God’s building

Epistle for February 12, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul is very blunt with the young church at Corinth. He tells them that they are still immature in their faith and understanding — they are babies in Christ.

He continues this metaphor, pointing out that when he taught them Christian doctrine he had to feed them milk, not meat. Like babies, they weren’t ready to digest “solid” doctrine.

Paul then supplies evidence to prove that they were too immature for the deeper things of God, and are still too immature — they are fussing with one another!

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?

The prime example of the factionalism at Corinth is their cliquishness and division into groups loyal to their favorite preachers — Paul and Apollos.

This gives Paul the opportunity to clarify the relationship of preachers to Christ:

Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?

He also is able to explore the different roles of preachers and apostles in Christian ministry:

I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.

Paul is able to differentiate the stages of a vital ministry, and also anticipates the variety of spiritual gifts that he will describe later in this same letter:

There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all (1 Corinthians 12:5-7).

But ultimately, the focus is to be on God who works through his servants and who gives the increase:

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

He also makes clear that there is no superiority or subordination of planter or waterer — they both receive a reward based on their work.

Finally, Paul returns to his agricultural metaphor, and adds a metaphor from the world of construction:

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

Paul makes it clear that he labors for the church because the church belongs to God, even if its members are still immature. He is rooting for them to grow up into the church God intends them to become.

APPLY:

One of the goals of the Christian life is growing up. The Apostle Peter uses language very similar to Paul’s metaphor:

Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation (1 Peter 2:2).

All Christians begin as spiritual babies who need to be nurtured carefully so they can grow up in faith. Paul’s frustration is that the Corinthians are acting immaturely — fussing and fighting with one another instead of humbly admitting what they don’t know. Such factionalism is a symptom of spiritual immaturity.

Paul makes it clear that the source of our Christian growth and maturity is not our favorite pastor, or some extraordinary preacher — the only task of a pastor, preacher, evangelist or teacher is to serve God, whether they are planting or watering in God’s garden. God gives the growth.

The focus, both for the preacher and the people, is to make the “main thing the main thing” — the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

RESPOND:

Over the years as a pastor, I have noted a long succession of plans and programs that were designed to “help the church grow.” “Church growth” was the battle cry in my denomination, and we used various metrics to measure growth.

Some of these programs were actually helpful. But over time it has become clear to me that the role of the pastor/preacher is not to “grow” the church. The role of the pastor/preacher is to humbly serve God, preach the Gospel, and get out of the way!

We may plant. We may water. But it is God who gives the increase. One layman in my congregation said something very wise that I never forgot — “What good does it do for the church numbers to grow if the church members don’t grow with it?”

Lord, you call us to grow in grace as individuals and as a church. Help us to focus on your Gospel, and not pick sides on issues and personalities in the church, so that we may become what you mean for us to become. Amen.

PHOTOS:
"1 Corinthians 3 verse 6" used this photo:
"rice stages, seed germination" by IRRI Photos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for February 16, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul is very blunt with the young church at Corinth. He tells them that they are still immature in their faith and understanding — they are babies in Christ.

He continues this metaphor, pointing out that when he taught them Christian doctrine he had to feed them milk, not meat. Like babies, they weren’t ready to digest “solid” doctrine.

Paul then supplies evidence to prove that they were too immature for the deeper things of God, and are still too immature — they are fussing with one another!

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?

The prime example of the factionalism at Corinth is their cliquishness and division into groups loyal to their favorite preachers — Paul and Apollos.

This gives Paul the opportunity to clarify the relationship of preachers to Christ:

Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?

He also is able to explore the different roles of preachers and apostles in Christian ministry:

I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.

Paul is able to differentiate the stages of a vital ministry, and also anticipates the variety of spiritual gifts that he will describe later in this same letter:

There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all (1 Corinthians 12:5-7).

But ultimately, the focus is to be on God who works through his servants and who gives the increase:

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

He also makes clear that there is no superiority or subordination of planter or waterer — they both receive a reward based on their work.

Finally, Paul returns to his agricultural metaphor, and adds a metaphor from the world of construction:

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

APPLY:

One of the goals of the Christian life is growing up. The Apostle Peter uses language very similar to Paul’s metaphor:

Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation—(1 Peter 2:2).

The focus, both for the preacher and the people, is to make the “main thing the main thing” — the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

RESPOND:

PHOTOS:
"1 Corinthians 3 verse 6" used this photo:
"rice stages, seed germination" by IRRI Photos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for February 19, 2017

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul continues to enlarge on the metaphor he introduced previously, that the church is God’s building (1 Corinthians 3:9). This applies to the Christian Church in general and the Corinthian Church specifically. He decisively resolves any doubt about where the church’s allegiance should be. Although he claims credit as a wise master builder, who laid the foundation for their church upon which another pastor may build, he makes it crystal clear that Christ is central:

For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Paul also calls Christ the chief cornerstone in Ephesians 2:20.

