Everybody's life is being built up with something. What kind of materials are you using?
Read / Listen to the chapter:
Read the chapter in an outlined format
Read previous DIG DEEPER posts on 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 3 Summary
Remember, the 'book' of 1st Corinthians is, like so many of the New Testament books, actually a letter. We can now be thankful that this church from long ago in Corinth had lots of problems, because the advice Paul gives in response to these problems still guides us today.
But Paul's frustration with those he's writing to becomes evident in v2:
I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh.
Just like anytime we plant seeds, be it on a section or in a garden, we do so with an expectation of growth, and when growth doesn't materialize, frustration follows.
The Corinthians were not growing because they were hung up on the personalities of the preachers who had served them. There were no doctrinal differences between Paul & Apollos, so the cracks forming in this church were based on surface things and personalities.
Paul calls them out on this error in this letter.
He pulls this congregation together with an amazing promise in the final verses. It doesn't matter who it was that planted, watered or currently is feeding your church because all things are yours... You are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
Dig Deeper
No matter how it is that you came to faith, Jesus Christ is the foundation of your life, and your life is a continual construction project in which you are built up.
The question is, what is the quality of this construction?
Are you being built up with the gold, silver, and precious stones that are found in God's Word, or is it with the wood, hay, straw the world offers?
AAA Prayer:
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father knows the thoughts of those wise according to the world and that they are futile (v20);
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will not use the world's futile building materials, but rather the gold, silver and precious stones found in God's Word to build your life upon Christ's solid foundation.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
