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1 COR 3:1-10
I) [1 Cor 3:1-4]:
A) THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH IS WORLDLY AND FIGHTING OVER WHO THEIR LEADER IS
(v. 1) "Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly -- mere infants in Christ.
(v. 2) I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
(v. 3) You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?
[Notice the context is of the general worldliness of the congregation in Corinth and not church planting as some maintain]
(v. 4) For when one says, 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not mere men?
[Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol 10, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1976, Frank Gaebelein, Editor, p. 204]:
"Paul's example of himself and Apollos who shared in the ministry at Corinth (Acts 18:1-28) was needed to show the Corinthians that they had a distorted view of the Lord's work. Whenever they thought of God's work in terms of belonging to or following a particular Christian worker, they were simply acting on the human level and taking sides just as the world does."
Notice the issue is the congregation's viewpoint is the issue not church planting, more specifically that they were following "mere men"]
II) [1 COR 3:5]:
A) EVERY BELIEVER IS MERELY A SERVANT - NO ONE IS TO BE IDOLIZED
(v. 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."
[Expositers, op. cit., pp. 205-206]:
"In using oun ("then"; "after all," NIV), Paul shows he is answering the question 'How should Paul and Apollos be viewed?' Observe how, because Paul wants to impress the Christians with the fact that he and Apollos are simply servants, he avoids using the first person plural, 'we are servants' but leaves out the verb, so that the implication is that he and Apollos and whatever other workers there might be are no more than servants.
The point is that no Christian worker is ever to be idolized.
Indeed, those who are idolized can become instruments for fragmenting the work of God. Believers are to realize that Christian workers are simply God's servants (diakonoi) - agents through whom people believe in Christ...
Here diakonoi [=servants] is not used in a technical sense of those who serve as church officers (as in Phil 1:1; 1 Tim 3:8), but in the general sense of 'servants,' whether of a king (Matt 22;13) or otherwise."
[Notice the subject is: all believers are merely servants even church leaders. No one is to idolize another believer. So church planting or the function of church leaders is not in exclusively in view. The correction Paul is making of the Corinthian congregation focuses on the proper function of every Christian, not just Church leaders or church planting. He says Paul and Apollos are merely servants which brings them down to the same level as every believer.]
III) [1 Cor 3:6-7]:
(v. 6) "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
(v. 7) So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow."
A) EACH BELIEVER HAS HIS FUNCTION BUT NONE IS ANYTHING TO BE IDOLIZED FOR IT IS GOD WHO MAKES IT ALL PRODUCTIVE AND IS THE ONE TO FOLLOW
[Expositors, cont.]:
"Paul bluntly says, 'I planted the seed' and quickly adds, 'Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.'
[Notice that planting seeds and watering is in view which does not translate into only church planting as some contend. For neither planting nor watering is exclusively limited to church planting or the functions of church leaders. Every believer is involved in planting and watering to the extent of God's sovereignty in the individual's circumstances and the exercise of the individual believer's spiritual gift(s).
The issue is that each believer has his function but it is God Who is sovereign and is the One Who makes the work of the believer productive. He is the focus not any particular believer, be he church leader or otherwise]
IV) [1 COR 3:8]:
"The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor."
A) EVERY BELIEVER HAS ONE OVERALL PURPOSE AND EACH WILL BE REWARDED ACCORDING TO HIS WORKS
Notice that the context does a slight shift here to the purpose of each believer in the church - not just church leaders - being of one accord and 'each will be rewarded according to his own labor.' The subject of rewards has now been interjected - rewards for every believer in accordance with his work.
[Expositors, cont.]:
"Paul teaches that the servants with their various fuctions are really one, being united in God's work (v. 8a)... Though they are one in the work, yet (de) they are individually subordinate to God and responsible to Him Who will reward them according to their faithful labor (v. 8b)"
V) [1 COR 3:9]:
"For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building."
A) BELIEVERS ARE GOD'S FELLOW WORKERS, GOD'S FIELD, GOD'S BUILDING
"For we" continues the context of verse 8 = all believers are God's workers, God's field, God's building, not just a select few leaders.
So we have the imagery of believers sowing and watering seeds in the field, the church to grow fellow believers in the faith. And we have another picture of believers participating as builders helping to build the church, i.e., adding to the number and growing them in the faith.
