CHAPTER 3

(A.D. 59)

THE CARNAL STATE

¹And I, Brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal (a solemn rebuke; they were carnal because they had shifted their Faith from the Cross to other things), even as unto babes in Christ. (Ironically enough, this is spoken to people who considered themselves to be spiritual giants.)

²I have fed you with milk, and not with meat (because of their carnality): for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able. (They were still functioning in spiritual immaturity. Their spiritual growth had stopped.)

³For you are yet carnal (in the short version, carnality is the placing of ones faith in that other than the Cross; in other words, such a one makes the Cross of Christ of none effect [1:17]): for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men? (They acted and spoke in the same way men of the world act and speak; in other words, as the unconverted.)

⁴For while one said, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are you not carnal? (This is the party spirit, which has wrecked so many Churches.)

LABORERS

⁵Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos (the idea is these men, though used greatly by God, were still mere men), but Ministers by whom you believed (better translated, Through whom you believed), even as the Lord gave to every man? (Whatever Gifts each Preacher had came from the Lord, and was not due to their own, abilities or merit.)

⁶I have planted (refers to Paul being the founder of the Church per se under Christ), Apollos watered (the strengthening of the Faith of wavering Churches); but God gave the increase (pertains to souls and their Spiritual Growth).

⁷So then neither is he who plants any thing, neither he who waters (the Planter and the Waterer are nothing by comparison to the Lord); but God Who gives the increase. (Man by his own ability cannot bring about the increase, no matter how much he plants or waters, spiritually speaking.)

⁸Now he who plants and he who waters are one (literally means in the Greek, one thing): and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. (Paul did not say, according to his own success, but rather labor. God hasnt called us to be successful, but He has called us to be Faithful.)

⁹For we are labourers together with God (pertains to labor in the harvest): you are Gods husbandry (Gods Field, Gods tilled Land), you are Gods building (Vineyard).

¹⁰According to the Grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder (in essence, Paul, under Christ, founded the Church), I have laid the foundation (Jesus Christ and Him Crucified), and another builds thereon (speaks of all Preachers who followed thereafter, even unto this very moment, and have built upon this Foundation). But let ev ery man take heed how he builds thereupon. (All must Preach the same Doctrine Paul preached, in essence, Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.)

FOUNDATION

¹¹For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid (anything other than the Cross is another foundation and, therefore, unacceptable to the Lord), which is Jesus Christ (Who He is, God manifest in the flesh, and What He did, Redemption through the Cross).

¹²Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones (presents Paul using symbols; the first three are materials which will stand the test of fire, symbolic of the Word of God which is the Standard), wood, hay, stubble (will not stand the test of fire);

¹³Every mans work shall be made manifest (at the Judgment Seat of Christ): for the day shall declare it (the time of the Judgment Seat of Christ), because it shall be revealed by fire (the fire of Gods Word); and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is. (Fire in the Greek is puri, and speaks of the ability of Christ, Who will be the Judge and Who sees through everything we do [Rev. 2:18]. He Alone knows our very motives!)

¹⁴If any mans work abide which he has built thereupon (assuming it to be true), he shall receive a reward (pertains to that which will be eternal, although we arent told what it will be).

¹⁵If any mans work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss (refers to the loss of reward, but not Salvation): but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. (Actually, this means the person is saved despite the fire. While the fire of the Word of God will definitely burn up improper works, it will not touch our Salvation, that being in Christ and the Cross.)

THE TEMPLE

¹⁶Know you not that you are the Temple of God (where the Holy Spirit abides), and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (That makes the Born-Again Believer His permanent Home.)

¹⁷If any man defile the Temple of God (our physical bodies must be a living Sacrifice, which means that we stay Holy by ever making the Cross the Object of our Faith [Rom. 12:1]), him shall God destroy (to fail to function in Gods Prescribed Order [the Cross], opens the Believer up to Satan, which will ultimately result in destruction); for the Temple of God is Holy, which Temple you are. (We are Holy by virtue of being in Christ. We remain Holy by the Work of the Holy Spirit, Who demands that our Faith ever be in the Cross, which has made all of this possible.)

¹⁸Let no man deceive himself (proclaims that which is possible, or the admonition would not have been given). If any man among you seems to be wise in this world (is not meant to denigrate education, but rather to portray the Truth that neither God nor His Ways can be found through the wisdom of this world, i.e., higher education, etc.), let him become a fool (let the person accept the Lord as his Saviour, and then go to the Word of God to learn about the Lord, which the world thinks is foolish), that he may be wise (concerns itself with True wisdom).

¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God (because its all wrong). For it is written (Job 5:13), He takes the wise in their own craftiness. (God will see to it that such people are caught in the traps they set for other people.)

²⁰And again (Ps. 94:11), The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise (the worldly wise), that they are vain (empty nothings).

²¹Therefore let no man glory in men (but rather the Lord). For all things are yours (everything given by God is available to every single Believer, providing it is the Will of God; God does not play favorites);

²²Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come (the Lord Rules all things); all are yours (nothing can happen to us, but that the Lord directs the action);

²³And you are Christs (we are bought with a price, the Cross); and Christ is Gods (refers to what Christ has done to Redeem humanity by means of the Cross, which was the Plan of God [I Pet. 1:18-20]).