Text -- 1 Corinthians 3:14 (NET)

3:14 If what someone has built survives, he will receive a reward.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: 1Co 3:14

If any man’ s work shall abide ( ei tinos to ergon menei ).

Condition of the first class with future indicative, determined as fulfilled, assumed as true. When the fire has done its work, what is left? That is the fiery test that the work of each of us must meet. Suitable reward (Mat 20:8) will come for the work that stands this test (gold, silver, precious stones)

Wesley: 1Co 3:14

A peculiar degree of glory. Some degree even the other will receive, seeing he held the foundation; though through ignorance he built thereon what would not abide the fire.

JFB: 1Co 3:14

Abide the testing fire (Mat 3:11-12).

JFB: 1Co 3:14

Which he built on the foundation.

JFB: 1Co 3:14

Wages, as a builder, that is, teacher. His converts built on Christ the foundation, through his faithful teaching, shall be his "crown of rejoicing" (2Co 1:14; Phi 2:16; 1Th 2:19).

Clarke: 1Co 3:14

If any man’ s work abide - Perhaps there is here an allusion to the purifying of different sorts of vessels under the law. All that could stand the fire were to be purified by the fire; and those which could not resist the action of the fire were to be purified by water, Num 31:23. The gold, silver, and precious stones, could stand the fire; but the wood, hay, and stubble, must be necessarily consumed. So, in that great and terrible day of the Lord, all false doctrine, as well as the system that was to pass away, should be made sufficiently manifest; and God would then show that the Gospel, and that alone, was that system of doctrine which he should bless and protect, and none other

Clarke: 1Co 3:14

He shall receive a reward - He has not only preached the truth, but he has labored in the word and doctrine. And the reward is to be according to the labor. See on 1Co 3:8 (note).

Calvin: 1Co 3:14

14.If any man’s work remains, he will receive a reward His meaning is, that those are fools who depend on man’s estimation, so as to reckon it enough to be approved by men, for then only will the work have praise and recompense — when it has stood the test of the day of the Lord Hence he exhorts His true ministers to have an eye to that day. For by the word remains, he intimates that doctrines fly about as it were in an unsettled state, nay more, like empty bubbles, they glitter for the moment, until they have come to be thoroughly tested. Hence it follows, that we must reckon as nothing all the applauses of the world, the emptiness of which will in a very little be exposed by heaven’s judgment.

TSK: 1Co 3:14

1Co 3:8, 1Co 4:5; Dan 12:3; Mat 24:45-47, Mat 25:21-23; 1Th 2:19; 2Ti 4:7; 1Pe 5:1, 1Pe 5:4; Rev 2:8-11

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: 1Co 3:14

If any man’ s work abide ... - If it shall appear that he hast taught the true doctrines of Christianity, and inculcated right practices and views of piety, and himself cherished right feelings: if the trial of the great Day, when the real qualities of all objects shall be known, shall show this.

He shall receive a reward - According to the nature of his work. See the note on 1Co 3:8. This refers, I suppose, to the proper rewards on the Day of Judgment, and not to the honors and the recompense which he may receive in this world. If all that he has taught and done shall be proved to have been genuine and pure, then his reward shall be in proportion.

Poole: 1Co 3:14

If any preacher keeps the foundation, and the doctrine which he hath built upon the true foundation prove consonant to the will of Christ, God will reward him for his labour: he shall hear the voice saying: Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

Haydock: 1Co 3:12-15

Now if any man build, &c. This is a hard place, says St. Augustine, lib. de fid. & Oper. chap. xvi. tom. 6. p. 180. The interpreters are divided, as to the explication and application of this metaphorical comparison, contained in these four verses. St. Paul speaks of a building, where it is evident, says St. Augustine, that the foundation is Christ, or the faith of Christ, and his faith working by charity. The difficulties are 1. Who are the builders. 2. What is meant by gold, silver, precious stones, and what by wood, hay, stubble. 3. What is meant by the day of the Lord. 4. What by fire, how every one's work shall be tried, and how some shall be saved by fire. As to the first, by the builders, as St. Paul had before called himself the first architect, who had laid the foundation of the faith of Christ among the Corinthians, interpreters commonly understand those doctors and preachers who there succeeded St. Paul: but as it is also said, that every man's works shall be made manifest, St. Augustine and others understand not the preachers only, but all the faithful. As to the second difficulty, if by the builders we understand the preachers of the gospel, then by gold, silver, &c. is to be understood, good, sound, and profitable doctrine; and by wood, hay, stubble, a mixture of vain knowledge, empty flourishes, unprofitable discourses; but if all the faithful are builders, they whose actions are pure, lay gold upon the foundation; but if their actions are mixed with imperfections, venial failings, and lesser sins, these are represented by wood, hay, stubble, &c. 3. By the day of the Lord, is commonly understood either the day of general judgment, or the particular judgment, when every one is judged at his death, which sentence shall be confirmed again at the last day. 4. As to fire, which is mentioned thrice, if we consider what St. Paul says here of fire, he seems to use it in different significations, as he many times does other words. First, he tells us, (ver. 13.) that the day of the Lord...shall be revealed; or, as it is in the Greek, is revealed in, or by fire; where, by fire, is commonly understood the just and severe judgments of God, represented by the metaphor of fire. Secondly, he tells us in the same verse, that fire shall try every one's work, of what sort it is. This may be again taken for the examining and trying fire of God's judgments: and may be applied to the builders, whether preachers only or all the faithful. Thirdly, he tells us, (ver. 14. and 15.) that some men's works abide the fire of God's judgments, they deserve no punishment, they are like pure gold, which receives no prejudice from the fire: but some men's works burn, the superstructure, which they built upon the faith of Christ, besides gold, silver, precious stones, had also a mixture of wood, hay, stubble, which could not stand the trial of fire, which met with combustible matter, that deserved to be burnt. Every such man shall suffer a loss, when his works are burnt, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Here the apostle speaks of fire in a more ample signification: of a fire which shall not only try, and examine, but also burn, and punish the builders, who notwithstanding shall also, after a time, escape from the fire, and be saved by fire, and in the day of the Lord, that is, after life (for the time of this life is the day of men). Divers of the ancient fathers, as well as later interpreters, from these words, prove the Catholic doctrine of a purgatory, that is, that many Christians, who die guilty, not of heinous or mortal sins, but of lesser, and what are called venial sins, or to whom a temporal punishment from the sins they have committed, still remains due, before they can be admitted to a reward in heaven, (into which nothing defiled or unclean can enter ) must suffer some punishments for a time, in some place, which is called Purgatory, and is such a manner, as is agreeable to the divine justice, before their reward in heaven. These words of the apostle, the Latin Fathers in the Council of Florence[1] brought against the Greeks to prove purgatory, to which the Greeks (who did not deny a purgatory, or a third place, where souls guilty of lesser sins were to suffer for a time) made answer, that these words of St. Paul were expounded by St. John Chrysostom and some of their Greek Fathers (which is true) of the wicked in hell, who are said to be saved by fire, inasmuch as they always subsist and continue in those flames, and are not destroyed by them: but this interpretation, as the Latin bishops replied, is not agreeable to the style of the holy Scriptures, in which, to be saved, both in the Greek and Latin, is expressed the salvation and happiness of souls in heaven. It may not be amiss to take notice that the Greeks, before they met with the Latins at Ferrara, of Florence, did not deny the Catholic doctrine of purgatory. They admitted a third place, where souls guilty of lesser sins, suffered for a time, till cleansed from such sins: they allowed that the souls there detained from the vision of God, might be assisted by the prayers of the faithful: they called this purgatory a place of darkness, or sorrow, of punishments, and pains, but they did not allow there a true and material fire, which the Council did not judge necessary to decide and define against them, as appears in the definition of the Council. (Conc. Labb tom. xiii. p. 515.) (Witham) ---

The fire of which St. Paul here speaks, is the fire of purgatory, according to the Fathers, and all Catholic divines. (Calmet) ---

St. Augustine, expounding Psalm xxxvii. ver. 1, gives the proper distinction between this fire of purgatory and that of hell: both are punishments, one temporary, the other eternal; the latter to punish us in God's justice, the former to amend us in his mercy.

Gill: 1Co 3:14

If any man's work abide,.... That is, if any minister's doctrine will bear the test of daylight, to be looked into, and abide the fire of the word; as gold, silver, and precious stones will, or such doctrines as are comparable to them, which will shine the brighter for being tried by this fire:

which he hath built thereupon; upon the foundation Christ, in entire consistence with, and proportion to it, and highly becoming it:

he shall receive a reward; either from the churches of Christ here, who shall honour and respect him for his faithful labours in the ministry; or from Christ hereafter, who will say, well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: 1Co 3:1-23

1 Milk is fit for children.

3 Strife and division, arguments of a fleshly mind.

7 He that planteth and he that watereth, are nothing.

9 The ministers are God's fellow-workmen.

11 Christ the only foundation.

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

19 The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

MHCC: 1Co 3:10-15

The apostle was a wise master-builder; but the grace of God made him such. Spiritual pride is abominable; it is using the greatest favours of God, to feed our own vanity, and make idols of ourselves. But let every man take heed; there may be bad building on a good foundation. Nothing must be laid upon it, but what the foundation will bear, and what is of a piece with it. Let us not dare to join a merely human or a carnal life with a Divine faith, the corruption of sin with the profession of Christianity. Christ is a firm, abiding, and immovable Rock of ages, every way able to bear all the weight that God himself or the sinner can lay upon him; neither is there salvation in any other. Leave out the doctrine of his atonement, and there is no foundation for our hopes. But of those who rest on this foundation, there are two sorts. Some hold nothing but the truth as it is in Jesus, and preach nothing else. Others build on the good foundation what will not abide the test, when the day of trail comes. We may be mistaken in ourselves and others; but there is a day coming that will show our actions in the true light, without covering or disguise. Those who spread true and pure religion in all its branches, and whose work will abide in the great day, shall receive a reward. And how great! how much exceeding their deserts! There are others, whose corrupt opinions and doctrines, or vain inventions and usages in the worship of God, shall be made known, disowned, and rejected, in that day. This is plainly meant of a figurative fire, not of a real one; for what real fire can consume religious rites or doctrines? And it is to try every man's works, those of Paul and Apollos, as well as others. Let us consider the tendency of our undertakings, compare them with God's word, and judge ourselves, that we be not judged of the Lord.

Matthew Henry: 1Co 3:11-15

Here the apostle informs us what foundation he had laid at the bottom of all his labours among them - even Jesus Christ, the chief corner-stone, Eph 2:20. Upon this foundation all the faithful ministers of Christ build. Upon this rock all the Christians found their hopes. Those that build their hopes of heaven on any other foundation build upon the sand. Other foundation can no man lay besides what is laid - even Jesus Christ. Note, The doctrine of our Saviour and his mediation is the principal doctrine of Christianity. It lies at the bottom, and is the foundation, of all the rest. Leave out this, and you lay waste all our comforts, and leave no foundation for our hopes as sinners. It is in Christ only that God is reconciling a sinful world to himself, 2Co 5:19. But of those that hold the foundation, and embrace the general doctrine of Christ's being the mediator between God and man, there are two sorts: -

I. Some build upon this foundation gold, silver, and precious stones (1Co 3:12), namely, those who receive and propagate the pure truths of the gospel, who hold nothing but the truth as it is in Jesus, and preach nothing else. This is building well upon a good foundation, making all of apiece, when ministers not only depend upon Christ as the great prophet of the church, and take him for their guide and infallible teacher, but receive and spread the doctrines he taught, in their purity, without any corrupt mixtures, without adding or diminishing.

II. Others build wood, hay, and stubble, on this foundation; that is, though they adhere to the foundation, they depart from the mind of Christ in many particulars, substitute their own fancies and inventions in the room of his doctrines and institutions, and build upon the good foundation what will not abide the test when the day of trial shall come, and the fire must make it manifest, as wood, hay, and stubble, will not bear the trial by fire, but must be consumed in it. There is a time coming when a discovery will be made of what men have built on this foundation: Every man's work shall be made manifest, shall be laid open to view, to his own view and that of others. Some may, in the simplicity of their hearts, build wood and stubble on the good foundation, and know not, all the while, what they have been doing; but in the day of the Lord their own conduct shall appear to them in its proper light. Every man's work shall be made manifest to himself, and made manifest to others, both those that have been misled by him and those that have escaped his errors. Now we may be mistaken in ourselves and others; but there is a day coming that will cure all our mistakes, and show us ourselves, and show us our actions in the true light, without covering or disguise: For the day shall declare it (that is, every man's work), because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is, 1Co 3:13. The day shall declare and make it manifest, the last day, the great day of trial; see 1Co 4:5. Though some understand it of the time when the Jewish nation was destroyed and their constitution thereby abolished, when the superstructure which judaizing teachers would have raised on the Christian foundation was manifested to be no better than hay and stubble, that would not bear the trial. The expression carries in it a plain allusion to the refiner's art, in which the fire separates and distinguishes the dross from the gold and silver; as it also will silver and gold and precious stones, that will endure the fire, from wood and hay and stubble, that will be consumed in it. Note, There is a day coming that will as nicely distinguish one man from another, and one man's work from another's, as the fire distinguishes gold from dross, or metal that will bear the fire from other materials that will be consumed in it. In that day, 1. Some men's works will abide the trial - will be found standard. It will appear that they not only held the foundation, but that they built regularly and well upon it - that they laid on proper materials, and in due form and order. The foundation and the superstructure were all of a piece. The foundation-truths, and those that had a manifest connection with them, were taught together. It may not be so easy to discern this connection now, nor know what works will abide the trial then; but that day will make a full discovery. And such a builder shall not, cannot fail of a reward. He will have praise and honour in that day, and eternal recompence after it. Note, Fidelity in the ministers of Christ will meet with a full and ample reward in a future life. Those who spread true and pure religion in all the branches of it, and whose work will abide in the great day, shall receive a reward. And, Lord, how great! how much exceeding their deserts! 2. There are others whose works shall be burnt (1Co 3:15), whose corrupt opinions and doctrines, or vain inventions and usages in the worship of God, shall be discovered, disowned, and rejected, in that day - shall be first manifested to be corrupt, and then disapproved of God and rejected. Note, The great day will pluck off all disguises, and make things appear as they are: He whose work shall be burnt will suffer loss. If he have built upon the right foundation wood and hay and stubble, he will suffer loss. His weakness and corruption will be the lessening of his glory, though he may in the general have been an honest and an upright Christian. This part of his work will be lost, turning no way to his advantage, though he himself may be saved. Observe, Those who hold the foundation of Christianity, though they build hay, wood, and stubble, upon it, may be saved. This may help to enlarge our charity. We should not reprobate men for their weakness: for nothing will damn men but wickedness. He shall be saved, yet so as by fire, saved out of the fire. He himself shall be snatched out of that flame which will consume his work. This intimates that it will be difficult for those that corrupt and deprave Christianity to be saved. God will have no mercy on their works, though he may pluck them as brands out of the burning. On this passage of scripture the papists found their doctrine of purgatory, which is certainly hay and stubble: a doctrine never originally fetched from scripture, but invented in barbarous ages, to feed the avarice and ambition of the clergy, at the cost of those who would rather part with their money than their lusts, for the salvation of their souls. It can have no countenance from this text, (1.) Because this is plainly meant of a figurative fire, not of a real one: for what real fire can consume religious rites or doctrines? (2.) Because this fire is to try men's works, of what sort they are; but purgatory-fire is not for trial, not to bring men's actions to the test, but to punish for them. They are supposed to be venial sins, not satisfied for in this life, for which satisfaction must be made by suffering the fire of purgatory. (3.) Because this fire is to try every man's works, those of Paul and Apollos, as well as those of others. Now, no papists will have the front to say apostles must have passed through purgatory fires.

Barclay: 1Co 3:10-15

In this passage Paul is surely speaking from personal experience. He was of necessity a foundation layer and was forever on the move. True, he stayed for eighteen months in Corinth (Act 18:11) and for three years in Ephesus (Act 20:31); but in Thessalonica he can have stayed less than a month, and that was far more typical. There was so much ground waiting to be covered; there were so many men who had never heard the name of Jesus Christ; and, if a fair start was to be made with the evangelization of the world, Paul could only lay the foundations and move on. It was only when he was in prison that his restless spirit could stay in the one place.

Wherever he went, he laid the same foundation. That was the proclamation of the facts about and the offer of Jesus Christ. It was his tremendous function to introduce men to Jesus Christ because it is in him, and in him alone, that a man can find three things.

(a) He finds forgiveness for past sins. He finds himself in a new relationship to God and suddenly discovers that he is his friend and not his enemy. He discovers that God is like Jesus; where once he saw hatred he now sees love, and where once he saw infinite remoteness he now sees tender intimacy.

(b) He finds strength for the present. Through the presence and help of Jesus he finds courage to cope with life, for he is now no longer an isolated unit fighting a lonely battle with an adverse universe. He lives a life in which nothing can separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus his Lord. He walks life's ways and fights its battles with Christ.

© He finds hope for the future. He no longer lives in a world in which he is afraid to look forward but in one where God is in control and working together all things for good. He lives in a world where death is no longer the end, but only the prelude to greater glory. Without the foundation of Christ a man can have none of these things.

But on this foundation of Christ others built. Paul is not here thinking of the building up of wrong things, but the building up of inadequate things. A man may present to his fellow men a version of Christianity which is weak and watered down; a one-sided thing which has stressed some things too much and others too little, and in which things have got out of balance; a warped thing in which even the greatest matters have emerged distorted.

The Day that Paul refers to is the Day when Christ will come again. Then will come the final test. The wrong and the inadequate will be swept away. But, in the mercy of God, even the inadequate builder will be saved, because at least he tried to do something for Christ. At best all our versions of Christianity are inadequate; but we would be saved much inadequacy if we tested them not by our own prejudices and presuppositions, nor by agreement with this or that theologian, but set them in the light of the New Testament and, above all, in the light of the Cross. Longinus the great Greek literary critic, offers his students a test. "When you write anything," he said, "ask yourself how Homer or Demosthenes would have written it; and, still more, ask yourself how Homer and Demosthenes would have listened to it." When we speak for Christ we must speak as if Christ was listening--as indeed he is. A test like that will rescue us from many a mistake.

Constable: 1Co 1:10--7:1

II. Conditions reported to Paul 1:10--6:20

The warm introduction to the epistle (1:1-9) led Paul to give a strong exhortation to unity. In it he expressed his reaction to reports of serious problems in this church that had reached his ears.

"Because Paul primarily, and in seriatim fashion, addresses behavioral issues, it is easy to miss the intensely theological nature of 1 Corinthians. Here Paul's understanding of the gospel and its ethical demands--his theology, if you will--is getting its full workout.

". . . the central issue in 1 Corinthians is salvation in Christ as that manifests itself in the behavior of those "who are being saved." This is what the Corinthians' misguided spirituality is effectively destroying.

"Thus three phenomena must be reckoned with in attempting a theology of this Letter: (1) Behavioral issues ( = ethical concerns) predominate. . . . (2) Even though Paul is clearly after behavioral change, his greater concern is with the theological distortions that have allowed, or perhaps even promoted, their behavior. This alone accounts for the unusual nature of so much of the argumentation. . . . (3) In every case but two (11:2-16; chaps. 12-14), Paul's basic theological appeal for right behavior is the work of Christ in their behalf."¹⁸

Constable: 1Co 1:10--5:1

A. Divisions in the church 1:10-4:21

The first major problem was the divisions that were fragmenting the assembly.

". . . this opening issue is the most crucial in the letter, not because their quarrels' were the most significant error in the church, but because the nature of this particular strife had as its root cause their false theology, which had exchanged the theology of the cross for a false triumphalism that went beyond, or excluded, the cross."¹⁹

Constable: 1Co 3:5-17

5. The role of God's servants 3:5-17

Paul turned next to a positive explanation of how his readers should view himself and his fellow workers.

"At issue is their radically misguided perception of the nature of the church and its leadership, in this case especially the role of the teachers."⁶⁶

Constable: 1Co 3:10-15

Builders of God's temple 3:10-15

3:10 In the new illustration Paul laid the foundation of the church in Corinth by founding the church, and others added the walls and continued building on that foundation. Paul's special mission from God was to found churches (Rom. 15:20). He readily acknowledged that it was only by God's grace that he could do so as a skillful master-builder. He added a word of warning that the quality of the materials and workmanship that went into building the church are very important.

"By laying the foundation he did--Jesus Christ and him crucified--he was the truly wise' master-builder in contrast to the wise' in Corinth, who are building the church of totally incongenial materials and are therefore in danger of attempting to lay another foundation as well."⁷⁰

3:11 Christ Himself is the foundation of the church (Matt. 16:18; cf. Isa. 28:16; Rom. 9:33; 1 Pet. 2:6). Basing a church on the work of any other person, even Peter, is improper. Paul laid the foundation for the church in Corinth when he preached Christ and Him crucified there. The apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church in a secondary sense only (Eph. 2:20).⁷¹

3:12-13 Even though the quality of the foundation was the best, the condition of the building also depended on what others built on top of the foundation. In Paul's day contractors built buildings of durable and or combustible materials, as they do today. In the building of the Corinthian church durable materials were those activities that sprang from reliance on Christ and Him crucified, the foundation. These works contributed to the permanent spiritual strengthening of the believers. The combustible materials were activities that arose out of human "wisdom" in all its forms. These made no lasting contribution though they may have served some temporary need. Examples of the former include instruction in the Word of God, training in evangelism, and the refutation of error. Illustrations of the latter would be the teaching of popular ideas not rooted in Scripture, social work that excluded the gospel message, and the use of time and money for simply temporal purposes. However, Paul's main concern in this metaphor was those doing the building rather than the building itself.

"The six materials in 1 Cor 3:12 are arranged to denote a descending scale by moving from a unit of three good qualities to a unit of three bad ones. The verse uses pictures to represent what Paul calls work' in vv 13 and 14. Paul's main point is to encourage building with quality materials that will meet with God's approval and receive eternal reward. Interpreters sometimes restrict the meaning of the symbols either to doctrine, to people, to activity, or to character. The [proper] conclusion is that Paul in the symbols combines several things that lead to Christ's good pleasure and a believer's reward. These are sound doctrine, activity, motives and character in Christian service."⁷²

God will expose the work of each of God's servants on "the day." This is a reference to the day when the believer will stand before God and give an account of the stewardship of his or her life at Christ's judgment seat (cf. Luke 19:11-27; 1 Cor. 1:8; 2 Cor. 5:10; Phil. 1:6, 10; 2 Tim. 1:12, 18; 4:8; Rev. 22:12; et al.).⁷³ Then the fire of God's judgment will test the quality of each person's work and his workmanship, but not his person. The durability or transience of those works will then become apparent.

