1 Corinthians 3: And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshly men, as to infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are still not able, 3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking [a]like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men?
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own [b]reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s [c]field, God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, [d]precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident, for the day will indicate it because it is revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test [e]the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
16 Do you not know that you are a [f]sanctuary of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys the [g]sanctuary of God, God will destroy him, for the [h]sanctuary of God is holy, and [i]that is what you are.
18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.” 21 So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
We have been talking about unity.
I saw an article
An issue of National Geographic included a photograph of the fossil remains of two saber-tooth cats locked in combat. To quote the article: "One had bitten deep into the leg bone of the other, a thrust that trapped both in a common fate. The cause of the death of the two cats is as clear as the causes of the extinction of their species are obvious. When Christians fight each other, everybody loses. As Paul put it, "if you keep biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other" (Galations 5:15)
Peter A. Alwinson.
That article brought home a truth. That discord, disagreements, descensions, and conflict are deadly. But that unity can save your life. If these two cats had just come to an agreement; One cat say to the other, pardon me a moment, sorry to interrupt our fight here, but it appears that a natural disaster is imminent, that could bury us both and turn us into a flattened impression of ourselves, if we don’t run.
So, if we could quit fighting, then perhaps we both can be saved. Unity is important
We are back this morning to Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church. Since we have been gone for a few weeks, it would probably be beneficial to remind you of what Paul has been writing in his letter so far, and what it has to do with us.
Just a bit of history to get us caught up. Paul first came to the city of Corinth around 50 A.D. and stays there in the new church for about a year and a half. Then he leaves Corinth to go on to other places; Ephesus, back to Jerusalem, Antioch, back to Galatia and Phrygia, then back to Ephesus. It has been 5 years since Paul started the church in Corinth, and 3 years since he has been back there. But in the time since he has been gone, others of Paul’s friends, coworkers, and fellow missionaries have served and preached in Corinth. He is getting a constant stream of information back about the church from them. And what he is being told is that they have many problems. But among the many problems, the one that is most disturbing is that they are breaking up into factions and groups around the preachers and personalities who have ministered there in the past.
Some like Paul’s style, so they are saying, “I am of Paul.” “I’m in the Paul party.” Some liked Apollos eloquent style so they said, “I am of Apollos.” Others said, “I am of Cephas,” others, maybe in a pious fashion said, “I am of Christ.”
So, Paul spends chapters 1 through 4 of this 16-chapter letter, just talking about unity in the church. There are several other problems in this church that you might think were more important, but he chooses to extensively address unity. Why? Because without unity, around the right things, a church is powerless. If a church doesn’t have a common and united understanding of some basic ideas and doctrines, they will never be successful in the task the Lord left them.
Everyone knows the importance of unity and harmony are in any organization. And it is even more important in the church, because we are to be united around God’s design. So, for 4 chapters Paul goes on about unity. And what he does is he lays out several areas of thought, or understanding that we need to be united in. We have to agree on certain big ideas. We have to know what God says about certain big ideas, and adjust our understanding to His Truth.
Unity in our understanding of wisdom, (1:10-17, 2:1-2)
Unity in our understanding of the Cross of Christ, (1:18-25, 2:2)
Unity in our understanding of Greatness, (1:26-31)
Unity in our understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit, (2:1-16)
And now, he continues with his essay on unity with a fifth kind of unity.
Unity around the definition of maturity and growth. (3:1-20)
We need to understand what it means to be spiritually mature. We need to come to a common understanding of the process of spiritual growth.
The means of our Spiritual growth, The reward for our spiritual growth, The summary of our spiritual growth
I. The means of your Spiritual growth to maturity; walking in the Spirit.
The people of the church in Corinth had demonstrated that their spiritual growth had stifled.
1 Corinthians 3: And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshly men, as to infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are still not able, 3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking [a]like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men?
A. I couldn’t speak to you as spiritual men.
What does he mean by a spiritual man? A spiritual person is a mature person. It is a person who listens to, and follows the leading of the Spirit of God. They were not seeking and following God’s wisdom, but the world’s wisdom.
1 Corinthians 2: 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God,
He is calling them spiritually immature.
B. I had to speak to you as fleshly men, as infants.
1. I gave you milk, not solid food.
Your church has been around for 5 years now, you have had my teaching night and day for a year and a half. You had Apollos there, apparently you had the teaching of Peter, the 1st apostle. You ought to be mature. But here I am having to give you milk, like a baby, instead of meat.
