WOOD OR GOLD

8

The Judgment of Believers’ Works (3:10–17)

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.

Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. (3:10–17)

This passage continues Paul’s discussion (1:10–3:23) of divisions within the Corinthian church. But its more immediate background is the Lord’s second coming. Paul shows how worldly and fleshly behavior, and the spiritual division it causes, affects the rewards the Lord will give when He returns. Moving ahead, he discusses the paradox of rewards, with their sureness (since all of us are equally undeserving) and their uniqueness (in that each of us is rewarded individually). Paul affirms both truths, while waiting for glory to bring final resolution to the paradox.

The Lord’s coming to reward His own was one of Paul’s greatest motivations. In a sense, everything the apostle did was motivated by that truth. His objective, within the supreme objective of glorifying his God and Savior, was to prepare himself to stand before the Lord and be able to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful slave” (Matt. 25:21, 23). He wrote the Philippians, “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13–14). It was not that he wanted glory or honor for himself, or wanted to prove himself better than other Christians, showing them up in Christian service. He wanted the Lord’s highest reward because that would be the most pleasing to the Lord Himself, and would most graphically demonstrate his grateful love.

In his second letter to Corinth, Paul mentions three specific motivations he had for doing his best for Christ. First, he wanted to please his Lord: “We have as our ambition,” he said, “whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him” (2 Cor. 5:9). Second, Christ’s great love controlled everything he did (v. 14); his whole ministry was directed by his love of God. And third, he knew that Christ’s work was complete, that “He died for all” (v. 15), and that therefore the ministry of the gospel would always be effective; it could not fail. Jesus Christ had already finished all the work that would ever have to be done for people to be saved.

Paul was not one to do things halfway. When he ran a race or fought a fight, he did so to win—to win the imperishable wreath of His Lord’s reward (1 Cor. 9:24–27). He was not competing with other believers, but against his own weakness, weariness, and sin. Though the particular words had not yet been written, Paul always had before him the knowledge that, “Behold, I [Jesus] am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done” (Rev. 22:12).

In speaking about believers’ rewards, Paul was not talking about our judging works or about God’s judging sin. Because all believers will “stand before the judgment seat of God,” each of us giving an “account of himself to God,” we have no right to judge the work of other believers (Rom. 14:10–12). We do not even know what rewards we will receive for ourselves, much less what another will receive. Both favorable and unfavorable judging are excluded. We do not even have the necessary insight to judge unbelievers in the church, who are tares among the wheat (cf. Matt. 13:24–30). Obviously, we are to rebuke sin and confront the sinning brother (Matt. 18:15–19; 1 Cor. 5:1–13), but that is because we can see such sin. Judging motives and the worthiness of reward is for God, who alone knows the heart.

It is as wrong to highly elevate a person as it is to degrade him. Paul already had warned twice in this letter against such worldly elevation of Christian leaders, including himself (1 Cor. 1:12–13; 3:4–9). We do not know enough about another’s heart and motives and faithfulness—in fact, not enough about our own—to know what rewards are or are not deserved. We should not “go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God” (1 Cor. 4:5).

The subject here is not God’s judgment on sin, either. The “judgment seat” before which all believers will one day stand (Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10) is the Greek bēma, a tribunal. But both of those passages make it clear that the judgment at that place and that time will not be to dispense condemnation for sin but reward for good works, and that it involves only believers. Christ judged sin on the cross, and because we stand in Him we will never be condemned for our sins; He was condemned for us (1 Cor. 15:3; Gal. 1:4; 1 Pet. 2:24; etc.). He took the penalty of all our sins upon Himself (Col. 2:13; 1 John 2:12). God has no more charges against those who trust in His Son, those who are His elect, and will allow no one else to bring charges against them (Rom. 8:31–34). “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). As we will see later, “each man’s praise will come to him from God” (1 Cor. 4:5).

In 1 Corinthians 3:10–17 Paul changes the analogy from agriculture to architecture. He had been speaking of his own planting, of Apollos’s watering, and of God’s giving the growth (vv. 6–8). At the end of verse 9 he makes a transition in his metaphors: “You are God’s field, God’s building.”

Using the figure of a building, Paul discusses five aspects of the work of the Lord’s people on earth: the master builder, the foundation, the materials, the test, and the workmen.

The Master Builder: Paul

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it. (3:10)

Paul himself was the master builder of the Corinthian project. Master builder is one word (architektōn) in the Greek, and, as can be guessed, is the term from which we get architect. But the word in Paul’s day carried the idea of builder as well as designer. He was a combination architect and general contractor.

As an apostle, Paul’s specialty was foundations. Over the years since his conversion, Paul had been used by the Lord to establish and instruct many churches across Asia Minor and in Macedonia and Greece. But lest some think he was bragging, he began by making it clear that his calling and his effectiveness were only by the grace of God that was given to him. That he was a good, wise builder was God’s doing, not his own. He had already declared that “neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth” (3:7). The same truth applied to those who laid foundations and those who built upon them. A few years later he would tell the believers in Rome, “I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me” (Rom. 15:18). His great success as an apostolic foundation layer was due entirely to God. “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Cor. 15:10). He labored and strived by God’s power (Col. 1:29) and claimed no cause to boast, except in His Lord (1 Cor. 1:31). He did not choose to be a builder, much less make himself a builder. He “was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace” and considered himself to be “the very least of all saints” (Eph. 3:7–8). He encouraged people not to laud him (1 Cor. 9:15–16), but rather to pray for him (Eph. 6:19).

In the eighteen months he had worked among the Corinthians (Acts 18:11) he had faithfully preached and taught the gospel and nothing else (1 Cor. 2:2). In that he showed himself to be a wise master builder. Wise (sophos) in this context has to do not only with spiritual wisdom but also with practical wisdom, with skill. Paul knew why he had been sent to Corinth. He was sent to build the foundation of the church there, and that is what he carefully and skillfully did. He had the right motive, the right message, and the right power.

He also had the right approach; he was a master strategist. Though he was primarily the apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15), Paul went to the synagogue to preach first, because the gospel is first of all for the Jews (Rom. 1:16). He also knew that the Jews would listen to him as one of themselves, and that those who were converted could help him reach the Gentiles. The Jews were his best open door, as well as a passion of his heart (cf. Rom. 9:1–3; 10:1). After winning converts in the synagogue, and often being thrown out, he would begin preaching and ministering among the Gentiles in the community (Acts 17:1–4; 18:4–7). He carefully and diligently planned and laid a solid foundation. The footings were deep and would last.