3:14-15 If the servant of the Lord has made a lasting contribution to the building of the church by emphasizing the gospel, he or she will receive a reward. If someone has not because he or she has pursued human "wisdom," that person will not, though he or she will retain his or her salvation. Paul likened the unfaithful servant to a man pulled to safety through the flames of his burning house (cf. Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27). The context identifies those who suffer loss as being Christians who seek to build the church with materials that fail to withstand God's assessment. They do not refer to all carnal Christians (vv. 1-4), though carnal Christians may fail to make lasting contributions to the church.⁷⁴

The rewards in view seem to be opportunities to glorify God by serving Him (cf. Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27). The Christian will have greater or lesser opportunities to do so during the Millennium and forever in proportion to his or her faithfulness on earth now.⁷⁵ The New Testament writers spoke of these rewards symbolically as crowns elsewhere (cf. 9:25; Phil. 4:1; 1 Thess. 2:19; 2 Tim. 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Pet. 5:4; Rev. 2:10; 3:11). It is perfectly proper to serve Christ to gain a crown. We will one day lay it at the feet of our Savior. It is a symbol of a life of faithful service that we performed out of gratitude for His grace to us (cf. Rev. 4:4, 10).⁷⁶

The testing in view here provides no support for the unbiblical doctrine of purgatory. It is the believer's works that God subjects to the fires of testing, not the believer personally. God applies the fire to determine the quality of the works, not to purify the believer.

"[The] whole subject of rewards for the believer is one, I am afraid, rarely thought of by the ordinary Christian, or even the average student of the Scriptures. But it is both a joyous and solemn theme and should serve as a potent incentive for holiness of life."⁷⁷

"The Bible describes the judgment seat of Christ for one main purpose: to affect the way we think and live--to motivate us to anticipate with joy His return and to live our lives to please Him, not worrying about the way others treat us or what they may think about us. . . .

"Though not the only motivating factor, I am convinced that the doctrine of the judgment seat (bema) is meant to be one of the major scriptural motivations for godly living."⁷⁸

"It is unfortunately possible for people to attempt to build the church out of every imaginable human system predicated on merely worldly wisdom, be it philosophy, pop' psychology, managerial techniques, relational good feelings,' or what have you. But at the final judgment, all such building (and perhaps countless other forms, where systems have become more important than the gospel itself) will be shown for what it is: something merely human, with no character of Christ or his gospel in it."⁷⁹

College: 1Co 3:1-23

1 CORINTHIANS 3

3. Divisions a Sign of Worldliness (3:1-4)

¹ Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly - mere infants in Christ. ² I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. ³ You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? ⁴ For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?

3:1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly - mere infants in Christ.

In this section Paul is continuing the thoughts that he has expressed in the latter part of ch. 2. The dualistic concepts which Paul had spelled out at the end of 1 Cor 2 with his emphasis on the difference between spiritual thinking and worldly thinking, are carried forward in ch. 3. In 3:1 Paul lays out the dualistic categories of spiritual (pneumatikov", pneumatikos ) versus fleshly (savrkino", sarkinos ), or as the NIV reads, spiritual versus worldly. 3:1 is a stinging indictment against those Christians who are a part of the problem of fragmentation and party strife in the congregation at Corinth. While Paul wishes to address them as spiritual Christians, based on their behavior, he can only address them as carnal individuals. The last part of verse 1 makes it clear that these individuals, though they are acting in a worldly fashion are, nevertheless, in Christ. Paul specifically refers to them as babes in Christ.

3:2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.

Using nutritional metaphors, Paul indicates that the Corinthians not only received milk from him when he first preached to them, but that he in fact still can give them only milk. Paul explicitly acknowledges that there is solid food for the Christian to digest, but makes it clear that the Christians involved in this fragmentation at Corinth are not yet able to digest that material.

3:3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?

By use of the connecting word "for" (gavr, gar ), in 3:3 (omitted in the NIV translation), Paul makes it clear why the Corinthians are unable to receive and digest mature Christian teaching. Paul makes a direct connection between the worldly outlook of the readership and their inability to receive mature Christian teaching. In this verse Paul also makes it very clear what characteristics of worldly thinking he has in mind. Paul refers explicitly to the jealousy and quarreling found among segments of the Corinthian church. For the apostle these attitudes of jealousy and quarreling are clear hallmarks of the worldly thinking among the Corinthian Christians.

3:4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?

This verse provides explicit testimony to the fact that Paul is treating the same problem that he introduced in 1:10. The slogans "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos" found in 3:4, are virtually identical with the slogans Paul cited in 1:12. All of these share in common an attitude of party spirit and fragmentation. When Paul asks in 3:4, "are you not men," he is not asking a question concerning gender but rather is using the word "men" (a[nqrwpoi, anthrôpoi) as an antithesis to the divine perspective.

D. GOD THE MASTER BUILDER (3:5-23)

1. Paul and Apollos Merely Servants (3:5-9)

⁵ What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe - as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶ I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. ⁷ So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸ The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. ⁹ For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

3:5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe - as the Lord has assigned to each his task.

In this verse Paul gives us an important insight into his own strategy at destroying pride in human leaders. The first part of Paul's strategy is to point out that he and Apollos are merely servants (diavkonoi, diakonoi ). The second part of Paul's strategy is to show that Apollos and Paul only played a role that had been assigned to them by the Lord in the process of the evangelization of individuals in Corinth. Even though the imagery and vocabulary will shift several times in the remainder of this chapter, in some ways the rest of this chapter is no more than a fuller answer to the question about the identity and significance of Apollos and Paul (cf. 3:22).

3:6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.

Paul mentions here the specific ministry assigned to him and to Apollos by God in their respective ministries in the history of the church at Corinth. Since planting a seed precedes the need to water the seed, Paul is perhaps indicating that his ministry had chronological priority in God's work in the church in Corinth. Based on the narrative in Acts 18, it is very clear that Paul's work in Corinth began before that of Apollos, and that Apollos' ministry there had more to do with nurturing the gospel rather than planting the gospel. The function of Paul's statements in v. 6 is to highlight the autonomy and the sovereignty of God in the process of individuals coming to faith. Using the illustration of the growth of a seed, Paul points out that it is God himself who gives growth to the seed. That growth cannot be attributed to human agency.

3:7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

Paul makes it clear in this verse where he is trying to lead the Corinthians in their own thinking and their evaluation of who Paul and who Apollos are. Paul explicitly says that the one who plants the seed, namely Paul, as well as the one who waters, namely Apollos, are not anything. By contrast one should acknowledge that all of the spiritual growth that occurs in individuals or the church in Corinth must be attributed to God himself. The teaching of 3:7 is in harmony with the God-centeredness of Paul's teachings elsewhere. Throughout Paul's letters it is clear that God the Father is the only one to whom believers should give praise and thanks.

3:8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.

Even though both Paul and Apollos have their own supporters among the believers at Corinth, Paul is not going to let congregational fragmentation detract from his own estimation of God's work through the ministry of Apollos. By the use of the phrase, "have one purpose" in 3:8, Paul expresses total solidarity with the ministry of Apollos and the harmony between the doctrine that Paul preaches and that which is associated with the ministry of Apollos.

In the second half of this verse Paul makes a statement which serves as a transition into the material that extends through 3:17. Some of this emphasis is not as clear in the translation of the NIV. In the Greek text of 3:8b Paul affirms that each one, namely himself and Apollos, will receive his "own reward" according to his "own labor." This double emphasis on "own reward" and "own labor" is not reflected in the NIV translation. This latter part of 3:8 anticipates 3:10-17 both in terms of the idea of the compensation that the worker receives based on his effort and the occurrence of the word "reward" which is found in 3:8 and 3:14. Paul may be setting forth this particular teaching in self-defense against those who would detract from his own efforts in the gospel. This interpretation seems likely since the one other time in 1 Corinthians that Paul talks about this issue is in 9:17-18 (2 occurrences) where he is partially involved in a defense of his calling and ministry (cf. 9:3).

3:9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

It would be a mistake to separate the ideas found in 3:9 from the affirmation that Paul makes at the end of 3:8. It seems likely that Paul's affirmation that he and Apollos are co-workers of God is intended to relate to the issue that they will be rewarded by God individually and based upon their own labor. This would also seem to explain why in this verse Paul affirms that he and Apollos are co-workers with God, in distinction from the Corinthians who themselves are described not as God's co-workers but as a field of God and a building of God.

In the section 3:9-17 Paul uses three metaphors to describe the people of God. They are the field of God, the building of God, and in v. 16 they are the temple of God. When Paul affirms in 3:9 that the Corinthian believers are God's field, he is continuing the imagery that he introduced in v. 6 when he used agricultural metaphors to explain the ministry of himself and Apollos among the Christians. Imagery of planting and watering provides the background to the imagery that the converts are God's field. Paul's affirmation in 3:9, namely that the Corinthians are God's building, sets the stage for the imagery to be found in 3:10-16.

2. Building on the Foundation Laid by Paul (3:10-17)

¹⁰ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. ¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³ his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. ¹⁴ If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. ¹⁵ If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

¹⁶ Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

3:10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds.

1 Cor 3:10-16 has been a section that has produced many ideas about the relationship between works and salvation. It is important, however, to keep in mind the contextual function of Paul's ideas in these verses. These verses are an expansion of his affirmation that the Corinthians are God's building, which in turn is a response to the larger question about the role and significance of himself and Apollos in God's work. In the agricultural metaphors of 3:6, Paul wrote that he planted and Apollos watered. The same general point is being made in 3:10, where Paul says that he is the wise architect who laid the foundation of the Christian community upon which others built as they served God. As always, Paul acknowledges that his ministerial activities are a manifestation of the grace of God given to him. Regardless of what one's gift from God is, Paul always regards it as a manifestation of the grace of God in the life of that individual. In the Corinthian setting and in the particular context of 3:10-15, Paul describes his work as laying down a foundation as an expert builder. In the use of this architectural imagery, Paul is referring to his own work in planting the gospel and presenting the gospel to the Corinthians. Given the contextual reference to Apollos in this section (3:4,5,22) and the fact that Paul refers to someone else (in the singular), building upon his own work, it is very likely that he has a follower of Apollos in mind here. Verse 10 ends with Paul's admonition that anyone who builds must be careful how he builds upon the foundation that Paul has already put in place. The background to Paul's thought here would go back to 3:8, where Paul says that each worker will receive his own reward according to his own labor. The reference to Apollos in this section does not necessarily mean that Apollos himself was in Corinth at that time and was involved in this activity. It is clear, however, from the context of chs. 1-4 that this may well include a person who claimed party loyalty to Apollos and that he needs to be careful how he is building upon the foundation that Paul has put down.

3:11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

As we have seen earlier in 1 Corinthians, Paul wants to make it very clear that he has special prerogatives in terms of the Corinthian work. By stating that there is no other foundation for the Christian community than the one that he himself has placed, Paul is highlighting his special role in the formation of the Christian community in Corinth. The purpose of Paul's affirmation in 3:11 is to preclude other Christian workers from claiming to be equal to Paul in his relationship with the church at Corinth.

3:12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,

Since Paul is an absent apostle, and since Paul knows that God will continue to be at work in the Corinthian church, he must deal with the fact that others will build upon the foundation that he has laid (e.g., Timothy). There is never a question in his mind whether others will be part of the ultimate growth of the church of God in Corinth. Verse 12 is a clear acknowledgment that others will build upon Paul's work, but Paul is concerned about the nature of this work and the converts that follow from it.

As one interprets the words gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw in 3:12, it is imperative that these are kept in the context of the metaphor in which Paul placed them. The larger contextual metaphor is that believers are a building. This means then that the various building materials mentioned in 3:13 must be seen to be referring to converts themselves since the building is a people. Even though Paul gives six particular examples of building materials, it is very clear that these six readily divide into two groups, with gold, silver and costly stones being in one group, and with wood, hay and straw being in the second group. The exact significance of these two groups is only apparent when these images are taken in the context of the larger metaphor that Paul is using. It becomes apparent in 3:13 what significance Paul attributes to these two groups in light of the continuing imagery found there.

3:13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.

With the single reference to judgment day and the dual reference to fire found in 3:13, it becomes clear what Paul intends by his use of these two groups of building materials. The point of contrast between these two groups of materials that are used in buildings is how well they will stand up against the heat of fire. In order to understand Paul correctly in this section, it is very important to comment on Paul's use of the word "work" (e[rgon, ergon ) in this particular metaphor. Because of Paul's use of the term "works" in his discussion of faith and works in other parts of the New Testament, many interpreters have thought that he is referring to that in this section. However, it is very clear that his use of the singular term "work" in this illustration in 3:10-15 has little to do with his discussion of faith and works in other epistles. Paul's use of the term "work" here has much more in common with his use of that term in 9:11, where he asks the Corinthians, "are you not my work in the Lord?"

This means then that Paul's comment about one's work has not so much to do with the totality of one's activity for God, but rather the fate and duration of the converts who are represented by the various building materials. It is for the very reason that not all of the converts in the Corinthian church will stand up as well against God's eschatological fire, that Paul affirmed in 3:10 that each of those who works among the converts should be very careful how he builds upon the foundation of the gospel. Paul realized full well that metaphorically speaking the building materials in God's spiritual house varied from convert to convert. This eschatological warning in 3:13 plays a very important role in Paul's effort to deal with the attitudes of pride and boasting which lie behind the congregational fragmentation. Paul is basically saying that individuals should not be too proud too soon, since no one knows the real quality of the converts until all of them stand before God's judgment and his refining fire on judgment day. It is at that point, according to 3:13, that God will test the quality of each man's work (not works). In this setting of 1 Corinthians, each man's work probably refers to those efforts by Paul, Apollos, and others. That would surely make sense in light of the reference to party slogans for Paul and Apollos found in 1 Cor 3, 4, 5 on the one hand and in the repetition of those names in 3:22.

3:14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.

The wording of 3:14 makes it very clear that Paul recognizes the fact that all or part of one's efforts in the kingdom of God may not survive. It is Paul's conviction that clearly some of the converts will survive. These would be represented by the images of gold, silver, and costly stones. The second half of 3:14 affirms what Paul had already mentioned in 3:8, namely that he and Apollos will receive a reward from God for their efforts. In neither of these cases does Paul make clear what the reward is. Christians have often speculated about degrees of reward and punishment from God at judgment day, but there is no specific information in either of these verses to indicate what the reward is. Some have suggested that it is the satisfaction of seeing one's converts receive eternal life. Others have suggested that it is the satisfaction of seeing one's work for God withstand the judgment day. One thing that is very clear in this context is that Paul's idea of reward here has nothing to do with financial remuneration. Paul is not concerned here with making affirmations about physical blessings or compensation that comes with success in God's work.

3:15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

Paul begins this verse by acknowledging that the work, namely some of the converts of Christian workers, may be burned up in God's eschatological fire. When this happens, Paul says, the worker himself will not be lost because his converts are lost. Even though it is very clear that Paul affirms that the Christian worker will be saved, it is not as easy to understand his idea when he says, "only as one escaping through the flames." This phrase has received various interpretations throughout church history. As early as the third century A.D., this text was understood to be scriptural proof for the concept of purgatory. Others have understood this imagery to be saying that even though one's life and doctrine have been unacceptable to God, these impurities will all be burned away at judgment day. This view is represented, for example, by John Calvin in his commentary where he deals with this verse. Calvin says,

there is no doubt that Paul is speaking of those who, while always retaining the foundation, mix hay with gold, stubble with silver, wood with precious stones. In other words, they build on Christ, but because of the weakness of the flesh, they give way to some human viewpoint, or through ignorance they turn aside to some extent from the strict purity of the Word of God. . . . Paul says that men like that can be saved but on this condition. If the Lord wipes off their ignorance and purifies them from all uncleanness. And that is what the phrase "as if by fire" means.

After giving his interpretation of this issue Calvin comments, "I am sure that my interpretation will satisfy all of sound judgment." Even though the position of the Roman Catholic church (which advocates purgatory) as well as the position advocated by John Calvin has had many supporters, neither of these seems to take as seriously as they should the immediate context and metaphorical imagery of chapter 3.

Perhaps the best interpretation of this admittedly difficult phrase is that found in the Greek Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature by Walter Bauer. In his lexical notes on the Greek word for fire (pu'r, pyr ), he makes the following comments about this verse. "Of the Christian worker who has built poorly in the congregation, it is said, he will be saved as through the fire, that is, like a person who must pass through a wall of fire to escape from a burning house." Bauer goes on to give examples of this prepositional phrase "through the fire" from ancient Greek literature, both pagan and Jewish. If this is correct, then the following would be Paul's point in this highly symbolic and metaphorical affirmation. Paul would be saying that there is no doubt about the salvation of the Christian worker himself and that the best way to explain the salvation of the Christian worker, given the limitations of the metaphorical language which Paul has already established, is to say that he will come out of this burning building as one breaking through a building that is on fire.

3:16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?

Paul shifts now to the third metaphor that he uses regarding God's people in this context. The third metaphor is that the congregation at Corinth is the temple (naov", naos ) of God. Even though Paul will use similar metaphors to depict his understanding of the Christian's personal body as the temple of God in 1 Cor 6, it is important that we do not confuse the two distinct ideas being presented in 3:16-17 and that presented in chapter 6. The theological idea that the community of God could be understood metaphorically as God's temple was an idea already found within Judaism prior to Paul. In addition, this idea is also found in other early Christian literature, such as 1 Peter and the Apocalypse. Since the collective people are the temple of God, then it follows quite naturally that God's spirit would dwell within them as his temple. The notion of God's presence dwelling in his temple is an idea that had been within Judaism and its Zionistic theology for centuries prior to the advent of Christianity. The language as well as the theology found here is similar to that which Paul expresses in the epistle to the Eph 2:20-22. The contextual function of 3:16 regarding the people being the temple of God is not so much to stress the need for corporate purity, but to set in place the images necessary to warn them about the consequences of promoting congregational fragmentation.

3:17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

Having established that the community is in fact the temple of God in which God's spirit dwells, Paul now explicitly discusses the consequences of destroying that temple. In the context of 1 Cor 1-4, reference to the destruction of the temple of God means nothing other than promoting strife, jealousy, and fragmentation in the Christian community at Corinth. These are in fact the hallmarks of the very problem Paul is addressing as he had reminded the Corinthians in 3:3-5. The affirmation of 3:17 is in sharp contrast to some of the points made in the preceding metaphor of 3:10-15. Paul has a strong message for Christian workers who promote fragmentation. 3:17 makes it very clear that those who promote fragmentation among the Christians, who encourage party loyalties, will in fact be destroyed by God.

While these detractors of Paul may not be preaching another gospel as they were in the churches of Galatia and while they would have agreed with many aspects of Paul's own theology, he nevertheless consigns them to destruction if they participate and encourage strife, jealousy, and division in the church of God at Corinth. 3:17b makes it very clear why there are such dire consequences which result from promoting church strife. By his use of the word "for" (gavr, gar ) Paul makes it clear that the consequences of division are so strong because what is being destroyed is God's sacred temple. Those at Corinth of the Pauline Party were assuredly shocked to hear Paul consigning to destruction those who were promoting Paul himself.

For people who were only a few years from their pagan heritage in which the term "temple of God" typically referred to a pagan sanctuary, it is important for Paul to remind them of the fact that they, as a people, are God's temple in Corinth. Since in 3:17 Paul does not associate the idea of sacred temple or God's temple with the Christian's personal body, it would be contextually inappropriate to draw inferences from 3:17 about God's destruction of the Christian in attempt to relate that to the issue of one's misuse of his own body as a Christian. Specifically, this verse says nothing about the consequences that come from the Christian's destruction of his body through suicide or sexual abuse.

3. God's View of Wisdom (3:18-23)

¹⁸ Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness" ^a ; ²⁰ and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." ^{b 21} So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas ^c or the world or life or death or the present or the future - all are yours, ²³ and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

^a 19 Job 5:13 ^b 20 Psalm 94:11 ^c 22 That is, Peter

3:18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise.

Spiritual and doctrinal deception are constant threats to the Christian community. Consequently, Paul refers to this problem several times in his letters, including the Corinthian correspondence. In this verse Paul warns the Corinthians in particular about self-deception. Paul reintroduces in 3:18b the pejorative use of the word "wise" (sofov", sophos ). Even though in 3:10 Paul had used the word "wise" of himself in the positive sense, in 3:18 he uses it in a negative sense, much in the same way that he did in 1:18. When Paul uses the phrase "wise by the standards of this age," he is once again employing the term "age" (aijwvn, aiôn) in a pejorative sense. Age in this context refers to a worldly perspective, an outlook which Paul had presented early in 2:6. For Paul, becoming a fool, as he advocates in 3:18, means abandoning worldly standards on the basis of which the misevaluation of himself and Apollos and other leaders is based. It is only after one has become a fool by the standards of this age that he can become, given God's criteria, a person of true wisdom.

3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness";

In this section Paul explains why the Corinthians must embrace foolishness by worldly standards and jettison human wisdom. In the first instance he says God is unimpressed by the wisdom of this world. In fact, it is foolishness in God's sight. Paul then establishes his point on the basis of a Scripture citation. With a citation from Job 5:13, part of the Old Testament wisdom literature, Paul says that the wise will be captured by God in their own craftiness (panourgiva, panourgia ).

3:20 and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."

Paul continues his argumentation in this verse by a second citation from the Old Testament. This time Paul chooses to cite Scripture from Ps 94:11. The key term in this citation from the Old Testament, just as in the preceding citation from the Old Testament, is the word "wise" ( sophos ). Paul has chosen both of these Old Testament citations because of the negative attitude they express toward those who claim to have the wisdom, but are nevertheless insignificant in the sight of God. The affirmation of Ps 94:11 is that God in fact knows the faults of the wise, and he knows the fact that these are futile. All of this is designed by Paul to be a commentary on those leaders and trendsetters among the Corinthian church, who because of their own seduction by Corinthian standards are contributing to the fragmentation and division in the church of God there.

