April 28. 1 Corinthians 3. Morgan Holland

The Call to Unity

This entire chapter is Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthian church to not be led by men in a way that they should be led by Christ. When Paul first planted the seed in Corinth and watched people come to Christ, he fed them with “spiritual milk”, as they were too immature spiritually for “solid food”. Solid food, according to Hebrews 5:14, is “for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil,” while spiritual milk is for those who are “unskilled in the word of righteousness” (Hebrews 5:13). The Corinthians were giving in to worldliness! They were much more concerned about which mortal man’s teachings they were following than they were concerned about being unified by the word of righteousness. 

Satan is very crafty. It can be so easy to look at those within our own fellowship that we deem as pillars, great teachers, or even simply strong examples of the faith, and instead of worshipping the Spirit of God that caused him or her to speak, worshipping the person. This can come out in a variety of ways! If you only serve because a certain brother or sister asks you to, or if you give because a specific person suggested it, this might be a great opportunity to ask yourself, “am I doing this for the glory of this disciple, or am I doing this for the Glory of God?” Maybe you have determined that the region of the church you are in is better than other regions because of the evangelist leading your region. Does this cause division in your heart against the other brothers or sisters of our fellowship? These are helpful questions to ask as we strive to move on towards unity!

Paul brings another point into this passage as he speaks to the work that he and Apollo were doing in an effort to help the church in Corinth grow. The emphasis though, is on “help” the church grow, as Paul says neither he nor Apollo made them grow; “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth,” (v 7). Paul mentions that he laid the foundation of Christ, and others will come in and build upon that foundation, even though “no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ,” (v 11). However, no one that comes and builds on the foundation has the power to make them grow; they can water and tend to the church, and only God has the ability to help them grow.