The foundation is only the first part of the building process. Paul’s task was to lay the proper foundation of the gospel, to establish the doctrines and principles for belief and practice revealed to him by God (1 Cor. 2:12–13). It was the task of laying down the mysteries of the New Covenant (cf. Eph. 3:1–9). After he left, another began building upon it. In the case of Ephesus, that person was Timothy (1 Tim. 1:3). In the case of Corinth, it was Apollos. Paul was not jealous of those who followed him in ministry. He knew that, as one who laid foundations, he would have to be followed by other builders. Most of the Corinthians, for example, had been baptized by later pastors. Paul was glad for that, because it gave less excuse for the Corinthians to develop earthly loyalties to him (1:14–15).

He was quite concerned, however, that those who built upon the foundation he had laid would work as faithfully and well as he had worked. Let each man be careful how he builds upon it. The Greek form of the verb builds is the present active indicative, which stresses continual action. All believers go on through their lives and through history building on Jesus Christ.

Each man primarily refers to evangelists, pastors, and teachers, who have continued to build on the foundation laid by the apostles. These are given special and the most direct responsibility for teaching Christian doctrine. Paul later instructs Timothy that men who build should be faithful and capable (2 Tim. 2:2).

But the context makes it clear that a broader and more inclusive application is also in mind. The numerous references to “each man” and “any man” (vv. 10–18) indicate that the principle applies to every believer. All of us, by what we say and do, to some extent teach the gospel. No Christian has the right to be careless in representing the Lord and His Word. Every believer is to be a careful builder. We all have the same responsibility.

The Foundation: Jesus Christ

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (3:11)

Paul was a master builder whose primary task, as an apostle, was to lay the foundation of the Christian gospel. But he did not design the foundation; he only laid it. The only foundation of biblical Christianity is Jesus Christ. The foundation is not New Testament ethics, many of which are found in other religions. Nor is it in the history, traditions, and decisions of churches and church leaders through the centuries. It is Jesus Christ and Him alone. In a sense, it is all of Scripture, for all of Scripture is both from and about Jesus Christ. The Old Testament predicted and prepared for His incarnation. The gospels tell the history of His earthly ministry, and Acts the history of His church in its early years. The epistles are commentaries on His message and work, and the book of Revelation is the final testimony of His reigning and imminent return. What Jesus said of the Old Testament is even truer, if this were possible, of the New: “You search the Scriptures … and it is these that bear witness of Me” (John 5:39).

Some builders have tried to make the foundation of Christianity to be church tradition, others the moral teachings of the human Jesus, others ethical humanism, and still others some form of pseudo-scientism or simply sentimental love and good works. But the only foundation of the church and of Christian living is Jesus Christ. Without that foundation no spiritual building will be of God or will stand.

After the lame man had been healed at the Temple gate and the crowds there were marveling at it, Peter gave them an impromptu sermon. He explained in some detail how Jesus was the One on whom the Old Testament focused and was the only One through whom they could be saved and have eternal life. The priests and Sadducees then had Peter and John arrested and put in jail. On the next day the two men were brought before the high priest and a large group of other priestly leaders and commanded to explain their preaching and the healing. Peter continued his message of the previous day, telling them that it was by Jesus of Nazareth, the One whom they had crucified, that God raised the crippled man, and that this same Jesus, the Stone whom they had rejected, was the cornerstone of God’s kingdom (Acts 3:1–4:12). He was saying that those Jewish leaders could not accept the gospel of the kingdom because they refused to accept the very center, the very foundation, of the kingdom—the Lord Jesus Christ.

Those presumed builders of Israel, of God’s chosen people, tried to erect a religious system of tradition and works, but they had no foundation. They built their religious house on sand (Matt. 7:24–27). The foundation had been revealed in their Scriptures for centuries—by Isaiah and other prophets—but they rejected it, as Peter reminds us again (1 Pet. 2:6–8). Every human philosophy, religious system, and code of ethics is doomed to failure and destruction, because it has no foundation. There is only one foundation, and, no matter how he may try, no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. God’s kingdom is built on Jesus Christ, and every individual life (“each man,” v. 10) that pleases God must be carefully built on that foundation.

The Materials: Believers’ Works

Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw. (3:12)

Ancient buildings were often built with precious metals and jewels. No Christian need worry about the foundation of his faith. That is the marble and granite of the person and work of Christ, secure and stable and perfect. Our concern should be that, whatever we build on this foundation, we build with the best of materials. There is only one foundation, but there are many types of materials for erecting the spiritual edifice. As long as believers are alive, they are building. They are building some sort of life, some sort of church, some sort of Christian fellowship and service. It may be a beautiful structure or a hovel, it may be by intention or by neglect, but it cannot help being something.

From the earliest history of the church in Acts and the epistles, and from the accounts of the seven churches of Revelation 2–3 through today, it has been obvious that Christians and the congregations they form are vastly different. From the beginning there have been gold Christians and wood Christians, silver churches and hay churches, precious stone endeavors and those that are straw—in every degree and combination.

The building materials mentioned in verse 12 are in two categories, each listed in descending order of value. The first category—gold, silver, precious stones—clearly represents high-quality materials. The second—wood, hay, straw—just as clearly represents inferior materials. Gold signifies the greatest faithfulness, the most skillful and careful work done for the Lord. Straw signifies the opposite, the least, the leftovers.

The materials do not represent wealth, talents, or opportunity. Nor do they represent spiritual gifts, all of which are good and are given to each believer by the Lord as He sees fit (1 Cor. 12:11). The materials represent believers’ responses to what they have—how well they serve the Lord with what He has given them. In other words, they represent our works. We cannot be saved by good works or stay saved by good works. But every Christian has been “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10) and is to bear “fruit in every good work” (Col. 1:10). Works are not the source of the Christian life, but they are the marks of it.

Every Christian is a builder, and every Christian builds with some sort of materials. God wants us to build only with the best materials, because only the best materials are worthy of Him, are the most effective, and will last.

It is important to note that these first three materials are equally valuable. There is no grading, since some precious stones (such as pearls) were, in the ancient world, considered to be more valuable than gold, and silver could be used for things that gold could not. Things with different functions can be equally precious (cf. Matt. 13:23).

