1 Corinthians 3 Footnotes

3:1 Paul commented on three responses to the message of glory following crucifixion (2:14–3:4). First, there are those called “people of the flesh”; the Greek term (psychikos) means “devoid of the Spirit” or “merely natural” (Jd 19). These are the typical citizens of the fallen age, the children of Adam blinded to God by Satan, the “god of this age” (2Co 4:4); they fail to grasp the message of the cross. Second, at the opposite extreme, are those Paul called “spiritual” people; that is, they have the Spirit of God and should be expected to live lives submitted to the Spirit. Because they have the Spirit, they are “spiritual.” But Paul could not address the Corinthians as “spiritual” since they were operating on a purely human level (v. 4). They were immature believers, “babies in Christ”—ready only for milk, not solids. Despite having gifts of the Spirit, they were like the outsiders, the rank unbelievers, in their values and behavior. This is evident in their preoccupation with the personalities who preached to them (v. 4).

3:5 The way forward for the “babies” in Corinth was to grow up by adopting sensible, godly attitudes toward their ministers, who were merely “servants through whom [not in whom] you believed,” according to the role God had assigned to them. Paul called the congregation “God’s field” (v. 9) in which he and Apollos had colabored with God while being utterly dependent upon God for the growth.

Changing the imagery (vv. 10-15), Paul called the congregation a building for which he had laid the “foundation.” He implied that some builders who had come after him had not built with materials of the quality of the foundation. Paul had preached Christ as the only foundation of a church, implying that the superstructure must be of the same material. What is built on the foundation will be tested by fire, and that test will reveal the quality of the work. There is no contradiction here with Jesus’s words to Peter as the “rock” on which he would build his church (Mt 16:18). Jesus was observing that Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ would prove to be the “foundation” of the church. Historically, Peter was the first to identify Jesus as the Christ, the first to preach that message soon after the first Easter and to lay the foundations of Christianity in Israel. Paul’s words are in complete agreement with those of Jesus.

3:16-17 Paul’s reference to the church as a building prompted him to call it the “temple” with a severe warning to the divisive Corinthians about destroying it by their factions. This is not to contradict the biblical teaching of the “endurance from the saints” (Rv 14:12). God causes his children to persevere by giving warnings, as here, but also by giving encouragements.

3:18-23 Paul rebuked those who were wise in their own eyes and fascinated by various leaders. Let them understand God’s good purposes for them, providing such ministers as Paul, Apollos, and Cephas (Peter). This called for humility and maturity, that the Corinthians might become the “spiritual” believers God intended them to be and not act like outsiders.