3:21 So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours,

The point of both Scripture citations according to Paul in 3:21 is to lead the Corinthians to cease boasting on human standards. Not only have the Corinthians been boasting on the basis of human standards, but their object of boasting had been human personalities. It is clear from the following verse in 3:22 that Paul specifically has in mind party loyalty to himself, to Apollos, to Peter, and perhaps to others. It is regrettable that the NIV did not translate all of the concluding thoughts of 3:21. The Greek text includes the word "for" (gavr, gar ), thereby showing a connection in the thought of 3:21a and 3:21b. The reason that the Corinthians should no longer boast in human leaders is because all that they need to have they already have. Some of those addressed in this part of 1 Corinthians apparently thought their prestige or spirituality was being enhanced by these party loyalties. Paul makes it clear that this boasting in humans is unnecessary because all things are already in their possession, because of their relationship to God.

3:22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future - all are yours,

In this verse Paul gives a rapid series of eight items, the first three of which refer to personalities in the religious fragmentation in Corinth. Paul, Apollos, and Cephas are mentioned, thereby recapping the parties and the party slogans found in 1:12 where Paul mentioned loyalties to Paul, Apollos, and Cephas.

The last five items in the series in 3:22 relate not specifically to individuals but to the certainty that indeed all things are ours. This last part of 3:22 manifests Paul's use of extravagant polarities. In this regard it is similar to other instances in Paul's letters where he uses polarities to underscore a theological truth he has expressed. For example, in Rom 8:37 Paul affirms that Christians are more than conquerors in Christ who has loved them. Then in Rom 8:38-39 he gives a list, in some way similar to the list in 1 Corinthians. The point of the list in Rom 8:38-39 is to establish, by means of a series of polarities, the certainty of the claim he has made. Just as Paul's use of the terms "life or death or things present or things to come," etc. in Rom 8:38 is designed to confirm the certainty of God's promises in terms of his ever abiding love, so likewise in 1 Cor 3 Paul uses items such as life, death, the present age or the age to come to underscore the certainty that Christians can have that all things belong to them. In light of this understanding of the rhetorical function of Paul's use of polarities in 3:22, one need not be as pessimistic as C.K. Barrett when he observes on this passage that "at this point Paul expresses ideas that do not immediately seem strictly coherent within the context."

3:23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

The reason that the readers of 1 Corinthians are in possession of so many things is not on the basis of their own worldly wisdom. Their right to these kinds of possessions does not arise from human wisdom or their accommodation to the values present in a first-century Roman colony. The position of the Corinthians as possessors lies rather in their relationship to God. In v. 23a Paul affirms that the Corinthians belong to Christ, and then secondarily he affirms that Christ belongs to God. By setting forth his spiritual understanding in these terms, Paul makes it very clear once again that his own religious spiritual understanding is very theocentric. Moreover, as is evident in other places in 1 Corinthians, Paul's understanding of the relationship between Christ and God is one of a hierarchy. Paul understands God's reign to be that of a monarchy in which even Christ is subject to God, much as Christians in turn are subject to Christ (15:24-28).

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

McGarvey: 1Co 3:14

If any man's work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward .

Lapide: 1Co 3:1-23

CHAPTER III.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER

He endeavours to put an end to the divisions among the Corinthians, by reminding them of their mutual subjection and union in Christ and God.

i. He points out that Paul and Apollos are but ministers of Christ (vers. 1–9).

ii. He reminds them that Christ is the foundation of the Church: let each one, therefore, take heed what he builds on that foundation; for if it is only hay and stubble he will be saved indeed, but as by fire (vers. 10–15).

iii. He tells them that they are the temple of God, and bids them beware how they break in pieces or violate that temple (vers. 16–20).

iv. He forbids party strife (vers. 21–23).

Vers. 1, 2.— As babes in Christ I have fed you with milk and not with meat. In the preceding chapter the Apostle, to support his own authority, and to remove from the minds of the Corinthians the false opinion that they had about his ignorance and lack of speaking powers, said that he spoke wisdom among them that were perfect: hidden wisdom which the eye had not seen, nor the ear heard, but which God had revealed. Now, anticipating an objection, he gives the reason why he had not displayed this wisdom to the Corinthians, and transfers the blame from himself to them. It was because they were like children and carnal, not yet capable of receiving such wisdom, and to be fed, therefore, not with meat but with milk.

Notice that the Apostle designates as milk that easier, pleasanter, and more teaching about the Manhood of Christ, His grace and redemption, which befits catechumens recently converted and still carnal. He calls "meat," or solid food, the more perfect and robust teaching about the deeper mysteries, such as about God, about the Spirit of God and spiritual things, about the wisdom, power, and love of the Cross. So say Ambrose, Theophylact, S. Thomas.  S. Anselm moralises thus: " The same Christ is milk to man through the Incarnation; solid food to an angel through His Divinity. The same Christ crucified again, the same lection, the same sermon is taken by carnal men as milk, by spiritual as solid food."

S. Paul is here alluding, as his custom is, to Isa. xxviii. 9, and to Isa. lv. 1.  In this connection notice that what Isaiah calls "meat," which represents the full spiritual wisdom of the perfect, as milk signifies the discipline of children and of the imperfect. Hence, in former times wine and milk were given to the newly baptized, when they had been clad with the white robes, and this custom, as S. Jerome says in his commentary on Isaiah, is still kept up in the churches of the West. In other places honey and milk were given, as Tertullian testifies ( contra Marcion lib. i. c. 14), to denote (1.) their infancy and innocence in Christ, milk being a symbol of both. Hence Homer calls men that are innocent and just "feeders on milk," as Clemens Alexandrinus says ( Pædag. lib. i. c. 6). (2.) To denote their likeness to Christ, of whom Isaiah sang (Isa 7:15), "Butter and honey shall we eat." (3.) To symbolise the infantine gentleness, humility, and meekness of the Christian life. Hence it was that at the first sacrifice of the Mass, which the newly baptized heard at Easter, viz., on Low Sunday, there was read as the Epistle that portion of S. Peter's Epistle in which occur the words, "As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word." Hence S. Agnes, on the authority of S. Ambrose ( Serm. 90), used to say, "Milk and honey have I received from His mouth," Clement ( Pædag. lib. i.c. 6) discourses at length about this milk.

Ver. 3.— Whereas there is among you envying and strife . . . are ye not carnal? (1.) The word carnal is here applied to one who not only has his natural use of sense and reason, but also to one who follows the motions and dictates of the flesh, that is, of his animal nature. And, therefore, as S. Thomas rightly remarks, he who follows the motions of lust, or of his fallen nature, is carnal, natural, walking according to man, and destitute of the Spirit of God. (2.) Both here and in Gal. v. 19., the works of the flesh, i.e., of our corrupt nature, include envying, jealousy, strife, which are spiritual sins, as well as gluttony and lust, which are, strictly speaking, fleshly. Cf. notes to Rom 7:22, and Gal 5:17. The meaning is: You, O Corinthians, are carnal, i.e., contentious, because you fight like boys foolishly about the dignity of your teachers, and extol and put up for sale, one Paul, another Apollos.

Ver. 5.— Even as the Lord gave to every man. God gave to each one of His ministers powers of such kind and such extent as befitted his ministry. Therefore they should glory in God alone, not in Paul or Apollos, His ministers. These latter were not the lords or the authors of their faith, but merely the instruments used by God. So Anselm, Ambrose, Theophylact.

Ver. 6.— I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. I was the first to sow the seeds of the faith at Corinth, and then Apollos coming after me helped it forward (Act 18:26). But it was God who gave the inner life and strength of grace for growth and maturity in Christian faith and virtue: this belongs to God alone. Cf. Augustine ( in Joan. Tr. 5).

God gives to plants their increase, not, as rustics suppose, by directly adding some special daily power of growth, but by bestowing upon and preserving to the nature itself of the seed or the root a vigorous power of growth. In other words, He is continually bestowing it and preserving it, and co-operating with it: for the Divine work of preservation is nothing but a continuation of the primal creative power. He does this by ordering and tempering according to His counsel the rain, heat, and winds, and other things needed by the fruits of the ground, so that, as these are tempered, the fruit is larger or smaller. So it is in the sowing of the Word of God, and in its growth, perfecting and harvest in the minds of men.

It appears from this (1.) that outward preaching, calling, examples, and miracles are not alone sufficient for the conversion and the beginning of the spiritual life, or for its further growth. (2.) That, though all alike hear the same word of preaching, yet some profit little, some profit much by it, viz., those whom God works upon by a special inward calling, and whose hearts He touches to change their lives, or to continue to rise to higher things. Hence, both those who preach and those who hear profit most who earnestly beseech God for this inward influence.

Ver. 7.— So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God giveth the increase. The husbandman who plants and waters does hardly anything when compared with God; for he works from without only, and whatever he does he receives it from God, and works as His instrument. But God works within directly as the chief agent, and supplies the power of vigorous growth. For action is assigned to the chief agent, and especially to the first cause. So S. Thomas and Theophylact; S. Augustine ( in i. Ep. S. John. Tr. 7) says beautifully: " Outward ministries are helps and warnings, but He that teacheth the heart has His throne in heaven. These words which we address to another from without are to him as the husbandman to the tree. For the husbandman acts upon the tree from without, by diligently watering and tending it, but He does not fashion its fruits." It is God that co-operates with the tree, and lends it the power of bringing forth fruit. In the same way the words of the preacher do but little, for they sound from without only. But it is God who co-operates with them within, and by His grace illuminates and converts the soul.

Ver. 8.— Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one. They are one, say S. Thomas, Anselm, and others, in office and one in their ministry, i.e., they are both alike ministers. Therefore one is not to be despised or extolled in comparison of another, e.g., Paul in comparison of Apollos. Moreover, all ought to be knit together as one by the same bond of charity, and ought not to cause divisions on account of their ministers. For although they may have different gifts, yet they all discharge the self-same duty, and are one in Christ, who hates schisms, loves unity, and carefully watches over His ministers, however feeble thy be, and wishes them to be esteemed and honoured by all, not as men but as His representatives.

And every man shall receive his own reward according to his labour. This passage shows clearly the merits of good works; for where there is reward there is merit, the two terms being correlatives.

He does not say, it should be noticed, that "each one shall receive a reward according to the fruit that he has brought forth," but simply "according to his labour," for the fruit is not in our power, but in the hand of God that giveth the increase. You will receive, therefore, a full reward for all genuine labour, even though no fruit follow—though no heretic or sinner be converted. Nay, the reward will be the greater, because it is more difficult and more disheartening to preach when little or no fruit is seen than when many applaud the sermon, or profit by it.

Ver. 9.— For we are labourers together with God. S. Dionysius ( Cælest. Hierarch. c. 3) says, " A great, an angelic, nay, a Divine dignity is it to become a fellow-worker with God in the conversion of souls, and to show openly to all the Divine power working in us."

Ye are God's husbandry. Not Paul's or Apollos': so you cannot boast yourselves in them. S. Paul continues the illustration drawn from agriculture. The chief tiller is God; Paul and Apollos are his servants; the Corinthians are the field; the seed is grace, the fruits good works. God by His Spirit cultivates within: Paul assists Him by his preaching from without. So Anselm.

Ye are God's building. He inculcates the same truth by another illustration from building and architecture. The first architect is God; the secondary minister is Paul; the building is the Church and every Christian soul. So Anselm.

We should observe that the Hebrews and Syrians rejoice in metaphors and parables, and run them together, easily passing from one to another.

Ver. 10.— According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master–builder I have laid the foundation. Not mine is this building, not mine the works; for although I, as the first architect, laid the foundations, by my preaching, of the Church at Corinth, yet whatever I did, and brought to perfection there, was done, not by my strength, but by the grace of God. Let, then, this building of God's Church be attributed to His grace, not to my efforts.

Ver. 11.— For other foundation can no man lay. I have laid the foundation of your Church: let Apollos and others see what superstructure they raise upon, but not endeavour to lay a new foundation. For no other foundation can be laid, for it is Jesus Christ Himself. The foundation, then, of the Church, and of each individual soul in it, is Jesus Christ, i.e., faith in Him as our Saviour, and especially that faith which is quickened by charity, on which I have built you. So Anselm, and S. Gregory ( lib. vii. epist. 47).

In this sense Christ alone is the foundation of the Church, and the foundation of the foundations, as S. Augustine says (Ps. lxxxvii. 1), because He rests on Himself alone, and bears up all others, even Peter. In another sense Peter is the foundation of the Church, viz., a secondary one, because from his firmness in the faith he cannot publicly teach error, but always confirms others in it, and gives them light. This is laid down by S. Thomas and all Catholic theologians. In a similar sense, not only Peter, but all the Apostles, are called the foundations of the Church (Psa 87:1; Rev 21:19).

Vers. 12 and 13.— Now if any man build . . . the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. This is a metaphor drawn from a house on fire, which if constructed of gold or precious stones receives no damage, but if of wood or stubble is consumed.

Notice in passing that by "previous stones" we must here understand marble, porphyry, and the like, not diamonds or other gems; for the houses of wealthy men are built of the former, not of the latter. Such was the boast of Augustus: "I received the city built of brick, I leave it built of marble." The Apostle's meaning, then, is that, if a fire occur, a house built of marble and gold is not injured by it, but rather shines the more brightly. But the next house, being built of wood and stubble, will burn, and its tenant will escape indeed, but he will be scorched. So if any Christian, and especially any teacher or preacher of the Gospel (for such are primarily referred to here, as appears from vers. 4, 6, and 10), build upon the faith of Christ gold and silver, that is, according to Theodore and Theophylact, holy works, and especially sound, edifying, and holy doctrine, he shall receive his reward. So Ambrose and S. Anselm.  S. Thomas says: " Gold is charity; silver, contemplative wisdom; precious stones are the other virtues. " On the other hand, wood, hay, stubble are sins, not deadly sins, as Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Gregory ( contra. Magd. lib. iv. c. 13) think (for these are lead and brass, as is pointed out by Anselm and S. Thomas and S. Augustine ( Enchirid. c. 68), nor are they built upon, but they overturn and destroy the building, viz., that living faith which alone wins a reward from Christ); but they represent venial sins, which make the mind cling to vanities, to worldly advantages, to vain-glory. But strictly speaking the Apostle is referring, when he speaks of wood, hay, stubble, to doctrine that is fluid, frivolous, showy, ornamental, wire-drawn, and useless. So say Ambrose, S. Thomas, Theodoret, Anselm. For he that builds these things on the foundation of faith in Christ shall be saved, yet so as by fire.

The Apostle in verses leaves the Corinthians to give a warning to Apollos and their other teachers and preachers, especially those gifted with eloquence, to beware of their great danger, vain-glory, and to be teachers of the truth in its purity, lest if they do otherwise they have to expiate their sin by fire. That there were some such at Corinth who had been the cause or the occasion of strife and division is pretty plainly hinted here and in the next chapter in vers. 6, 10, 15, 18, and 19.

For the day shall declare it. This day is the day of the Lord, to be marked with a white or black stone, the day of judgment, especially of the universal judgment, which shall be revealed in fire. For that day of the Lord is now our day, as Anselm, Theodoret, Ambrose, and S. Thomas say. Cf. also 2Ti 4:8;  2Ti 1:12; and c. 15. In these and other places we are evidently to understand "that day" to be as it were a technical name for the famous day of universal judgment.

But notice that the day of particular judgment is also to be included under this day of universal judgment. For the judgment of both is one and the same, as is also their sentence.

It shall be revealed by fire. What is this fire? To answer this we must notice that the Apostle speaks of three things: (1.) that the day of the Lord shall be revealed in fire; (2.) that it shall try each man's; (3.) that those who build wood, hay, stubble shall pass through it, and shall be saved, yet so as by fire.

1. Many of the ancients, as Origen ( in Lucam, hom. 14), Ambrose (in Ps. 37), Lactantius ( lib. vii. c. 21), Basil (in Isa 14.), Rupert (in Gen. lib. ii. c. 32), take the fire to be literal fire, which they think all souls, even those of Peter and Paul, must pass through on their way to heaven, to have their impurities purged away, whether it be the general conflagration at the end of the world, or the purgatorial fire beneath the earth, or some other fire in the upper æther. For Bede says ( hist. lib. iii. xix.) that S. Fursey saw huge fires on the road which led to heaven, through which the traveller must pass. But this opinion, though it has not been condemned, and though Bellarmine ( de Purg. lib. ii. 1) has not ventured to condemn it, yet lacks foundation. For this passage of the Apostle's, on which alone those who uphold this view rely, has a different meaning. That vision of Fursey's, too, was merely a representation, under the image of literal fire, of God's spiritual judgment and the punishments awaiting carnal men, as I will show presently.

2. S. Chrysostom and Theophylact, who were followed by the Greek Fathers at the Council of Florence, reply that it is hell-fire, in which the sinner will remain safely, i.e., undestroyed and undying, so as to undergo punishment everlastingly. But this is a perversion of the meaning: for salvation everywhere stands in Scripture for a state of freedom from pain and sorrow, never for an eternal existence in torments. And so all other interpreters understand it, as well as the Latin Fathers at that same Council.

But we should notice that though S. Chrysostom understands this verse of hell, yet he does not deny that it may refer to purgatory, as was falsely asserted by Mark, Archbishop of Ephesus, at the Council. He even expressly admits it (in Matt. Hom. 32, in Philipp. Hom. 3, Heb. Hom. 4, and elsewhere). In these places he exhorts the faithful to pray for the faithful departed in purgatory; for we may not pray for those in hell, since there there is no redemption.

Heretics reply that this fire is the fire of the tribulation of this life; and this is even implied by Anselm and Gregory (Dial. iv. 39) and Augustine (in Ps. xxxviii), all of whom, however, understand it of purgatory, or that it is the fire of confusion, which they feign that the Holy Spirit sends upon the Saints in life, or else at their death, as, e.g., they say He did in the case of SS. Bernard, Francis, and Dominic, to show them their errors about the monastic life, the Mass, and Confession, that so they might have their eyes opened and be led to retract. But all this is a gratuitous invention, nor does there exist any such retractation made by these Saints or by others on their death-beds: they rather gave with constancy an exhortation to their followers to persist and go forward in the monastic life.

Add to this that many have died suddenly, and still die suddenly, or die in their sleep, and that they depart with the stain of venial sins. Where are they purged? Not in heaven, for there nothing that defiles shall enter (Rev 21:27); not in hell, for that is the place of the lost; therefore, it must be in purgatory. For after this life there is no place for the wonted mercy and pardon of God, but only for justice and for just making amends, or rather suffering amends, so that no one may say that God freely forgives all sin to the dead, i.e., all pain and guilt. Lastly, the day of death is not called the day of the Lord, but the day of judgment; nor does fire denote the confusion that happens then, but literal fire.

Calvin objects that wood, hay, stubble are used figuratively, so therefore is fire. I reply by denying that it follows; for it appears that the day of the Lord is to be revealed by fire properly so called, and I shall show this directly.

4. Sedulius, Cajetan, Theodoret, Ambrose understand this fire of the strict and severe examination of the judgment of God, punishing sin after death by fire; or, as Bellarmine suggests, it is the fire partly of judgment, partly of purgatory. In other words, as the works of sinners shall have their fiery examination, so too shall they that work them have their fire, the fire of vengeance, in purgatory. By way of analogy that judgment is called by the name of fire, because, like fire, it will be most purifying, most searching, most rapid, and most efficacious (Mal 2:2; Heb. xii. 29). But since the words of the Apostle speak of nothing but fire, and repeat it twice and three times, they seem plainly and properly to mean what they say, and to denote literal fire throughout, with no figure, double meaning, or variation.

I say, then, 1. that it is certain that this place is understood of the fire of purgatory. So it is taken by the Council of Florence, by Ambrose, Theodoret, S. Thomas, Anselm, here, and in innumerable places by the Greek and Latin Fathers, cited at length by Bellarmine and Salmeron. This is the tradition and common opinion of the Church and of doctors, although they may sometimes explain the details differently, or apply them to purgatory in a different way.

It may be objected: If the Council of Florence understands this passage of purgatorial fire, it is therefore a matter de fide, and must be understood of it by all, and therefore also it is de fide, not only that there is a purgatory, but that souls are purged in it by fire.

I answer by denying that it follows. For although the Latin Fathers in the Council of Trent so understand it, and though consequently it is certain that there is a purgatorial fire, yet they were unwilling to define it to be a matter of faith that it is fire, but only that it is purgatorial. They did this, too, so as not to offend the Greeks, who admitted indeed a purgatory, but denied the existence of fire in it, saying merely that it was a dark place and full of suffering.

2. The fire spoken of here by the Apostle is, properly speaking, the fire of the conflagration of the world. This appears from the fact that it will be in the day of the Lord, that is, at the last judgment, which is everywhere described in Scripture "by fire which is to burn up the world." Cf. Psa 92:3;  2Th 1:8; Joe 2:3;  2Peter 3:12. For this fire will at the same time consume the world, and prove and purge those who shall then be living, as theologians everywhere lay down; it will also be the precursor, or rather the companion and lictor, of Christ, the Judge. It will, too, bring death and punishment, if not to the pure, at any rate to the impure, proportioned to their deserving. This fire shall then surround and carry off the condemned with it into hell, and so it is said that "the day of the Lord shall be revealed by fire;" which means that that day shall be revealed by fire as the day of the vengeance and judgment of the Lord.

You will ask, How does this fire purge works which have long passed away and are not? I reply that Scripture says that men's good and evil deeds follow them; they are with them after death, inasmuch as responsibility for them still remains with men, binding them either to reward or punishment.

You may ask again, How can works be said to be burnt? I answer, in two ways: (1.) Figuratively, for they are compared to stubble, which literally burns. Works, too, burn in a figurative sense, i.e., they are punished and destroyed like wood which is consumed by fire. (2.) By metonymy the works are put for the worker, and are thus said to burn.

Notice here that the Apostle uses this figure and metonymy so as to carry on the illustration of a building which he introduced in ver. 9, and also because he is referring to the conflagration which is to burn all the buildings in the world. For men's works build for them as it were houses, just as silkworms spin little balls of silk, and enwrap themselves in them, as if they were their houses; so that if you burn these little balls you burn the silkworm, and vice versâ. So here work is figuratively burnt like a house, because the worker and builder to whom the works adhere, and in whom they may be said to adhere is burnt. Moreover, the works rather than the workman are said to be burnt, because the workman is not utterly consumed, but is saved, yet so as by fire. But the guilt of his works is by this fire consumed and done away.

