1 Corinthians 3:5-9

Butler's Comments

1 Corinthians 3:5-9 Builders: All Christians are workers in God's fieldbuilders on God's building. What are apostles? Workers, like every other Christian. They may have gifts from God diverse from ours to equip them for the special job to which God called them, but they are still only workers. Paul calls himself and Apollos servants (Gr. diakonoi, deacons, table-waiters). The apostles were merely messenger-boys, delivering God's revelation to mankind. They were sent into the world of the first century to serve, not to be served. Paul was a planter (Gr. ephuteusa) and Apollos was a waterer (Gr. epotisen) in God's field, God is the owner of the field and the Master of the servants. Everyone else is a planter, waterer, cultivator, or a reaper. Some are sent to sow and some to reap (John 4:36-38). Neither one is more important than the other. Since not even one apostle is superior to another, partisan loyalty to one human servant of God or another which creates jealousy and strife is senseless.

The Greek tenses in 1 Corinthians 3:6 point to an interesting emphasis. The verbs used for planted and watered are aorist tense while the Greek verb for gathering (euxanen) is imperfect. Aorist means a single action completed in the past, while imperfect shows continuous past action. It could be translated thus: At one time in the past Paul planted in Corinth, and later Apollos watered there; but God was making growth occur all along during that time. It is also of importance to notice in 1 Corinthians 3:7 that the strong adversative conjunction in Greek, the word alla, puts emphasis on the contrast. 1 Corinthians 3:7 might be translated He who plants is nothing, he who waters is nothing, but (alla) God who is giving growth (Gr. auxanon, present participle) is everything. One planted, some watered, and each was the same as the other-nothing without God for their labors produced only because God made it to be so!

1 Corinthians 3:8 is a reaffirmation of what Jesus taught in the gospels. All Christian servants are equalthey are all servants. Each servant will receive his wages according to faithfulness. Servants do not receive wages according to amount produced for producing is God's doingGod gives the increase. The servant is responsible only to faithfully use the tools over which he has been given a stewardship. The servant is not responsible for the amount of the crop.

Paul wants to discuss with Corinth the problem of pride as a factor contributing to the schismatism in the church. The attitude of servanthood is part of the answer to division in the church. Involvement, increased work-load or busyness will not produce Christian unity. There can only be real unity when Christians are emptied of self and willingly take the form of servants (Philippians 2:1-11).

1 Corinthians 3:10-11 Boss: The apostle uses two figures of speech (1 Corinthians 3:9) to illustrate the work of ministering the gospel. It is farming and building. Paul called the Corinthian Christians God's field (Gr. georgion, from which we get the name George, and the word farmer) and he called them God's building (Gr. oikodome, house, edifice). Paul called himself a masterbuilder working along with his co-laborers erecting God's building, the church. The Greek word architekton is the word from which our English word architect originates. However the use of the word by the ancient Greeks indicates the word had a wider application than our English word architect. Literally the word comes from, arche, master, superiorand tekton, artificer, skilled craftsman. In the context of this chapter Paul exhorts Christians, Let each man take care how he builds.. The ministry of the gospel demands the best skill in selection and use of building materials. Paul refers to his own extreme care, as if he were a master technician, using precisely and exactly the right material for the foundation of the church in Corinth. Paul used Jesus Christ and him crucified as the foundation.

But the main thrust of this passage is that Paul used the material he was told to use by the Boss (God). Paul writes, According to the grace given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation.. The RSV translates, According to the commission of God given me.. but the Greek word is charin which is translated grace or gift. Of course, Paul often refers to his being called by God to be an apostle (a builder of God's church) using the word grace (see Romans 1:5; 1 Corinthians 15:10; 1 Timothy 1:12-16, etc.). What Paul is stressing here is that he exercised all the skill he had to follow the orders (or instructions) of God who was gracious enough to employ him as a builder on His building.

Immature, spiritual babies were not ready to really add to the building of God in Corinth which Paul had begun. Paul's foundation was the sure and solid rock of God's revelation that Jesus was the Christ. That was what God told Paul to lay as a foundation for the church. Paul did not vary from the instructions of the Boss. Ignorant (1 Corinthians 10:1) and unskilled (in the revelation of God) Christians must not disregard the divinely revealed Word (blueprint) of the Owner concerning the building of the church. All Christians who wish to involve themselves in building the Lord's church must train themselves (see Hebrews 5:11-14), lest they attempt to lay a foundation other than Jesus as the Christ, or lest they build upon that foundation with unenduring materials.

There is only one foundation upon which the church is builtJesus as the only Anointed of God (and all that implies as to Jesus-' deity), (see Matthew 16:13-19; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:4-8). To try to build on any other foundation is vain (cf. Psalms 127:1). Actually, God laid (past tense) his Son, the Messiah-Servant, as the foundation of his new covenant people (the church) long before Paul was born. God laid the promises of the Servant as the foundation in the Zion of the Old Testament (see Isaiah 28:16; Psalms 118:22-23; Matthew 21:42). The Jews, for the most part, rejected Jesus as the Messiah and thus rejected the foundation-stone of God. The very foundation-stone God sent became a stone of destruction falling upon those who rejected him!