The lectionary editors have chosen to skip verses 12-15, which continue to develop this metaphor of building. In these verses, he uses interesting imagery, declaring that if a church leader builds with good material or shoddy material (gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble) their workmanship will be revealed on the Day of the Lord. All of it will be tested by fire, and only the good material will endure. The good workman shall be rewarded, the poor workman’s work will be burned up and his work come to nothing, although he himself may be saved, but as through fire (verse 15).

This suggests that there are degrees of reward — much like the parable of the talents that Jesus tells in Matthew 25:14-25.

But in 1 Corinthians 3:16-23, Paul returns to his description of the church, and the threat of divisive arrogance.

He calls them the temple of God, because God’s Spirit lives in them. Note the distinction — they are not God’s temple because they are inherently unique — they are God’s Temple because they are filled with the Holy Spirit (for more on this metaphor of the temple of God please see the Apply section). Here Paul is speaking of the church collectively as the building of God.

And Paul has a stern warning for those who would undermine or harm this temple:

If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.

Paul continues with this warning tone:

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.

This theme of human wisdom versus God’s foolishness is recurring. It seems that there was a clique of believers at Corinth who thought they were superior to other Christians, that in fact they had a superior knowledge. It may well be that this was an example of the proto-Gnostic theology that would later plague the church. Gnosticism stressed a hidden, esoteric knowledge that was given to the wise.

So Paul is saying that those who think they are wise should become fools — i.e., humble themselves and acknowledge their ignorance — so that then they may learn wisdom. Only those who are humble are teachable.

And Paul once again asserts the same thing he does earlier in 1 Corinthians 1:25:

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.” And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.”

He quotes from two Wisdom books of the Hebrew Bible to provide more evidence — Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11.

Finally, he points out that there are grounds for boasting, but not in human wisdom or accomplishment. He says that he and other teachers may have taught them these things but all that they have comes from Christ. And this includes present reality as well as the reality to come:

the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours.

The reason for this clear:

you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

APPLY:

The key metaphor in this passage relates to the building and establishment of the church as the temple of God. Paul, as the founding pastor at Corinth, was the master builder. Other builders came and worked on the temple also — he names Cephas and Apollos. But the most important feature of this temple is that Christ is the foundation:

no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.

A little later he will use the same metaphor to describe the physical body of the individual Christian, as a means of warning them about sexual immorality:

don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

This is a little like a Russian Nesting Doll — the individual Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit is a smaller version of the corporate Body of Christ, also filled with the Holy Spirit. Both are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And their holiness is derivative — it comes from the Holy Spirit, not from themselves.

Another image that reinforces this metaphor of the temple of God, made up of many smaller stones, comes from Peter:

You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5).

RESPOND:

There are several great hymns and songs that celebrate this metaphor that the people of God are themselves the temple of God, a building made of living stones.

One that comes to mind immediately is the old hymn from the 19th century written by Samuel J. Stone:

The church’s one foundation
is Jesus Christ her Lord;
she is his new creation
by water and the Word.
From heaven he came and sought her
to be his holy bride;
with his own blood he bought her,
and for her life he died.

This hymn reminds me that the cornerstone — the solid foundation of the church — is Jesus Christ. Another verse reminds me that though the church may be shaken by the winds of change, as we are today, she will prevail, despite schisms and heresies.

As the temple of God, we are filled with the Holy Spirit even when we are buffeted by hurricanes .

Our Lord, forgive us if we ever try to lay down some other foundation than Jesus Christ in our ministries. Christ alone can withstand the winds and the earthquakes of our culture and our times. Help us to build in such a way that we use the same precious material that Paul and Apollos and Peter all used. And remind us that we are your temple, because your Spirit dwells in us. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Omaha North Presbyterian Church cornerstone” by Ammodramus is in the public domain.

Epistle for February 12, 2017

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul is very blunt with the young church at Corinth. He tells them that they are still immature in their faith and understanding — they are babies in Christ.

He continues this metaphor, pointing out that when he taught them Christian doctrine he had to feed them milk, not meat. Like babies, they weren’t ready to digest “solid” doctrine.

Paul then supplies evidence to prove that they were too immature for the deeper things of God, and are still too immature — they are fussing with one another!

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?

The prime example of the factionalism at Corinth is their cliquishness and division into groups loyal to their favorite preachers — Paul and Apollos.

This gives Paul the opportunity to clarify the relationship of preachers to Christ:

Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?

He also is able to explore the different roles of preachers and apostles in Christian ministry:

I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.

Paul is able to differentiate the stages of a vital ministry, and also anticipates the variety of spiritual gifts that he will describe later in this same letter:

There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all (1 Corinthians 12:5-7).

But ultimately, the focus is to be on God who works through his servants and who gives the increase:

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

He also makes clear that there is no superiority or subordination of planter or waterer — they both receive a reward based on their work.

Finally, Paul returns to his agricultural metaphor, and adds a metaphor from the world of construction:

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

APPLY:

One of the goals of the Christian life is growing up. The Apostle Peter uses language very similar to Paul’s metaphor:

Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation—(1 Peter 2:2).

The focus, both for the preacher and the people, is to make the “main thing the main thing” — the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

RESPOND:

PHOTOS:
"1 Corinthians 3 verse 6" used this photo:
"rice stages, seed germination" by IRRI Photos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.