The Church and Its Leaders
3 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”[Job 5:13]; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”[Psalm 94:11] 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas [That is, Peter ] or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
NOTES:
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Letter to the 1 Corinthians
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3:1–4 The Corinthians desire a sort of wisdom dialogue or
colloquy with Paul; they are looking for solid, adult food, and he appears to
disappoint their expectations. Paul counters: if such a dialogue has not yet
taken place, the reason is that they are still at an immature stage of
development (cf. 1 Cor 2:6).
3:1 Spiritual people…fleshly people: Paul employs two
clusters of concepts and terms to distinguish what later theology will call the
“natural” and the “supernatural.” (1) The natural person (1 Cor 2:14) is one
whose existence, perceptions, and behavior are determined by purely natural
principles, the psychē (1 Cor 2:14) and the sarx (flesh, a biblical term that
connotes creatureliness, 1 Cor 3:1, 3). Such persons are only infants (1 Cor
3:1); they remain on a purely human level (anthrōpoi, 1 Cor 3:4). (2) On the
other hand, they are called to be animated by a higher principle, the pneuma,
God’s spirit. They are to become spiritual (pneumatikoi, 1 Cor 3:1) and mature
(1 Cor 2:6) in their perceptions and behavior (cf. Gal 5:16–26). The
culmination of existence in the Spirit is described in 1 Cor 15:44–49.
3:3–4 Jealousy, rivalry, and divisions in the community are
symptoms of their arrested development; they reveal the immaturity both of
their self-understanding (1 Cor 3:4) and of the judgments about their apostles
(1 Cor 3:21).
3:5–4:5 The Corinthians tend to evaluate their leaders by
the criteria of human wisdom and to exaggerate their importance. Paul views the
role of the apostles in the light of his theology of spiritual gifts (cf. 1 Cor
12–14, where the charism of the apostle heads the lists). The essential aspects
of all spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:4–6 presents them as gifts of grace, as
services, and as modes of activity) are exemplified by the apostolate, which is
a gift of grace (1 Cor 3:10) through which God works (1 Cor 3:9) and a form of
service (1 Cor 3:5) for the common good (elsewhere expressed by the verb “build
up,” suggested here by the image of the building, 1 Cor 3:9). The apostles serve
the church, but their accountability is to God and to Christ (1 Cor 4:1–5).
3:5 Ministers: for other expressions of Paul’s understanding
of himself as minister or steward to the church, cf. 1 Cor 4:1; 9:17, 19–27; 2
Cor 3:6–9; 4:1; 5:18; 6:3–4; and 2 Cor 11:23 (the climax of Paul’s defense).
3:10–11 There are diverse functions in the service of the
community, but each individual’s task is serious, and each will stand
accountable for the quality of his contribution.
3:13 The Day: the great day of Yahweh, the day of judgment,
which can be a time of either gloom or joy. Fire both destroys and purifies.
3:15 Will be saved: although Paul can envision very harsh
divine punishment (cf. 1 Cor 3:17), he appears optimistic about the success of
divine corrective means both here and elsewhere (cf. 1 Cor 5:5; 11:32
[discipline]). The text of 1 Cor 3:15 has sometimes been used to support the
notion of purgatory, though it does not envisage this.
3:17 Holy: i.e., “belonging to God.” The cultic sanctity of
the community is a fundamental theological reality to which Paul frequently
alludes (cf. 1 Cor 1:2, 30; 6:11; 7:14).
3:21–23 These verses pick up the line of thought of 1 Cor
1:10–13. If the Corinthians were genuinely wise (1 Cor 3:18–20), their
perceptions would be reversed, and they would see everything in the world and
all those with whom they exist in the church in their true relations with one
another. Paul assigns all the persons involved in the theological universe a
position on a scale: God, Christ, church members, church leaders. Read from top
to bottom, the scale expresses ownership; read from bottom to top, the
obligation to serve. This picture should be complemented by similar statements
such as those in 1 Cor 8:6 and 1 Cor 15:20–28.
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Letter to the 1 Corinthians
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