1 Corinthians 3:12-17 Building: Paul had laid God's foundation. Apollos had continued to instruct the new converts. Now, some of the Christians of the congregation in Corinth were beginning to teach and lead in building the church. But it was evident to Paul that care was not being taken in their building. They were producing disciples who were jealous, indifferent to immorality in the church, bringing litigations against one another in pagan courts, careless about marriage, uncaring about weaker brethren, disrespectful in the corporate worship of the church and toward God ordained structures of human authority, both prideful and envious in the matter of supernatural gifts, teaching confusion about the bodily resurrection, and slack in matters of Christian stewardship. The teaching leadership of the Corinthian church was constructing God's building with weak and unendurable material. They were not building up Christian people who had strong, self-disciplined, servant-minded faith in Christ and his Word.

There are two classes of building materials (disciples, Christians); fireproof and flammable. Some Christians will be able to stand the scorching heat of persecution and testing while others will wither under it and die (cf. Matthew 13:5-6; Matthew 13:20-21). Paul's main concern in this exhortation is the ability of the Corinthian Christians to withstand the fiery trials which were coming upon the whole first-century world of Christendom (see 1 Corinthians 7:26; 1 Peter 2:20-23; 1 Peter 4:12-13). John the apostle writes in the book of Revelation about the great tribulation coming upon the Roman Empire of the first and second centuries. Christians had been put to the fires of testing ever since the Day of Pentecost when the church was begun (see Acts of the Apostles). And physical or economic hardships are not the only forms of testing the Christian must prepare to meet. There is also the seductiveness of fleshly self-indulgence and the deceptiveness of false religious teaching.

A day of testing comes to every follower of Jesus, in every age. The word hemera, Greek for day, is not capitalized in the Greek text, although it is preceded by the definite article. That, however, does not necessarily mean he hemera (the day) is pointing to the final Judgment Day of God. The Old and New Testament both have many references to specific, past, historical judgments of God upon the earth and use the term, day of the Lord or, the day of the Lord. Many days of testing (in fact every day) are in the Christian's life. Paul is probably referring to a specific era of testing (perhaps the Neronian persecutions or those later under Domitian).

Paul was concerned from the reports he had received of conditions in the Corinthian church that many of the Christians there were wood, hay and stubble as far as their spiritual substance was concerned. Paul knew that Christians then faced an impending distress. Their spirituality was about to be proven (Gr. dokimasei, tested) or disproven by some fire (Gr. pyri). Paul comes back to this subject of testing and temptation for the Corinthian Christians in chapter ten where he uses the tragic story of the Israelites in the wilderness as a case in point. Some of the Christians at Corinth will withstand the impending distress and others will be consumed.

The trials of the Christian life (whether persecution or temptation) will prove not only what the material (disciple) is, but it will also prove how careful the builder (teacher) has been with the material. The day will disclose each teacher's work! Temptations, trials and tests of faith are very revealing. Every preacher, Sunday School teacher, Christian parent, elder, deacon, and Bible college teacher who has ever sown the seed of God's word anywhere will have his work tested. Fires of persecution and temptation are so certain to come Peter chides Christians for being surprised, or acting as if these fires were something strange (1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 4:12-13). It was predicted that the Messiah would bring the fires of testing to mankind (cf. Zechariah 13:9; Malachi 3:1-5). Jesus himself said he came to cast testing-fire upon the earth (Luke 12:49). God will not have any person built into his church as a living stone who has not been tested. The wood, hay, stubble kind of disciple is illustrated by Jesus in his parable of the soils and the rocky ground which has no root in itself so when the scorching heat of tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word immediately he falls away; or in the thorny ground which lets the word be choked out by the cares of the world and the delight in riches. The gold, silver and precious stones kind of disciple is like the good ground of the parable or one who hears the word and holds it fast in an honest and good heart bringing forth fruit with patience (see Matthew 13:1-23; Luke 8:4-15).