It may be asked in the third place, How is it that this fire is said to try gold and silver, i.e., good works? I answer, By the very fact that it does not touch them, but leaves them wholly unharmed, because they are wholly without alloy; the fire declares the perfection of the workmen and their works. But it will manifest by burning, i.e., by punishing wood, hay, stubble, when it shall attack and burn those that committed venial sin, and shall purge them so as to save them, yet so as by fire. Similarly, in olden times, until it was forbidden by the Canons as tempting God, trial by ordeal was resorted to for the purpose of deciding guilt: an accused person had to handle a red-hot iron, or walk upon it barefoot. If he was really guilty he was burnt; if innocent, uninjured. This happened to S. Cunegund, wife of the Emperor Henry, and to the three children in the Babylonian furnace. The one proved her chastity by walking barefoot over the hot iron, the others their innocence by passing uninjured through the fiery furnace.

It may be asked again, How does fire try the work of every man? For Paul, and all who are already dead, do not pass through the fire that consumes the world. I reply (1.) that S. Paul is on the habit of speaking as if the last day were close at hand, that so he may stir up every one to prepare himself for a day that is uncertain, and perhaps soon to come. (2.) Moreover, this fire will purge the whole world, and therefore if there is any stain in any of the dead that has not yet been purged away, it will be attacked and punished by that fire; and so each one's work, whether he be living or dead, will be manifested. (3.) As the Apostle includes the day of death under the day of the Lord, and particular judgment under the general, and regards them under one aspect, so in like manner, under the fire that will accompany Christ when He comes in judgment, and that will purge whatever then remains that needs purging, he wishes us to understand that fire by which souls begin to be purges directly after death. By this fire, he means the fire of purgatory.

It is no objection to this that the fire which shall destroy the world will be before death, when it should be after death. For (1.) it will do away with the sins of the whole life and of death also. But it cannot be after death so as to purge the dead, for they that are dead then will immediately rise and be carried to judgment. (2.) If any one before death shall chance not to have been sufficiently purged, he will after death be fully dealt with by the same purgatorial fire. This is proved by this verse; for the Apostle writes it to the living, who were not to see the general conflagration, but were to have their own purgatory after death, as the others were to have theirs at death. For why should one escape this fire more than the other, if their merits were the same? (3.) The Greek word is in the present tense, "is being revealed:" in other words, the "day of the Lord" is revealed at death. (4.) The work of every one will be tried by this purgatorial fire, and yet the work of those alive at the general conflagration will alone be tried by it. (5.) All the Catholic Fathers, the Latin doctors, and the Council of Florence, at its beginning, understood this passage of the fire of purgatory, and it has the unanimous tradition of the Church. (6.) To try by purging is in the strictest sense the work of purgatory, and of it we can most truly say that it shall save, yet so as by fire. For from the moment of death a man will be saved, and when he has been thoroughly purged he will fly from purgatory to heaven, before the great day of the Lord.

As, then, the saying of the Apostle's, that the day of the Lord shall be revealed by fire, exactly suits the fire at the end of the world, so also it strictly falls in with the fire of purgatory, because it shall try each man's work, and because the righteous man who has sinned shall be saved yet so as by fire.

I must add to this that theologians of repute, as Francis Suarez (pt. iii. vol. 2, disp. 57. sec. 1), hold that thus general conflagration will not slay the purge men, but that after the resurrection, at the general judgment, this fire will only be for the terror and punishment of the lost, and to burn up and renew the world after judgment. Still, they say, that we can infer that it will try and purge the good, inasmuch as it will be a witness to the acknowledgment by Christ of their innocence resulting from the purgation they have undergone in purgatory. It is therefore much more certain that the trial spoken of here will be by the fire of purgatory rather than by the conflagration at the end of the world. In short, the whole of this passage of the Apostle's must be understood as well of the day of judgment, both particular and universal, as of purgatory and the fire that is to consume the world. It may be asked, Why does the Apostle blend these and speak indifferently of both judgments and both fires? The reason is (1.) that as the particular and general judgment will be one and the same, so will the fire of purgatory and at the end of the world be one and the same. One purges men, the other the world. The fire of purgatory is related as a part to the whole to the general fire which will be the world's purgatory; it will give place to it, and perhaps be changed into it, and perhaps become numerically one with it. (2.) The Apostle frequently speaks of the day of judgment being close at hand, and consequently as if the passage from purgatory to the general conflagration were soon to be made; and, as was said, he does this that men may prepare themselves for it by holy and pious lives. Cf. 1 Thess. iv. 15; Heb. xi. 40; 2 Cor. v. 1, 3, 4. Similarly, the Prophets and Christ Himself often mingle type and antitype, as in S. Matt. xxiv. Christ speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the world as one destruction, and as if one were to follow closely upon the other. This is why the Apostles, when Christ said this, thought that the two would be nearly contemporaneous, though afterwards when better taught they perceived and corrected their mistake.

You may ask secondly, How can the words, "it shall be revealed by fire," be applied to the particular judgment? What fire will be Christ's assessor at the particular judgment when each man's works are tried and declared? I answer that the fire of purgatory is Christ's assistant in the particular judgment of any man, ready to His hand to try, punish, and purge each man's work. We ought to remark that S. Paul personifies this purgatorial fire, and makes it a kind of assessor to Christ, so that, like soldiers before their captain, all the dead must pass before it, to be inspected, and, if they need it, to be corrected. The Apostle does this (1.) to carry in his figure of gold and the refiner; (2.) to keep the fitting proportion between this fire and the general conflagration, to which his reference is primarily when he says, "the day of the Lord shall be revealed by fire." Notice also that, as then the Prophets and Christ blend confusedly type and antitype, as, e.g., when they speak of Solomon and Christ, of the destruction of the city and the world, and appear to apply to both things, which have more reference to the one than to the other, so also S. Paul does here: for the words, "the day of the Lord shall be revealed by fire," refer rather to the conflagration at the end of the world; but the words that follow, "the fire shall try every man's work," have to do rather with the fire of purgatory.

The fire of purgatory, then, is Christ's assistant at the day of particular judgment, His precursor, lictor, jailer, and scourge; it examines each man's work, leaves the gold of good works unharmed, but burns up as if they were its proper fuel all works of wood, hay, stubble; and so each one shall suffer loss, or punishment—in such a way, however, that the worker is saved, yet so as by fire. And so at the day of death and particular judgment this fire is revealed to each one. And this was the meaning of Fursey's vision. For when he saw himself dead and the fire approaching him, he said to the angel, "Lord, lo! the fire is coming near me." The angel answered, "What thou didst not kindle shall not burn thee. For though the pyre seem great and terrible, yet it tries every man according to the merit of his works, for each man's lust shall be burnt in this fore. For just as each one burns in his body with unlawful lust, so when freed from the body shall he be burnt by just punishment."

Ver. 15.— But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Isidorius Clarius wrongly applies this to the "foundation." Grammatically it is possible, but logically not, for it does not agree with the context. For the Apostle is showing that those teachers who erect an empty and showy structure on the faith of Christ shall be punished with fire. Moreover, the preceding words, "he shall receive a reward," evidently refer to the builder, not to the foundation. So, too, the opposite clause here must be referred to him who builds and not t the foundation laid.

Notice (1.) that as is a mark of truth, not of comparison. So in S. John i. 14: "We have seen His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten. (2.) That it is possible for as to be the introduction of a comparison here. The meaning then would be, He shall be saved like as one who escapes from a burning house, and passes scorched through the flames, as I said at ver. 12. Hence it appears both that there is a purgatory and that there is fire. Hence Chrysostom ( Hom. ad pop. 69) says that "the Apostles ordered that at the sacrifice of the Mass prayer be offered for the departed." Dionysius ( Eccles. Hierarch. cvii. pt. 3) records these prayers, and says that he received them from the Apostles. For, as S. Augustine says (Ps. xxxviii), "Because it is said 'shall be saved,' this fire is thought little of, but it will be more than anything that man can endure in this life." S. Bernard too says ( de Obit. Humb. ), "What we have neglected here shall there be paid a hundredfold."

Many think that the fire of purgatory is the same as the fire of hell, which borders on purgatory, but only differs from it in duration. From this Anselm gives the wise advice: "If to escape tortures we obey a king here, let us obey the will of Gos so as to escape that fire which is more terrible than all tortures here." And S. Chrysostom ( de Penit. hom. 5) says: "Now there is space for repentance; let then penitence forestall punishment; let us come before His face with confession; let us extinguish the fore prepared for our sins, not with many waters, but with a few tears." At all events, it is better and easier to be purged with water than with fire: it is better to spend the life whole in the purgatory of penitence than to dwell for a year in the purgatory of fire.

S. Bernard, in his sermon on "the wood, hay, stubble," gives a tropological discourse that is much to the point. He says: " The foundation is Christ, the wood is perishable, the hay yielding, the stubble light. They who began stoutly enough, but when broken are not renewed, are the wood. They are the hay who, being lukewarm by reason of the sloth that they should have fled from, are unwilling to touch arduous labours with the tip of their fingers. They are the stubble who, being tossed about by every light breeze, never remain in the same state. For such must we fear, though not despair: for if they have heed to Christ as the foundation, and have finished their life in Him as the Way, they shall be saved, yet so as by fire . . . Fire has three things—smoke, light, heat. Smoke calls forth tears, light illuminates what is near, heat burns. So he who is of this sort ought to have smoke, that is, a smarting as it were in his mind, because of his lukewarmness, his remissness, his fickleness; for as far as in him lies he disturbs and overthrows natural order. So, too, should he have light in his mouth, that he may by confession say and bewail that he is what he knows himself to be; so that his tongue may sharpen his conscience, and his conscience shame his tongue. It is necessary, too, that he feel in his body the heat of the suffering exacted by penitence—in some degree at all events, if not very acutely. Thinkest thou that He who wishes all men to be saved will cast away those who in this way are of contrite heart, who humbly confess, and try to bring under their bodies? . . . There are, too, others who build on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, who begin ardently, more ardently go forward, and most ardently seek perfection, not paying any heed to what the flesh can do, but what the Spirit wills."

Ver. 16.— Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? This is a return to the image of ver. 9: "Ye are God's building," and therefore not a heathen temple, but the temple of God, in which by faith, grace, charity, and His gifts He dwells. So Anselm and others. For a fuller exposition if this, see the notes to 2Co 6:16.

How the soul may be dedicated as a temple to God is declared at length by S. Bernard (Serm. 1 de Dedic. Eccl. ). He says that there are five things observed in a dedication: the sprinkling, the marking with the cross, the anointing, the illumination, and the benediction; and all these take place also in the dedication of the soul.

Observe that up to the present S. Paul has been dealing with those teachers and those of the faithful who build up the holy edifice of the Church. He now turns to those who undermine it.

Ver. 17.— If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. If any one, through the fatal pride that is born of human wisdom, through novel, erroneous, and pestilential teaching, or through schisms such as are found among you, O Corinthians, says Anselm; or if any one in any other way corrupt the Church, or any individual soul in it—him shall God destroy. The Apostle is speaking mainly of the corruption that comes through the teaching of false doctrine, through pride, through envy, or the fomenting of schism. For as he began, so does he finish this chapter with warnings to false teachers. It appears, too, from the next words where he says that any such defiler shall not be saved, so as by fire, but shall be consumed in everlasting fire.

Ver. 18.— If any man among you seemeth to be wise. If any man is proud if his worldly wisdom and eloquence, his earthly knowledge and so come to look down on others, let him become filled with humility and faith, and with the folly of the Cross, so as to be a fool in the eyes of the world. Cf. notes on i. 26. This with God is the only true wisdom. Since the world's wisdom is folly with God, and God's wisdom foolishness to the world, it follows that we cannot be wise unless according to the world we are fools—unless, in spite of our greatness and wisdom before the world, we submit ourselves like children, nay, like fools, to the faith, doctrine, cross, and obedience of Christ. " So," says S. Bernard (Serm. 2 de Epiph. ), " did the three Magi worship the Child in the manger and become fools, so as to learn wisdom; and so the spirit taught them what was afterwards preached by Apostles: 'He who wishes to be wise let him become a fool, that he may be wise.' They enter the stable, they find a child wrapped in swaddling clothes: they think no scorn of the stable, stumble not at the swaddling clothes, nor find offence in the Infant at the breast: they fall down, they worship Him as King, they adore Him as God. Surely, He who led thither their steps also opened the eyes of their mind. He who guided them from without by a star, also taught them in the deepest recesses of the heart." S. Basil asks ( Reg. brevoir. 274): "How is any one made a fool in this world?" And he replies, " If he fears the judgment of God, who says. 'Woe to them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight;' and if he imitates Him who said, 'I became even as a beast before Thee;' if he throw away all empty belief in his own wisdom, reverse all his former judgments, and confess that not even from the beginning has he ever thought aright till he was taught by the command of God what was pleasing to Him in thought, word, and deed."

Ver. 19.— For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. God has rejected the wisdom of the world as worthless, (1.) because it has nothing in it that is wholesome and Divine, and does nothing towards salvation; (2.) He would not use it in the preaching of the Apostles, but employed instead unlettered Apostles; (3.) It is often contrary to the faith, not only in speculative matters (as, e.g., all who are merely worldly-wise reject the mystery of the Holy Trinity, of the Incarnation and death of the Son of God as being impossible and incredible), but also in matters of practice and morals. For Christ bids us love our enemies; the wisdom of the world bids us hate them: Christ bids us overcome evil with good, the world says, "Return evil for evil;" Christ calls blessed the poor, the meek, them that mourn, that hunger, that suffer persecution, but the world says that it is the rich, those that are in high station, that laugh, feast, and rule, that are happy.

For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. This is from Job 5:13. They are the words, not of Job, but of Eliphaz, who wished to show that Job had deserved his calamities through his sins. He was reproved by God (Job 42:7), and therefore these words of Eliphaz have not the authority os Holy Scripture, but only that of a wise man. For S. Paul approves of this saying of Eliphaz as being true, and wisely said by a wise man.

God takes the wise in their craftiness when He fulfils His will by the very means by which they thought to reverse it. When the brothers of Joseph, wishing to stultify his dreams about his future leadership, threw him into a pit and sold him into Egypt, God through their action, exalted him, and made him ruler over Egypt, and forced his brothers to do him reverence. In like manner God overruled the wisdom of Pharaoh at the Red Sea, of Saul and Achithophel on their attempts to destroy David, of Haman at the gallows, where he thought to slay Mordecai. So S. Thomas.

Ver. 20.— And again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are but vain. Psa 94:11. By all these quotations and reasons S. Paul impresses on the Corinthians that the worldly wisdom and eloquence of which they boasted themselves, and through which they put Apollos before himself, were but vain. He declares that the true wisdom is the faith and teaching of Christ, which he had preached them—on simple words, indeed, but yet with burning and efficacious zeal.

S. Jerome, moralising on Ps. xciv., says: " Do you wish to know how it is that the thoughts of men are vain? A father and mother bring up a child, they promise themselves happiness in him, they send him to be educated; he comes to manhood, they enter him as a soldier, and when through thirty years they have thought of everything for him, a slight attack of fever comes and carries away the fruit of all their thought. O anxiety of man! how vain is it in human affairs! One thought alone brings happiness—the thought of God."

Vers. 21, 22.— Therefore, let no man glory in men . . . all are yours. Glory not in Paul or in Apollos, for they and all others, nay, all creatures are common to each one of you; they all alike concur in procuring your salvation.

It should be remarked that S. Paul, when he says that all are yours, does not teach a community of goods such as there was in paradise, and as Huss, Wyclif, and others fondly dream of. He means that by way of final cause and use, not by way of possession, all things have been intended to help forward their salvation. So say Anselm, Ambrose, Theodoret, S. Thomas, Chrysostom. They have been given to be used either objectively or subjectively, which latter consists in acknowledging and praising the Creator in all His creatures; and this is what is meant by the common saying, "The whole world swells the wealth of the faithful." Cf. Theodoret ( Serm. 10 de. Provid.). Hence S. Chrysostom says: " We are Christ's in one way; Christ is God's in another; the world is ours in another. For we are Christ's as His work; Christ is God's as His most dearly–beloved Son; the world is ours, not as being our work, but because it was made on our account." The world then is ours, because all creatures in the world serve our body and soul; life is ours, that we may lay up a store of merits; death is ours, because it is the gate through which we pass to everlasting life; or the death of martyrdom is ours; things present, whether adverse or prosperous, are ours that we may extract good from them; things to come are ours, that we may enjoy them: they are now ours in hope, they will be ours in fact in heaven. So S. Thomas and Anselm. Ours, too, are evil things, such as hell and the lost, that we may rule over them.

Ver. 23.— Ye are Christ's. You are the mystical members of Christ, your Head and Lord, and therefore you are His possession, having been bought by His Blood. Therefore you should glory in Christ, not in Paul or Apollos. So S. Thomas and Anselm.

And Christ is God's. (1.) Because, as God, He is the Son of God. Ambrose says, "Christ is the Son of God, and does His will, that we too may do it." So, too, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Anselm. (2.) Christ as man is God's, as His Lord and Head, being His creature and His possession. So S. Thomas and Cajetan.

From what has been said it appears that all the faithful, and especially the elect, are the end for which God created all things. The end of all things is Christ as man. For this glory was the due of such a man, viz., that all things should serve Him, be ordained foe Him, and look to Him as their end. But Christ is for God and His glory, and therefore all glory is to be given, not to Paul or Apollos, but to God alone.

S. Chrysostom ( Hom. 10 Moral. ) says beautifully: " All that we are and all that we have comes from Christ: life and light, and spirit, and air and earth. If any of these be taken from us we perish, for we are but strangers and pilgrims. 'Mine and thine' are, when carefully considered, but empty words. Though you may speak of your house as being your own, you speak foolishly; for indeed the air, the earth, the material of which it is made, yourself who build it, and all other things are the property of the Creator. Even if the use of it is yours it is of uncertain duration, not only because of death, but also because of the uncertainty of all things before death. for we are God's in two ways—by creation and re-creation; and if your soul is not your own, how can you say that your money is? Since, therefore, it is not your own, you should expend it upon your fellow-servants. Do not say, then, 'I spend my own.' It is not your own, it is another's, nay, it is common to thee and thy fellow-servant, like as the sun and air and all things are."

Commentary -- Other

Critics Ask: 1Co 3:14

1 CORINTHIANS 3:13-15 —Does this passage support the Roman Catholic view of purgatory?

PROBLEM: Roman Catholics appeal to this passage in support of the doctrine of temporary punishment for those not good enough to go directly to heaven. They point to the fact that it speaks of people who “suffer loss” when their works are “burned” by fire and yet they are eventually “saved” ( 1 Cor. 3:15 ). Does the Bible teach that there is a temporary hell (purgatory) where people suffer for their sins before they are let into heaven?

SOLUTION: Nowhere does the Bible teach the doctrine of purgatory. This doctrine is contrary to many facts of Scripture.

First, hell is a permanent place of “everlasting fire” ( Matt. 25:41 ). It entails “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord” ( 2 Thes. 1:9 ; see comments on that passage). Jesus declared it is a place where the fire “shall never be quenched” and where the body “does not die” ( Mark 9:45 , 48 ).

Second, once one goes to hell, he can never get out. Jesus said there is “a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass” from one side to the other cannot do so ( Luke 16:26 ). This is true even if they regret being there ( Luke 16:23 , 28 ).

Third, the doctrine of purgatory is an insult to the all-sufficiency of the death of Christ on the cross. When Jesus died for our sins ( 1 Cor. 15:3 ) He announced, “It is finished” ( John 19:30 ). Looking forward to the cross, He prayed to the Father, “I have finished the work which you have given Me to do” ( John 17:4 ). Hebrews informs us that “after He [Jesus] had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, [He] sat down at the right hand of God” ( Heb. 10:12 ). “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” ( Heb. 10:14 ).

Fourth, the only purgatory ever to be experienced was experienced by Christ on the cross when He purged our sins. Hebrews declares that “when He had by Himself purged our sins, [He] sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” ( Heb. 1:3 ).

Fifth, the doctrine of purgatory is based on the apocryphal book of 2 Maccabees ( 12:46 , Douay) which says it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins. But this second century B .C. book never claimed to be inspired, nor did any of the apocryphal books. First Maccabees even disclaims inspiration ( 1 Mac. 9:27 ). These apocryphal books were never accepted by Judaism as inspired. Neither Jesus nor the NT writers ever cite them as inspired. Even Jerome, the Roman Catholic translator of the great Latin Vulgate Bible, rejected 2 Maccabees along with the other apocryphal books. Furthermore, 2 Maccabees was not officially added to the Bible by the Roman Catholic Church until A.D. 1546, some 29 years after Luther started his reformation during which he spoke out against purgatory and prayers for the dead. Finally, even when 2 Maccabees was added by Rome to the Bible (along with other apocryphal books), it rejected another apocryphal book which spoke against prayers for the dead. Second Esdras (called 4 Esdras by Roman Catholics), speaking of the day of death, declares, “no one shall ever pray for another on that day” ( 2 Esdras 7:105 ). Rejecting this book and accepting Maccabees manifests the arbitrariness of the decision to choose books to support doctrines they had added to the Bible.

Finally, in 1 Corinthians, Paul is not speaking of purgatory, but of the “judgment seat of Christ,” before which all believers must come to receive their rewards “for the things done in the body” ( 2 Cor. 5:10 ). All our “work” will be “revealed by fire.” And “if anyone’s work … endures, he will receive a reward” ( 1 Cor. 3:13-14 ). And “if anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss [of reward]; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through the fire” ( 1 Cor. 3:14-15 ). Since salvation from hell is by grace, not by works ( Rom. 4:5 ; Eph. 2:8-9 ; Titus 3:5-7 ), it is clear that this passage is speaking about the “work” and “reward” of the believer for serving Christ, not about any alleged purgatory where they (instead of Christ) suffer for their sins.   

