Spiritual Maturity
1 Corinthians 3
For those of you who are new, we are in a series called Spiritual Wisdom in a Foolish World, looking at deep roots of our faith. The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Christians in ancient Corinth in Greece. The churches there were filled with immature people divided into different factions. We are the same today. Christians divide into different groups based on some personality, practice, label, or doctrinal distinctive. Then some churches compete with each other to get people to come to their deal that they think is better that what other good churches are doing.
In Corinth, what they thought was wise ends up being foolish. Paul takes us back to deep roots of our faith to show us how to live for Christ in a corrupt culture. He urges us to live Christ-like lives by the power of the Spirit as a unified church. We’ve looked at our spiritual identity, power and discernment. Today we look into spiritual maturity. What is mature and what is not? While you could answer that question in many ways, in this chapter Paul says that jealousy and quarrelling are evident marks of immaturity.
Open your Bibles to First Corinthians chapter three. For the first time in the letter Paul criticizes the church directly and sharply, but he cushions his rebuke by addressing them as brothers and sisters (cf. 1:26, 2:1). He will confront them for dividing over human leaders instead of unifying on the triune God
Apparently the Corinthians were lining up with human teachers like fans or groupies. Then they were arguing that their group or their teacher was better than some other one. This kind of behavior has sadly hurt the church through the centuries. It is the absolutely wrong focus. When a leader tries to build a personal following and personal empire, it distracts from the gospel bringing glory to Christ.
In First Corinthians chapter three, God addresses this issue with a serious warning that we dare not take lightly. Paul’s point is that we should focus on the triune God, not on human leaders. As you scan chapter three you will see the logical divisions represented on your sermon outline. After describing the problem, Paul uses three images to make his point: a field, a building and temple. Each image is connected most directly with a different member of the Trinity from God to Jesus to the Spirit. We will work through the text a paragraph at a time. The point of our text is that we should stop foolishly dividing over human leaders for three powerful reasons, each tied to the Triune God. Follow with me as we look at verses one to four where Paul describes the problem, which is that they are unspiritual babies.
The Problem: you are unspiritual babies 1-4
Brace yourself as we begin in chapter three, verse one.
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? 1 Corinthians 3:1–4
Essentially Paul is saying; you are a bunch of spiritual babies. The Greek word for “infants” was almost always used in a negative way much like when we say in English, you are acting like baby! Like babies they were being self-centered, competing with each other. Can you imagine God saying to you or to your Life Group or to Christ Fellowship: “I wish I could address you as spiritually mature people, but you are being childish, acting like spiritual babies.” Ouch.
Then Paul adds some color when he says, "I gave you milk not solid food because you were not ready for it and still are not." You could only handle baby food. Hang with me for a minute as I make a distinction. In the past I have misread this passage along with many others. I wrongly saw the text to be saying that the Corinthians could only handle elementary truths so Paul could not give them more advanced truths. But that is not what Paul is saying. Paul is not saying they are babies who need to grow into adults, but that they are adults who are acting childishly. The point is not about their diet but about their perspective. Did Paul intend to start them off with the message of the cross and then, after they grasped it, advance to deeper things? No. By considering Paul’s teaching “milk for babies” they show that they are “mere infants;” they have abandoned the gospel for something that may look like “solid food” but is without nutritional value.
Over the years I’ve had people say to me that they want what they call “deeper” teaching in my sermons. This is a common complaint that most of my pastor friends hear in their churches too. The point seems to be that a person wants to hear something “new” that they have never heard before. That can be dangerous. For Paul the gospel of the crucified one is both “milk” and “solid food.” The gospel includes all that Christ has done for us and that the Spirit enables us to understand: grace, adoption, redemption, reconciliation, hope, our identity, sonship, freedom, resurrection, inheritance and eternal life. New Testament scholar Morna Hooker wrote the classic article explaining this passage that most other scholars follow today. As Hooker nicely puts it: “Yet while he uses their language [The Corinthians may have said “give us more meat”], the fundamental contrast in Paul’s mind is not between two quite different diets which he has to offer, but between the true food of the Gospel with which he has fed them (whether milk or meat) and the synthetic substitutes which the Corinthians have preferred.” Paul wants to shift them from their fascination with what they think is “wisdom” back to the true wisdom and power of the gospel of Christ crucified. The point is not to progress into deeper teaching from the basic teaching of the gospel, but to grow in understanding the depth of the gospel itself. If Paul’s message looks like milk to them, it discloses that they are not as mature or spiritual as they think. In fact, their discord proves their immaturity. The Gospel teaches us to live by grace. Have you mastered grace, so you no longer live in guilt? Do you show grace to the clerk who makes a mistake in the store? Do you know how to live sacrificially, giving up your favorite show to serve your family or a stranger? We grow in the Gospel over our lifetimes.