Only the Lord can determine which works are high quality and which are low. It is not the believer’s role to grade Christians and the work they do. The point Paul is making is that our purpose should always be to serve the Lord with the best He has given us and with full dependence on Him. He alone determines the ultimate value of each man’s work.

If Christ Himself is the foundation of our lives, He should also be the center of the work we build on the foundation. That is, the work we do should be truly His work, not just external activity or religious busy work. It is easy to become deeply involved in all sorts of church programs and activities and projects that are hay work. They are not bad programs or projects, but they are trivial. The wood, hay, and straw are not apparently sinful things, but subtilely sinful things. Each can be useful in building something. Even hay or grass may be used to make a roof in some cases. But when tested by fire, all three of the second group of materials will burn up.

Paul may have had a similar thought in mind in 2 Timothy 2:20–21, where he says, “Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if a man cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.”

We build for the Lord, and use the various materials for the Lord, in three basic ways: by our motives, by our conduct, and by our service.

First, we build by our motives. Why we do a thing is as important as what we are doing. A campaign of neighborhood visitation done because of compulsion is wood, but visiting the same people in love to win them to the Lord is gold. Singing a solo in church and being concerned about how the people like our voice is hay, but singing to glorify the Lord is silver. Giving generously out of duty or pressure from men is straw, but giving generously with joy to extend the gospel and to serve others in the Lord’s name is a precious stone. Work that on the outside looks like gold to us may be hay in God’s eyes. He knows “the motives of men’s hearts” (1 Cor. 4:5).

Second, we build by our conduct. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). “Bad” (phaulos) is here best understood as “worthless.” It produces no gain. Our conduct, therefore, can be “good” (agathos, “inherently good in quality”), evil, or just useless—like wood, hay and straw when tested by fire. So things we do can also be gold or wood, silver or hay, precious stone or straw.

Third, we build by our service. The way we use the spiritual gifts God has given us, the way we minister in His name, is of supreme importance in our building for Him. In Christ’s service, we must seek to be those vessels “for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master.”

Some years ago a young man told me he was leaving a certain ministry. The reason he gave was: “I wasn’t doing what I do best. I was using my abilities but not my spiritual gifts.” There was nothing wrong with the work he had been doing. In fact, for another person it could be gold. But for him it was wood, hay, or straw, because he was doing what others thought he should do rather than what the Lord had particularly gifted and called him to do.

The Test: by Fire

Each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. (3:13)

A new building is usually checked out carefully before it is occupied or used. Cities, counties, and states have codes that require buildings to meet certain standards. God has strict standards for what we build for Him in and with our lives. When Christ returns, every believer’s work will be tested as to quality. Fire is the symbol of testing. Just as it purifies metal, so will the fire of God’s discernment burn up the dross and leave what is pure and valuable (cf. Job 23:10; Zech. 13:9; 1 Pet. 1:17; Rev. 3:18).

As the following verses (14–15) make clear, that will not be a time of punishment but a time of reward. Even the one who has built with wood, hay, or straw will not be condemned; but his reward will correspond to the quality of his building materials. When wood, hay, or straw come in contact with fire they are burned up. Nothing is left but cinders. They cannot stand the test. Gold, silver, and precious stones, however, do not burn. They will stand the test, and they will bring great reward.

The Workmen: All Believers

If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.

Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. (3:14–17)

Two types of workmen correspond to the two categories of materials: the valuable and the useless, the constructive and the worthless. Still another type of workman does not build at all, but destroys.

constructive workmen

Believers who have right motives, proper conduct, and effective service build with gold, silver, and precious stones. They do constructive work for the Lord and will receive corresponding rewards. He shall receive a reward. That simple and hopeful promise is the message of eternal joy and glory. Whatever our service to God’s glory, He will reward.

When a pastor preaches sound, solid doctrine he is building constructively. When a teacher teaches the Word consistently and fully, he is building with good materials. When a person with the gift of helps spends himself serving others in the Lord’s name, he is building with materials that will endure testing and will bring great reward. When a believer’s life is holy, submissive, and worshipful, he is living a life built with precious materials.

The Lord’s reward for all His faithful followers are varied and wonderful, and all of them are imperishable (1 Cor. 9:25). The New Testament refers to them as crowns. “For those who have true saving faith and thus are faithful to live in hope until Jesus comes, there will be ‘the crown of righteousness’ (2 Tim. 4:7–8). Because the faithful proclaim the truth, there is promised a ‘crown of exultation’ (1 Thess. 2:19–20). Because of the service of the redeemed, the reward given is ‘the unfading crown of glory’ (1 Pet. 5:4).” For all who love the Lord there will be “the crown of life” (James 1:12). Each of these is best understood as a Greek genitive of apposition (i.e., the crown which is righteousness, the crown which is exultation, the crown which is glory, and the crown which is life. All refer to the fullness of the believer’s promised reward.

worthless workmen

Many humanly impressive and seemingly beautiful and worthwhile works that Christians do in the Lord’s name will not stand the test in “that day.” It “will become evident” (v. 13) that the materials used were wood, hay, and straw. The workmen will not lose their salvation, but they will lose a portion of any reward they might be expecting. They shall be saved, yet so as through fire. The thought here is of a person who runs through flames without being burned, but who has the smell of smoke on him—barely escaping! In the day of rewards, the useless and evil things will be burned away, but salvation will not be forfeited.

It is easy to fool ourselves into thinking that anything we do in the Lord’s name is in His service, just as long as we are sincere, hardworking, and well meaning. But what looks to us like gold may turn out to be straw, because we have not judged our materials by the standards of God’s Word—pure motives, holy conduct, and selfless service.

We should be careful not to waste our opportunities by building with worthless materials, for if we do we will become worthless workmen. Paul warned the Colossians, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind” (Col. 2:18). When we rely on human wisdom, or even supernatural visions, rather than God’s Word, we are carnal, following a “fleshly mind.” We can be sure that any doctrine or principle or practice developed from such fleshly sources will at best be worthless.

destructive workmen

The third group of workmen obviously is made up of unbelievers, because God will never destroy those He has redeemed and given eternal life. It is composed of evil, unsaved people who attack God’s people and God’s work. That destructive group can work either from within or without the church, destroying what God has built up.