Introduction / Outline

Robertson: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

First Corinthians

From Ephesus a.d. 54 Or 55

By Way of Introduction

It would be a hard-boiled critic today who would dare deny the genuineness of I Corinthians. The Dutch wild man, Van Manen, did indeed argue that Paul wrote no epistles if indeed he ever lived. Such intellectual banality is well answered by Whateley’s Historic Doubts about Napolean Bonaparte which was so cleverly done that some readers were actually convinced that no such man ever existed, but is the product of myth and legend. Even Baur was compelled to acknowledge the genuineness of I and II Corinthians, Galatians and Romans (the Big Four of Pauline criticism). It is a waste of time now to prove what all admit to be true. Paul of Tarsus, the Apostle to the Gentiles, wrote I Corinthians.

We know where Paul was when he wrote the letter for he tells us in 1Co_16:8 : " But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost." That was, indeed, his plan, but the uproar in Ephesus at the hands of Demetrius caused his departure sooner than he expected (Acts 18:21-20:1; 2Co_2:12.). But he is in Ephesus when he writes.

We know also the time of the year when he writes, in the spring before pentecost. Unfortunately we do not know the precise year, though it was at the close of his stay of three years (in round numbers) at Ephesus (Act_20:31). Like all the years in Paul’s ministry we have to allow a sliding scale in relation to his other engagements. One may guess the early spring of a.d. 54 or 55.

The occasion of the Epistle is made plain by numerous allusions personal and otherwise. Paul had arrived in Ephesus from Antioch shortly after the departure of Apollos for Corinth with letters of commendation from Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:28-19:1). It is not clear how long Apollos remained in Corinth, but he is back in Ephesus when Paul writes the letter and he has declined Paul’s request to go back to Corinth (1Co_16:12). Some of the household of Chloe had heard or come from Corinth with full details of the factions in the church over Apollos and Paul, clearly the reason why Apollos left (1Co_1:10-12). Even Cephas nominally was drawn into it, though there is no evidence that Peter himself had come to Corinth. Paul had sent Timothy over to Corinth to put an end to the factions (1Co_4:17), though he was uneasy over the outcome (1Co_16:10.). This disturbance was enough of itself to call forth a letter from Paul. But it was by no means the whole story. Paul had already written a letter, now lost to us, concerning a peculiarly disgusting case of incest in the membership (1Co_5:9). They were having lawsuits with one another before heathen judges. Members of the church had written Paul a letter about marriage whether any or all should marry (1Co_7:1). They were troubled also whether it was right to eat meat that had been offered to idols in the heathen temples (1Co_8:1). Spiritual gifts of an unusual nature were manifested in Corinth and these were the occasion of a deal of trouble (1Co_12:1). The doctrine of the resurrection gave much trouble in Corinth (1Co_15:12). Paul was interested in the collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem (1Co_16:1) and in their share in it. The church in Corinth had sent a committee (Stephanas, Fortunatus, Achaicus) to Paul in Ephesus. He hopes to come himself after passing through Macedonia (1Co_16:5.). It is possible that he had made a short visit before this letter (2Co_13:1), though not certain as he may have intended to go one time without going as he certainly once changed his plans on the subject (2Co_1:15-22). Whether Titus took the letter on his visit or it was sent on after the return of Timothy is not perfectly clear. Probably Timothy returned to Ephesus from Corinth shortly after the epistle was sent on, possibly by the committee who returned to Corinth (1Co_16:17), for Timothy and Erastus were sent on from Ephesus to Macedonia before the outbreak at the hands of Demetrius (Act_19:22). Apparently Timothy had not fully succeeded in reconciling the factions in Corinth for Paul dispatched Titus who was to meet him at Troas as he went on to Macedonia. Paul’s hurried departure from Ephesus (Act_20:1) took him to Troas before Titus arrived and Paul’s impatience there brought him to Macedonia where he did meet Titus on his return from Corinth (2Co_2:12.).

It is clear therefore that Paul wrote what we call I Corinthians in a disturbed state of mind. He had founded the church there, had spent two years there (Acts 18), and took pardonable pride in his work there as a wise architect (1Co_3:10) for he had built the church on Christ as the foundation. He was anxious that his work should abide. It is plain that the disturbances in the church in Corinth were fomented from without by the Judaizers whom Paul had defeated at the Jerusalem Conference (Acts 15:1-35; Gal_2:1-10). They were overwhelmed there, but renewed their attacks in Antioch (Gal_2:11-21). Henceforth throughout the second mission tour they are a disturbing element in Galatia, in Corinth, in Jerusalem. While Paul is winning the Gentiles in the Roman Empire to Christ, these Judaizers are trying to win Paul’s converts to Judaism. Nowhere do we see the conflict at so white a heat as in Corinth. Paul finally will expose them with withering sarcasm (2 Corinthians 10-13) as Jesus did the Pharisees in Matthew 23 on that last day in the temple. Factional strife, immorality, perverted ideas about marriage, spiritual gifts, and the resurrection, these complicated problems are a vivid picture of church life in our cities today. The discussion of them shows Paul’s many-sidedness and also the powerful grasp that he has upon the realities of the gospel. Questions of casuistry are faced fairly and serious ethical issues are met squarely. But along with the treatment of these vexed matters Paul sings the noblest song of the ages on love (chapter 1Co_13:1-13) and writes the classic discussion on the resurrection (chapter 1 Corinthians 15). If one knows clearly and fully the Corinthian Epistles and Paul’s dealings with Corinth, he has an understanding of a large section of his life and ministry. No church caused him more anxiety than did Corinth (2Co_11:28).

JFB: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

The AUTHENTICITY of this Epistle is attested by CLEMENT OF ROME [First Epistle to the Corinthians, 47], POLYCARP [Epistle to the Philippians, 11], and IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 4.27.3]. The city to which it was sent was famed for its wealth and commerce, which were chiefly due to its situation between the Ionian and Ægean Seas on the isthmus connecting the Peloponese with Greece. In Paul's time it was the capital of the province Achaia and the seat of the Roman proconsul (Act 18:12). The state of morals in it was notorious for debauchery, even in the profligate heathen world; so much so that "to Corinthianize" was a proverbial phrase for "to play the wanton"; hence arose dangers to the purity of the Christian Church at Corinth. That Church was founded by Paul on his first visit (Acts 18:1-17).

He had been the instrument of converting many Gentiles (1Co 12:2), and some Jews (Act 18:8), notwithstanding the vehement opposition of the countrymen of the latter (Act 18:5), during the year and a half in which he sojourned there. The converts were chiefly of the humbler classes (1Co 1:26, &c.). Crispus (1Co 1:14; Act 18:8), Erastus, and Gaius (Caius) were, however, men of rank (Rom 16:23). A variety of classes is also implied in 1Co 11:22. The risk of contamination by contact with the surrounding corruptions, and the temptation to a craving for Greek philosophy and rhetoric (which Apollos' eloquent style rather tended to foster, Act 18:24, &c.) in contrast to Paul's simple preaching of Christ crucified (1Co 2:1, &c.), as well as the opposition of certain teachers to him, naturally caused him anxiety. Emissaries from the Judaizers of Palestine boasted of "letters of commendation" from Jerusalem, the metropolis of the faith. They did not, it is true, insist on circumcision in refined Corinth, where the attempt would have been hopeless, as they did among the simpler people of Galatia; but they attacked the apostolic authority of Paul (1Co 9:1-2; 2Co 10:1, 2Co 10:7-8), some of them declaring themselves followers of Cephas, the chief apostle, others boasting that they belonged to Christ Himself (1Co 1:12; 2Co 10:7), while they haughtily repudiated all subordinate teaching. Those persons gave out themselves for apostles (2Co 11:5, 2Co 11:13). The ground taken by them was that Paul was not one of the Twelve, and not an eye-witness of the Gospel facts, and durst not prove his apostleship by claiming sustenance from the Christian Church. Another section avowed themselves followers of Paul himself, but did so in a party spirit, exalting the minister rather than Christ. The followers of Apollos, again, unduly prized his Alexandrian learning and eloquence, to the disparagement of the apostle, who studiously avoided any deviation from Christian simplicity (1Co 2:1-5). In some of this last philosophizing party there may have arisen the Antinomian tendency which tried to defend theoretically their own practical immorality: hence their denial of the future resurrection, and their adoption of the Epicurean motto, prevalent in heathen Corinth, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die" (1Co 15:32). Hence, perhaps, arose their connivance at the incestuous intercourse kept up by one of the so-called Christian body with his stepmother during his father's life. The household of Chloe informed Paul of many other evils: such as contentions, divisions, and lawsuits brought against brethren in heathen law courts by professing Christians; the abuse of their spiritual gifts into occasions of display and fanaticism; the interruption of public worship by simultaneous and disorderly ministrations, and decorum violated by women speaking unveiled (contrary to Oriental usage), and so usurping the office of men, and even the holy communion desecrated by greediness and revelling on the part of the communicants. Other messengers, also, came from Corinth, consulting him on the subject of (1) the controversy about meats offered to idols; (2) the disputes about celibacy and marriage; (3) the due exercise of spiritual gifts in public worship; (4) the best mode of making the collection which he had requested for the saints at Jerusalem (1Co 16:1, &c.). Such were the circumstances which called forth the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the most varied in its topics of all the Epistles.

In 1Co 5:9, "I wrote unto you in an Epistle not to company with fornicators," it is implied that Paul had written a previous letter to the Corinthians (now lost). Probably in it he had also enjoined them to make a contribution for the poor saints at Jerusalem, whereupon they seem to have asked directions as to the mode of doing so, to which he now replies (1Co 16:2). It also probably announced his intention of visiting them on way to Macedonia, and again on his return from Macedonia (2Co 1:15-16), which purpose he changed hearing the unfavorable report from Chloe's household (1Co 16:5-7), for which he was charged with (2Co 1:17). In the first Epistle which we have, the subject of fornication is alluded to only in a way, as if he were rather replying to an excuse set up after rebuke in the matter, than introducing for the first time [ALFORD]. Preceding this former letter, he seems to have paid a second visit to Corinth. For in 2Co 12:4; 2Co 13:1, he speaks of his intention of paying them a third visit, implying he had already twice visited them. See on 2Co 2:1; 2Co 13:2; also see on 2Co 1:15; 2Co 1:16. It is hardly likely that during his three years' sojourn at Ephesus he would have failed to revisit his Corinthian converts, which he could so readily do by sea, there being constant maritime intercourse between the two cities. This second visit was probably a short one (compare 1Co 16:7); and attended with pain and humiliation (2Co 2:1; 2Co 12:21), occasioned by the scandalous conduct of so many of his own converts. His milder censures having then failed to produce reformation, he wrote briefly directing them "not to company with fornicators." On their misapprehending this injunction, he explained it more fully in the Epistle, the first of the two extant (1Co 5:9, 1Co 5:12). That the second visit is not mentioned in Acts is no objection to its having really taken place, as that book is fragmentary and omits other leading incidents in Paul's life; for example, his visit to Arabia, Syria, and Cilicia (Gal 1:17-21).

The PLACE OF WRITING is fixed to be Ephesus (1Co 16:8). The subscription in English Version, "From Philippi," has no authority whatever, and probably arose from a mistaken translation of 1Co 16:5, "For I am passing through Macedonia." At the time of writing Paul implies (1Co 16:8) that he intended to leave Ephesus after Pentecost of that year. He really did leave it about Pentecost (A.D. 57). Compare Act 19:20. The allusion to Passover imagery in connection with our Christian Passover, Easter (1Co 5:7), makes it likely that the season was about Easter. Thus the date of the Epistle is fixed with tolerable accuracy, about Easter, certainly before Pentecost, in the third year of his residence at Ephesus, A.D. 57. For other arguments, see CONYBEARE and HOWSON'S Life and Epistles of St. Paul.

The Epistle is written in the name of Sosthenes "[our] brother." BIRKS supposes he is the same as the Sosthenes, Act 18:17, who, he thinks, was converted subsequently to that occurrence. He bears no part in the Epistle itself, the apostle in the very next verses (1Co 1:4, &c.) using the first person: so Timothy is introduced, 2Co 1:1. The bearers of the Epistle were probably Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus (see the subscription, 1Co 16:24), whom he mentions (1Co 16:17-18) as with him then, but who he implies are about to return back to Corinth; and therefore he commends them to the regard of the Corinthians.

JFB: 1 Corinthians (Outline)

• THE INSCRIPTION; THANKSGIVING FOR THE SPIRITUAL STATE OF THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH; REPROOF OF PARTY DIVISIONS: HIS OWN METHOD OF PREACHING ONLY CHRIST. (1Co. 1:1-31)
• PAUL'S SUBJECT OF PREACHING, CHRIST CRUCIFIED, NOT IN WORLDLY, BUT IN HEAVENLY, WISDOM AMONG THE PERFECT. (1Co. 2:1-16)
• PAUL COULD NOT SPEAK TO THEM OF DEEP SPIRITUAL TRUTHS, AS THEY WERE CARNAL, CONTENDING FOR THEIR SEVERAL TEACHERS; THESE ARE NOTHING BUT WORKERS FOR GOD, TO WHOM THEY MUST GIVE ACCOUNT IN THE DAY OF FIERY JUDGMENT. THE HEARERS ARE GOD'S TEMPLE, WHICH THEY MUST NOT DEFILE BY CONTENTIONS FOR TEACHERS, WHO, AS WELL AS ALL THINGS, ARE THEIRS, BEING CHRIST'S. (1Co. 3:1-23)
• TRUE VIEW OF MINISTERS: THE JUDGMENT IS NOT TO BE FORESTALLED; MEANWHILE THE APOSTLES' LOW STATE CONTRASTS WITH THE CORINTHIANS' PARTY PRIDE, NOT THAT PAUL WOULD SHAME THEM, BUT AS A FATHER WARN THEM; FOR WHICH END HE SENT TIMOTHY, AND WILL SOON COME HIMSELF. (1Co. 4:1-21)
• THE INCESTUOUS PERSON AT CORINTH: THE CORINTHIANS REPROVED FOR CONNIVANCE, AND WARNED TO PURGE OUT THE BAD LEAVEN. QUALIFICATION OF HIS FORMER COMMAND AS TO ASSOCIATION WITH SINNERS OF THE WORLD. (1Co 5:1-13)
• LITIGATION OF CHRISTIANS IN HEATHEN COURTS CENSURED: ITS VERY EXISTENCE BETRAYS A WRONG SPIRIT: BETTER TO BEAR WRONG NOW, AND HEREAFTER THE DOERS OF WRONG SHALL BE SHUT OUT OF HEAVEN. (1Co 6:1-11)
• REFUTATION OF THE ANTINOMIAN DEFENSE OF FORNICATION AS IF IT WAS LAWFUL BECAUSE MEATS ARE SO. (1Co 6:12-20)
• REPLY TO THEIR INQUIRIES AS TO MARRIAGE; THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE IN OTHER THINGS IS, ABIDE IN YOUR STATION, FOR THE TIME IS SHORT. (1Co. 7:1-40) The Corinthians in their letter had probably asked questions which tended to disparage marriage, and had implied that it was better to break it off when contracted with an unbeliever.
• ON PARTAKING OF MEATS OFFERED TO IDOLS. (1Co 8:1-13) Though to those knowing that an idol has no existence, the question of eating meats offered to idols (referred to in the letter of the Corinthians, compare 1Co 7:1) might seem unimportant, it is not so with some, and the infirmities of such should be respected. The portions of the victims not offered on the altars belonged partly to the priests, partly to the offerers; and were eaten at feasts in the temples and in private houses and were often sold in the markets; so that Christians were constantly exposed to the temptation of receiving them, which was forbidden (Num 25:2; Psa 106:28). The apostles forbade it in their decree issued from Jerusalem (Acts 15:1-29; Act 21:25); but Paul does not allude here to that decree, as he rests his precepts rather on his own independent apostolic authority.
• HE CONFIRMS HIS TEACHING AS TO NOT PUTTING A STUMBLING-BLOCK IN A BROTHER'S WAY (1Co 8:13) BY HIS OWN EXAMPLE IN NOT USING HIS UNDOUBTED RIGHTS AS AN APOSTLE, SO AS TO WIN MEN TO CHRIST. (1Co. 9:1-27)
• DANGER OF FELLOWSHIP WITH IDOLATRY ILLUSTRATED IN THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL: SUCH FELLOWSHIP INCOMPATIBLE WITH FELLOWSHIP IN THE LORD'S SUPPER. EVEN LAWFUL THINGS ARE TO BE FORBORNE, SO AS NOT TO HURT WEAK BRETHREN. (1Co. 10:1-33)
• CENSURE ON DISORDERS IN THEIR ASSEMBLIES: THEIR WOMEN NOT BEING VEILED, AND ABUSES AT THE LOVE-FEASTS. (1Co. 11:1-34) Rather belonging to the end of the tenth chapter, than to this chapter.
• THE USE AND THE ABUSE OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS, ESPECIALLY PROPHESYING AND TONGUES. (1Co. 12:1-31)
• CHARITY OR LOVE SUPERIOR TO ALL GIFTS. (1Co 13:1-13)
• SUPERIORITY OF PROPHECY OVER TONGUES. (1Co. 14:1-25)
• RULES FOR THE EXERCISE OF GIFTS IN THE CONGREGATION. (1Co 14:26-40)
• THE RESURRECTION PROVED AGAINST THE DENIERS OF IT AT CORINTH. (1Co. 15:1-58)
• DIRECTIONS AS TO THE COLLECTION FOR THE JUDEAN CHRISTIANS: PAUL'S FUTURE PLANS: HE COMMENDS TO THEM TIMOTHY, APOLLOS, &C. SALUTATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS. (1Co. 16:1-24)

TSK: 1 Corinthians 3 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

1Co 3:1, Milk is fit for children; 1Co 3:3, Strife and division, arguments of a fleshly mind; 1Co 3:7, He that planteth and he that watereth, are nothing; 1Co 3:9, The ministers are God’s fellow-workmen; 1Co 3:11, Christ the only foundation; 1Co 3:16, Men the temples of God, which must be kept holy; 1Co 3:19, The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

Poole: 1 Corinthians 3 (Chapter Introduction)

CORINTHIANS 3

1Co 3:1,2 Paul showeth that he could not instruct the

Corinthians in the higher doctrines of Christianity

because of their carnal mind,

1Co 3:3,4 which temper discovered itself in their factions.

1Co 3:5-9 The most eminent preachers of the gospel are but

instruments employed by God in building his church.

1Co 3:10-15 Paul hath laid the only true foundation, Christ Jesus;

and others must take heed what they build thereon.

1Co 3:16,17 Christians are God’ s temple, not to be defiled.

1Co 3:18-20 Worldly wisdom is foolishness with God.

1Co 3:21-23 They that are Christ’ s must not glory in men.

The apostle plainly returneth in this chapter to reprove them for their divisions and factions, for which he had begun to reprove them, 1Co 1:11 ; and (as some think) here he anticipateth an objection, which they might have made against him, against his reproving and judging of them, whereas he that is spiritual (as he had now said) is judged of no man.

I ( saith he), brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual that is, as to Christians who had made any great proficiency in the ways of God, and had arrived to any just degrees of spiritual perfection;

but as unto carnal that is, persons who, though you axe not under the full conduct and government of your flesh and sensitive appetite, yet are far from being perfect, either in faith or holiness.

In Christ but not as grown men, but as babes, as the apostle fully explaineth this term, Heb 5:12,13 , such as had need be taught again which are the first principles of the oracles of God; and have need of milk, and not of strong meat: for every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe.

MHCC: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

The Corinthian church contained some Jews, but more Gentiles, and the apostle had to contend with the superstition of the one, and the sinful conduct of the other. The peace of this church was disturbed by false teachers, who undermined the influence of the apostle. Two parties were the result; one contending earnestly for the Jewish ceremonies, the other indulging in excesses contrary to the gospel, to which they were especially led by the luxury and the sins which prevailed around them. This epistle was written to rebuke some disorderly conduct, of which the apostle had been apprized, and to give advice as to some points whereon his judgment was requested by the Corinthians. Thus the scope was twofold. 1. To apply suitable remedies to the disorders and abuses which prevailed among them. 2. To give satisfactory answers on all the points upon which his advice had been desired. The address, and Christian mildness, yet firmness, with which the apostle writes, and goes on from general truths directly to oppose the errors and evil conduct of the Corinthians, is very remarkable. He states the truth and the will of God, as to various matters, with great force of argument and animation of style.

MHCC: 1 Corinthians 3 (Chapter Introduction)

(1Co 3:1-4) The Corinthians reproved for their contentions.

(1Co 3:5-9) The true servants of Christ can do nothing without him.

(1Co 3:10-15) He is the only foundation, and every one should take heed what he builds thereon.

(1Co 3:16, 1Co 3:17) The churches of Christ ought to be kept pure, and to be humble.

(1Co 3:18-23) And they should not glory in men, because ministers and all things else are theirs through Christ.

Matthew Henry: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians

Corinth was a principal city of Greece, in that particular division of it which was called Achaia. It was situated on the isthmus (or neck of land) that joined Peloponnesus to the rest of Greece, on the southern side, and had two ports adjoining, one at the bottom of the Corinthian Gulf, called Lechaeum, not far from the city, whence they traded to Italy and the west, the other at the bottom of the Sinus Saronicus, called Cenchrea, at a more remote distance, whence they traded to Asia. From this situation, it is no wonder that Corinth should be a place of great trade and wealth; and, as affluence is apt to produce luxury of all kinds, neither is it to be wondered at if a place so famous for wealth and arts should be infamous for vice. It was in a particular manner noted for fornication, insomuch that a Corinthian woman was a proverbial phrase for a strumpet, and korinthiazein , korinthiasesthai - to play the Corinthian, is to play the whore, or indulge whorish inclinations. Yet in this lewd city did Paul, by the blessing of God on his labours, plant and raise a Christian church, chiefly among the Gentiles, as seems very probable from the history of this matter, Acts 18:1-18, compared with some passages in this epistle, particularly 1Co 12:2, where the apostle tells them, You know that you wee Gentiles, carried away to those dumb idols even as you were led, though it is not improbable that many Jewish converts might be also among them, for we are told that Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord, with all his house, Act 18:8. He continued in this city nearly two years, as is plain from Act 18:11 and Act 18:18 compared, and laboured with great success, being encouraged by a divine vision assuring him God had much people in that city, Act 18:9, Act 18:10. Nor did he use to stay long in a place where his ministry met not with acceptance and success.

