1Corinthians 3

A Wise Perspective on Spiritual Leaders
What are they?
3:1 Brothers, I couldn't speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.
3:2 I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren't yet ready.
Indeed, not even now are you ready,
3:3 for you are still fleshly.
For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you,
aren't you fleshly, and don't you walk in the ways of men?
3:4 For when one says, "I follow Paul,"
and another, "I follow Apollos," aren't you fleshly?
3:5 Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul,
but servants through whom you believed;
and each as the Lord gave to him?

What is their purpose?
3:6 I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.
3:7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters,
but God who gives the increase.
3:8 Now he who plants and he who waters are the same,
but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
3:9 For we are God's fellow workers.
You are God's farming, God's building.
3:10 According to the grace of God which was given to me,
as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it.
But let each man be careful how he builds on it.
3:11 For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid,
which is Jesus Christ.
3:12 But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble;
3:13 each man's work will be revealed.
For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire;
and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man's work is.
3:14 If any man's work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward.
3:15 If any man's work is burned, he will suffer loss,
but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.

3:16 Don't you know that you are a temple of God, and that God's Spirit lives in you?
3:17 If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him;

for God's temple is holy, which you are.
Application: Do not boast about them!
3:18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world,
let him become a fool, that he may become wise.
3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
For it is written, "He has taken the wise in their craftiness."(Job 5:13)
3:20 And again, "The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise,
that it is worthless." (Ps 94:11)
3:21 Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,
3:22 whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death,
or things present, or things to come. All are yours,
3:23 and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

The Boston Christian Bible Study Resources