The practical point for us today is that maturity comes not in some “new” teaching, but through a deeper grasp of the cross of Christ. We can so easily get distracted by the clever speaking of the latest Christian celebrity or by the latest teaching that claims to have the answer to life’s problems.
Not only does Paul call the Corinthians spiritual babies, but he also says they are “worldly.” What evidence does Paul see that the Corinthians are behaving as worldly spiritual babies? Take a look at verses three and four. In summary he says, you are full of jealously and quarrelling over human factions and then splinter into factions over minor differences.
You are full of jealousy and quarrelling over human factions
Both jealousy and quarrelling are concerned with advancing a person’s claims and interests. Jealously is to want what someone else has, their status, possessions or honor. In church worlds, we want their nice building, their publicity, or their crowd. We all know what quarrelling is. In the church world, this is fighting over a point of view by dissing some other pastor or group and arguing why our deal is better, when we are on the same team or should be.
Some Christians leaders maneuver to advance their personal status, to get more followers and often thus more money or at least more notoriety. When leaders are anxious to make a name for themselves, they hurt the cause of Christ. If a Christian teacher is driven by personal advancement, they are being worldly. Paul says the Corinthians were defining themselves by a personality: “I follow Paul.” Or “I follow Apollos.” When you define yourself by a personality or label, you divide the church. Christians have become fans of Christian personalities. You look at the Facebook Fan pages for well-known Christian leaders. Look at their number of fans who like their page; whether that leader is trying to be a celebrity or not, people want to be fans. Do some soul-searching. Are you doing this? Do you identify yourself by who you follow whether Joel Osteen, John Piper, John MacArthur or John Calvin? Divisions over human personalities reveals that we have forgotten that we are all servants the one Lord who alone changes lives. It is his cause in which we are all working.
After laying out the problem, Paul turns in verse five to begin solving it. He will paint three pictures: a field, a building and a temple. With each image Paul shifts our focus from human beings to the triune God. We should unify on the triune God and not divide over human leaders. His first image in verses five to nine is a field and the main point is that God is the grower.
God is the Grower 5-9
Paul shifts our focus from the ones who work in the field, to the one whose field it is and who makes living things grow. Verse five begins with two rhetorical questions.
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.
What are Apollos and Paul? They are servants and any success they have comes from God. So spiritual leaders should not use their positions to further their own interests and seek fame. Nor should anyone follow a field-hand as if they were the big deal, when it is God who is the big deal. Planters only scatter the seed supplied to them by God (2 Cor. 9:10) and put it in contact with the soil created by God. Those who water only keep the soil moist for growth by using rainwater supplied by God. In Corinth this is a crushing picture, slamming their cultural pattern of seeking status by association with a famous public leader. If God is the grower, then what are the leaders? Paul says you are field hands in God’s field.
You are field hands in God’s field
Then as well as now, the people who work in the fields are socially viewed as lower. Even today many fields in America are picked by transient immigrant workers paid the lowest wages.
Paul is inverting their cultural values by lowering the status of the spiritual superstars to servants. He says he himself is a manual laborer working the field. In some Christian circles today the pastor is treated like a god-figure, not to be questioned, but nearly to be worshipped. That’s wrong.
The big point of the text is to shift our focus from humans to God. But human beings do have a role to play. We are to be people who help other people find and follow Christ. As servants Paul says that each of us has an equal and different role for the same cause. Look at verses six to eight.
Each has an equal and different role for the same cause
Paul planted and Apollos watered. They have different roles, but each role is equally important. They were not in competition with each other, but were partners in a common venture. They have one and the same purpose: to grow a crop. For there to be rivalry between a planter and a waterer is absurd. They are fellow workers, not leaders of competing parties vying for influence and power. Sometimes we wrongly value one role over another. We rally around the planter or the waterer as if one were better than the other. So we rally around an Evangelist such as Billy Graham or a theologian such as Tim Keller or an activist such as Mother Theresa, arguing that one is better that the other. We each have a role to play.
