THURSDAY
1 Corinthians 3:1–23 (ESV) 3 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. 18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 21 So let no one boast in men. For 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 Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
Paul isn’t saying that we shouldn’t assess the truth of the teaching we receive. His second letter to the Corinthians deals with the “false, super apostles” (2 Cor. 11:5) who were leading the people astray. In 1 and 2 Timothy he largely exhorts Timothy to discern the truth of others’ teaching. Jesus tells us to judge a tree by its fruit (Matt. 7:15-20). The writings of Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 are in the context of minute differences between genuine ministers of the gospel. Peter, Paul, and Apollos were all teaching the gospel but likely differed on things like style and emphasis.
We do the same thing the Corinthians were doing. When we identify more with our denomination than with Jesus, we are doing the exact thing they were doing. “I’m Lutheran” essentially means, “I follow Martin Luther.” “I’m Catholic” essentially means, “I follow the pope.” “I’m Methodist” essentially means, “I follow John Wesley.” This is one of the reasons I like being nondenominational. We just identify with Jesus. But we do this within Evangelicalism as well. We all have our favorite teachers that we can easily begin to identify more with than we do with Jesus. This immaturity leads to a lot of jealousy and strife, divisiveness and disunity in the church.
It seems to me that God is currently purging the Western church of this immaturity. I’ll share my brief story as an example. Early on in my faith, I latched on to the teaching of certain gospel ministers. A good number of them have since had moral failings that have disqualified them from ministry. Their falling forced me to reexamine my allegiances. I had placed them and their teaching on too high a pedestal and failed to give God the credit he deserved for the growth. Now I have a much healthier relationship with the teaching I receive from other gospel ministers. I thank God for the grace he has given them to teach. I know that it is only God who gives the growth, so to him be the glory for any fruit from their teaching.
Obviously, this affects my ministry as well and how you should view me as your pastor. I am only called to obey what God has called me to do and trust him to give the growth. I cannot be dependent on human wisdom to design the perfect discipleship strategy, for only God gives the growth. This isn’t to say we don’t work at creating good discipleship strategies, but whatever fruit that comes from my ministry is due to God giving the growth. I don’t depend on my oratory ability to make disciples. I preach the gospel and depend on God’s power through the Holy Spirit to convict hearts and draw people to Jesus. This doesn’t mean I don’t work on my sermon but it means I spend more time making sure that my sermons are teaching the truth of God’s Word than I do on making sure that they are entertaining and perfectly illustrated. You need the truth of God’s Word preached and the power of the Spirit far more than you need entertainment and a good illustration.
The application of the building metaphor is also extremely relevant today. I recently was in a discussion with church leaders who were deciding what to do with an individual whose teaching was dividing their church community. The division was largely over doctrinal differences that, I would say, all fit under the umbrella of Christian orthodoxy. Yet, the individual’s posture was very divisive in how he taught his theology. I pointed the leaders to this passage as a comfort. Jesus will judge the truth of this issue in the end. If it’s straw, it’ll be burned up and this individual’s reward will be lessened. If it’s gold, it’ll be revealed as such and he will be rewarded. We are called to discern truth but we also know that Jesus will ultimately judge in the end. We are not the ultimate judge; Jesus is. Therefore, we can approach these conflicts with that hope and confident assurance.
Furthermore, if this teaching is destroying the church, God will destroy this person. This is a terrifying proposition that should lead us to pray for the divisive person who is teaching a theology we may disagree with. We are called to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Our view of God is often too small and our concept of time is too short. In the end, God will judge. We need only to be still and trust that God will fight for us. We can know and teach the truth of the gospel (i.e., build God’s church with gold, silver, and precious stones) knowing and trusting that Jesus will sift it all out in the end.
Reflection
As you seek to grow in maturity of faith, what are the debated areas of doctrine or Christian ethics that get you all fired up? (Women in ministry, sexual ethics, church and politics, end times theology, atonement theology, Israel and the people of God, etc.) Discern the truth of Scripture to the best of your ability on these issues and hold to that discerned truth. But know that Jesus will reveal the gold from the straw in the end, so hold truth humbly knowing that your theology may be revealed to be straw in the end. Know that you don’t have to convince everyone of the truth of your position. Jesus will sift it all out in the end. If someone’s teaching is doing significant damage to the church, we don’t need to revive the Inquisition to maintain doctrinal purity. We can trust that God will preserve the holiness of his church and reveal what is gold and what is straw in the end.