other in order to fulfill the goal, and the goal was of divine design. The Corinthian church, therefore, was God's field, not theirs. God was the church's ultimate leader, and its allegiance belonged to him alone.
Paul closed this verse by calling the Corinthians God's building, speaking of the church as God's possession under God's leadership. Both metaphors illustrated the fact that God was building a unified church—one building, one field—not a fragmented, divided church. By quarreling and dividing, the Corinthians struggled to destroy what God was building.
3:10. Paul developed more fully the architectural analogy. He presented himself as an expert builder who had laid a foundation. Someone else was building on it. Paul took no pride in his initiating role, but admitted that he only served to lay a foundation through the grace God had given to him.
Paul balanced his claims for himself and Apollos by adding a note of humility for each. He admitted that he did not deserve his leadership role in the church. Only by God's grace was Paul Christ's servant in this way (Gal. 1:15; 2 Tim. 1:9). Some argue that “grace” here refers to the spiritual gift of apostleship, not to God's unmerited favor. In either case, the result is the same for Paul's argument: Paul served the church only through God's gracious gift.
To extend a note of humility to Apollos and others who also worked in the Corinthian church, Paul added another thought: anyone building on Paul's foundation was to be careful how he built. This warning also rebuked the Corinthian leaders who built upon Paul's foundation when he and Apollos were absent. By allowing such dissension to exist, they did not build wisely.
3:11. Why should the builders of the church have been careful? Paul answered first by reminding the Corinthians that their foundation had already been laid. Paul had set the foundation of the church at Corinth when he had initially brought them the gospel of Christ. No builder of the church should try to lay any foundation other than…Jesus Christ.
Paul implied what he had already stated plainly: some leaders of the Corinthian church had begun to replace the church's true foundation. They were not careful to build on the gospel of the crucified Christ, but they tried to found the church on human wisdom and pretense. Any church leader who substitutes human imaginations for the true gospel of Christ has set aside the only acceptable foundation for the church.
3:12–13. Builders must also show caution because God will reward church leaders according to the work they accomplish. Because Paul spoke of any man, his words apply to every believer. But they form a direct warning to church leadership.
Church leaders can build upon the foundation of Christ's gospel in two different ways. On the one hand, they can use gold, silver, and costly stones. These materials will withstand the fire of God's scrutiny that will test the quality of each man's work. On the other hand, they can build with wood, hay or straw. Such materials will not withstand the fire of divine judgment.
Paul said that the Day (the day of final judgment) would bring…to light the nature of each leader's work so that his work would be shown for what it was. So, all Christian leaders should pay careful attention to what they bring to the church. Although the true nature of their work may remain hidden for a while, it will be revealed one day for all to see.
By this argument, Paul called the leaders and participants of the Corinthian divisions to account. He asserted that the trouble they caused would detract from their eternal rewards. He also encouraged them to reaffirm the gospel so they would gain greater rewards on the day of judgment.
3:14–15. Paul further explained the two possible outcomes for church leaders. If a leader's work survives the fire of God's judgment, he will receive his reward. God promises great rewards to those who serve him faithfully (Matt. 10:41–42; Rev. 11:18). But if a leader's work is burned up by divine judgment, the true believer himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames of a burning house. Judgment on church leaders is more severe than on ordinary believers (Jas. 3:1). For this reason, leaders must lead the people of God very carefully.
The True Nature of the Church (3:16–23)
SUPPORTING IDEA: Divisive loyalties to human leaders are not only contrary to the nature of leadership in the church, but also to the nature of the church. In this section, Paul demonstrated that the church of Christ is too wonderful to be caught up in following human celebrities.
3:16–17. Paul pointed first to the sanctity of the church. He wanted the Corinthians to understand how special they were in God's eyes, and how their status as the temple of God required a particular kind of leadership. Leaders must not serve the church with human wisdom, but with divine wisdom from the Spirit, because the church is holy before God.
Paul expected an affirmative answer to his question: Don't you know? Believers should recognize that they are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in them. Just as the name of God dwelt in Solomon's temple (1 Kgs. 8:29; 2 Chr. 6:2), the Holy Spirit lives in the New Testament temple which is the body of believers gathering in the name of Jesus (Matt. 18:20).
The sanctity of the Holy Spirit's dwelling requires that church leaders be very careful. In fact, if anyone destroys God's temple, harming the church by leading through arrogance and human pretense, God will destroy him. Why is this judgment so severe? Because the temple of God is sacred. The Corinthian leaders needed to preserve the unity of the temple, not destroy it with divisions. If they divided the fellowship, they attacked God's holy temple, his body (Col. 1:18,24) and his bride (Eph. 5:23–27), thereby provoking God's wrath.
3:18–20. The Corinthian believers had fooled themselves into thinking they were doing the right thing by dividing the church and exalting human wisdom to support their contentions with others. In their culture such behavior seemed reasonable. But Paul insisted to the contrary. The wise by the standards of this age should take heed. Instead of pursuing the standards of the world, every believer must become a fool in the world's estimation by following the wisdom that comes from the Spirit of God. In this way, the Corinthians would actually become wise.
Paul explained that in God's sight the wisdom held so strongly by this world is actually foolishness. To prove this, he quoted Job 5:13 in which Eliphaz said that God was like a hunter, catching Job as he caught the wise in their craftiness. Job was caught in the trap of depending on his own reasoning rather than accepting the wisdom of God (Job 42:3).
