Stop Building with Straw
Through the Letter — Study 4 of 34: 1 Corinthians 3:1-23
There is a pastoral sternness in Paul’s voice as he opens chapter 3. “I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh.” The word for “flesh” (sarx) is one of Paul’s most loaded theological terms. It does not simply mean the physical body; it refers to human nature oriented away from God, human nature relying on its own resources, human nature that has not been remade by the Spirit. The Corinthians are still of the flesh. They are still operating on fleshly principles.
What is the evidence? “For while there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?” The divisions around leaders, the factions claiming “I follow Paul” and “I follow Apollos,” are evidence that the church is still operating according to fleshly logic. This is not fleshly in the sense of sexual immorality, though the Corinthians will address that later in the letter. This is fleshly in the sense of belonging to the old way of organizing human community: around power, status, loyalty to leaders, competition for position. The Corinthians are spiritual infants because they have not yet understood that the rules have changed, that the old way of being human in community has been interrupted by the cross.
Paul then contrasts himself with Apollos. “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.” The word for “servants” (diakonoi) is literally “deacons,” those who serve, those whose role is to serve others, not to be served. But notice what Paul does with this word: he makes it the definition of what an apostle is. An apostle is a servant. This will become the central theme of the next section of the letter, but here Paul begins it: you are not meant to follow us because you are impressed by us or loyal to us. You are meant to receive the gospel through us, the gospel that we serve, not ourselves.
Paul and Apollos are simply servants through whom the Corinthians believed. The one who actually matters is the Lord. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” This is a beautiful picture of how the gospel works. Different people have different roles. Paul had the role of founding the church in Corinth, of laying the initial foundation. Apollos came later and watered, continuing the work. But the one who gives growth is God. The responsibility for growth does not rest on the shoulders of any human preacher or teacher. It rests on God.
Then comes the crucial statement about labor and reward: “He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.”