Some time after he left them he wrote this epistle to them, to water what he had planted and rectify some gross disorders which during his absence had been introduced, partly from the interest some false teacher or teachers had obtained amongst them, and partly from the leaven of their old maxims and manners, that had not been thoroughly purged out by the Christian principles they had entertained. And it is but too visible how much their wealth had helped to corrupt their manners, from the several faults for which the apostle reprehends them. Pride, avarice, luxury, lust (the natural offspring of a carnal and corrupt mind), are all fed and prompted by outward affluence. And with all these either the body of this people or some particular persons among them are here charged by the apostle. Their pride discovered itself in their parties and factions, and the notorious disorders they committed in the exercise of their spiritual gifts. And this vice was not wholly fed by their wealth, but by the insight they had into the Greek learning and philosophy. Some of the ancients tell us that the city abounded with rhetoricians and philosophers. And these were men naturally vain, full of self-conceit, and apt to despise the plain doctrine of the gospel, because it did not feed the curiosity of an inquisitive and disputing temper, nor please the ear with artful speeches and a flow of fine words. Their avarice was manifest in their law-suits and litigations about meum - mine, and tuum - thine, before heathen judges. Their luxury appeared in more instances than one, in their dress, in their debauching themselves even at the Lord's table, when the rich, who were most faulty on this account, were guilty also of a very proud and criminal contempt of their poor brethren. Their lust broke out in a most flagrant and infamous instance, such as had not been named among the Gentiles, not spoken of without detestation - that a man should have his father's wife, either as his wife, or so as to commit fornication with her. This indeed seems to be the fault of a particular person; but the whole church were to blame that they had his crime in no greater abhorrence, that they could endure one of such very corrupt morals and of so flagitious a behaviour among them. But their participation in his sin was yet greater, if, as some of the ancients tell us, they were puffed up on behalf of the great learning and eloquence of this incestuous person. And it is plain from other passages of the epistle that they were not so entirely free from their former lewd inclinations as not to need very strict cautions and strong arguments against fornication: see 1Co 6:9-20. The pride of their learning had also carried many of them so far as to disbelieve or dispute against the doctrine of the resurrection. It is not improbable that they treated this question problematically, as they did many questions in philosophy, and tried their skill by arguing it pro and con.

It is manifest from this state of things that there was much that deserved reprehension, and needed correction, in this church. And the apostle, under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit, sets himself to do both with all wisdom and faithfulness, and with a due mixture of tenderness and authority, as became one in so elevated and important a station in the church. After a short introduction at the beginning of the epistle, he first blames them for their discord and factions, enters into the origin and source of them, shows them how much pride and vanity, and the affectation of science, and learning, and eloquence, flattered by false teachers, contributed to the scandalous schism; and prescribes humility, and submission to divine instruction, the teaching of God by his Spirit, both by external revelation and internal illumination, as a remedy for the evils that abounded amongst them. He shows them the vanity of their pretended science and eloquence on many accounts. This he does through the first four chapters. In the fifth he treats of the case of the incestuous person, and orders him to be put out from among them. Nor is what the ancients say improbable, that this incestuous person was a man in great esteem, and head of one party at least among them. The apostle seems to tax them with being puffed up on his account, 1Co 5:2. In the sixth chapter he blames them for their law-suits, carried on before heathen judges, when their disputes about property should have been amicably determined amongst themselves, and in the close of the chapter warns them against the sin of fornication, and urges his caution with a variety of arguments. In the seventh chapter he gives advice upon a case of conscience, which some of that church had proposed to him in an epistle, about marriage, and shows it to be appointed of God as a remedy against fornication, that the ties of it were not dissolved, though a husband or wife continued a heathen, when the other became a Christian; and, in short, that Christianity made no change in men's civil states and relations. He gives also some directions here about virgins, in answer, as is probable, to the Corinthians' enquiries. In the eighth he directs them about meats offered to idols, and cautions them against abusing their Christian liberty. From this he also takes occasion, in the ninth chapter, to expatiate a little on his own conduct upon this head of liberty. For, though he might have insisted on a maintenance from the churches where he ministered, he waived this demand, that he might make the gospel of Christ without charge, and did in other things comply with and suit himself to the tempers and circumstances of those among whom he laboured, for their good. In the tenth chapter he dissuades them, from the example of the Jews, against having communion with idolaters, by eating of their sacrifices, inasmuch as they could not be at once partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils, though they were not bound to enquire concerning meat sold in the shambles, or set before them at a feast made by unbelievers, whether it were a part of the idol-sacrifices or no, but were at liberty to eat without asking questions. In the eleventh chapter he gives direction about their habit in public worship, blames them for their gross irregularities and scandalous disorders in receiving the Lord's supper, and solemnly warns them against the abuse of so sacred an institution. In the twelfth chapter he enters on the consideration of spiritual gifts, which were poured forth in great abundance on this church, upon which they were not a little elated. He tells them, in this chapter, that all came from the same original, and were all directed to the same end. They issued from one Spirit, and were intended for the good of the church, and must be abused when they were not made to minister to this purpose. Towards the close he informs them that they were indeed valuable gifts, but he could recommend to them something far more excellent, upon which he breaks out, in the thirteenth chapter, into the commendation and characteristics of charity. And them, in the fourteenth, he directs them how to keep up decency and order in the churches in the use of their spiritual gifts, in which they seem to have been exceedingly irregular, through pride of their gifts and a vanity of showing them. The fifteenth chapter is taken up in confirming and explaining the great doctrine of the resurrection. The last chapter consists of some particular advices and salutations; and thus the epistle closes.

Matthew Henry: 1 Corinthians 3 (Chapter Introduction)

In this chapter the apostle, I. Blames the Corinthians for their carnality and divisions (1Co 3:1-4). II. He instructs them how what was amiss among them might be rectified, by remembering, 1. That their ministers were no more than ministers (1Co 3:5). 2. That they were unanimous, and carried on the same design (1Co 3:6-10). 3. That they built on one and the same foundation (1Co 3:11-15). III. He exhorts them to give due honour to their bodies, by keeping them pure (1Co 3:16, 1Co 3:17), and to humility and self-diffidence (1Co 3:18-21). IV. And dehorts them from glorying in particular ministers, because of the equal interest they had in all (1Co 3:22 to the end).

Barclay: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS OF PAUL

The Letters Of Paul

There is no more interesting body of documents in the New Testament than the letters of Paul. That is because of all forms of literature a letter is most personal. Demetrius, one of the old Greek literary critics, once wrote, "Every one reveals his own soul in his letters. In every other form of composition it is possible to discern the writercharacter, but in none so clearly as the epistolary." (Demetrius, On Style, 227). It is just because he left us so many letters that we feel we know Paul so well. In them he opened his mind and heart to the folk he loved so much; and in them, to this day, we can see that great mind grappling with the problems of the early church, and feel that great heart throbbing with love for men, even when they were misguided and mistaken.

The Difficulty Of Letters

At the same time, there is often nothing so difficult to understand as a letter. Demetrius (On Style, 223) quotes a saying of Artemon, who edited the letters of Aristotle. Artemon said that a letter ought to be written in the same manner as a dialogue, because it was one of the two sides of a dialogue. In other words, to read a letter is like listening to one side of a telephone conversation. So when we read the letters of Paul we are often in a difficulty. We do not possess the letter which he was answering; we do not fully know the circumstances with which he was dealing; it is only from the letter itself that we can deduce the situation which prompted it. Before we can hope to understand fully any letter Paul wrote, we must try to reconstruct the situation which produced it.

The Ancient Letters

It is a great pity that Paulletters were ever called epistles. They are in the most literal sense letters. One of the great lights shed on the interpretation of the New Testament has been the discovery and the publication of the papyri. In the ancient world, papyrus was the substance on which most documents were written. It was composed of strips of the pith of a certain bulrush that grew on the banks of the Nile. These strips were laid one on top of the other to form a substance very like brown paper. The sands of the Egyptian desert were ideal for preservation, for papyrus, although very brittle, will last forever so long as moisture does not get at it. As a result, from the Egyptian rubbish heaps, archaeologists have rescued hundreds of documents, marriage contracts, legal agreements, government forms, and, most interesting of all, private letters. When we read these private letters we find that there was a pattern to which nearly all conformed; and we find that Paulletters reproduce exactly that pattern. Here is one of these ancient letters. It is from a soldier, called Apion, to his father Epimachus. He is writing from Misenum to tell his father that he has arrived safely after a stormy passage.

"Apion sends heartiest greetings to his father and lord Epimachus.

I pray above all that you are well and fit; and that things are

going well with you and my sister and her daughter and my brother.

I thank my Lord Serapis [his god] that he kept me safe when I was

in peril on the sea. As soon as I got to Misenum I got my journey

money from Caesar--three gold pieces. And things are going fine

with me. So I beg you, my dear father, send me a line, first to

let me know how you are, and then about my brothers, and thirdly,

that I may kiss your hand, because you brought me up well, and

because of that I hope, God willing, soon to be promoted. Give

Capito my heartiest greetings, and my brothers and Serenilla and

my friends. I sent you a little picture of myself painted by

Euctemon. My military name is Antonius Maximus, I pray for your

good health. Serenus sends good wishes, Agathos Daimonboy, and

Turbo, Galloniuson." (G. Milligan, Selections from the Greek

Papyri, 36).

Little did Apion think that we would be reading his letter to his father 1800 years after he had written it. It shows how little human nature changes. The lad is hoping for promotion quickly. Who will Serenilla be but the girl he left behind him? He sends the ancient equivalent of a photograph to the folk at home. Now that letter falls into certain sections. (i) There is a greeting. (ii) There is a prayer for the health of the recipients. (iii) There is a thanksgiving to the gods. (iv) There are the special contents. (v) Finally, there are the special salutations and the personal greetings. Practically every one of Paulletters shows exactly the same sections, as we now demonstrate.

(i) The Greeting: Rom_1:1 ; 1Co_1:1 ; 2Co_1:1 ; Gal_1:1 ; Eph_1:1 ; Phi_1:1 ; Col_1:1-2 ; 1Th_1:1 ; 2Th_1:1 .

(ii) The Prayer: in every case Paul prays for the grace of God on the people to whom he writes: Rom_1:7 ; 1Co_1:3 ; 2Co_1:2 ; Gal_1:3 ; Eph_1:2 ; Phi_1:3 ; Col_1:2 ; 1Th_1:1 ; 2Th_1:2 .

(iii) The Thanksgiving: Rom_1:8 ; 1Co_1:4 ; 2Co_1:3 ; Eph_1:3 ; Phi_1:3 ; 1Th_1:3 ; 2Th_1:3 .

(iv) The Special Contents: the main body of the letters.

(v) Special Salutations and Personal Greetings: Rom 16 ; 1Co_16:19 ; 2Co_13:13 ; Phi_4:21-22 ; Col_4:12-15 ; 1Th_5:26 .

When Paul wrote letters, he wrote them on the pattern which everyone used. Deissmann says of them, "They differ from the messages of the homely papyrus leaves of Egypt, not as letters but only as the letters of Paul." When we read Paulletters we are not reading things which were meant to be academic exercises and theological treatises, but human documents written by a friend to his friends.

The Immediate Situation

With a very few exceptions, all Paulletters were written to meet an immediate situation and not treatises which he sat down to write in the peace and silence of his study. There was some threatening situation in Corinth, or Galatia, or Philippi, or Thessalonica, and he wrote a letter to meet it. He was not in the least thinking of us when he wrote, but solely of the people to whom he was writing. Deissmann writes, "Paul had no thought of adding a few fresh compositions to the already extant Jewish epistles; still less of enriching the sacred literature of his nation.... He had no presentiment of the place his words would occupy in universal history; not so much that they would be in existence in the next generation, far less that one day people would look at them as Holy Scripture." We must always remember that a thing need not be transient because it was written to meet an immediate situation. All the great love songs of the world were written for one person, but they live on for the whole of mankind. It is just because Paulletters were written to meet a threatening danger or a clamant need that they still throb with life. And it is because human need and the human situation do not change that God speaks to us through them today.

The Spoken Word

One other thing we must note about these letters. Paul did what most people did in his day. He did not normally pen his own letters but dictated them to a secretary, and then added his own authenticating signature. (We actually know the name of one of the people who did the writing for him. In Rom_16:22 Tertius, the secretary, slips in his own greeting before the letter draws to an end). In 1Co_16:21 Paul says, "This is my own signature, my autograph, so that you can be sure this letter comes from me." (compare Col_4:18 ; 2Th_3:17 .

This explains a great deal. Sometimes Paul is hard to understand, because his sentences begin and never finish; his grammar breaks down and the construction becomes involved. We must not think of him sitting quietly at a desk, carefully polishing each sentence as he writes. We must think of him striding up and down some little room, pouring out a torrent of words, while his secretary races to get them down. When Paul composed his letters, he had in his mindeye a vision of the folk to whom he was writing, and he was pouring out his heart to them in words that fell over each other in his eagerness to help.

INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS

The Greatness Of Corinth

A glance at the map will show that Corinth was made for greatness. The southern part of Greece is very nearly an island. On the west the Corinthian Gulf deeply indents the land and on the east the Saronic Gulf. All that is left to join the two parts of Greece together is a little isthmus only four miles across. On that narrow neck of land Corinth stands. Such a position made it inevitable that it should be one of the greatest trading and commercial centres of the ancient world. All traffic from Athens and the north of Greece to Sparta and the Peloponnese had to be routed through Corinth, because it stood on the little neck of land that connected the two.

Not only did the north to south traffic of Greece pass through Corinth of necessity, by far the greater part of the east to west traffic of the Mediterranean passed through her from choice. The extreme southern tip of Greece was known as Cape Malea (now called Cape Matapan). It was dangerous, and to round Cape Malea had much the same sound as to round Cape Horn had in later times. The Greeks had two sayings which showed what they thought of it--"Let him who sails round Malea forget his home," and, "Let him who sails round Malea first make his will."

The consequence was that mariners followed one of two courses. They sailed up the Saronic Gulf, and, if their ships were small enough, dragged them out of the water, set them on rollers, hauled them across the isthmus, and re-launched them on the other side. The isthmus was actually called the Diolkos, the place of dragging across. The idea is the same as that which is contained in the Scottish place name Tarbert, which means a place where the land is so narrow that a boat can be dragged from loch to loch. If that course was not possible because the ship was too large, the cargo was disembarked, carried by porters across the isthmus, and re-embarked on another ship at the other side. This four mile journey across the isthmus, where the Corinth Canal now runs, saved a journey of two hundred and two miles round Cape Malea, the most dangerous cape in the Mediterranean.

It is easy to see how great a commercial city Corinth must have been. The north to south traffic of Greece had no alternative but to pass through her; by far the greater part of the east to west trade of the Mediterranean world chose to pass through her. Round Corinth there clustered three other towns, Lechaeum at the west end of the isthmus, Cenchrea at the east end and Schoenus just a short distance away. Farrar writes, "Objects of luxury soon found their way to the markets which were visited by every nation in the civilized world--Arabian balsam, Phoenician dates, Libyan ivory, Babylonian carpets, Cilician goatsair, Lycaonian wool, Phrygian slaves."

Corinth, as Farrar calls her, was the Vanity Fair of the ancient world. Men called her The Bridge of Greece; one called her The Lounge of Greece. It has been said that if a man stands long enough in Piccadilly Circus he will in the end meet everyone in the country. Corinth was the Piccadilly Circus of the Mediterranean. To add to the concourse which came to it, Corinth was the place where the Isthmian Games were held, which were second only to the Olympics. Corinth was a rich and populous city with one of the greatest commercial trades in the ancient world.

The Wickedness Of Corinth

There was another side to Corinth. She had a reputation for commercial prosperity, but she was also a byword for evil living. The very word korinthiazesthai, to live like a Corinthian, had become a part of the Greek language, and meant to live with drunken and immoral debauchery. The word actually penetrated to the English language, and, in Regency times, a Corinthian was one of the wealthy young bucks who lived in reckless and riotous living. Aelian, the late Greek writer, tells us that if ever a Corinthian was shown upon the stage in a Greek play he was shown drunk. The very name Corinth was synonymous with debauchery and there was one source of evil in the city which was known all over the civilized world. Above the isthmus towered the hill of the Acropolis, and on it stood the great temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. To that temple there were attached one thousand priestesses who were sacred prostitutes, and in the evenings they descended from the Acropolis and plied their trade upon the streets of Corinth, until it became a Greek proverb, "It is not every man who can afford a journey to Corinth." In addition to these cruder sins, there flourished far more recondite vices, which had come in with the traders and the sailors from the ends of the earth, until Corinth became not only a synonym for wealth and luxury, drunkenness and debauchery, but also for filth.

The History Of Corinth

The history of Corinth falls into two parts. She was a very ancient city. Thucydides, the Greek historian, claims that it was in Corinth that the first triremes, the Greek battleships, were built. Legend has it that it was in Corinth that the Argo was built, the ship in which Jason sailed the seas, searching for the golden fleece. But in 146 B.C. disaster befell her. The Romans were engaged in conquering the world. When they sought to reduce Greece, Corinth was the leader of the opposition. But the Greeks could not stand against the disciplined Romans, and in 146 B.C. Lucius Mummius, the Roman general, captured Corinth and left her a desolate heap of ruins.

But any place with the geographical situation of Corinth could not remain a devastation. Almost exactly one hundred years later, in 46 B.C. Julius Caesar rebuilt her and she arose from her ruins. Now she became a Roman colony. More, she became a capital city, the metropolis of the Roman province of Achaea, which included practically all Greece.

In those days, which were the days of Paul, her population was very mixed. (i) There were the Roman veterans whom Julius Caesar had settled there. When a Roman soldier had served his time, he was granted the citizenship and was then sent out to some newly-founded city and given a grant of land so that he might become a settler there. These Roman colonies were planted all over the world, and always the backbone of them was the contingent of veteran regular soldiers whose faithful service had won them the citizenship. (ii) When Corinth was rebuilt the merchants came back, for her situation still gave her commercial supremacy. (iii) There were many Jews among the population. The rebuilt city offered them commercial opportunities which they were not slow to take. (iv) There was a sprinkling of Phoenicians and Phrygians and people from the east, with their exotic customs and their hysterical ways. Farrar speaks of "this mongrel and heterogeneous population of Greek adventurers and Roman bourgeois, with a tainting infusion of Phoenicians; this mass of Jews, ex-soldiers, philosophers, merchants, sailors, freedmen, slaves, trades-people, hucksters and agents of every form of vice." He characterizes her as a colony "without aristocracy, without traditions and without well-established citizens."

Remember the background of Corinth, remember its name for wealth and luxury, for drunkenness and immorality and vice, and then read 1Co_6:9-10 .

Are you not aware that the unrighteous will not inherit the

Kingdom of God? Make no mistake--neither fornicators, nor

idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sensualists, nor homosexuals, nor

thieves, nor rapacious men, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor

robbers shall inherit the Kingdom of God--and such were some of

you.

In this hotbed of vice, in the most unlikely place in all the Greek world, some of Paulgreatest work was done, and some of the mightiest triumphs of Christianity were won.

Paul In Corinth

Paul stayed longer in Corinth than in any other city, with the single exception of Ephesus. He had left Macedonia with his life in peril and had crossed over to Athens. There he had had little success and had gone on to Corinth, and he remained there for eighteen months. We realize how little we really know of his work when we see that the whole story of that eighteen months is compressed by Luke into 17 verses (Act_18:1-17 ).

When Paul arrived in Corinth he took up residence with Aquila and Prisca. He preached in the synagogue with great success. With the arrival of Timothy and Silas from Macedonia, he redoubled his efforts, but the Jews were so stubbornly hostile that he had to leave the synagogue. He took up his residence with one Justus who lived next door to the synagogue. His most notable convert was Crispus, who was actually the ruler of the synagogue, and amongst the general public he had good success.

In the year A.D. 52 there came to Corinth as its new governor a Roman called Gallio. He was famous for his charm and gentleness. The Jews tried to take advantage of his newness and good nature and brought Paul to trial before him on a charge of teaching contrary to their law. But Gallio, with impartial Roman justice, refused to have anything to do with the case or to take any action. So Paul completed his work in Corinth and moved on to Syria.

The Correspondence With Corinth

It was when he was in Ephesus in the year A.D. 55 that Paul, learning that things were not all well in Corinth, wrote to the church there. There is every possibility that the Corinthian correspondence as we have it is out of order. We must remember that it was not until A.D. 90 or thereby that Paulcorrespondence was collected. In many churches it must have existed only on scraps of papyrus and the putting it together would be a problem: and it seems that, when the Corinthian letters were collected, they were not all discovered and were not arranged in the right order. Let us see if we can reconstruct what happened.

(i) There was a letter which preceded 1 Corinthians. In 1Co_5:9 Paul writes, "I wrote you a letter not to associate with immoral men." This obviously refers to some previous letter. Some scholars believe that letter is lost without trace. Others think it is contained in 2Co_6:14-18 and 2Co_7:1 . Certainly that passage suits what Paul said he wrote about. It occurs rather awkwardly in its context, and, if we take it out and read straight on from 2Co_6:13 to 2Co_7:2 , we get excellent sense and connection. Scholars call this letter The Previous Letter. (In the original letters there were no chapter or verse divisions. The chapters were not divided up until the thirteenth century and the verses not till the sixteenth, and because of that the arranging of the collection of letters would be much more difficult).

(ii) News came to Paul from various sources of trouble at Corinth. (a) News came from those who were of the household of Chloe (1Co_1:11 ). They brought news of the contentions with which the church was torn. (b) News came with the visit of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus to Ephesus. (1Co_16:17 ). By personal contact they were able to fill up the gaps in Paulinformation. (c) News came in a letter in which the Corinthian Church had asked Paul guidance on various problems. In 1Co_7:1 Paul begins, "Concerning the matters about which you wrote..." In answer to all this information Paul wrote 1 Corinthians and despatched it to Corinth apparently by the hand of Timothy (1Co_4:17 ).

(iii) The result of the letter was that things became worse than ever, and, although we have no direct record of it, we can deduce that Paul paid a personal visit to Corinth. In 2Co_12:14 he writes, "The third time I am ready to come to you." In 2Co_13:1-2 , he says again that he is coming to them for the third time. Now, if there was a third time, there must have been a second time. We have the record of only one visit, whose story is told in Act_18:1-17 . We have no record at all of the second, but Corinth was only two or three daysailing from Ephesus.