Thoughtless building, using shallow and superficial materials (as some teachers at Corinth appear to have been doing) will program the structure for demolition when the inevitable fires of testing come. But there will be reward for the worker in God's farm or God's building who builds with depth and discipline. Such a worker's materials will survive (Gr. menei, remain)they will not perish in the scorching pressures of temptation and trial. Paul's reward or crown was seeing his converts survive (see Philippians 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). The apostle John expressed the same joy that his converts were remaining true to Christ (cf. 2 John 1:4; 3 John 1:3-4). The teacher who uses superficial materials will suffer the loss of this reward but he will be saved even if his part of the building (disciples) cannot survive the fiery trials. Even the best teachers cannot be sure those whom they teach and to whom they give their best will withstand temptation and persecution. Jesus lost Judas as well as many thousands of disciples who left him and followed him no more (cf. John 6:66 ff.). Paul lost Demas (2 Timothy 4:10). John lost Diotrephes (2 John 1:9). The seven churches of Asia Minor lost members (Rev. ch. 2-3). However, the teacher's own salvation does not depend on the faithfulness of his disciples, but on his own faithfulness to Christ. Every teacher will face trials and hardships, discouragements and heartaches. The teacher, too, must go through the fire. He will be saved only if he is built of enduring material. The teacher, also, is a part of God's building, having been built into it by someone else. Every human being will survive God's testing-fires according to his own faith. No one will be condemned for someone else's lack of faith. Some may be saved and experience joy that others they pointed to Christ were saved also. And some may be saved and experience loss that those they pointed to Christ refused to be saved.

The honest and sincere builder (teacher) will be saved, even if some of his material (pupils) does not endure the testing. But the one who deliberately takes up the work of wrecking God's building will most certainly be destroyed. In this context, the entire church is being called God's temple (see also Ephesians 2:19-22). This is not a reference to the individual Christian as in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, and it should not be used as such. This refers to the jealous and striving brethren at Corinth who were quarreling (1 Corinthians 1:11-17) and dividing the church into separate parties following human leaders. There is no excuse for separating the local, or universal, church of Jesus Christ into factions following human leaders or using human names. Not even the name of Christ may be used to separate oneself from anyone else who is sincerely trying their best to be obedient to Christ's teachings. The only reason by which a Christian may justify separating himself from one who claims to be a follower of Jesus is deliberate, demonstrable, provable false teaching or licentious living. Even then such separation must have as its goal the reclamation of a brother or sister straying from Christ, (2 Thessalonians 3:14; 2 Corinthians 2:5-11; 1 Corinthians 5:3-5).

God will not tolerate those who wreck his church by willful division. One must be either a builder or a wrecker. There is no middle ground. Every man or woman either gathers with Christ or scatters (Matthew 12:30). All people fall into one of two categories: either a citizen of God's kingdom making every effort to build it, or an alien enemy trying to destroy it. How terribly awesome is the sin of those who rebelliously and deliberately perpetuate divisions among believers in Christ. Division is perpetuated when unscriptural doctrine is wilfully perpetuated; when party-spirit or partiality is perpetuated; and when legalism is perpetuated. For further study of Christian unity see Learning From Jesus, by Seth Wilson, College Press, pgs. 412-430.

Applebury's Comments

The Relation of Paul and Apollos to the Church (5-9)

Text

1 Corinthians 3:5-9. What then is Apollos? and what is Paul? Ministers through whom ye believed; and each as the Lord gave to him. 6 I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: but each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God's fellow-workers: ye are God's husbandry, God's building.

Commentary

What then is Apollos?The Corinthians had made men (Apollos and Paul are mentioned to illustrate the point) heads of the parties that divided the church. But what had God intended men to be in relation to His church? Ministers through whom ye believed. There is no possible suggestion in this term that God approved the claim of the Corinthians to belong to Apollos or to Paul or to any other man. The human tendency is to strive for greatness by exalting one man above another. Christ, however, showed that the way to true greatness is the way of humility and service. He said, the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). The word which He uses in this statement is the verb form of the word deacon. For Paul and Apollos to be called ministers or deacons of Christ was all the honor a faithful servant of Christ could ask for. Brethren expresses the relation between members of the church; deacon expresses the relation to Christ of those who are engaged in performing a service under His direction.

It should be noted that Apollos who was not an apostle was called a minister (deacon) just as Paul was. The tendency of some to make a distinction of rank between the elder and the deacon violates this principle. Both of these terms refer to functions to be performed under the Lord and not to rank. Note that the apostle Peter, in addressing the elders, calls himself a fellow-elder (I. Pet. 1 Corinthians 5:1).

God gave the increase.As God servants, men are under obligation to do His will, but it is God who gives the increase to their efforts. God gives the increase when the Word is planted by faithful preaching and teaching. Paul, who first preached the gospel at Corinth, is likened to the one who sows the seed. Apollos, who followed him and taught the new converts, is likened to the one who did the irrigating. Each did the work the Lord gave him to do, and God gave the increase. There is, therefore, no occasion for strife, jealousy, and division over any man. Let the glory be given to God; let Christ and His Word be exalted in the church; then will the sin of division that is causing the church to be like babes in Christ be overcome.

Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.That is, they are one thing: ministers or deacons of Christ. And as ministers, each is to receive the reward for faithfulness to the Lord.

For we are God's fellow-workers.Paul and Apollos were fellow-workers who belonged to God. Since they were partners, there was no reason for anyone to say, I belong to Paul or I belong to Apollos.

ye are God's husbandry, God's building.The field and the building are God'S. The church belongs to God, not men. Since the workers also belong to God, why divide the church over them?