Paul’s disappointment with the church of Corinth is palpable. He spent a year and a half of his life nurturing the budding church, she had the best teachers of the day coming to preach, Paul himself made return visits and wrote regularly and despite all this attention the people remained divided and immature in their faith. What more could he do? What else could he say? Pastors of modern churches take note, Paul knows your pain. Where Paul contrasts Christianity with the world’s wisdom in 1.18-2.16, he now contrasts mature believers (“servants”) with immature believers (“mere men”). Only the immature would consider the servant to be of greater importance than the master. In this case, Paul, Apollos, and the rest should not be considered above the rest of the body in greatness or importance. In fact, why consider the servants at all? Only God is worthy of such merit.

Paul will make two illustrations of this point. The first is an agricultural illustration that is used in most every discussion regarding evangelism. Paul may plant, Apollos may water, but God alone is the master of fates and will cause growth to occur. The servants who do the work are nothing, only the one who controls the seasons and the crops is of significance. Not that their labor is without reward, for they enjoy the crops that result, but it is only because of God that there are any crops at all. Paul explains the comparison in verse nine: “You are God’s fellow workers” (just as Paul and Apollos are), “and you are God’s field.” Paul combines their roles in the illustration now. As the gospel grows in them, they are part of the harvest that God’s servants enjoy. Yet, as the gospel continues to grow in them, they become responsible to plant seeds themselves.

And this ought to be the end of verse nine, but unfortunately the NIV muddles the translation. The Greek is much clearer. The operators that apply to God’s field, apply equally to God’s building and should be translated that way. Verse nine should read: “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are Gods field.” Then verse ten would read, “You are also God’s building. 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.” This construction makes the transition of his first illustration to his second much smoother.

The second illustration is, obviously, of a construction project. The foundation for this project is the gospel itself, and we are responsible for building our lives upon it. Verse 12 tell us that the materials we use will greatly effect the longevity of the buildings existence. Judgment day will be like a fire that sweeps across the earth, and only those structures that were built well and of good materials will hold up under the fire’s intense heat. Should one build themselves as one builds a temple to God, they will use gold, silver and costly stones. Such materials are impervious to fire. If a man builds himself as one builds a home for themselves, they will use temporal materials such as wood, hay or straw; when the fire of judgment comes nothing will be left of that place! Paul is careful to point out in verse 15 that both men are saved, but one will be rewarded for his forward planning while the other will lose everything he built in life.

In case they missed it in the analogy, Paul spells out clearly in verse 16 that a Christian is God’s temple. We must be careful not to destroy God’s temple. This passage, incidentally, is not teaching that one who commits suicide will lose their salvation. There is nothing that mortal man can do to overcome the blood that Jesus spilt for us on Calvary. Rather, our life’s work, that which some say flashes before our eyes before death, is utterly destroyed. We enter heaven naked, without anything to show for our years of living in Christ. That life is destroyed.

Paul now brings the passage together, from 1.10 through 3.23 everything has been related. If one is living by worldly wisdom without Christ, he is as good as dead. Why then should those who are in Christ still follow the wisdom of such men? Rather, follow the wisdom of God, though it appears foolish to unregenerate man. Follow not the wisdom or the teachers of this age, but follow Christ, in whom we all share.

In Paul’s illustration of our lives as a building, he carefully points out that though we may build differently, we are all building on the same foundation. What foundation does the unregenerate man build his life upon? The world’s foundation appears solid enough. We move in wrecking cranes to attempt to destroy the arguments for abortion, for evolution and for secular humanism, and amazingly their buildings still stand. Why? I suggest it is because we are using the wrong equipment. The world has strengthened the walls of their philosophies, they are well fortified structures. Further, they hold all the cards. They largely control the news media, the education system, and entertainment industries. No wrecking crane we construct will demolish their arguments. Perhaps we are using the wrong tools to destroy their arguments. Perhaps instead of a wrecking ball, we should use a garden hose. As we soak their foundation of sand their arguments will fall and wash away. Truly, one must consider carefully how he builds!

Though the application of Paul’s illustrations are many, one that is most striking for the modern church is the use of worldly ideas in church offices. Just as Paul criticized the church of Corinth for living according the worlds wisdom, perhaps we too commit the same error. How many of us follow the teaching of Mormon Stephen Covey and his Seven Habits for Effective People? How many churches forsake Christian leadership for worldly management models found nowhere in Scripture? This is not to say there is no value in these things, only that what little value they have comes from materials they stole from our construction crew. Many of them steal ideas from the Bible, though they deny the Bible’s authority. Why do we follow such men, when we have God’s perfect Word that is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the believer is thoroughly equipped (2 Timothy 3.16).

Tradition unfortunately divides these verses from those that follow with a chapter marker. Contextually, the first five verses of chapter four belong with the last few verses of chapter three. Beginning in 4.6 Paul will bring to conclusion the issue of division within the church, and turn to addressing disorders within the church. But these first five verses conclude the discourse of the previous chapter. This is evident both from the subject matter of these verses coinciding with chapter three, the change of attitude between verses five and six (five being connected to his line of reasoning, verse six beginning an explanation that is the start of his concluding the matter of divisions), as well as the clear textual association brought from the opening of chapter four, “So then…” which we also see in 3.21.

In 3.21 Paul comes back to the mere men once again, this time not only to command them (“no more boasting about men!”), but also to encouraging them (“all things are yours”). He does this by informing them that the true gospel belongs to Christians everywhere, regardless of who the messenger is. As he did at the beginning of chapter three, Paul does again at the start of chapter four, though with a meaningful twist. In 3.5 Paul identifies himself and the other apostles as servants, or slaves, not worthy of being put on the pedestal the Corinthians had placed them on. In 4.1 Paul again says “men ought to regard us as servants of Christ,” but this “servant” is not the same word as used in chapter three. The word used in chapter three, diakonoi, is someone who waits on the needs of another; the word in chapter four, uʼphretaσ, is quite different as it is describes the assistant to a high official.

This distinction is important to our understanding of Paul’s reasoning. In his work with the Christians of Corinth he was a slave, in his work for the gospel he is an administrative assistant to God who has entrusted him with the gospel (that is the “secret things of God” as defined in 2.7-.10). Since he claims such a position, he must prove faithful to it. To whom must he prove faithful? Not to the Corinthians, nor to Rome, or even to his own conscience, but to God! For this reason, Paul exhorts them to neither raise up their spiritual leaders (3.5), and to not judge and cast aside their leaders since they serve God’s interest (4.1-.5). Rather, believers are to not judge their leaders harshly, but to await God’s judgment to be made clear for or against them. When will God do this? “At the appointed time,” appears to indicate Judgment Day, the day every hearts motives will be exposed. This concludes Paul’s discourse on the treatment of leaders; next he will conclude his discussion on divisions with warnings.

Paul’s trouble with the Corinthians stemmed from the church’s reluctance to give up worldly value systems. This reluctance caused them to chose church leaders based on worldly principles, to augment Scripture with worldly wisdom, and to believe they had already attained perfect sanctity rather than recognizing their need for maturity. These problems caused divisions among the churches that appeared along Greek and Jewish philosophical lines. Paul concludes his discourse with a series of four warnings:

• Ignore all wisdom and teaching except the Bible (4.6-.7)
• Expect Suffering and Hardship (they cause growth and maturity, .8-.13)
• Obey and live like their spiritual fathers (.14-.17)
• Expect discipline from their spiritual fathers when necessary (.18-.21)

Paul’s point is clear: divisions will be replaced with unity when the Corinthians stop exalting themselves. Let us turn to an examination of each of these warnings. tomorrow.