(iv) The visit did no good at all. Matters were only exacerbated and the result was an exceedingly severe letter. We learn about that letter from certain passages in 2 Corinthians. In 2Co_2:4 Paul writes, "I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears." In 2Co_7:8 he writes, "For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it though I did regret it; for I see that that letter has grieved you, though only for a while." It was a letter which was the product of anguish of mind, a letter so severe that Paul was almost sorry that he ever sent it.

Scholars call this The Severe Letter. Have we got it? It obviously cannot be I Corinthians, because it is not a tear-stained and anguished letter. When Paul wrote it, it is clear enough that things were under control. Now if we read through 2 Corinthians we find an odd circumstance. In 2Cor 1-9 everything is made up, there is complete reconciliation and all are friends again; but at 2Cor 10 comes the strangest break. 2Cor 10-13 are the most heartbroken cry Paul ever wrote. They show that he has been hurt and insulted as he never was before or afterwards by any church. His appearance, his speech, his apostleship, his honesty have all been under attack.

Most scholars believe that 2Cor 10-13 are the severe letter, and that they have become misplaced when Paulletters were put together. If we want the real chronological course of Paulcorrespondence with Corinth, we really ought to read 2Cor 10-13 before 2Cor 1-9. We do know that this letter was sent off with Titus. (2Co_2:13 ; 2Co_7:13 ).

(v) Paul was worried about this letter. He could not wait until Titus came back with an answer, so he set out to meet him (2Co_2:13 ; 2Co_7:5 , 2Co_7:13 ). Somewhere in Macedonia he met him and learned that all was well, and, probably at Philippi, he sat down and wrote 2Cor 1-9, the letter of reconciliation.

Stalker has said that the letters of Paul take the roof off the early churches and let us see what went on inside. Of none of them is that truer than the letters to Corinth. Here we see what "the care of all the churches" must have meant to Paul. Here we see the heart-breaks and the joys. Here we see Paul, the shepherd of his flock, bearing the sorrows and the problems of his people on his heart.

The Corinthian Correspondence

Before we read the letters in detail let us set down the progress of the Corinthian correspondence in tabular form.

(i) The Previous Letter, which may be contained in 2Co_6:14-18 and 2Co_7:1 .

(ii) The arrival of Chloepeople, of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus, and of the letter to Paul from the Corinthian Church.

(iii) 1 Corinthians is written in reply and is despatched with Timothy.

(iv) The situation grows worse and Paul pays a personal visit to Corinth, which is so complete a failure that it almost breaks his heart.

(v) The consequence is The Severe Letter, which is almost certainly contained in 2Cor 10-13, and which was despatched with Titus.

(vi) Unable to wait for an answer, Paul sets out to meet Titus. He meets him in Macedonia, learns that all is well and, probably from Philippi, writes 2Cor 1-9, The Letter of Reconciliation.

The first four chapters of 1 Corinthians deal with the divided state of the Church of God at Corinth. Instead of being a unity in Christ it was split into sects and parties, who had attached themselves to the names of various leaders and teachers. It is Paulteaching that these divisions had emerged because the Corinthians thought too much about human wisdom and knowledge and too little about the sheer grace of God. In fact, for all their so-called wisdom, they are really in a state of immaturity. They think that they are wise men, but really they are no better than babies.

FURTHER READING

1 Corinthians

F. F. Bruce, 1 and 2 Corinthians (NCB; E)

J. Hering, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (translated by A. W. Heathcote and P. J. Allcock)

J. Moffatt, 1 Corinthians (MC; E)

A. Robertson and A. Plummer, 1 Corinthians (ICC; G)

Abbreviations

ICC: International Critical Commentary

MC: Moffatt Commentary

NCB: New Century Bible

TC: Tyndale Commentary

E: English Text

G: Greek Text

Barclay: 1 Corinthians 3 (Chapter Introduction)

The Supreme Importance Of God (1Co_3:1-9)

The Foundation And The Builders (1Co_3:10-15)

Wisdom And Foolishness (1Co_3:16-22)

Constable: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Historical Background

Corinth had a long history stretching back into the Bronze Age (before 1200 B.C.).¹ In Paul's day it was a Roman colony and the capital of the province of Achaia. The population consisted of Roman citizens who had migrated from Italy, native Greeks, Jews (Acts 18:4), and other people from various places who chose to settle there.

The ancient city of Corinth enjoyed an ideal situation as a commercial center. It stood just southwest of the Isthmus of Corinth, the land bridge that connected Northern Greece and Southern Greece, the Peloponnesus. This site made Corinth a crossroads for trade by land, north and south, as well as by sea, east and west. In Paul's day large ships would transfer their cargoes to land vehicles that would cart them from the Corinthian Gulf to the Saronic Gulf, or vice versa. There stevedores would reload them onto other ships. If a ship was small enough, they would drag the whole vessel across the four and a half mile isthmus from one gulf to the other. This did away with the long voyage around the Peloponnesus. Later the Greeks cut a canal linking these two gulfs.²

Corinth's strategic location brought commerce and all that goes with it to its populace: wealth, a steady stream of travelers and merchants, and vice. In Paul's day many of the pagan religions included prostitution as part of the worship of their god or goddess. Consequently fornication flourished in Corinth.

"Old Corinth had gained such a reputation for sexual vice that Aristophanes (ca. 450-385 B.C.) coined the verb korinthiazo (= to act like a Corinthian, i.e., to commit fornication)."³

"The old city had been the most licentious city in Greece, and perhaps the most licentious city in the Empire."⁴

The most notorious shrine was the temple of Aphrodite that stood on top of an approximately 1,900 foot high mountain just south of the city, the Acrocorinthus. Hundreds of female slaves served the men who "worshipped" there.⁵ Other major deities honored in Corinth included Melicertes, the patron of seafarers, and Poseidon, the sea god.

"All of this evidence together suggests that Paul's Corinth was at once the New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas of the ancient world."⁶

There were several other local sites of importance to the student of 1 Corinthians. These included the bema (judgment seat or platform), the place where judges tried important cases including Paul's (Acts 18:12).⁷ Cenchrea, the port of Corinth on the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, was the town from which Paul set sail for Ephesus during his second missionary journey (Acts 18:18). Isthmia was another little town east of Corinth, just north of Cenchrea, that hosted the Isthmian Games every two or three years. These athletic contests were important in the life of the Greeks, and Paul referred to them in this epistle (9:24-27).

Paul had arrived in Corinth first from Athens, which lay to the east. There he preached the gospel and planted a church. There, too, he met Priscilla and Aquila, Jews who had recently left Rome. After local Jewish officials expelled the church from the synagogue, it met in a large house next door that Titius Justus owned. Paul ministered in Corinth for 18 months, probably in 51 and 52 A.D. He left taking Priscilla and Aquila with him to Ephesus. Paul then proceeded on to Syrian Antioch by way of Caesarea.

Returning to Ephesus on his third journey Paul made that city his base of operations for almost three years (53-56 A.D.). There he heard disquieting news about immorality in the Corinthian church. Therefore he wrote a letter urging the believers not to tolerate such conduct in their midst. Paul referred to this letter as his "former letter" (1 Cor. 5:9). It is not extant today.

Then he heard from "Chloe's people" that factions had developed in the church. He also received a letter from the church in Corinth requesting his guidance in certain matters. These matters were marriage, divorce, food offered to idols, the exercise of spiritual gifts in the church, and the collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem. Those who carried this letter also reported other disturbing conditions in the church. These conditions were the condoning rather than disciplining of immorality, Christians suing one another in the pagan courts, and disorders in their church meetings. These factors led Paul to compose another letter, "1 Corinthians." In it he dealt with the problem of factions, promised to visit them soon, and said he was sending Timothy to Corinth (chs. 1-4). Paul added his responses to the Corinthians' questions to what he had already written. He dealt next with the oral reports (chs. 5-6) and then with the questions that the Corinthian believers had written to him (chs. 7-16). He evidently sent this epistle from Ephesus by trusted messengers in the late winter or early spring of 56 A.D. (cf. 16:8).

It seems that a conflict had developed between the Corinthian church and its founder. There was internal strife in the church, as the epistle makes clear. However the larger problem seems to have been that some in the community were leading the church into a view of things that was contrary to that of Paul. This resulted in a questioning of Paul's authority and his gospel. The key issue between Paul and the Corinthians was what it means to be "spiritual."⁸

"It [1 Corinthians] is not the fullest and clearest statement of Paul's Gospel; for this we must turn to Romans. Nor is it the letter that shows Paul's own heart most clearly, for in this respect it is surpassed by 2 Corinthians, and perhaps by other epistles too. But it has the great value of showing theology at work, theology being used as it was intended to be used, in the criticism and establishing of persons, institutions, practices, and ideas."⁹

Paul's Corinthian Contacts
Paul's founding visit	His "former letter"	The Corin-thians' letter to him	First Corin-thians	Paul's "painful visit"	His "severe letter"	Second Corin-thians	Paul's antici-pated visit

Message¹⁰

A phrase in 1:2 suggests the theme of this great epistle. That phrase is "the church of God which is at Corinth." Two entities are in view in this phrase and these are the two entities with which the whole epistle deals. They are the church of God and the city of Corinth. The church of God is a community of people who share the life of God, are under the governing will of God, and cooperate in the work of God. The city of Corinth was ignorant of the life of God, governed by self-will, and antagonistic to the purposes of God. These two entities stand in vivid contrast to one another and account for the conflict we find in this epistle.

The church of God in view in this epistle is not the universal church but the local church. These two churches are really not that different from one another. The local church is the micro form of the universal church. Moreover the universal church is the macro form of the local church. What is true of one is true of the other. Whatever we find in a local church exists on a larger scale in the universal church. Whatever we find in one local church exists in many local churches. Remember that the New Testament consistently speaks of the church as people, not buildings. The Apostle Paul addressed these people as believers because that is what they were. Today there may be quite a few unsaved people in a local church's membership. This was not the case in the first century. Believers composed local churches. They shared the life of God because the Holy Spirit indwelt them. They had submitted to God's rule over them to some extent. They were people whom God had commissioned to carry the gospel to every creature. We need to bear these things in mind as we read about the church of God in Corinth.

The city of Corinth is the other entity of primary importance in our grasping the major significance of this epistle. What characterizes the world generally marked Corinth. In the first century when other people described a person as a Corinthian they were implying that lust, lasciviousness, and luxury characterized that one. These were the marks of Corinth. Corinth as a city was ignorant of the true God, entirely self-governing as a Roman colony, and self-centered in her world. These traits marked the lives of individual unbelievers in Corinth as well. The city was going in the opposite direction from the direction God had called the church to go.

The atmosphere of this epistle is Paul's concept of the responsibilities of the church in the city. The apostle articulated this underlying emphasis in 1:9. Fellowship involves both privilege and responsibility. On the one hand, all God's resources are at our disposal. On the other hand, all our resources should be at His disposal as well. The church in any place has a debt to the people who live there to proclaim the gospel to them (Rom. 1:14-16). Paul wrote this whole letter out of an underlying sense of the church's responsibility for the city where it existed.

The church in Corinth was struggling to discharge its debt. It was failing in some very important areas: in readiness, in courage, and in conviction to declare the gospel. The Corinthian church was a carnal church. However, its carnality, as big a problem as that was, was only part of a larger problem. The bigger problem was its failure to carry out its God-given purpose in the city, namely to proclaim a powerful spiritual message to the city. The Christians could not fulfill their purpose unless they dealt with their carnality. Why is carnality wrong? It is wrong because it keeps us from fulfilling the purpose for which God has left us on this planet.

In this letter we discover the causes of the church's failure. Another major emphasis is the secrets of the church's success. On the one hand, we find correctives of carnality. On the other, we have construction of spirituality. Let's consider the causes of failure first.

The first cause of failure was the fact that the spirit of the city had invaded the church as a virus. Every evil thing in the church to which Paul referred was prevalent in Corinth. Three things merit particular mention.

One of the symptoms of Corinthian cultural influence was intellectual freedom. There was much interest in intellectual speculation in Corinth as there was in its neighbor city of Athens. The phrase "Corinthian words" was a synonym for rhetoric in Paul's day. Corinth glorified human wisdom. The Corinthians discussed and debated all sorts of opinions. Each intellectual leader had his group of disciples. Discussion of every subject under the sun prevailed with great diversity of opinion. Unfortunately this spirit had invaded the church. There was a veneration of human wisdom among the Christians. They had chosen their own Christian leaders whom they followed as disciples (ch. 1). Intellectual restlessness prevailed in the church as well as in the city. The believers sampled Christian teaching as the general populace dabbled in philosophical argumentation. This extended to such fundamental doctrines as the Resurrection (ch. 15).

Another evidence that the city had invaded the church was the moral laxity that prevailed. Intellectual permissiveness led to the lowering of moral standards. When people view any idea as legitimate, there are few moral absolutes. The worship of Aphrodite on the hill behind the city was extremely immoral, but the unsaved citizens viewed this worship as perfectly acceptable. "Live and let live" was their motto. Regrettably some Corinthians in the church were viewing morals in the same way (ch. 5).

A third mark of the city's effect on the church was personal selfishness. In the city every person did what was right in his own eyes. The result was there was very little concern for other people and their welfare. One of the evidences of this attitude in the church was the Christians' behavior in their meetings. They were not sharing their food with one another (ch. 11). They were also interrupting speakers in the meetings rather than waiting for the speaker to finish what he had to say (ch. 14). Where edification and order should have prevailed, self-glorification and chaos reigned.

These were only symptoms of a deeper problem. The real root issue was that the church had failed to recognize its uniqueness. The Christians had not grasped and retained some central truths the apostles had taught them that identified the essence of their Christianity. Paul reminded them of these things in this epistle.

They had forgotten the central importance of the message of the Cross of Christ. This was a message not subject to debate. It rested on eyewitness testimony and divine revelation, not human speculation. Christians should unite around this message, share a common commitment to it, and make it the subject of their proclamation. We should appreciate the unity of the body of Christ while at the same time glorying in the diversity of its leaders.

The Corinthians had also forgotten the central importance of the power of the resurrection of Christ. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is at work in Christians to enable us to live morally pure lives. Immorality is not an option for the believer. One of the most outstanding marks of a Christian should be purity. Because Jesus Christ was pure, we should be pure. Because He was pure, we can be pure.

The Corinthians had also forgotten the importance of Christ's command that we love one another. Selfishness had invaded the church. The believers needed to put the welfare of others, their fellow believers and their unsaved neighbors, before their own personal inclinations and preferences.

One of the central revelations of this epistle then is that the church fails to fulfill her function in the city (i.e., culture) when the spirit of the city invades her. The church allows the spirit of the city to invade her when she forgets that God wants her to be unique. The church fails when it adopts the ideas and activities of its environment rather than those revealed for it in God's Word. In view of this, Paul constantly appealed to his readers to be what they were in reality. We are not the people we were. We are saints (1:2). We need to remember that and act accordingly. We do not need to catch the spirit of our age. We need to correct the spirit of our age. When the church catches the spirit of its age, it catches a disease and becomes anemic, weak, and sickly. We avoid catching this spirit by staying spiritually healthy and by constantly imbibing the message of the Cross. We do it by exercising the power of the Resurrection and by keeping others rather than self primary.

I have already begun to hint at the secrets of the church's success, the second major revelation in this epistle.

The church must realize what it is to fulfill its function in the city. We must appreciate our life in Christ.

The life of the church is the life of an organism (ch. 12). It has one Lord whose life we share. It has one Spirit who governs it distributing abilities, assigning positions, and determining results as He sees fit in view of God's overall purpose. The church has one God--not many as in Corinth--whose glory it should determine to promote. To the extent a church realizes these truths, it will be ready to be successful in the sight of God. If it shares the spiritual life of her Lord, submits to the Spirit's leading, and seeks to glorify God, it will succeed. By separating from the spirit of the city, it can help and lift the city.

The law of the church must be the law of love. This is the opposite of the selfish outlook. Paul emphasized the importance of love in chapter 13.

The power of the church is the Resurrection life of Christ (ch. 15). We presently live between two resurrections, the resurrection of Christ and our own resurrection. These resurrections are facts of history. One has already taken place, and the other is yet to come. Between these resurrections the church must fulfill its function in the world. The life that God has given to every believer is life that has power over death. One who overcame death has given it to us. This life is essentially different from what unbelievers possess. It is eternal divine life. With such life we can face any enemy as we serve God. Even the final enemy, death, cannot hold us. It could not hold Him who gave us His life.

Not only must we appreciate the uniqueness of our life as a church to fulfill our function, but we must also fulfill our function by invading the city. Rather than allowing it to invade us, we must invade it to be successful.

We do this by proclaiming that Jesus is Lord. He is the only Lord. The proof of this is His resurrection.

We also do this by rebuking the immorality of the city, not just by decrying it but, what is more important, by overcoming it in our own lives. We do it by demonstrating the power of Christ's life within us by living morally pure lives.

Third, we do this by counteracting the selfishness of our culture by practicing genuine Christian love. This means living for the glory of God and the good of others rather than putting self first.

The church always fails when it becomes conformed to the maxims, methods, and manners of the city--the world in which it lives. It always succeeds when it stands separate from the city and touches it with its supernatural healing life.

This epistle calls the church in every age to recognize its responsibility to its city. The church is responsible for the intellectual, moral, and social conditions in its city. Unfortunately many churches believe they exist merely to conserve the life of their members. We live in a cultural climate very similar to the one in which the Corinthian Christians lived. It is a culture characterized by intellectual pluralism, situation ethics, and personal selfishness. We face the same challenge the Corinthian believers did. Consequently what this epistle reveals is extremely relevant for us. We have responsibility for how people in our city think, how they behave, and whom they glorify. What they need is the message of the Cross delivered in the power of the Resurrection.

This letter is also a call to separation.

First, we must separate from absolute intellectual freedom and willingly submit our understanding and thinking to the revelation that God has given us in Scripture (chs. 1-4). There is a growing notion that all religions lead to God. Increasingly we hear that it does not matter too much what someone believes because we will all end up in the same place eventually. We need to counter that view with the revelation of the exclusive way of salvation that God has provided for people who are hopelessly lost and dead in their sins.

God has also called us to separation from moral laxity. Our culture is playing down personal morality and marital morality today. We need to proclaim the standards of God in these areas even though we may face strong opposition for doing so. Paul held these standards up in chapters 5-7.

Likewise we need to separate from selfish living. We need to make a break with goals and plans designed to glorify ourselves. Instead we need to evaluate all of our activities by the standard of chapter 13.

By way of application we can conclude several things from these observations about the emphases in this epistle.

First, the influence of the church is the influence of its individual members. The sum of its individual members' influence is the church's influence. Everything that is true of the church, therefore, is true of the individual believer in it to some extent.

Second, there should be perpetual conflict between the church and the city. If there is no conflict, the church is not having its proper influence. It may be that the city has invaded the church.

Third, the message of the church must ever be the message of the Cross and the Resurrection. It is a message of failure and success, of success out of failure. That is the message of hope the city needs to hear. Consequently we need to "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord," because we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord (15:58).

Constable: 1 Corinthians (Outline)

Outline

I. Introduction 1:1-9

A. Salutation 1:1-3

B. Thanksgiving 1:4-9

II. Conditions reported to Paul 1:10-6:20

A. Divisions in the church 1:10-4:21

1. The manifestation of the problem 1:10-17

2. The gospel as a contradiction to human wisdom 1:18-2:5

3. The Spirit's ministry of revealing God's wisdom 2:6-16

4. The spiritual yet carnal condition 3:1-4

5. The role of God's servants 3:5-17

6. Human wisdom and limited blessing 3:18-23

7. The Corinthians' relationship with Paul 4:1-21

B. Lack of discipline in the church chs. 5-6

1. Incest in the church ch. 5

2. Litigation in the church 6:1-11

3. Prostitution in the church 6:12-20

III. Questions asked of Paul 7:1-16:12

A. Marriage and related matters ch. 7

1. Advice to the married or formerly married 7:1-16

2. Basic principles 7:17-24

3. Advice concerning virgins 7:25-40

B. Food offered to idols 8:1-11:1

1. The priority of love over knowledge in Christian conduct ch. 8

2. Paul's apostolic defense ch. 9

3. The sinfulness of idolatry 10:1-22

4. The issue of marketplace food 10:23-11:1

C. Propriety in worship 11:2-16

1. The argument from culture 11:2-6

2. The argument from creation 11:7-12

3. The argument from propriety 11:13-16

D. The Lord's Supper 11:17-34

1. The abuses 11:17-26

2. The correctives 11:27-34

E. Spiritual gifts and spiritual people chs. 12-14

1. The test of Spirit control 12:1-3

2. The need for varieties of spiritual gifts 12:4-31

3. The supremacy of love ch. 13

4. The need for intelligibility 14:1-25

5. The need for order 14:26-40

F. The resurrection of believers ch. 15

l. The resurrection of Jesus Christ 15:1-11

2. The certainty of resurrection 15:12-34

3. The resurrection body 15:35-49

4. The assurance of victory over death 15:50-58

G. The collection for the Jerusalem believers 16:1-12

1. Arrangements for the collection 16:1-4

2. The travel plans of Paul and his fellow apostles 16:5-12

IV. Conclusion 16:13-24

A. Final exhortations 16:13-18

B. Final greetings and benediction 16:19-24

Constable: 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians

Bibliography

Adams, Jay. Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible. Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1980.

Andrews, J. N. "May Women Speak in Meeting?" Review and Herald. January 2, 1879. Reprinted in Adventist Review 165:5 (February 4, 1988):17.

Barclay, William. By What Authority? Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1974.

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White, R. Fowler. "Does God Speak Today Apart from the Bible? In The Coming Evangelical Crisis, pp. 77-90. Edited by John H. Armstrong. Chicago: Moody Press, 1996.

Wilkin, Robert N. "Are All Things Lawful for Believers?" Grace Evangelical Society Newsletter 4:7 (July 1989):2.

_____. "The So-Called So-Called Brother." Grace Evangelical Society News 6:10 (October 1991):2-3.

Wilson, Kenneth T. "Should Women Wear Headcoverings?" Bibliotheca Sacra 148:592 (October-December 1991):442-62.

Yamauchi, Edwin M. "Cultural Aspects of Marriage in the Ancient World." Bibliotheca Sacra 135:539 (July-September 1978):241-52.

Zuck, Roy B. "The Doctrine of Conscience." Bibliotheca Sacra 126:504 (October-December 1969):329-40.

Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

THE FIRST

EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL, THE APOSTLE,

TO THE CORINTHIANS.

