1 Corinthians 3

Chapters 1–4 of 1 Corinthians address the factional strife within the church at Corinth. Chapter 3 continues the contrast drawn in chapter 2 between the "spiritual" and the "natural" man, opening with Paul's observation that the Corinthian believers are still "carnal."

Outline

• Verses 1–4 Paul compares the believers to infants who can take only milk. As evidence he cites their envying and strife, and the way they divide into camps, saying "I am of Paul" and "I am of Apollos."
• Verses 5–9 Paul says that he and Apollos are only ministers, each working as the Lord has given him. "I have planted, Apollos watered," but it is God who gives the increase. Ministers are God's fellow workers, and the believers are God's field and God's building.
• Verses 10–15 Paul says that he laid the foundation as a wise master builder, and that this foundation is Jesus Christ alone. The work (the labor and effort invested) built upon it with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or stubble will be tried by fire on "the day." Work that abides will receive a reward; the one whose work is burned up will suffer loss. Yet he himself will be saved, "yet so as by fire."
• Verses 16–17 The believers are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in them. Whoever defiles the temple, God will destroy.
• Verses 18–23 Paul declares that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, quoting Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11. He then urges the believers not to glory in men. He closes the chapter by saying that Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, and death all belong to the believers; that the believers belong to Christ; and that Christ belongs to God.

Key Verses

• 1 Corinthians 3:6 "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase." — Shows that the fruit of ministry depends not on human beings but on God.
• 1 Corinthians 3:11 "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." — Identifies the church's one and only foundation.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16 "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God…" — Calls the church community a temple in which the Spirit dwells.

People and Places

• Paul: The apostle who founded the Corinthian church and wrote this letter.
• Apollos: A Jewish teacher from Alexandria who taught in Corinth after Paul (Acts 18:24–28).
• Cephas: The Aramaic name of Peter.
• Corinth: A port city in southern Greece.

Points for Reflection

• The "fire" of verses 12–15: The Catholic Church has cited this passage as one of the texts supporting the doctrine of purgatory, a state of purification after death in which the remaining punishment due to sin is cleansed. Protestantism reads the passage as referring to a judgment on the last day in which the "work" of ministers and believers is evaluated, and therefore does not regard it as a process of purification from sin.
• "Ye" in verse 16: The word is plural in the original. For this reason, many interpreters read the verse as calling the church community, rather than the individual, the temple. The verse that calls the individual's body a temple is 6:19.
• The problem of factions: The account in 1:12 of the parties of Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ continues in this chapter and concludes in chapter 4.

In the Korean Church

The image of "the one who plants and the one who waters" in verses 6–7 is frequently quoted in sermons on occasions such as church planting, missions, and pastoral transitions. Verses 16–17, together with 6:19, are also used in exhortations to keep the body holy.