Unity, Diversity, and Maturity I Corinthians 3:1-10

UNITY + DIVERSITY à MATURITY

I Corinthians 3:1-10

Introduction: The High School basketball season has come to an end for our teams, and they did great!  With some sports, like wrestling, you are on a team, but really it is you against your opponent, no one is going to help you and you can’t really help anyone either. With a team sport, like basketball, a cohesive team that plays well together can sometimes defeat another team that may have an excellent player, but which doesn’t play as “one.”  Do you consider yourself a team player or a one man show?  I am not talking about basketball, or hockey, or football. I am talking about the Christian life, about living as the body Christ intends us to be. The Corinthians were allowing themselves to be divided, and pridefully identifying themselves with one or another human leader. Paul is calling them out, saying that these things ought not to be.

The Big Idea: Unity flows from humility and is evidence of maturity and submission to the Lordship of Christ.

I. Mature Christianity: A Unified Church (1-4).

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.  ² I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,  ³ for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?  ⁴ For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human? 

First of all we see that mature, growing Christians live increasingly in the light of their unity in Christ. Conversely, a divisive spirit is evidence of an immature faith. As Paul opens chapter 3 he returns to one of the key issues among the Corinthians that had been reported to Paul: divisions in the church. We see in v.1-3a  that the divisive spirit of the Corinthians reveals their spiritual immaturity.  In the preceding context Paul spoke about two categories of people: 1) the natural man, who represents fallen, unregenerate humanity, and 2) The spiritual, that is born again believers, normal, healthy, growing, Christians.  If you are no longer one, ideally you should become the other. This context in I Corinthians is a reminder that the Christian life is a walk, a process, in which we hopefully are growing more and more into what we were created to be: mature, healthy, followers of Jesus. The Corinthians were not there yet, and in some respects they had stumbled and stalled at the start of the race.

3:1 starts, “But I, brothers…” For the fifth time in this letter Paul again addresses the Corinthians as his “brothers.” The repetition of this mode of address in such a short space draws attention to it (it occurs 28 times in the entire letter, more than in any other epistle of Paul!). Here are the examples we have already seen…

1:10 “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”

1:11 “For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.”

1:26  “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.”

2:1  “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.”

And now in 3:1, “But I brothers…” It’s clear that Paul wants to constantly reaffirm his confidence that the Corinthians are his brothers in Christ, he wants them to know that he stands with them and he is admonishing them in love, as a fellow believer, as a brother.  Do you see here the pastoral heart of Paul? He doesn’t talk down to the struggling Corinthians rebuking them with his apostolic authority. Rather, he comes alongside them and encourages them toward thinking rightly.

He says “…I could not talk to you as spiritual…” That is where they could have been or should have been, since they were no longer “natural men,” fallen humans, separated from God.  In fact they were “spiritual” since they were indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  But they weren’t acting that way, they weren’t living up to their positional reality. Instead Paul has to introduce another category of humans to describe the Corinthians, and he uses two, parallel phrases to do it: “…but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.” In the first phrase “people of flesh” contrast with “spiritual” earlier in the preceding context. Since believers have been made alive spiritually and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, they can and should walk by the Spirit (Gal 5:16) be led by the Spirit (Gal 5:18; Rom 8:14) and filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18), manifesting more and more in their lives the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5:22). Even so, the Corinthians were not experiencing that kind of fruit. They were “in Christ,” but they were “babes in Christ” (I Cor 3:1). In another context that is talking about the maturing that should happen in the context of the proper use of spiritual gifts in the body we read in Ephesians 4:14-15, 

“…so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  ¹⁵ Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ…”

In our small group this week we mentioned a youtube video, a mother saw her little girl, maybe 4 years old, with her arm around her baby brother about one, and the little girl was crying. The mother asked what was wrong, why was she crying? The little girl is sobbing, and dramatically says, “I love him so much just the way he is, I wish he wouldn’t grow up! I want him to stay just like he is!”  It was a cute video, but we know growing up is necessary, normal, healthy, and a failure to grow would be a tragedy. The Corinthians were still acting like babies!

If you put a piece of steak in a baby’s mouth he might gnaw at it a little, but he won’t get much from it, he might even choke on it. No teeth!  They need milk at first, and then, gradually, as they grow, they move on to more solid food.  Our current Sunday School series, “Ballast for your Boat!” is dealing with the question of sound doctrine that will help us stand firm as we “grow up” into the mature Christ followers God wants us to be.  The Corinthians had some great teachers, including Paul and Apollos, but they were still children, babes in Christ. They hadn’t grown up! Verse two is striking language, “They weren’t ready for it then [when Paul was with them] and even now they are still not ready!”  

Vv. 3b-4 shows the evidence of their immaturity, the proof that they needed to get the basics right before they could move on.  The effects of immaturity? Living like the world! The “jealousy and strife” among the Corinthians revealed where they were at. They were “living like [mere] men…” The idea seems to be that looking at their lives you could hardly tell a difference, if at all, between them and the world around them. This ought not to be!  There is no doubt that we will not reach perfection, we will not be sinless in this life. But we should be different, noticeably different, from what we were before we trusted in Jesus. After all, “…if any man be in Christ—a new Creation…” (2 Cor 5:17).  We are citizens of Heaven, we’ve been sealed with the Holy Spirit who is the down payment of our inheritance, the assurance that we are God’s, forever. How can we live like the world any longer?   The divisions ought not to be. You see, unity flows from humility and is evidence of maturity and submission to the Lordship of Christ.

