1 Corinthians 3

Paul has been writing to the Corinthian church about the deep truths of the life to come, things about which “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined,” things that “God has prepared for those who love him.” People need to be “spiritual,” Paul says, if they are to appreciate that kind of teaching. Yet, he contends, the Corinthians have not been spiritual. They have been people of the flesh, filled with earthly-minded impulses. The evidence he points to is their jealousy and strife that has led to serious divisions within the church. This is not consistent with true heavenly-mindedness. They have formed factions within the body of Christ based on their associations with ministers like Paul or Apollos.

Paul and Apollos have each had their gifts. Paul came as a pioneer missionary to the city, beginning in the synagogue, then moving on to the Gentiles, and staying many months in that place where he laid a solid foundation of Christian teaching and living. When Paul moved on from there, Apollos continued the ministerial work in that church. Paul planted, and Apollos watered, but only God could give the growth, and He did. Ministers are servants of the Lord, but God is the one who grants faith and life to His beloved children.

These men, Paul and Apollos, would have the appropriate rewards from God for what they each did. Paul did his part in building up the temple of people in that place. Apollos added to that good foundation. What would happen after they left? No one could guarantee that future ministers of the word would continue to be faithful to God’s word. God will judge the labors of every minister. There is something of a trial by fire coming in the final judgment. Some may teach useless fables with a Christian veneer. Those kind of ministerial labors are potentially destructive of the church in any place or time. The temple of people that ministers build needs to be made of precious metals and valuable stones as the people of God are helped to believe and live as those who have been claimed by the blood of Christ. Only Christ and His true body will be able to stand the judgment that is coming against the world. If we build up the church with fluff, like a temple built of wood, hay, and straw, our labors will be destroyed in the Day of the Lord. The coming judgment of the church will reveal the fruitfulness of the true man of God.

This right vision of the ministry is one that is built on the singular stone of Christ. True gospel labors are Christ-focused endeavors. Every other teaching is useless for the salvation of sinners, no matter how much rhetorical flourish or fascinating argumentation fills the itching ears of an adoring audience. If it is not the mind of Christ that we are receiving, it will not stand the judgment that is coming. This is the only way that any minister will be acknowledged as faithful and fruitful: with his words and his life he must serve up the glories of Christ to a hungry and needy assembly of worshippers.

But there have been far too many who have treated the church of the Lord Jesus Christ with strange contempt. They have introduced odd teaching of secret spiritual knowledge (like the 2nd century Gnostics), or useless moralism and legalism (like the Pharisaic Jews who rejected Christ as the Messiah and clung to their traditions), or man-centered feel-good messages (like any number of supposed teachers of the word who decided at some point in their ministries to give people the practical self-help messages for which they were clamoring).

Inspirational talks or mysterious religious secret-code messages are useless in building up the body of Christ. The only things they are good at doing is demolition and misdirection. They stand in the way of those who would learn of the true Messiah. If a true believer pursues this kind of ministerial effort, he himself may be saved, but he will have almost nothing to show for his years of sermon-crafting.

God’s temple is not our playground. We do not get to decide to build a house of horrors there or to set up a monkey bar set where the preaching of the word should be. This is God’s temple. As far as our new ideas with no basis in the Scriptures, it would be best to let all mortal flesh keep silence.

Any boast in men or in the methods of a world of consumerism is an attack against the One who gave His blood for His bride, the One who reigns at the right hand of the Father in heaven. He will not be impressed with our boasting in ourselves, for He has freely offered His life in submission to His Father. Everything belongs to God. Everyone who would come to God must do so through this Christ. He is the only way to secure a future that will last, and to live in a hope that will be our possession when this life is past. We must have Christ. To preach any other intriguing message is a distraction to all who long to be found in Him, and a delight only to people of the flesh who are addicted to the decay all around us that will surely perish.