Every believer¹

3:5–9. Here Paul sought to temper their overinflated view of their church heroes. The key to the success of Apollos and Paul was the Lord who gave opportunity to each one (v. 5). Paul used the imperfect tense in the phrase, was causing the growth (v. 6), to emphasize God’s role in their progress. But he also used aorist verbs (planted; watered) to understate the significance of the human servants, a point made explicit in v. 7. Paul and Apollos were one (v. 8), probably a reference to sharing the same level of relative (un)importance for the church’s development. They have a similar status, but will receive distinct rewards (reward means “payment earned for work one has completed”). Serving God to gain eternal rewards is a legitimate motivation, and neither Jesus nor Paul discouraged it (Mt 5:12, 46; 6:1, 4; 1Co 9:17; Rv 22:12). Part of Paul’s and Apollos’s similar status (v. 8a) included them being fellow workers employed by God (not “they both work alongside God as He works”). God is the employer, the owner of the farm and the building.

3:10–15. Those who worked on constructing God’s building (the church; v. 9) will be held accountable for it. Paul attributed his ministerial success to God’s grace (“exceptional effect produced by [God’s] generosity,” roughly synonymous with God’s power; cf. BDAG, 1080) (v. 10). A master builder (architekton) was both a building’s designer and construction supervisor. Paul laid the right foundation, Jesus Christ (v. 11), but he warned the strident leaders at Corinth to be careful about how they built on it. Gold, silver, precious stones (v. 12) in the context of 1Co 1–4 refers to ministry that produces harmony. Wood, hay, straw refers to practices that lead to personal aggrandizement and widespread disunity. In the day of the Lord following the rapture of the Church, God will demonstrate that He is aware of those negative influences (v. 13) and will evaluate them negatively. Fire serves as a symbol of God’s judgment that consumes what is not acceptable to Him (cf. Zch 13:9). Those whose toil resulted in strife will be saved (v. 15), but barely (yet so as through fire describing a narrow escape from some catastrophe). He or she will suffer loss of rewards. The reward (v. 14) probably includes expanded opportunities to serve Jesus with profound satisfaction in a glorious setting (His kingdom), and hearing the commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (see the comments on Mt 25:21, 23; 1Co 4:5). Cf. the comments on Rm 14:10–12; 2Co 5:10, and James Rosscup, Paul’s Teaching on the Christian’s Future Reward, with Special Reference to 1 Corinthians 3:10–17 [Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Aberdeen, 1976], 464–465.²

1 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1984). 1 Corinthians (pp. 77–86). Chicago: Moody Press.

2 Vanlaningham, M. G. (2014). 1 Corinthians. In The moody bible commentary (p. 1780). Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.

EAT SOLID FOOD

7

Carnal Christians (3:1–9)

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. (3:1–9)

In his book The New Life Michael Green reports that a friend of his came to him and explained his new-found Christian life in words something like these: “It is rather like a cyclist who, when he is climbing a long hill, thinks he will be able to freewheel down the other side. It is not until he reaches the top that he sees that his task has only just started and that the road winds on with even steeper hills than the one he has just climbed.”

Many Christians have come to the same conclusion. Faithful Christian living becomes increasingly more difficult and more demanding. It is the furthest thing from a downhill ride. Christ does solve all of our important problems. He does bring peace, joy, meaning, purpose, and many other blessings of which the unbeliever knows nothing. But the Christian life is not easy. In many ways living is far more demanding than before we were saved.

How is this so? How—when we have God’s own Spirit within us, the mind of Christ, and the power of God—could it become more difficult to do what is right, to do what our Lord wants us to do? There are two reasons: the world and the flesh. The first is outside us, the second is inside us. They are Satan’s supreme instruments in tempting believers and keeping them from faithfulness and victory.

The promise of the New Covenant in Christ is the promise of a new spirit and a new heart (Ezek. 36:25–27). When a person becomes a Christian he also becomes a new creation, with a new nature, a new inner being, and a favorable disposition toward God—none of which a person can have apart from Christ (2 Pet. 1:4; 2 Cor. 5:17). From that point, until the Lord takes him to be with Himself, he is swimming upstream. Like a salmon returning to spawn, he discovers that gravity and the current are continually against him. His new heart drives him in an entirely different direction from that of the world around him.

The church has often thought of worldliness only in terms of dancing, alcoholic drinking, and the like. But worldliness is much deeper than bad habits; it is an orientation, a way of thinking and believing. Basically it is buying the world’s philosophies, buying human wisdom. It is looking to the world—to human leaders, to influential and popular people, to neighbors, associates, and fellow students—for our standards, attitudes, and meaning. Worldliness is accepting the world’s definitions, the world’s measuring sticks, the world’s goals.

The second great obstacle Christians face is the flesh. In fact, it is the flesh that produces the bridge the world uses to reach us. When we are given Christ’s divine nature, our flesh is not removed. That will not occur until we are glorified (Rom. 8:18–25). Until then the flesh continually resists and opposes the new heart. Paul tells about the struggle in his own life:

For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.… For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.… For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind. (Rom. 7:15, 19, 22–23)

When we were born physically we inherited from Adam the flesh with its propensity to sin. When we were born spiritually and given a new spirit, a new heart, God broke the back of sin, crippled its ability, and paid its penalty. But the tendency to evil remains. The one word that best characterizes the flesh, our humanness, our Adamic nature, is selfish. The sin of Adam, like the sin of the tempter when he fell (Isa. 14:13), centered on setting his own will and interests against God’s; and that has been the center of sin ever since.

The world and the flesh are closely related. They are used by the same power, Satan, and they serve the same purpose, evil. They complement each other and are often hard to distinguish. But it is not necessary to precisely distinguish between them, because both of them are spiritual enemies, and both must be fought with the same weapons—God’s Word and God’s Spirit.

Our ultimate triumph over the world and the flesh is certain, but our continued struggle with them in this life is also certain. We will win the ultimate battle, but can lose a lot of skirmishes along the way.

The Corinthian believers had an especially hard struggle against those twin enemies, a struggle which they seldom won. They would not break with the world or break with the flesh and were continually succumbing to both. Consequently they fell into one serious sin after another. Almost all of this epistle has to do with identifying and correcting those sins.

The sin of division was closely related to numerous other sins. Sins are always interrelated. There is no such thing as an isolated sin. One sin leads to another, and the second reinforces the first. Every sin is a combination of sins, and a sinning believer cannot confine the evil to one dimension.