Now, what does he mean by spiritual meat and spiritual milk? Spiritual milk are the basic doctrines of Christianity taught in their most basic forms. For example, we teach that Jesus died for our sins. We say that in a children’s story, and we say it from the pulpit. That is it in it’s most basic form. A very basic presentation of that doctrine might be presented in the words of John the Baptist, when he announced Christ;John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!Jesus is the sacrificial lamb who is put to death for our forgiveness. That is milk. But, as we grow in our understanding of Jesus dying for our sins, we come to understand the meat of the doctrine, the complexities of it.It is a canceling of debt. Colossians 2:14 By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.It was a means of purification. Hebrews 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.That it was done out of love. Ephesians 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.The basic doctrine, the milk, is that Jesus died for me, the meat gets into deeper questions of what was done, when it was done, why and how it was done.But Paul is saying to the Corinthian believers that they need to come to a united understanding of spiritual maturity. They think they are mature. Each of them is elevating themselves above others, because they think their way of viewing the world and salvation is superior to others. But Paul says that their factions are not evidence of spiritual maturity, but immaturity. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are still not able,3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking [a]like mere men?4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men?
2. The example of their immaturity is the faction.
They are elevating men. He tears down their elevation of men.
This is the supreme example of their immaturity. They are saying things that demonstrate that they don’t even grasp the most basic of Christian doctrines. What is the most basic doctrine? We teach it to our children.
In the beginning, God. You shall worship who? God. Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches, without me, you can do nothing.” God says, “I am the Alpha and Omega.” God, the Lord is at the center of it all. And over and over again, Scripture condemns the elevation of people. Keep your eyes on God.
But in this church they were saying, “I am of Paul.” “I am of Apollos.” Thus, they demonstrated their utter spiritual immaturity.
They were walking by the flesh, not by the Spirit. It’s very simple. The more you live by the flesh, the less spiritually mature you are. The more you walk by the Spirit, the more spiritually mature you are. These two extremes are always set against each other in Scripture.
Galatians 5:16 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
24 Now those who [a]belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also [b]walk in step with the Spirit.
Romans 8: 4 so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,8 and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.
If the church is to be united, it must have this very basic understanding of spiritual maturity. Your spiritual maturity is rated; Let’s put it on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 be most mature, 1 being least. Your spiritual maturity is rated by how you walk. Do you walk in the flesh, or do you walk in the Spirit.
There are plenty of people in the church who think they are mature. And they think they are mature for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons are the same ones that those in Corinth held in high regard; they knew the Bible, they could converse intelligently about doctrine, they exercised some spiritual gifts, they emotional experiences around spiritual things. But Paul is saying here that there is one way to determine spiritual maturity; are you spiritual or fleshly? Do you walk by the Spirit, or by the flesh. It comes down to one word my friends; obedience.
Spiritual maturity is living in obedience to the Spirit of God. God doesn’t care how sharp you look on Sunday morning, He cares how you are living it on Monday morning. That’s spiritual maturity.
Peter T. Forsythe was right when he said, "The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master".
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Integrity Crisis, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991, p. 22.
We know this. If a child, or a teen tells you they are mature, it is not because they have grown in stature, and they are physically the size of a man or woman, or have the physical attributes of a man or woman. They say to us, “I’m a man.” What do we say to them? Well then, “Get a job.” “Fix your own dinner.” “Clean your room without being asked.” In other words, “Act like a man.”
If you are spiritually mature, act like it. Be obedient. We must understand this in order to be united. We elevate people to leadership for obedience.
The second thing we need to understand about maturity or spiritual growth is the source of our spiritual growth.
II. The owner of our spiritual growth; It’s God’s building.
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own [b]reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s [c]field, God’s building.
One of the theological travesties of the history of the church is elevating servants of the church to high places of honor. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches have elevated 1st century saints to high places of honor, even instructing their parishioners that they can pray to Mary, or a saint, as a mediator between themselves and the Lord.
While there are Catholic Churches with names like Immaculate and Transfiguration, the vast majority of Catholic Churches are named after a saint.
There are probably several St. John and St. Peter Churches in your city or state. So why are Catholic churches named after saints and why are saints so important in the Catholic Church?
It’s not just Churches that we name after saints.
We also have feast days dedicated to various saints and we have saints as patrons of places, activities, crafts and so on.
Most importantly, saints feature heavily in Catholic Prayers.
So much so that there’s a misconception usually by non-Catholics that Catholics worship saints, in contravention of the ten commandments.
