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1 Corinthians 3

See commentary, Who Are You?, 1 Corinthians 1-4   |   See Bible Dictionary

Milk is fit for children.

3:1 Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.

3:2 I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, not even now are you ready,

Strife and division, arguments of a fleshly mind.

3:3 for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?

3:4 For when one says,

“I follow Paul,”
and another,
“I follow Apollos,”
aren’t you fleshly?

3:5 Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?

3:6 I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.

He that planteth and he that watereth, are nothing.

3:7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

  Galatians 6:3  

3:8 Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

The ministers are God's fellow-workmen.

3:9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

3:10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it.

Christ the only foundation.

3:11 For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.

3:12 But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble;

3:13 each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is.

3:14 If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward.

3:15 If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.

Men the temples of God, which must be kept holy.

3:16 Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

3:17 If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.

3:18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.

The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written,

“He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”*

3:20 And again,

“The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.”*

3:21 Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,

3:22 whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours,

3:23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

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