From 1:18 through 2:16 Paul points out that the Corinthians were divided because of worldliness, because of their continued love for human wisdom. In 3:1–9 the apostle shows them that they also were divided because of the flesh, because of their continued yielding to the evil in their humanness. He shows the cause, the symptoms, and the cure.

The Cause of Division: the Flesh

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. (3:1–3a)

The cause of division in the church was more than an external, worldly influence. It was also internal, fleshly. The Corinthians had succumbed to the pressures of the world, but they were also succumbing to the pressures and enticements of their own flesh.

Before Paul chastises them for their immature sinfulness, he reminds them again that he is speaking to them as brethren, as fellow believers. That is a term of recognition and of love. It reminded his brothers in Christ that they were still saved, that their sinning, terrible and inexcusable as it was, did not forfeit their salvation. He did not try to diminish the seriousness of their sins, but he did try to diminish or prevent any discouragement that his rebuke might otherwise have caused. He stood with them as a brother, not over them as a judge.

But Paul could not speak to the Corinthian believers as spiritual men. They had come through the door of faith but had gone no farther. Most of them had received Jesus Christ years earlier but were acting as if they had just been born again. They were still babes in Christ.

The New Testament uses the word spiritual in a number of ways. In a neutral sense it simply means the realm of spiritual things, in contrast to the realm of the physical. When applied to men, however, it is used of their relationship to God in one of two ways: positionally or practically. Unbelievers are totally unspiritual in both senses. They possess neither a new spirit nor the Holy Spirit. Their position is natural and their practice is natural. Believers, on the other hand, are totally spiritual in the positional sense, because they have been given a new inner being that loves God and is indwelt by His Holy Spirit. But practically, believers can also be unspiritual.

In 2:14–15 Paul contrasts believers and unbelievers, and his use of “spiritual” in that context refers, therefore, to positional spirituality. The “natural man” (v. 14) is the unsaved; “he who is spiritual” (v. 15) is the saved. In the positional sense, there is no such thing as an unspiritual Christian or a partially spiritual Christian. In this sense every believer is equal. This spiritual is a synonym for possessing the life of God in the soul, or as we saw in 2:16, having the mind of Christ.

A positionally spiritual person is one with a new heart, indwelt by and controlled by the Holy Spirit. “You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Rom. 8:9; cf. v. 14). When we trust in Jesus Christ, His Spirit takes charge of our lives and remains in charge until we die. He will control us to His own ultimate ends, whether we submit or not. “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). Our resistance and disobedience can cause many unnecessary detours, delays, and heartaches, but He will accomplish His work in us. “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6).

Practically, however, believers may be anything but spiritual. Such were the Corinthian Christians. Paul addressed them as brethren, but he made it clear that he had to speak to them on the lowest possible spiritual level. He had to speak to them as if they were men of flesh.

Men of flesh (sarkinos) is literally “fleshy ones.” In this context it refers to man’s fallen humanness, his Adamic self—his bodily desires that manifest rebelliousness toward God, his glorying in himself, and his proneness to sin. As mentioned above, the flesh is not eradicated when we are saved. It no longer can ultimately dominate or destroy us, but it can still greatly influence us. That is why we yearn for the redemption of the body (Rom. 8:23). Glorification, in one sense, will be less of a change than justification. Justification was transformation of the inner being; glorification is the elimination of the outer being, which bears the curse.

So a Christian is not characterized by sin; it no longer represents his basic nature. But he is still able to sin, and his sin is just as sinful as the sin of an unbeliever. Sin is sin. When a Christian sins, he is being practically unspiritual, living on the same practical level as an unbeliever. Consequently Paul is compelled to speak to the Corinthian believers much as if they were unbelievers.

Perhaps somewhat to soften the rebuke, he also compares them to babes in Christ. It was far from a compliment, but it did recognize that they truly belonged to Christ.

The Corinthian believers were spiritually ignorant. Paul had ministered to them for eighteen months, and after that they were pastored by the highly-gifted Apollos. Some of them were acquainted with Peter and others apparently had even heard Jesus preach (1:12). Like the “babes” of Hebrews 5:13, they had no excuse for not being mature. Yet they were exactly the opposite. They were not babes because they were newly redeemed, but because they were inexcusably immature.

The Corinthians were not unintelligent. Their problem was not low iq or lack of teaching. They were not ignorant of the faith because they were dumb, but because they were fleshly. The cause was not mental but spiritual. Because they refused to give up their worldly ways and their carnal desires, they became what James calls forgetful hearers (James 1:25). A person who does not use information will lose it; and spiritual truth is no exception. Spiritual truths that we ignore and neglect will become less and less remembered and meaningful (cf. 2 Pet. 1:12–13). Nothing causes us to ignore God’s truth more than not living it. A sinning Christian is uncomfortable in the light of God’s truth. He either turns from his fleshly behavior or he begins to block out God’s light. Only when we put aside “malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander”—that is, the flesh—are we able to “long for the pure milk of the word” and “grow in respect to salvation” (1 Pet. 2:1–2).

I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. (3:2–3a)

When Paul first preached to the Corinthians he taught the more easily digestible elementary truths of doctrine, the milk. But now, some five years later, they still needed to be fed milk. They could not yet spiritually digest solid food.

Like many Christians today, the Corinthians seemed quite content to stay on milk. Some congregations do not want the pastor to get “too deep.” Their fleshly habits are not much threatened if, for instance, the preacher sticks primarily to evangelistic messages. Evangelism is the cutting edge of the church’s mission, but it is for unbelievers, not believers. Or the congregation wants Scripture to be preached so superficially that their sin is not exposed, much less rebuked and corrected.

There is no difference at all between the truths of a spiritual milk diet and a spiritual solid food diet, except in detail and depth. All doctrine may have both milk and meat elements. It is not that we are to be continually learning new doctrines in order to grow, but that we are to be learning more about the doctrines we have known for years. A new Christian might explain the atonement, for example, as, “Christ died for my sins.” A long-time student of the Word, on the other hand, would go into such things as regeneration, justification, substitution, and propitiation. One explanation would not be truer than the other; but the first would be milk and the second, solid food.

For a Christian preacher or teacher to give only milk week after week, year after year, is a crime against the Word of God and the Holy Spirit! It cannot be done without neglecting much of the Word and without neglecting the leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit, the supreme Teacher and Illuminator. It is also a terrible disservice to those who hear, whether or not they are satisfied with having only milk. The appetite must be created.