But that’s not the case at all. Saints are intercessors for the faithful who are still on earth.
Because they are close to God and understand the suffering we go through, they are perfectly placed to intercede for us.
Here’s what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says.
CCC 956: Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness. . . . They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us…
Another big reason why Catholic Churches are named after saints is that it’s part of the naming rules in the Code of Canon Law.
Catholic Churches have to be named after a canonized saint, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, Christ, an angel, Mary, or a Blessed.
https://catholicsbible.com/why-are-catholic-churches-named-after-saints/
This has come a long way from what Paul says here in 1st Corinthians.
A. Apollos and Paul are servants.
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed.
Paul, Apollos, and Cephas are just servants.
Strongs Concordance: Probably from an obsolete diako (to run on errands; compare dioko); an attendant, i.e. (genitive case) a waiter (at table or in other menial duties);
“a runner” It was a domestic servant.
Paul is trying to get them to an understanding of who gets the credit, who is the owner of our spiritual maturity. They were saying, “Paul is such an intellect, Apollos is so eloquent,” I am who I am because I follow their school of thought.”
But Paul here says, “we’re just domestic servants.” In our world today a close approximation would be a waiter or waitress. I, as preacher/teacher, am just a waiter. I just bring the food to the table. If we were in a restaurant together today. Ordered our food, we wouldn’t turn to the waitress and say,
“This food you brought is so wonderful. The presentation is so appetizing. The smell is scrumptious. You are brilliant.” “Lady, I just carried this in from the kitchen. Would you like to speak to the chef?”
God is the owner of the restaurant, the chef who created the recipes, and the cook who prepared them all in one.
B. Everyone has a role, a task
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered,
Yes, we each had a role that involved some skill. He presents an analogy here.
C. But God is the miracle worker.
. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
Paul’s analogy is extraordinary. It is a farming analogy. I am in awe of people who can grow things. I don’t do gardening. I end up spending $50 to grow a $5 bag of potatoes. But Paul’s perspective is correct here. There is skill in farming. Knowing where to plant, when to plant, knowing how much to water and fertilize. And there is skill or knowledge that individuals may employ in planting or growing a church. But the real miracle is that you can take little dead seed, put it in the ground, and have it begin to grow, regardless of the conditions. He says that he put the little seed in the ground, and Apollos came along with the watering can and poured water on the seed. But, miracle of miracles, God brought the dead seed to life. That is amazing.
Have you heard about the Methuselah seed? It was a seed of a date palm tree, found in the ruins of Masada, southern Israel, in 2005. They were digging up ruins of a 2000-year-old citadel in Israel, and they found a “Burpee” date palm seed packet. No, not really, I don’t know where they found it. But someone decided to plant it. 2000 years old. And it sprouted and grew. It’s actually a strain of date palm that they thought was wiped out. And I read an article from 2015, that now the 2000 year old date palm seed has become a grandfather.
“At 2,000 years old, Methuselah’s seed isn’t the most aged to be used to grow a plant—not by a long shot. Back in 2012, a team of Russian scientists unearthed a cache of seeds from a prehistoric squirrel burrow that had been covered in ice.”
So fascinating. And here’s the comparison. We give ourselves credit for our spiritual maturity. Or we credit certain teachers; “I am a Cephas man, or an Apollos woman.” But Paul says, “All I did is carry the dish to you. All I did was poke the seed in the ground, and Apollos poured water on it.” But miracle of miracles; God caused it to grow.
Now, that’s not to devalue the work of Paul and Apollos.
D. The planter and waterer will be rewarded based on their labor.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own [b]reward according to his own labor.
But this again reminds us of who owns our maturity.
The laborers in the field get paid in one of two ways; paid by the hour, paid by the piece. “You worked 8 hours today, at ten dollars an hour, so you get 80 dollars.” Or “If you plant the 1000 seeds from this bag, I will pay you, 80 dollars.” But they don’t get paid according to the size of the harvest. The owner reaps that reward of the harvest.
This is God’s field.
He tears down their elevation of men. Paul had to address their understanding of spiritual maturity; its means-how it happens-by walking not in your flesh, your own understanding, but in the Spirit. And he had to address who owns your spiritual maturity. Your teachers and preachers are just waiters. They just poke in seeds and water them; God owns the field, caused the growth, planned the meal, and cooked it.
And spiritual maturity is in understanding the very little part we have in our maturity. So, we have no business elevating ourselves, or others in the church. All that has value in the church happened by the Spirit, and God owns the harvest of it.
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