So what is your role? Each of us are servants working in the field. Your role is just as important as someone else’s role. I love how this paragraph ends with a clear God-focus. In Greek the emphasis is even clearer because the word, “God” starts each line; literally it might read: “God’s we are, being fellow workers; God’s field, God’s building.” We are servants, each with our own task and reward; but everything is God’s –the field, the workers, and the growth of crops. God is the grower, not good planting techniques or shrewd watering. So we should focus on him.
From the field image Paul moves in the next paragraph to the building image. Paul’s point in the second paragraph is that Jesus is the foundation and God is the judge.
Jesus is the foundation and God is the Judge 9-15
From God the Father as the one who owns the field and makes things grow, Paul shifts to a building whose foundation is Jesus Christ. God will judge the quality of each one’s work on his building, which is the church. Paul writes starting in verse eight,
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.
While the church has a variety of builders, it has only one foundation and that is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is our one foundation. A classic hymn, “The Church’s One Foundation,” was written in 1866 by Samuel Stone as a direct response to some unorthodox teaching in the mid 1800’s, which created division in the church in South Africa. The first verse says, “The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.” Paul tells the Corinthians that no other foundation can be laid other than Jesus Christ. When groups shift the foundation, they leave Christianity. This has happened with Mormons and Jehovah’s Witness that are pseudo-Christian groups built on a different foundation than Jesus Christ. So they are not biblical Christians. We must be on guard against any group that moves away from the simple gospel of Jesus Christ. They are not truly Christian in a biblical sense.
On the foundation Paul says that we must build carefully. If Jesus is the foundation, what are we? We are construction workers. Once again the focus is on God, but we have an important role.
You are construction workers on God’s building
Notice the building is God’s and it is God who gives Paul the grace to do his work on the building. God is the clear focus. The building is the church, not individual Christians. The question is how we are doing at building each other up? How are we helping people find and follow Christ?
We use materials that fit the foundation and follow the plans of the architect who is God. God warns that we must build with imperishable materials because they are going to be tested with fire. The list of gold, silver and costly stones contrasts with the second set of wood, hay, or straw, which are all consumed by fire. The imperishable materials are compatible with the foundation of Jesus Christ. They fit him. The other materials are human wisdom, likely involving self-interest, applause, or financial gain. One day it will be quite evident what materials we have built with because Paul says your work’s quality will be tested by fire, resulting in reward or loss.
Your work’s quality will be tested by fire resulting in reward or loss
The dread of fire sweeping through a dry Mediterranean city would have resonated deeply with the Corinthians. You see, Corinth was destroyed by fire in 146 BC when the Romans conquered it. When the city was rebuilt anything built out of wood was gone, but structures made of stones may have remained. This image is a vivid parable for the Corinthians.
Against the Corinthians’ obsession with comparing and evaluating ministries, Paul says God will do the evaluation. It is too early to evaluate faulty building materials that might be hidden under a coat of plaster or paint, but on that final Day of Judgment all will be revealed. The fire will test the quality and reveal whether it survives or is burned up.
The point is that the fire will reveal whether a builder receives reward or suffers loss. Ministry done for self will likely burn up. We do not know the nature of the reward or the loss. Will the reward simply be the joy of knowing what we did counted and the loss be the grief of seeing our work dissolve in flames? The warning is that today we need to be asking ourselves if what we are doing carries eternal value. Are we building on Christ by the Spirit and focused on the gospel? Or, are we building a name for ourselves, padding our spiritual resume, building our own empire? Of course, it is important for Paul to clarify that even if a person builds poorly the person is still saved based on what Jesus Christ did who is the foundation. Our salvation is not based on the quality of our work, but on Jesus Christ. A person is saved by God’s grace received by trusting in Jesus Christ. On that salvation we build by God’s grace.
From the images of a field and a building, Paul moves to his third picture, a temple. The field is God’s; the foundation is Jesus Christ and now we learn the Spirit lives in the building, which is a temple. In verses sixteen and seventeen, Paul’s point is that the Spirit lives in you as God’s holy temple.
The Spirit lives in you as God’s holy temple 16-17
Middle Easterners take their sacred spaces and their sacred buildings very seriously, and they always have. The temple was a powerful image in Corinth which was filled with pagan temples. Paul says in verse sixteen;
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.