Nothing is more precious or wonderful than a little baby. But a twenty-year-old with the mind of an infant is heartbreaking. A baby who acts like a baby is a joy; but an adult who acts like a baby is a tragedy. It doubtlessly grieved the Holy Spirit, as it grieved Paul, that the Christians in Corinth had never gotten out of their spiritual infancy. This tragedy is immensely worse than that of the physically or mentally retarded, who have no responsibility for their conditions. Spiritual retardation, however, is always primarily our own doing. We may not have the best human preacher or teacher, but every believer has the perfect Teacher within, who longs to instruct him in the things of God (cf. 1 John 2:20, 27). If we do not grow spiritually, the reason is always that we are still fleshly.

The believer’s growth times are those times when he walks in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16–17). It is essential to understand that carnality is not an absolute state in which a believer exists (Rom. 8:4–14), but a behavior pattern he chooses one moment at a time. To say it another way, a Christian is not fleshly in the sense of being, but in the sense of behaving.

The Symptoms of Division: Jealousy and Strife

For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men? (3:3b–4)

Immature, fleshly Christians are never the result of deficient spiritual genes or of a spiritual birth defect. They are the way they are by their own choices. One of the worst and most disappointing problems the church can have is a congregation full of babes, Christians who are not growing because they seek to fulfill fleshly appetites.

Because self-centeredness is at the heart of fleshly behavior, jealousy and strife are always found in an immature congregation. Jealousy is the attitude, and strife is the action that results from it. One is the inner emotional condition, the other the outward expression of selfishness.

Those two problems, however, are merely representative of the many symptoms of the flesh. Sinful desire is like cancer; it has many forms and affects many parts of the church in many ways—all of them destructive. Carnality is a general evil that has many manifestations. It will corrupt morals, weaken personal relationships, produce doubt about God and His Word, destroy prayer life, and provide fertile ground for heresy. It will attack right doctrine and right living, right belief and right practice.

Jealousy and strife are not the least of the symptoms of fleshly living. Those sins are more destructive than many Christians seem to think. They are far from being petty sins, because, among other things, they cause division in the church, Christ’s body, for whom He gave His life. They are among the surest marks of fallen humanness, just as unity is one of the surest marks of divine transformation.

Jealousy is a severe form of selfishness, begrudging someone else what we wish were ours. And selfishness is one of the most obvious characteristics of babyhood. An infant’s life is almost totally self-centered and selfish. Its whole concern is with its own comfort, hunger, attention, sleep. It is typical of a young child to be self-centered, but it should not be typical of an adult, especially a Christian adult. It is spiritually infantile to be jealous of and to cause strife among fellow believers, and it betrays a fleshly perspective.

Division can only occur where there is selfishness. Fleshly, immature people cooperate only with those leaders and fellow believers with whom they happen to agree or who personally appeal to them or will flatter them. Factions cannot help resulting where there is jealousy and strife, or any other form of carnality. When a congregation develops loyalties around individuals, it is a sure symptom of spiritual immaturity and trouble. It was sinful for factions to develop around Paul and Apollos, and it is sinful for divisive factions to develop around any leader in the church today. Are you not walking like mere men? is another way of saying, “You are thinking and behaving in a fleshly way.”

The Cure for Divisions: Glorifying God

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. (3:5–9)

The cure for division is turning away from self and setting our eyes on the one God whom we all glorify. When our attention is focused on our Lord, as it always should be, there will be no time and no occasion for division. When our attention is on Him it cannot be on ourselves or on human leaders or human factions.

Apollos and Paul were simply the servants through whom you believed. They were the instruments, not the source, of salvation. As Paul had reminded them earlier, he had not died for them and they were not baptized in his name (1:13). The same was true, of course, for Apollos and Peter, as it is true for all other ministers of the Lord of all time. All Christians, including even such men as those, whom the Lord used so mightily, are but His servants (diakonoi), or ministers (KJV). It is not the same word (doulos) often translated “servant, slave, or bond-servant” (7:21–23; Rom. 1:1; etc.), but simply meant a menial worker of any sort, free or slave. It was often used of a table waiter or what we would now call a busboy.

Paul was saying in effect, “No one builds a movement around a waiter or busboy, or erects monuments to them. Apollos and I are just waiters or busboys whom the Lord used as servants to bring you food. You do not please us by trying to honor us. Your honor, your glory, is misplaced. You are acting like the world, like mere men. Build your monuments, give your praise to the One who prepared the spiritual food we delivered.”

The world honors and tries to immortalize great men because men are the highest thing it knows. The world cannot see beyond itself. But Christians know God—the Creator, the Sustainer, the Savior, the Lord of the universe, and the Source of all things. He alone is worthy of honor. We are but His servants, His instruments. If an artist is to be honored, you do not make a statue of his brush or his palette. It makes no more sense for Christians to glorify men, even a Paul or an Apollos, who are only brushes or palettes in the Master’s hands. Such are to be esteemed and loved for their work (1 Thess. 5:12–13), but not revered or set against each other.

Those men had their God-appointed work to do. Using agricultural metaphors, Paul acknowledged that he had planted and that Apollos watered. They had done their work well and faithfully. But the real work was the Lord’s. God was causing the growth. No man, not even the best farmer or the best horticulturist, can give physical life or growth to a plant. How much less can anyone, even an apostle, give spiritual life or growth to a person. The most that men can do in either case is to prepare and water the soil and to plant the seeds. The rest is up to God. Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. The human instrument is not anything but a tool. All the honor for the accomplishment goes to God.

Paul here mentions only two types of ministry, represented by planting and watering. His principle, however, applies to every type of ministry. In our eyes, some Christian work is more glamorous, or seems more important or more significant than other work. But if God has called a person to a work, that is the most important ministry he can have. All of God’s work is important. To glorify one kind of Christian work above another is just as carnal and divisive as to glorify one leader above another.

Our Lord’s parable in Matthew 20:1–16 demonstrates the equality of our ministries in the day of rewards. Jesus gave the parable as a corrective to the disciples’ feeling that they were more worthy than others (19:27–30). We will all equally inherit the promised eternal life, with all its blessings. That is the sameness of future glory.

He who plants and he who waters are one. All of God’s workers are one in Him, and to Him all glory should go. Recognition of our oneness in the Lord is the sure and only remedy for divisiveness. It leaves no place for the flesh and its jealousy, strife, and division.

