1 Corinthians 3

1 Corinthians 3  •  5 min. read  •  grade level: 6
The apostle now returns from his lofty subject to the low state of the Corinthians. The subject of the chapter is divisions (vers. 5-9) and their correction (vers. 10-23). He could not speak unto them as to spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. They were not natural men, for they were converted; still they were carnal, babes in Christ. We have three different men described in these verses: 1st, the natural man, understanding not the things of the Spirit of God; 2nd, the spiritual man, having the mind of Christ, realizing his union with Him; 3rd, the carnal man, who follows the leaders of sects and not Christ alone. Compare Rom. 7, Heb. 5. The apostle had fed them with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto they were not able to bear it, neither yet were they able. Their divisions were a proof of this. Alas; for the divisions of Christendom! The very things men glory in prove their carnality. To say, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, was carnal. Who were these men? They were only servants by whom they believed. Paul had planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. What was a planter and a waterer beside the Lord of the garden? They should receive their reward according to their labour, but the truth was the saints on earth were God’s husbandry (cp. John 15:1-61I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. (John 15:1‑6)). They were God’s building. This is the mighty lever to draw back saints from their divisions. You don’t belong to Calvinists, or Baptists, or Wesley, or this sect or that party, you belong to God. You are God’s husbandry; you are God’s building. Oh, if the saints would only listen to these words, they would drop all sectarianism at once, and come back to this, that they belonged to God.
What was Paul? The Lord had handed over to him the responsibility of being a wise master-builder of His building; so Paul had laid the foundation and another built upon it. Let every one take heed as to this, is the exhortation. As to the foundation, no man can lay any other than is laid, that is Christ Jesus. That foundation had been laid. The builders were to take care what they built upon it. Here the apostle brings out the doctrine of the house of God handed over to the responsibility of man, and tells it out to the Corinthians for their warning, and to correct their divisions. The real building would go on, but Christ was the Builder of the latter (see Matt. 16:1818And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18); 1 Pet. 2:5, 65Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 6Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. (1 Peter 2:5‑6)). This building was beyond the responsibility of man, and was growing up to be a holy temple in the Lord (see Eph. 2:19-2119Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: (Ephesians 2:19‑21)). The gates of hades should not prevail against it. But here it is the house handed over to man’s responsibility. Man was the builder. One might build on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones; another might build on it wood, hay, stubble: every man’s work should be made manifest in the day of Christ, and every man’s work tried by fire. The good workman’s work would abide, and he should receive a reward on that day. The bad workman’s work should be burned up, and he should suffer loss. Wood; hay, stubble, could not abide the fire. Yet he himself should be saved, yet so as by fire. It is not here a question of salvation, but of the saved one’s getting reward or suffering loss. There might indeed be a defiler of the temple of God, but him God would destroy. He had never got on the foundation at all. The conclusion for the saints was this, that they corporately were the temple of God; and that the Spirit of God indwelt them.
They were the living walls of the temple, but the Holy Ghost was the Inhabitant of the house. Wondrous truth; that the Assembly should be made so clean by the blood, that inside living walls composed of Christian men, the Holy Ghost could dwell. Such was the visible Assembly at Corinth, builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Alas, what has it come to now! But the truth is, as it was ever, that the Holy Ghost is there. What has that Spirit to do with divisions? He is the Spirit of Unity and Love. Divisions must end amongst the saints if we come back to the acknowledgment of His presence and power in the house of God. Oh, that the gracious Lord might bring about this! All this division was the fruit of worldly wisdom, putting men-leaders at the head of schools of thought. All was vanity before the Lord. The truth was, by circling round men, and thus forming sects, they were confining themselves to two or three gifts, whilst all were theirs, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, for all belonged to God, and they were Christ’s and Christ is God’s. The great truths pressed are, first, that the saints belong to God, and not to men; second, that the Holy Ghost is present in the Assembly. He is the Spirit of Unity and Love—the very opposite to division. In 2 Cor. 6:14-1814Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:14‑18), the presence of the Holy Ghost is brought in as the corrective power to worldliness; here (ch. 3) to division; the two evils at work in the present day. There is on the one hand national Christianity, the religion of the world; on the other hand, sectarian dissent, narrowing and dividing the membership of the body. The presence of the Holy Ghost in the house of God is the corrective power to each; and till the saints come back to the acknowledgment of the wondrous truth, division and worldliness must go on. But then everything contrary to it must be dropped. The saints then were brought back to the truth, that they were Christ’s and God’s, and that God the Holy Ghost was in the temple of God, the Spirit of unity and not of division. We see through all these chapters how sectarianism strikes at the root of the nature of the Assembly. It is human wisdom in contrast to God’s wisdom which is centered in Christ. The cross is its judgment. The church as the temple or house of God is founded on these two things, and the Holy Ghost is its Builder, through the workmen, Inhabitant and Ruler.