[Expositors, cont.]:
"Paul concluded (v. 9) that all is of God and that the church ("God's building") is His work. Yet he uses men of different talents and temperaments [not just church planters or leaders, but all believers: planters and waterers] to help him cause the church to grow. They are, Paul says, the spiritual 'field' (georgion) in which God's servants are working."
VI) [1 COR 3:10]:
"By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds."
A) PAUL BY THE GRACE OF GOD LAID A FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH AS AN EXPERT BUILDER
[Expositors, op. cit., p. 207]:
"Paul now discussed how God's servants [all believers] can build the church of Christ. The foundation laid down through the preaching of the cross of Christ (1:18) is always the same - Jesus Christ. The Christian workers bring to it their labor and the spiritual materials they use to build the church upon Jesus Christ. At the end is the payday... when the right kind of work will be rewarded and the wrong kind will be destroyed. The section ends with a declaration that Christians are the temple of God, and a warning that no man destroys this temple, for he will then be destroyed.
Paul views his skill as an expert builder as being possible only through the grace of God. As an expert builder ... one who knew God's plan for the building of His church (Eph 3:7-10), he had laid the doctrinal foundation of 'Jesus Christ and Him crucified' (2:2; cf. Isa 28:16; Acts 4:11; Eph 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6). He acknowledges that others, such as Apollos, also build on this foundation of Christ. Then he gives a warning: Every builder - Paul, Apollos, and whoever works for God - must be careful how he build."
B) PAUL AS MASTER BUILDER OF THE CHURCH DOES NOT CONTRADICT JESUS WHEN HE SAID, "ON THIS ROCK I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH"
1) [Compare Mt 16:16-18]:
(v. 16) "Simon Peter answered 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
(v. 17) Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of John, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in heaven.
(v. 18) "And I also say to you that you are Peter, ('petros'), and upon this rock [the Rock, the foundational truth that Jesus is the Christ is the Son of the living God, v. 16] I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it."
a) THE STATEMENT 'YOU ARE THE CHRIST THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD' RECEIVES THE SYMBOL OF 'PETRA' TO SIGNIFY THAT THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST IS JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF
"and on this rock [= "petra", (fem.) = a foundation stone referring to Peter's statement in verse 16 that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God"] I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."
b) JESUS WILL BUILD HIS CHURCH
[Lewis Sperry Chafer states, in Systematic Theology, vol. 2, Victor Books, Wheaton, Ill., 1988, p. 237]:
"Each of the five words, 'I will build My church' has great doctrinal significance, and the phrase could be quoted each time emphasizing a different word.
In referring to Himself as 'I,' Christ stated that the building of the church is something He undertakes. It is Christ who is calling out, saving, and perfecting this specific company.
The word 'will' shows a prophetic aspect to Jesus' statement, and implies that the church was not in existence at that time and was not the work of Christ while He was on earth but would be realized in the future. This contradicts the thought that the church existed throughout the Old Testament.
The word 'build' suggests that this is a slow process continuing throughout the present age (Eph. 2:20; Heb. 3:6). Though God will use human instruments to proclaim the Gospel, the calling of the church to salvation and the forming of the church into the body of Christ is a work of God not of man. Though God will use human instruments to proclaim the Gospel, the calling of the church to salvation and the forming of the church into the body of Christ is a work of God not of man.
The expression 'My church' points to the distinction between God's work for Israel and His work for the Gentile world. Though God loved Israel (Jer. 31:3), it does not complicate the fact that God also loved the church to an infinite degree (John 13:1; Eph. 5:25). This introductory word of Christ amplified in the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-17) points to the conclusion that the church was a future undertaking to be fulfilled in the present age."
1) [Compare 1 Cor 3:10]:
"By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds."
Paul laid a foundation of the church via his ministry to the Gentiles as an expert builder. Notice "each one should be careful how he builds" refers to believers in general.
Just as a contractor/builder contracts subcontractors to build various portions of a building, and each sub can be viewed as a builder;
so in a similar way, Jesus is the Builder of the Church and utilizes human agents such a Paul, (and all believers), to build various portions of His Church as builders.
So Paul and all believers are builders of the church each in his own way, albeit under the auspices of the sovereignty of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.