Second, Paul paraphrased Psalm 94:11 which mocks those who think they are safe when they rebel against God, but whose thoughts are futile. People who exalt human wisdom in rebellion against God will find that God overcomes and destroys their efforts. Paul was warning the Corinthians that their reliance on pretentious human wisdom would bring them under God's judgment.
3:21a. The apostle drew a final conclusion: the Corinthians were to cease boasting about men. Paul had warned them earlier to boast in the Lord (1:31). Here he focused on the negative side of the issue. The Corinthians needed to forsake the wisdom of this age that led them into exaltation of themselves and other human leaders. They needed to see their boasting for what it was—not boasting in higher theology or wisdom, not boasting in greater righteousness, but boasting in mere men.
3:21b–23. Paul gave one final reason for this rejection of human pride. He began with a comprehensive statement: all things are yours. The language of this expression derives from Stoic philosophy. It originally described wisdom as mastery over all that one encounters in life. Paul used this Stoic saying to encourage the Corinthians to gain a proper, Christ-centered perspective on their lives. If they became people of spiritual wisdom, they would see that everything had been given to them in Christ.
All things are Christ's inheritance, and Christ shares that inheritance with all believers (Eph. 1:10–14). The gifts that the Corinthians received in Christ were boundless, and they included the blessing of the leadership of Paul, Apollos, and Cephas. These men were gifts from God to the church, and should not have become sources for division. Moreover, the world, life, death, present, and future also belonged to the Corinthians. Christ controls all these things, and he will place them all under the feet of his faithful ones. Because all believers share these blessings equally, including the leadership of these people, the Corinthians had no basis for their divisions.
Beyond this, all believers are of Christ. No matter what happens, believers can rest assured of their eternal destiny because they belong to Christ (Rom. 14:8). Finally, Christ is of God; the Son belongs to the Father who rules over all. The blessings of believers in Christ are secure because Christ's place with the Father is secure.
MAIN IDEA REVIEW: Having shown that the gospel of Christ opposed the arrogant wisdom of this age, Paul warned against the celebrities whom worldly wisdom had created in Corinth.
The Folly of Church Celebrities
In this passage, Paul forcefully argued against divisions based on the exaltation of human leaders. He declared that Christians should recognize the folly of making celebrities of church leaders. Leaders must work for the unity and peace of God's temple and Christ's body, the church. They must never try to detract from our loyalty to Christ and his kingdom. Leaders are servants who must exalt Christ as their Lord and as the Lord of the church.
PRINCIPLES
APPLICATIONS
“I just don't deserve any better.” That is what many women who suffer from physical abuse by their spouses believe about themselves. They think they are unworthy of good treatment. One of the first things counselors must do is convince these women that they are far too valuable to submit to physical abuse.
Christians sometimes think that realizing their worth and value as the temple of God and the heirs of Christ's kingdom always leads to sin. Not so. Paul told us that the church is far too valuable to be abused by self-serving human leaders. We need to look closely at the honor that belongs to the church. When we do, we will see that human leaders are servants of the one Leader who alone is worthy of our total loyalty: Christ.
Lord Jesus, so often we find ourselves more devoted to human leaders than to you. Help us see our leaders for what they are. Give us strong convictions of who we are as well. Grant that we and our leaders may always look to you as the only head of the church. Amen.
A. Worldly (3:1,3)
In these two verses, Paul used two different words for “worldly”: sarkikos and sarkinos. Sarkinos seems to denote physical flesh in almost all of its biblical occurrences (2 Chr. 32:8; Rom. 7:14; Heb. 7:16), even though it is sometimes used metaphorically. First Corinthians 3:1 seems to be the only occurrence that may potentially vary from this meaning.
Sarkikos, in half of its biblical occurrences, describes that which is material, though not made of actual flesh. In two of the three remaining usages, it identifies that which opposes the Holy Spirit, that which is of the nature of the fallen world. The only fairly ambiguous uses of sarkikos come in 1 Corinthians 3:3.
To make matters more difficult, in the verses at hand, Paul used sarkikos and sarkinos as if they were synonymous. In verse 1, he described the Corinthians as being “worldly” (sarkinos ), but in verse 3 he said they were “still” (eti ) worldly (sarkikos ), even though this was the first time he employed any form of sarkikos in the letter. The uses of sarkikos in 1 Corinthians 3:3 probably are best seen as references to that which opposes the Holy Spirit, and thus parallel the uses of sarkikos in 2 Corinthians 1:12 and 1 Peter 2:11.
B. Rewarded, Reward (3:8,14)
The Bible frequently speaks of heavenly rewards that we will receive in accordance with our works on earth (Matt. 5:12; John 4:36; Rev. 11:18). While the Bible makes clear that we receive blessings only “in Christ,” on the basis of his merit, it also says that we will be rewarded according to our works (Rev. 22:11–12). These two ideas are hard to reconcile.
We must affirm, on the one hand, that the rewards we will receive belong rightly to Christ alone. On the other hand, we must affirm that he will share them with us according to our works. At the same time, we need to avoid the error of saying that we earn our rewards by our own merit.
C. The Day (3:13)
The Day of the Lord is a central concept in Scripture. It is when God comes as a warrior to defeat all of his enemies in a single day. He judges the nations, and fully restores his people to the Promised Land so that they will never lose their covenant blessings again (Isa. 2:11–12; Ezek. 13:5; Amos 5:20; Mal. 4:5). The New Testament echoes this expectation (1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10).
A. INTRODUCTION
B. COMMENTARY
C. CONCLUSION: WE DESERVE BETTER