Here is a teaching on chapter 3 of the book of 1 Corinthians. If you want to check out previous Bible studies and chapters from now on, join our group here. Once you get added to that Facebook group, you can go to the "units" tab and see all the chapters and their study guides as they are being taught.
I did want to say a quick prayer... LORD, I pray that You lift up every person reading this right now. Please open up our eyes, our ears, our hearts, and our minds to You LORD. Please help us to see the truth, know the truth, discern the truth, and live by the truth. Please give us knowledge and understanding to know exactly what it is that we are reading and the wisdom to implement it in our daily lives. LORD, I can't thank you enough for every single thing that you've done. I am beyond grateful for you. I love You with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen.
1 Corinthians Chapter 3:
1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?
5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Alright, so I am going to stop right there and discuss these verses with you guys here. So just like we saw in our Bible study from chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians that there were divisions in the church, and we see this again here in verses 1-4 of chapter 3. Paul is telling these people that they are still worldly because there is jealousy and quarreling among them. These people are not acting spiritual and like they have the Holy Spirit within them, they are just acting like mere men and arguing with each other about things that really don't matter. Paul and Apollos are not the ones that they should be following, but Jesus Christ is the only one that we should follow.
In verses 5-7, Paul and Apollos are only servants of Jesus Christ. They had a task to spread the gospel and let other people know about Jesus so that they may be saved and go to heaven also. We can see in chapter 18 of the book of Acts about Paul going to Corinth but also about Apollos. He was a native of Alexandria and he came to Ephesus. Apollos taught about Jesus accurately but he only knew the baptism of John. So when Priscilla and Aquila met Apollos in Ephesus after Paul had left them, they invited Apollos into their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. So Paul and Apollos were both only doing the things that the Holy Spirit had led them to do. Paul had planted the seed for the people in Corinth, and Apollos had watered it, but God was the one that made it grow. Paul and Apollos were only servants of God. God the Father and Jesus Christ our Savior, that's the only ones we should be following. It doesn't matter who told us about Jesus Christ or who spread the gospel. Jesus Christ, believing in Him, and having a relationship with Him and God the Father, are the most important things. Following Christ is the only thing that matters. We are nothing without Jesus and Paul says this in verse 7. God is our Creator, He is everything, and nothing is possible without Him.
In verses 8-9, we all have a purpose that God gives us and we have to stay faithful to the calling that God has placed in our hearts. We will be rewarded when we stay faithful and do the things that God calls us to do. We are servants of Christ and we are workers for God. We all have a mission on this earth and a purpose that God has given us. We have to stay faithful to the calling that He has placed on our hearts and we have to let other people know about Jesus Christ and spread the truth of God's words to them in hopes that they may be saved and go to heaven also when it's their time to go.
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10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
Alright, those are all of the verses of chapter 3 of the book of 1 Corinthians, but I'm going to discuss these verses with you guys here. In verses 10-11, Jesus Christ is our firm foundation, so Paul laid the foundation of Jesus by spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in Corinth. In Luke chapter 6 verses 46-49, we can see about the wise and foolish builders and the teaching of Jesus Christ about the man building his house on the rock. The rock is Jesus Christ, He is our firm foundation and we have to build our life on Jesus.
In verses 12-15, we can't build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ with worldly and materialistic things. We have to spread the gospel of Jesus to others, let the Holy Spirit guide us, pray, teach others, and learn the truth of God's words, study the Bible, worship God, follow God, and seek to live and have a heart like Jesus. We are going to face hardships in this world, there are going to be trials and tribulations, we are going to be refined by fire, and we have to build our life on our firm foundation Jesus Christ and on heavenly things. We cannot be conformed to this world, give in to the temptations of the world, and be conformed by our worldly desires and materialistic things. We have to stand firm in our faith and build our lives on Jesus and on heavenly things. If someone builds on their house with these temporary and materialistic things and they are truly saved by Jesus, they themselves will be saved through the testing, the fire, the refining, and all of that. But they are going to suffer a huge loss because we have to build with heavenly things. We have to stay in constant prayer, let the Holy Spirit guide us, seek to live and have a heart like Jesus, and stay in a constant relationship with Christ.
In verses 16-17, when we are saved we have the Holy Spirit within us and we are a new creation in Christ. We have to take care of our bodies and fill our minds and our hearts with good and heavenly things and ask God to reveal the fruit of the Spirit in our hearts and portray that to others. We are God's temple. We, as believers of Jesus Christ, our bodies are God's temple and so anyone that destroys God's temple, God is going to destroy them. God is our Protector, our Provider, our Creator, and we are His children. We have to stand firm in our faith and not be afraid of anyone or anything because we have the Almighty by our side. We have to fill our hearts, minds, and bodies with good and heavenly things, look towards Jesus and seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
In verses 18-23, we can only receive wisdom from God. So if anyone thinks that they are wise by human standards then they will become a fool because our wisdom comes from God. Just like we saw in our Bible study from chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, even the foolishness of God is wiser than any wisdom from man. His ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts, and we can only attain wisdom from God. The 2 verses that are quoted here in verses 19-20 are from Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11. So we shouldn't boast about people and how much they know and how wise they are. There are people that seem like they know everything there is to know about everything. They may be very persuasive, knowledgeable, and intelligent, and they can make a lot of people think that they know more than they actually do but we can't boast about those people. We can't want to follow those people. We as believers of Jesus Christ follow Jesus and our wisdom comes from God. We are in Jesus Christ and that is the best thing. We have to continue to just stay in a relationship with Christ, seek Him, follow Him, worship the LORD, pray to Him, obey His commands, and spread the gospel of Jesus in hopes that others may be saved and go to heaven also.
1 Corinthians Ch 3 Study Guide
How are these people in the church of Corinth still worldly?
What task did Paul and Apollos have?
What are the only things that matter in this world?
Why is it important to stay faithful to the calling that God has placed on your heart?
What should we build on our lives with?
Where can we receive wisdom? Why?
Should we boast about other people? Why or why not?
What are your biggest takeaways from this Bible study?
So that concludes this Bible study on chapter 3 of the Book of 1 Corinthians. Next week we're going to go into chapter 4 so make sure that you stay tuned for that.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights