Summary of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 3

Paul says he cannot talk to them as though they were spiritual persons -- they are not. Their love of factions shows they are fleshy, not spiritual. So he had to feed them on babyfood, milk. Even at the time of writing they are still fleshy, as their envy and strife show. They walk according to man -- that is, according to a merely human way of looking at things.

For when someone says he belongs to Paul, or to Apollos -- that is a fleshy way of acting.

Really: what is Apollos? What is Paul? They are just agents through whom you received the faith, as the Lord granted to each one. Paul planted, and Apollo watered. But it is only God who made it grow. Neither the planter nor the waterer amounts to anything -- only the one who makes it grow, God, really counts. Planter and waterer have basically the same role. Each one will get his reward according to how he works. We, I and Apollo, are fellow workers with God. You Corinthians are the field of God.

You are also the house of God. With the power of grace, I laid the foundation, like a wise builder. Another built on it. Each one needs to see to it how he builds. No one can lay down any other foundation but the one that is in place: Christ.

These workers, like Paul and Apollos, may build superstructures of different qualities, like gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw. The fire of the Day of the Lord, the end, will make clear what sort of superstructure it is. If the work someone has done stays, he will have a reward. If it is burned down, he will take a loss. Yet he himself will be saved, though passing through fire.

You are the temple of God, for the Spirit of God dwells in you. If one destroys this temple of God, God will destroy him. For you are the holy temple of God.

Avoid deceiving yourselves. If someone thinks he has wisdom, let him become a fool (by seeing that human wisdom is folly compared to divine wisdom). Then he will be wise. For what this world calls wisdom is only foolishness compared to the wisdom of God. Scripture says that "God is the one who catches the wise in what they think is their cleverness. The Lord knows that the thoughts of the worldly wise are vain."

So no one should boast about mere humans, as heads of the factions. Everything belongs to you -- Paul, Apollos, Kephas, the world, life, death, present things, things to come -- all belong to you. You belong to Christ. He belongs to God.

Comments on Chapter 3

This is a very easy chapter. Paul tells them they are childish, not childlike, in their pride over factions. Really, he and Apollos are only agents of God. Without God, nothing would happen. This is a good time to recall what we saw in explaining Philippians 2:13.

When he says that each one will get his reward, he raises a problem. We recall from Galatians how insistently he preached that justification is by faith, we do not earn it. But the answer is easy. Within the covenant, if we ask why God gives good things, there are two answers. On the basic level, no one by his own power can develop a claim on God. So everything is unmerited, unearned, is mere mercy. But on the secondary level, that is, given the fact that God has freely made and entered into a covenant in which He said: If you do this, I will do that -- in that framework, if the human does what God has called for, then God owes it to Himself to give it. In that sense, there is repayment. (The same explanation will hold for Romans 2:6 later on).

Paul's words about the Day of the Lord making clear by fire of what sort the work of each is, have sometimes been taken to refer to purgatory. This seems not true, for Paul is speaking of the last day, when purgatory will no longer have place. And the fire he mentions is an apocalyptic image. (We saw about such images in connection with 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.)

When he says they are the temple of God since the Spirit dwells in them, we need to remember that a spirit is not present in the same way as bodily beings are. The latter take up space, a spirit needs no space. Rather, we say a spirit is present wherever it causes an effect. So God is present everywhere since He caused all things to exist, and holds them in existence. He is said to come again in Baptism, since then He begins to produce an added effect: He makes the soul basically capable of the vision of God in heaven (more on this in 1 Corinthians 13). So He can be said to come again in Confirmation, and again in Ordination, because each time He begins to produce added effects.

Who destroys the temple of God? The one who drives out the divine presence by mortal sin. He does deserve destruction! If he dies in that state, it will be eternal ruin.

At the end of the chapter Paul is quoting, a bit loosely, Job 5:12 (in a form close to that of the Septuagint) and Psalm 94:11.