The “you” here is plural. Paul is talking not about individual Christians, but about the church in Corinth. It is a startling declaration to identify the community in Corinth gathered in their small house churches as the temple of God. Compared to the grand temples in Corinth and the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, they appear rather tiny. But this is the amazing truth:
You are God’s temple
Hear this for us today. This rag tag group at Christ Fellowship of sinners who have been saved and made holy by Christ is God’s temple. Of course, we are not talking about a physical building, but rather a human community. Your Life Group is a holy temple where God lives. As immature as they were, still the Corinthians were God’s temple where the Spirit dwells. On the basis of that truth God gives one of his strongest warnings. My mentor, Gene Getz, called this verse one of the scariest in the Bible. Look at verse seventeen. The point is that;
If you destroy God’s church, he will destroy you
God is very serious about his church. It is his temple and his bride. You do not want to mess with God’s church. The imagery is of destroying a house. This is now beyond just using poor building material that will burn up. If you are tearing down the community of people who form God’s temple, God will tear you down. I don’t know about you, but of all the people, forces or powers that could possibly be against me, the last one I want coming against me is the most powerful being in the universe, God.
Let me warn you as plainly as I can: do NOT hurt God’s church. In this chapter, that looks like jealousy and quarrelling. This is gossip and criticizing a leader behind his back. If you have a problem here at Christ Fellowship or your home church and you cannot resolve it in a healthy way, walk away. We want to help you resolve any issue, but if it cannot be resolved, do not stay and sour the church. Do not stir up trouble. Do not create divisions. God considers it sacrilege against his holy place where his Spirit lives. If you hurt God’s church, he will hurt you. That’s how important the church is to God.
So with three images Paul has painted his point: you should unify on the triune God, not divide over human leaders. God is the grower; Jesus is the foundation and the Spirit lives in the temple. You are field-hands, construction workers who form the holy community in which the Spirit lives. Finally in verses eighteen to twenty-three, Paul wraps it all up in a grand conclusion: that we have it all in Christ.
The wrap up: you have it all in Christ! 18-23
Follow with me starting in verse eighteen. Paul comes back to the theme of wisdom and foolishness, circles back to the names of leaders, then ends with a Christ-centered crescendo.
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”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas 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. 1 Cor. 18:23
The coming of Christ has turned the world upside down so don’t deceive yourself with the world’s wisdom. In fact, become a fool to be wise.
Be a fool to be wise
Now Paul reverses what he said earlier. The world may think the gospel is foolishness, but God sees the world’s wisdom for what it is: foolish. God’s wisdom runs counter to self-promotion and competition among spiritual leaders. So we become fools to be wise. It takes humility, like learning a foreign language as an adult. Paul concludes: so do not boast about human leaders. There is nothing to boast about. Earlier Paul said, 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” Focus on all you are in Christ.
Focus on all you are in Christ
In the last few lines Paul moves to a dramatic conclusion. The Corinthians have been bragging about which group they belong to, but Paul says all things are yours. You have it all in Christ. He takes our breath away with the grandeur of the last lines, all grounded in Christ. Paul says;
All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas 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.
The future is no cause for panic; it is already theirs. In light of such expansive realities, how can the Corinthians say, “I am of Paul, or Apollos”? That is too narrow, to constricted a view. How can we say, “ I am of the Presbyterians,” or “of the Pentecostals,” or “of the Roman Catholics.” Or “I am of the liberals,” or “of the evangelicals,” The divisions in the church then and now pale in the bright light of such a comprehensive worldview. It is worth being a fool to gain it all. The last word of the chapter is theos, God. The central focus is the triune God. He is the grower, the foundation, and the judge. So stop foolishly fighting and dividing over human leaders. Because God is the grower. You are field hands in God’s field. Because Jesus is the foundation and God will judge you. You are construction workers on God’s building. Because the Spirit lives in you as God’s holy temple. If you destroy God’s church, he will destroy you. Because you have it all in Christ! So focus on the triune God!
Footnotes:
Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Grand Rapids. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1987. Pp 125
Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Grand Rapids. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1987. Pp 125
Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Grand Rapids. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1987. Pp 125
Bailey, Kenneth E. Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes: Cultural Studies in 1 Corinthians. Inter-Varsity Press. Downers Grove, 2011.
Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Grand Rapids. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1987. Pp 134
Bailey, Kenneth E. Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes: Cultural Studies in 1 Corinthians. Inter-Varsity Press. Downers Grove, 2011. PP 133
Bailey, Kenneth E. Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes: Cultural Studies in 1 Corinthians. Inter-Varsity Press. Downers Grove, 2011. Pp 138
Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Grand Rapids. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1987. Pp 154
Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Grand Rapids. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1987. Pp 155
Bailey, Kenneth E. Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes: Cultural Studies in 1 Corinthians. Inter-Varsity Press. Downers Grove, 2011. Pp 138
