And I, brethren,
could not speak to you
as to spiritual
people but as to carnal,
and as to babes in
Christ.
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;
for you are still carnal.
For where there are
in the, strife, and divisions
among you, are you
not carnal and behaving
like mere man?
1 Corinthians 3: 1 --
3
Paul had just written that as Christians we are to have the
mind of Jesus Christ. Anything that
would make cause for us to act in exercise our brave outside of the mind of
Jesus Christ is to not be spiritually mature.
It may mean that as a baby in Christ we have been feeding him far too
long on melt and have not been given even junior food, or meat. Apparently, the Corinthian's fall into the
former as babes in Christ and are spiritually ignorant as to what it means to
be in the mind of Christ. Paul mentions
that they were still carnal, and this carnality exercised by envy, strife, and
divisions occurring among the Corinthian church. Paul mentions what some of those divisions were: "For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’
and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not carnal" (1 Corinthians 3: 4)? How often is it that we find ourselves
following the teachings and even the doctrines of certain men who seem on the
face of what they say to be teaching what is the mind of Christ. When examined according to scripture and
with Scripture, we find that they are teaching the wisdom of men and are very
much up for by the present-day culture.
All sounds good: and yet, it is not good. The Corinthian seem to have done the unthinkable by aligning
themselves with certain man rather than aligning themselves with our Savior
Jesus Christ. Paul then goes on to
teach the Corinthian's and us by asking questions: "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom
you believed, as Lord gave to each one" (1 Corinthians 3: 5)? God gave these men to be ministers of him
and to teach them the truth about him and the way they should live their
lives. The Corinthian's as has many
people throughout history began to believe in the person more than in the
message. Paul then explains what it
meant to be a minister for the Lord Jesus Christ: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase" (1
Corinthians 3: 6). Too many
preachers and teachers think that they are the ones that are causing the
increase of believers and Paul explains that it is not by being a minister that
increase in Christianity occurs. All by
God and by His decision and by and for His purpose is there any increased for
it is by Him that there is an increase.
God calls, died in Naples, and God gives really the gift of faith so
that a person may believe a word of God when it is spoken to him. Man has only one purpose as Paul explains: "So neither he who plants is anything,
nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will
receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are Gods fellow workers; you are Gods field, you are gods
building" (1 Corinthians 3: 7 -- 9).
Let us not forget this very important doctrine. All men, including all Christians, will give
an account for every word and every action before our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ when He comes again to take home his children and to remove all those
who are sinners. What are ministers of
God to do in their preaching and teaching:
"According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master
builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one takes he how he builds on
it. For no other foundation can anyone
lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3: 10
-- 11). Are you reading this
carefully? Each one of us must take
care on how we build upon the foundation that is Jesus Christ. We do not add to scripture anything that
"smacks" of the culture of this world that is in contradiction to the
mind of Jesus Christ. There is no other
foundation than the foundation that is built upon Jesus Christ. It is the gospel message and how that
message is to be applied in our daily lives, exercised in the various
circumstances that we face that we teach others so that they are living in
exercising their lives by the mind of Jesus Christ. Paul then gives us a warning if we are not following this metric: "Now if anyone builds on this
foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s
work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be
revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it
is" (1 Corinthians 3: 12 -- 13).
Paul mentions of various elements and covers all the bases that would be
destroyed if a person's work is not built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. Paul then gives some great encouragement: "If anyone's work which he has built
on it endures, he will receive a reward" (1 Corinthians 3:14). Won't it be grand to stand before the Lord
Jesus Christ on the last day when he comes to judge all things and hear him say: "His Lord said to him, ‘Well done,
good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will
make you ruler over many things. Enter
into the joy of your Lord’" (Matthew 25: 23).
But the LORD is the true God;
He is the
living God
and the everlasting King.
At His
wrath the earth
Will tremble, and the nations
will not be
able to
endure His indignation.
Jeremiah
10: 10
Praise God: He teaches us the truth
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