II. Healthy Christianity: God working through diverse gifts (5-7).

⁵ What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.  ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  ⁷ So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

The attitude of a servant (5a).  Paul exemplifies humility putting himself side by side with Apollos. “What then is Apollos? What is Paul?” We are servants, from the work “diakonos.” Does that sound familiar? The English word “deacon” is basically a transliteration of the Greek word, diakonos. The verb form was used back in Acts 6 when Peter talked about the inappropriateness of leaving the ministry of the word to “serve tables.” Paul says of himself and Apollos, we are just servants, here by grace, wanting to be useful to the Master.

Recognition of the gift giver (5b). “Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each…”  We did the task that God had entrusted to us. Our part was limited, we could take no credit. Why? Because He is recognizing that God deserves all the credit. Paul includes himself with Apollos, we are just servants through whom you believed, “as the Lord assigned to each.”  He is in charge of this mission, He is building His church.  And He calls each of his people to have a part in his mission. Have you recognized that God has assigned to you a place on His team? He gave you a role in His mission?

Recognition that growth depends on the Lord (6,7). “I planted, Apollos watered… God caused the growth…” He gives gifts to humans, He calls us, He sends us, He empowers us, but any change that happens in another person’s heart is the result of God at work in them, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. God causes the growth. He has chosen through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Believers should “long for the pure milk of the Word that they may grow thereby…” That is God at work in us, molding us into what He wants us to be.   Once again, unity flows from humility and is evidence of maturity and submission to the Lordship of Christ.

III. Missional Christianity: Edification and Outreach (8-10)

⁸ He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.  ⁹ For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.  ¹⁰ According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

God working in us—We are both the means Jesus uses to build his church, and a part of the church He is building (8,9). Noticed he points to our unity in God’s mission: “He who plants and he who waters are one…” The disunity and divisiveness that was threatening the Corinthian church were exactly contrary to the reality of their position in Christ: we are one, part of the same body, under the authority of the same Lord. WE are God’s and YOU are God’s. We are “co-workers,” we are on the same team, carrying out the same mission.

       Then he describes them as God’s “cultivated field…” Not just God’s land, not a wild meadow, but something being cultivated, tended to, carefully developed by the Master. When I grow a garden by the Fourth of July it is hard to tell the difference from a wild meadow! Not so with Mary Ann, she plants flowers, places them carefully, waters and feeds them, plucks out the weeds that sprout up, she even talks to them! There is design and purpose in what she is doing. Paul uses that image for the Corinthians: You are God’s cultivated field… He has placed you and set you where you are, he will give you what you need to nourish you and help you grow.  And He will protect you from those who would trample you… And then he uses another image…

“You are… God’s building…”  Here he mixes the metaphor and calls them “God’s building.” It’s hard to read that and not think ahead to a little further down in this chapter (and again in chapter 6) where he’ll call them God’s “temple” (I Cor 3:16). Paul uses this imagery in other places,  in Ephesians 2:19-22 for example…

¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,  ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,  ²¹ in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.  ²² In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

       I’ve spoken before of the house I grew up in. It started as an old army barracks that my father moved to a piece of land.  At that time there were two children in our family, my older sister and myself. As our family grew, my father kept on adding on to the house, first to the back, then to the side, then upward… it seemed to take on a life of it’s own! Now it is multifamily with four apartments! It was all haphazard, ad-hoc growth. God’s building is intentional, perfectly planned, exactly as he intends it.

God working through us—Each “co-worker” is called to faithfully fulfill his calling (10).  “According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled [“wise”] master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.”

First, notice that Paul’s actions were “according to the grace of God given…” to him. He understood that his Christian life and ministry was initiated by the grace of God, and he understood that whatever good he accomplished it was because of God’s grace working in him.  So he worked as a wise master builder… In the context of I Corinthians 1-3 the adjective “wise” must be understood in terms of the contrast Paul has set forth between the wisdom of men and the wisdom of God.  He was a master builder guided by God’s wisdom. He realized he had a part in the mission of God to the Corinthians, but others that followed him did as well.

Jesus is ultimately the one building his church, and if we are seeking to be obedient we want to recognize what he is doing, discover the gifts he has given us for reaching in and building up, and reaching out and bringing in. God is building his church, and each of us, if we know Him, have a part in that mission. “Let each one take care how he builds…” on the foundation God has established.

What is God saying to me in this passage? Unity flows from humility and is evidence of maturity and submission to the Lordship of Christ.  

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Do you see yourself as part of a team, or as a “one man show”?  Are you more like a wrestler, you against your opponent, or are a basketball player, contributing to the effort of the team? Team work is important for basketball, and it is also God’s design for the church. One plants, another waters. One lays a foundation, another builds on it. Each has a part in the mission, but God brings the increase, Jesus is building his church. God’s story is revealed in Scripture, and it is unfolding in history. Everything is moving toward the culmination of God’s plan. By grace we have been included in that story. One of the joys of the Christian life is discovering our part in God’s plan. The church is God’s design, his plan, and that means discovering how our gifts fit into the mission, it means a place where we can build up others, and be built up and held accountable.  The Corinthians were priding themselves on their tolerance of sin and their supposed spirituality, but the truth is they were Christians who were still babes, because they were not living in the light of the Church as God had designed it. How are we doing? Are we taking seriously the “one anothers” of the New Testament? Are we seeking to use our gifts for the building up of the church and reaching out to the world?  Think about that, AMEN.