God does not fail to recognize the faithful work of His servants. Each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. God will “give their reward to [His] bond-servants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear [His] name, the small and the great” (Rev. 11:18). That is the uniqueness of future glory.

God rewards on the basis of labor, not success or results. A missionary may work faithfully for 40 years and see only a handful of converts. Another may work far fewer years and see far more converts. Jeremiah was one of God’s most faithful and dedicated prophets, yet he saw little result of his ministry. He was ridiculed, persecuted, and generally rejected along with the message he preached. Jonah, on the other hand, was petty and unwilling, yet through him God won the entire city of Nineveh in one brief campaign. Our usefulness and effectiveness are purely by God’s grace (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10).

It is appropriate that God’s faithful servants be appreciated and encouraged while they are on earth. But they are not to be glorified, set apart, or made the center of special groups or movements.

Paul and Apollos were but God’s fellow workers. It was not their own ministry that they worked in, but His. What divine companionship! It was God’s church in Corinth, not Paul’s or Apollos’s or Peter’s. The believers there were God’s field, God’s building, and His alone. And the glory for any good work done there, or anywhere, is also His alone.

Over lunch, several friends were discussing a church we all knew about which was so wracked with internal strife that it had become common knowledge in the community. Some members, who had no stomach for a fight, were drifting into neighboring churches. Those who remained were being pushed by the opposing groups to take sides, and the affair was becoming very unpleasant. The issue that had precipitated such a furor was the changing of the job description of the organist, who had been there for years and had built a small empire in her area of work. She had developed great skill in using a loyal following as a power base for budget, program, and calendar advantages. So when a special lay committee brought a report to the congregation suggesting a slight change in her duties, she took it as a personal rebuke and declared war. Since none of us were having to deal with the situation, most of us agreed with the one who said, “That doesn’t sound like a big enough problem to split a church.” Then one of the group reminded us of a truth that is too easily forgotten: “Any problem that has to be dealt with by people who are spiritually immature can divide a church, no matter how small it may appear.”

Later, as I reflected upon the conversation, I realized how true that statement was. During the years I’ve been a Christian and a church member I’ve seen divisions created by who was going to play the piano, who would chair a certain committee, or over something as trivial as moving a Sunday school class from one room to another. I have also seen churches face with great spiritual maturity radical change in the community, new and different leadership, and every kind of hardship and seem to become stronger and more united. In this chapter the apostle Paul ties the partisan spirit that is dividing the church to the failure of the members to grow up spiritually.

Spiritual Immaturity Divides

3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. ² I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; ³ for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

⁴ For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?

—1 Corinthians 3:1–4

In the third chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, while Paul is about to say some pretty devastating things to them about their spiritual condition, he shows that he does view them as fellow Christians by calling them “brethren.” In chapter two, Paul had indicated that one reason he had not come to them with a philosophical approach was that true wisdom was divine in origin and not human. In this chapter he suggests that the reason he has not shared more of the divine wisdom with them is that they have not been spiritually mature enough to receive it.

Many of us think that the controlling factor in what we learn is the knowledge and ability of our preacher or teacher. Paul is suggesting that the spiritual immaturity of the Corinthian Christians had limited what he was able to teach them. I once heard a speaker say, “A great audience makes a great speaker.” At the time I really didn’t understand what he meant, but I’ve come to realize the truth in the statement. Whether one is preaching to a church, teaching a class, or talking to just one person, what is communicated is controlled by the interest, experience, understanding, and spiritual maturity of the listener.

The two terms that Paul used to describe them were “carnal” and “babes in Christ” (3:1). As Paul used the words, they mean the same thing. To be carnal means not to be spiritual. They had received the Spirit, but their lives were still being controlled by their old nature. To be “babes in Christ” meant that they had truly experienced new birth, but that instead of having begun to grow up and mature they had remained in a state of spiritual infancy. In this condition they were neither able to cope with the adult problems that confronted them nor receive mature teaching from Paul about God.

In a renewal conference the leader gave each participant several pipe cleaners and instructed them to spend several minutes thinking about where they were spiritually in their lives and then to shape the pipe cleaners into something which symbolized their condition. When the time for the activity was over, each person was given a chance to tell a small group what he or she had made and how it symbolized his or her own spiritual condition. I was especially moved by a middle-aged man who had made a cradle. He explained it with a tone of shame and regret: “I’m a Christian who has never grown, so I thought this cradle best told the story.” This was the condition of most of the Corinthian Christians, and it created a tremendous obstacle to Paul’s leadership with them.

There is nothing wrong with being an infant or a child. Each week in my last church I had the joy of doing a sermon for the children in kindergarten and the first three grades. I had an old yellow rocking chair at the front of the church sanctuary, and at a certain time in the morning worship the children came and sat on the floor in front of me for “their sermon.” It lasted less than two minutes and had only one very simple idea. As a means of catching and holding their interest, I usually had a picture or some object in my hand. But there were many subjects and ideas that were “off limits” to them because of their limited capacity. I did not resent this because it is natural for children to have the understanding of children. But if when they are grown physically and intellectually and have been Christians for many years, they still have only the child’s capacity for understanding, I know they will not be able to function as God wants them to. This was Paul’s problem in Corinth and, to some degree, it is the problem of many churches today.

The analogy in which Paul contrasts the different types of spiritual food was very popular with other biblical writers. In 1 Peter, new Christians are urged, “like newborn babes, [to] long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Pet. 2:2). These words assume the naturalness of spiritual milk for spiritual babies as a way to stimulate growth. But the author of Hebrews is dealing with a Corinthian-like situation when he writes:

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food” (Heb. 5:12). Like Paul, he concludes that “solid food belongs to those who are of full age” (Heb. 5:14). Throughout the New Testament “milk” is used to mean that first preaching of the Good News of Jesus Christ. It is the message of the evangelist and the missionary that calls for a response of repentance and faith. It is the first and very important word.

In the same way “meat” is understood to symbolize that teaching which moves beyond our conversion and expands the implications of the gospel to every area of life. In a conversation we had, Billy Graham said, “I envy the work of the pastor. I’m called to preach the gospel and to ask for that first decision for Christ. But the pastor has the privilege of relating all the teachings of the Scripture to that convert as he grows.” Dr. Graham was making the same distinction the biblical writers made.

Through the years of my ministry I have been haunted by the number of people who take the first step of faith and fail to move on to spiritual maturity. If Paul were giving leadership to the church today, there would probably be many who felt that his ABC’s were too deep for them. But while each Christian must accept some responsibility for how he or she responds to growth opportunities, I feel there are certain factors that contribute to the inordinate number of immature Christians. A flawed theology of evangelism will fill the church with “babes in Christ” who are unaware of the need to develop beyond where they are. An anemic understanding of the biblical idea of discipleship will present Christian growth and development as an option and not as a requirement. And a total preoccupation with the numerical growth of the church has been known to have resulted in a neglect of the spiritual growth of the church members.

Now, for Paul at Corinth it was easy to tell who was spiritual and who was carnal: Where there was a spirit of love and unity they were spiritual and where there was strife and jealousy they were carnal. This is a much better system for judging maturity than many people use today. We have a tendency to equate being spiritual with how people talk or with the activities in which they participate. But Paul tied spiritual maturity not to activities but to character and attitude where the Spirit of God was creating in Christians the fruits of the spirit (“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control,” Gal. 5:22–23). The person with these qualities could then be called spiritual. Conversely, when jealousy and strife were a part of a person’s life, which was the situation in Corinth, then the “deeds of the flesh are evident” (Gal. 5:19). In these definitions of spiritual and carnal, Paul cuts through all the superficial human definitions and applies true wisdom.

When we don’t grow, several things happen, all of which are bad. First, we lose sight of the real goal that Christ has for us, and that is to become spiritual persons. Then, we look a lot like people who are not Christians. Lostness and spiritual infancy look a lot alike. Finally, both the individual and the church suffer. Prolonged immaturity creates self-doubt, an extended dependence on leaders, and a bridge for sin in the life of the individual. It is only as we do grow that we are able to face adult problems, minister to others, and overcome temptation¹

1 Corinthians 3:1–4 (NKJV)

Sectarianism is Carnal

3 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. ² I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; ³ for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? ⁴ For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?

The Family—Maturity (1 Cor. 3:1–4)

Paul already explained that there are two kinds of people in the world—natural (unsaved) and spiritual (saved). But now he explained that there are two kinds of saved people: mature and immature (carnal). A Christian matures by allowing the Spirit to teach him and direct him by feeding on the Word. The immature Christian lives for the things of the flesh (carnal means “flesh”) and has little interest in the things of the Spirit. Of course, some believers are immature because they have been saved only a short time, but that is not what Paul is discussing here.

Paul was the “spiritual father” who brought this family into being (1 Cor. 4:15). During the eighteen months he ministered in Corinth, Paul had tried to feed his spiritual children and help them mature in the faith. Just as in a human family, everybody helps the new baby grow and mature, so in the family of God we must encourage spiritual maturity.

What are the marks of maturity? For one thing, you can tell the mature person by his diet. As I write this chapter, we are watching our grandson and our granddaughter grow up. Becky is still being nursed by her mother, but Jonathan now sits at the table and uses his little cup and (with varying degrees of success) his tableware. As children grow, they learn to eat different food. They graduate (to use Paul’s words) from milk to meat.

What is the difference? The usual answer is that “milk” represents the easy things in the Word, while “meat” represents the hard doctrines. But I disagree with that traditional explanation, and my proof is Hebrews 5:10–14. That passage seems to teach that “milk” represents what Jesus Christ did on earth, while “meat” concerns what He is doing now in heaven. The writer of Hebrews wanted to teach his readers about the present heavenly priesthood of Jesus Christ, but his readers were so immature, he could not do it (note Heb. 6:1–4).

The Word of God is our spiritual food: milk (1 Peter 2:2), bread (Matt. 4:4), meat (Heb. 5:11–14), and even honey (Ps. 119:103). Just as the physical man needs a balanced diet if his body is to be healthy, so the inner man needs a balanced diet of spiritual food. The baby begins with milk, but as he grows and his teeth develop, he needs solid food.

It is not difficult to determine a believer’s spiritual maturity, or immaturity, if you discover what kind of “diet” he enjoys. The immature believer knows little about the present ministry of Christ in heaven. He knows the facts about our Lord’s life and ministry on earth, but not the truths about His present ministry in heaven. He lives on “Bible stories” and not Bible doctrines. He has no understanding of 1 Corinthians 2:6–7.

In my itinerant ministry, I have preached in hundreds of churches and conferences; and I have always been grateful for congregations that wanted to be enlightened and edified, not entertained. It is important that we preach the Gospel to the lost; but it is also important that we interpret the Gospel to the saved. The entire New Testament is an interpretation and application of the Gospel. Paul did not write Romans, for example, to tell the Romans how to be saved—for they were already saints. He wrote to explain to them what was really involved in their salvation. It was an explanation of the “deep things of God” and how they applied to daily life.

There is another way to determine maturity: the mature Christian practices love and seeks to get along with others. Children like to disagree and fuss. And children like to identify with heroes, whether sports heroes or Hollywood heroes. The “babes” in Corinth were fighting over which preacher was the greatest—Paul, Apollos, or Peter. It sounded like children on the playground: “My father can fight better than your father! My father makes more money than your father!”

When immature Christians, without spiritual discernment, get into places of leadership in the church, the results will be disastrous. More than one brokenhearted pastor has phoned me, or written me, asking what to do with church officers who talk big but live small. (In all fairness, I should say that sometimes it is the officers who write asking what to do with an immature pastor!)

The work of the pastor is to help the church grow spiritually and mature in the Lord. This is done by the steady, balanced ministry of the Word. Ephesians 4:1–16 explains how this is done: It is necessary for each member of the body to make his own contribution. God gives spiritual gifts to His people, and then He gives these gifted people to the various churches to build up the saints. As the believers grow, they build the church.

Paul will have more to say about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12–14, but this should be said now: A mature Christian uses his gifts as tools to build with, while an immature believer uses gifts as toys to play with or trophies to boast about. Many of the members of the Corinthian church enjoyed “showing off” their gifts, but they were not interested in serving one another and edifying the church.

What is the ministry all about? It involves loving, feeding, and disciplining God’s family so that His children mature in the faith and become more like Jesus Christ.²

1 Chafin, K. L., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1985). 1, 2 Corinthians (Vol. 30, pp. 47–51). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

2 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 577–578). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.