INTRODUCTION.

Corinth was the capital of Achaia, a very rich and populous city, where St. Paul had preached a year and a half, and converted a great many. See Acts xviii. 10. Now having received a letter from them, (chap. vii. 1.) and being informed of divers disputes and divisions among them, (chap. i. ver. 11.) he wrote this letter to them, and sent it by the same persons, Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, who had brought him their letter, chap. xvi. 17. It was written about the year 56, not from Philippi, as it is commonly marked at the end of the Greek copies, but rather from Ephesus. The subject and main design of this Epistle was to take away the divisions among them about the talents and merits of those who had baptized and preached to them, and to settle divers matters of ecclesiastical discipline. The apostle justifieth his mission, and his manner of preaching, chap. i, ii, iii, and iv. He teacheth them what was to be done with the man guilty of a scandalous sin of incest, chap. v. He speaks of sins against chastity; of matrimony; and of the state of continency, chap. vi and vii. Of meats offered to idols, chap. viii. Of his manner of conversing with them, and what their conversation ought to be, chap. ix and x. Of the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, chap. xi. Of the different gifts of the Holy Ghost, and how to employ them, chap. xii, xiii, and xiv. Of the faith of the resurrection, chap. xv. Of charitable contributions, and of his design of coming again to them, chap. xvi. (Witham) --- St. Paul having planted the faith in Corinth, where he had preached a year and a half, and converted a great many, went to Ephesus. After being there three years, he wrote this first Epistle to the Corinthians, and sent it by the same persons, Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, who had brought their letter to him. It was written about twenty-four years after our Lord's ascension, and contains several matters appertaining to faith and morals, and also to ecclesiastical discipline. (Challoner)

====================

Gill: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 1 CORINTHIANS

This was not the first epistle that was written by the apostle to the Corinthians, for we read in this of his having written an epistle to them before, 1Co 5:9, but this is the first epistle of his unto them, that is now extant; and has been received by the churches, as of divine authority, being written by the inspiration of God, of which there has been no doubt in any age. The apostle himself was nearly two years at Corinth; where he preached with great success; and was the instrument of converting many persons, who by him were formed into a church state, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, as is clear from many passages in this epistle, and whom be left in good order, and in great peace and harmony; but quickly after his departure, false teachers got in among them, and bad principles were imbibed by many of them, and evil practices prevailed among them, and they fell into factions and parties, which occasioned the apostle to write this epistle to them, as well as their writing to him concerning certain things, they desired to have his judgment and opinion of, 1Co 7:1, It is thought to be written about the year of Christ 55, and in the first year of Nero, though some place it in the year 59. It was written not from Philippi, as the subscription added to it affirms, but from Ephesus, as appears from 1Co 16:8, and, it may be, after the uproar raised there by Demetrius, as should seem from a passage in 1Co 15:32. The matter of it is various. The apostle first rebukes them for their schisms and divisions; suggests that their regard to the wisdom of men, and the philosophy of the Gentiles, had brought the simplicity of the Gospel into contempt with them; blames them for their conduct in the case of the incestuous person, and urges them to put him away from them; reproves them for going to law with one another before Heathen magistrates, and warmly inveighs against fornication; and then answers several questions, and resolves several cases concerning marriage; treats of things offered to idols, and of the maintenance of ministers; and dissuades from idolatry, and all appearance of it; takes notice of the unbecoming conduct of the members of the church at the Lord's supper; and discourses concerning the nature and use of spiritual gifts, and commends charity above them; observes and corrects some irregularities in the use of their gifts; proves by various arguments the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which some of them denied; exhorts to a collection for the poor saints, and to several other things, and concludes the epistle with the salutations of others, and of himself.

Gill: 1 Corinthians 3 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 1 CORINTHIANS 3

In this chapter the apostle returns to the charge of schisms and contentions upon the Corinthians, which were the occasion of the epistle; and reproves them for their divisions, which were about their ministers; and gives them their just and due character, and who, though they were useful and commendable in their places, were not to be gloried in; and especially it was a great piece of weakness and folly, to set up one against another, when they had an equal interest in them all. Having, in the latter part of the preceding chapter, made mention of the spiritual man, the apostle tells the Corinthians, to whom he writes, that he could not address them as spiritual, but as carnal; and not as perfect men, among whom he spake the wisdom of God, but as babes in Christ, 1Co 3:1 and this rudeness and ignorance of theirs account for his conduct towards them, in delivering the plain and easy, and not the sublime doctrines of the Gospel to them, because they were not able to bear them; nor were they yet able, notwithstanding the length of time, the proficiency they had made, and the many teachers they had had among them, 1Co 3:2 and to prove that they were carnal, and not spiritual, he instances in their envy, strife, and contentions, which were carnal works, or works of the flesh, 1Co 3:3 and gives some particulars of their contentions about their ministers, which put it out of all doubt that they were carnal, 1Co 3:4 and reproves them for such contentions, and argues the folly and sinfulness of them; partly from the character of their preachers, as servants and ministers, who were the instruments of their faith and conversion, through the grace of God, and therefore not to be set up at the head of them as their lords and masters, 1Co 3:5 and partly from the unprofitableness of their ministry, without a divine blessing, 1Co 3:6 and also from the unity and equality of the ministers among themselves, though their labours and reward were different, 1Co 3:8 and therefore parties and factions were not to be made on their account; and besides, as they were labourers with God, and the church were his husbandry and building, in which they were employed, 1Co 3:9, though they might differ in some superstructure points, yet they agreed in the foundation; and the apostle instances in himself under the character of a wise master builder, laying the foundation, and others building on it, 1Co 3:10 and declares what this foundation was, which he and other Gospel ministers agreed in laying; nor was there any other that could be laid, to any good purpose besides, which is Jesus Christ, 1Co 3:11 and then distinguishes between the different sorts of builders, the one laying on the foundation things of the greatest worth and value, and others things very trifling and useless, 1Co 3:12 and intimates that there would be a time, when there would be a revelation and declaration of every man's work, of what sort it is, 1Co 3:13 so that, according to their different structures, there will be a different reward, as is suggested, 1Co 3:8 for though both sorts of preachers are upon the foundation, and so their persons will be safe, yet what they have built upon that foundation, according to the nature of it, shall either abide or be destroyed, 1Co 3:14 wherefore inasmuch then as the church of Christ is a temple, a building laid on such a foundation as Christ, it ought not to be defiled by factions and divisions, by errors and heresies; especially since it is holy, and the Spirit of God dwells in it; and whoever does defile it shall surely be destroyed; and therefore the apostle dissuades from it, both from the turpitude of the action, and the danger of it, 1Co 3:16 he cautions against the wisdom of this world, which was the cause of their divisions; as being self-deceiving, and contrary to true wisdom, 1Co 3:18 and as being foolishness in the account of God, which he proves by some passages of scripture, 1Co 3:19 and concludes, therefore, that no man ought to glory in men, in the best of men, not even in ministers, 1Co 3:21 so as to separate and divide them, one from another, and set up one above another, since they, and all things else, were theirs, 1Co 3:22 the ground and evidence of which their right and property in them are given, they being Christ's, and Christ's God's, 1Co 3:23.

College: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction)

FOREWORD

Since the past few decades have seen an explosion in the number of books, articles, and commentaries on First Corinthians, a brief word to the readers might help them know what to expect or not to expect from this commentary. This commentary is intended for use by studious lay people, Bible teachers, and seminary students. Most scholars and specialists in the area of New Testament will probably find this commentary's treatment of 1 Corinthians and its problems too elementary. Because of the intended audience for this work and the constraints of length, the user should be aware of certain acknowledged limitations. There are at least four of these:

1. This commentary does not pretend to look at every problem, real or imaginary, which has caught the eye of previous scholarship.

2. The commentary does not attempt to cite continuously the interpretations of leading Christian thinkers as they have written on this Pauline letter.

3. Interpretations are given on individual passages without always citing the full evidence and without working through the attendant arguments, either for or against particular views.

4. Only a moderate number of footnotes have been used. In addition, the vast majority of the secondary literature cited will be English language and will, when possible, be in book form. The nonspecialist for whom this commentary is intended has little interest in or access to technical materials, journal literature, or foreign language materials.

Those who wish to study this letter of Paul in more detail should look to some of the more technical commentaries (e.g., Gordon Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians ).

I owe a special word of thanks to two individuals. My friend Gail Brady graciously typed the entire manuscript of this commentary for me. My friend and colleague Prof. Allen Black read the entire manuscript for me and saved me and my readers from more than one instance of an inappropriate choice of words as well as an occasional overstatement.

I dedicate this volume to my parents who shared with me over the years their own faith, hope, and love.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

INTRODUCTION

METHODOLOGY

The text of Scripture known as 1 Corinthians has provided a well from which believers have drunk for almost two millennia. This portion of Scripture has served the church as a resource for theology, for homiletical exposition, for pastoral issues, and more recently as a source for reconstructing social dimensions and dynamics of early Pauline Christianity. Whatever else one wants to say about 1 Corinthians, it cannot be doubted that it has had a significant impact on the Christian church.

Notwithstanding the necessity and value of this diversity of perspectives and interpretive methodologies which have come across the stage of Christian history, this present work is more narrowly focused in its approach. This work is primarily a historical-exegetical commentary, the goal of which is to understand and set forth the ideas, doctrines, and feelings Paul communicated in the letter of 1 Corinthians. The phrase "ideas, doctrines, and feelings" is not intended to describe an "intellectual history" of the great Apostle. Rather, Paul's ideas, doctrines, and feelings, as recorded in 1 Corinthians, are engendered and evoked by a series of practices and beliefs, diverse in themselves, coming from individuals and groups in the church of God at Corinth.

A decision to write a historical-exegetical commentary brings with it several assumptions and commitments.

1. This means in the first instance that the feelings, doctrines, and ideas of Paul must, as far as possible, be understood in the historical framework, both in which he wrote them and in which the first readers lived. A historical-exegetical approach has little in common with simplistic attempts to modernize Paul, to re-create him after the image of western Christianity. To be sure, every practicing believer knows firsthand the need to bring forward, with God's help and wisdom, the meaning of the ancient text into the modern world. How strange it appears, however, when those who wish to contextualize the Gospel in the modern setting have not invested the time and effort to first learn what it meant in its original context. Just as a good translation of Russian literature into French requires that one be familiar with both languages, so a good translation of the ideas of Paul's letter to the Corinthians into modern idiom requires a competent grasp of the original meaning of this letter as well as the modern world.

2. A commitment to a historical-exegetical methodology means that one must always recognize that Paul's letter to the Corinthians is an occasional document, arising in the first instance as direct responses to ad hoc issues and problems in the lives of believers living in a certain region of the Roman Empire, at a specific time, and under particular historical and cultural circumstances. Since the historical method infers that Paul's commands, arguments, and instructions were given in direct response to the issues raised by the lives and ideas of the Corinthians, one must openly acknowledge that 1 Corinthians may not address every issue that we, living two millennia later, hope it would. In fact, 1 Corinthians was not even adequate or appropriate for addressing the problem in all the Pauline churches. I am certain, for example, that the churches of Galatia would have been perplexed to receive 1 Corinthians as a solution to their specific problems. Indeed, even at Corinth it had to be supplemented by 2 Corinthians.

Not only does the historical method help restrain us from foisting our own agendas and ecclesiastical problems upon that small group of believers who lived at a particular time in Roman Achaia almost 2000 years ago, it also serves as a restraint for those who would twist the Scriptures and put forth their own ideology masquerading as exegesis. Time and again commentators have found a theology or doctrinal imprimatur in the text of 1 Corinthians which, even if generally true, has little in common with Paul's own intention and goals for this letter. Throughout the centuries preachers and theologians have strolled through the cafeteria of 1 Corinthians, appetite whetted, looking for some word, idea, or verse to place upon the plate from which they feed the church. At some point this kind of pragmatism in handling Scripture, which is driven by a variety of appetites, must be labeled as malpractice, and the student of Scripture needs to obey again the pastoral admonition to become "a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Tim 2:15).

Even though a historical-exegetical method is the underpinning of this commentary, it is in no way the final task for the church in the interpretation of 1 Corinthians. Rather, the historical-exegetical approach should be the first step, and a necessary one, which is followed by many other steps taken by believers who, through the course of their journey, translate the manifold and variegated message of 1 Corinthians for the contemporary and global church of Jesus Christ. The individual tools and methods used in this process of contextualization would hopefully come from the guidance of God as well as study in the traditional theological disciplines of homiletics, systematic theology, pastoral theology, ethnotheology, and the like.

THE LETTER OF 1 CORINTHIANS

DESTINATION

The letter of 1 Corinthians was sent by Paul and Sosthenes to the congregation of believers in the city of Corinth. This is in contrast to 2 Corinthians, which was written not only to believers in Corinth but also to believers in the province of Achaia, of which Corinth was the capital (2 Cor 1:1). The content of 1 Cor 5:9 "I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people" makes it evident that the letter of 1 Corinthians is not Paul's first written communication with the church at Corinth since he here refers to a previous letter he had already sent them and which they apparently misunderstood (5:9-11).

DATE

Even though the Acts of the Apostles was not written for the purpose of providing a historical framework for the Pauline Corpus, there are instances where Acts and facts from ancient historical records do supplement the letters of Paul. One very important way in which Acts supplements the less specific material in the Pauline letters is in regard to chronology. Without the chronological framework of Acts, it would be much harder to know how to arrange in sequence materials from Paul's letters and to assign dates to them. It is our good fortune to be able to assign dates to about five episodes mentioned in Acts, and thereby, assign relative dates to parts of Paul's correspondence. One of these instances is the case of Acts 18 where Luke narrates the beginning of the Pauline mission in Corinth. At that point we have firm evidence for the date of the Christian mission based upon supplemental historical data. In particular, Acts indicates that Paul's work at Corinth took place while Gallio was the proconsul of Achaia (Acts 18:12). This Roman official, who was the brother of the Roman philosopher Seneca, is known from ancient Roman literature as well as archaeological data. It is this latter realm of evidence which helps specify the time of his career when he was proconsul in Corinth. This would put Paul's work at Corinth and his appearance before Gallio in the early 50s. Acts 18:11 indicates that Paul worked in Corinth for 18 months; this means that Paul's correspondence in 1 Corinthians would have occurred in approximately A.D. 55. While some interpreters have attempted to get even more precise with the dating, it seems that A.D. 55 is as specific as the evidence can support.

PROVENANCE

Paul was actually not far from Corinth when he wrote 1 Corinthians. First Corinthians 16:8 points decisively to a site on the eastern side of the Aegean Sea, in Ephesus, on the western coast of the Roman province of Asia. Travel between large port cities such as Corinth and Ephesus was frequent and relatively easy in the Roman world. Consequently, it is no surprise to find Corinthians visiting Paul, and Paul and his co-workers making visits from Asia to Corinth.

ROMAN CORINTH

The Greek city of Corinth had suffered defeat at the hands of the expanding Roman Republic in 146 B.C. The archaeological evidence does not support, however, the idea that in the ensuing years all life and Greek influence vanished from this conquered and partially desolate site. While the Greek Corinth was clearly defeated, it was not totally deserted in the decades following 146 B.C. When Julius Caesar, shortly before his assassination in 44 B.C., reestablished the city as a Roman colony, it would have quickly become a city which was dominantly, but not exclusively, Roman. Consequently, any study of Paul's letter to the church of God at Corinth must take seriously the fact that Paul was addressing a city which had been, since 44 B.C., a Roman colony ( Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis ). Roman colonies were typically established as outposts for promoting Roman culture, religion, language, and political systems as well as providing lands for retired Roman soldiers. And even though Corinth was located geographically in Greece, there is no doubt that Roman mores and ideas impacted the local populace since, as Aulus Gellius noted (2nd cent. A.D.), Roman colonies "seemed to be miniatures, as it were, and in a way copies" of the Roman people. Therefore, Corinth possessed all the appropriate Roman laws, magistrates and officials.

Because of Corinth's mercantile character and important geographical location, it quickly attracted new residents from throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Consequently, by the time of Paul's arrival in Corinth, almost one century after its reestablishment as a city, the population would have included not only Romans, but also Greeks, Jews, Egyptians, Syrians, etc.

ORIGIN, STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF 1 CORINTHIANS

Even though there is not a consensus among interpreters regarding the exact nature and causes of the problems which Paul treats in 1 Corinthians, there is general agreement that the letter is organized around the cluster of problems which Paul is striving to remedy by his apostolic instruction. The letter is basically a series of smaller units of thought, each of which seems to be directed to a particular aberration in the beliefs and/or practices of the Corinthians. Paul's style in the letter is to acknowledge the existence of a sin or problem, address the sin or problem, and then move on to the next one.

Paul's information about these various problems at Corinth did not come from firsthand knowledge of his own nor through inspiration. The majority, if not all, of Paul's information about the various issues with which he dealt in the letter came most likely from two distinct human sources. The information and problems treated in 1 Cor 1-6 came from those from the house of Chloe. First Corinthians 1:11 states that "some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you," thereby identifying Paul's source of information for the problem he treats in 1 Cor 1-4. The wording of 1 Cor 5:1 "It is actually reported" points probably to additional information in 1 Cor 5-6 which was also supplied by those from Chloe's house. If this is not the case, then we have no idea who provided this report of immorality among the Corinthians.

A second major source for Paul's information is mentioned in 1 Cor 7:1 when he wrote, " Now for the matters you wrote about ." Paul is expressly acknowledging here that the list of issues and problems that he is going to respond to came from a document authored and sent by Corinthian believers to him. Numerous modern interpreters believe, rightly so in my opinion, that this Corinthian document informed Paul not only about the issue discussed in 1 Cor 7:1ff, but also the matters discussed at 8:1ff ( Now about food sacrificed to idols), 12:1ff ( Now about spiritual gifts), and 16:1ff ( Now about the collection for God's people).

At least two points can be drawn from this information. The first is that the Corinthians themselves should receive credit for the broad outline of what was discussed and treated in 1 Corinthians. In addition, one ought not overlook the fact that Paul's treatment of the Corinthians' problems is a treatment of the problems as communicated to him through an unnamed informant of one of the women members of the congregation and through a letter (authors unknown) sent to Paul which already had, regardless of its tone, an agenda for which Paul was not responsible. It is obvious, then, that even though no one seriously doubts the Pauline authorship of 1 Corinthians, it is important for the interpreter to appreciate the complex role of the Corinthians in their contribution to the content and structure of the epistle.

PROBLEMS AT CORINTH

The task of identifying and reconstructing the multiple problems within the church of God at Corinth on the basis of Paul's letter to them is not a simple one. Writing decades ago on this very problem Prof. Kirsopp Lake commented,

The difficulty which undoubtedly attends any attempt to understand the Epistles of St. Paul is largely due to the fact that they are letters; for the writer of letters assumes the knowledge of a whole series of facts, which are, as he is quite aware, equally familiar to his correspondent and to himself. But as time goes on this knowledge is gradually forgotten and what was originally quite plain becomes difficult and obscure; it has to be recovered from stray hints and from other documents by a process of laborious research, before it is possible for the letters to be read with anything approaching to the ease and intelligence possessed by those to whom they were originally sent.

There are some scholars who wish to interpret most, if not all, of the problems in 1 Corinthians as arising from one group of individuals at Corinth. The evidence of 1 Corinthians does not, in my judgment, support such a theory. There are, admittedly, aspects of this approach which are attractive. Common traits, to be sure, can be found among some of the problems. For example, Paul refers to the sin of boasting as an ingredient in more than one of the problems within the Corinthians fellowship. Likewise, the terms "division" ( , schisma ) (1 Cor 1:10; 11:18) and "dissension" (also schisma ) (1 Cor 12:25) are used by Paul in describing more than one problem situation among the letter's recipients. This common denominator of schisma does not require the conclusion that the problems of "party loyalty" in 1 Cor 1-4, abuse of the Lord's Meal in 11:17-22, and misunderstanding and misuse of spiritual gifts in 12-14 must all be traced back to a common theological aberration, to the same social stratum in the church, or to a particular house church in Corinth.

Since the goal in this commentary is to interpret 1 Corinthians as Paul's coherent letter, we must respect Paul's own categorization of the issues at Corinth if we want to understand the intent of his instruction and flow of thought as he responded and gave directions to the church of God at Corinth. If direct and explicit social links between the organizational subunits within 1 Corinthians can be isolated, so much the better for exegesis. However, to this point in time many of the rhetorical, sociological and anthropological reconstructions of the Christian community(ies) at Corinth resemble, at times, a Procrustean Bed rather than a picture put together on the basis of an exegetical-historical model.

Throughout the modern period of Pauline interpretation scholars have regularly commented on the issue of Paul's opponents at Corinth. In this interpretive context, the term opponent has become almost synonymous with those who promoted or participated in the spiritual aberrations opposed by Paul in 1 Corinthians. More recently, however, other scholars have rightly attempted to both refine and redefine the term opponent. From this ongoing discussion two points are relevant to this study of 1 Corinthians. First, one must not automatically equate the personalities, groups and aberrations behind 2 Corinthians with those behind 1 Corinthians. There is no compelling reason to believe that the two letters were written to address the exact same problems. In fact, the internal evidence leads away from such a position. (1) 1 Corinthians was written only to the church in Corinth, while 2 Corinthians was written not only to the church in Corinth but also to all believers in all the Roman province of Achaia, of which Corinth was the capital. (2) Most of the key terms and ideas of each letter are not found in the other. (3) The tenor and literary characteristics of each letter are distinctive.

The second observation from the contemporary discussion of Pauline opponents is the question of whether every spiritual aberration within a Pauline church should be interpreted as intentional and direct opposition to Paul himself. It is not a question of whether Paul ever had opponents (e.g., 2 Corinthians, Galatians), but whether the term opponent is the appropriate term for everyone who was guilty of spiritual perceptions and doctrines different than Paul's or whose lifestyle was not in harmony with Paul's ethical teachings. John Calvin touched on this point in his commentary on 1 Corinthians when he wrote, "Now, I have good reason for thinking that those worthless fellows, who had caused trouble in the Corinthian church, were not open enemies of the truth." Calvin's point is well taken and his caution in using the term opponent will be followed in this work. More explicit and extended discussions on the topic of opponents will be found at the appropriate junctures in the commentary itself.

OUTLINE OF 1 CORINTHIANS

The recognition of literary units in 1 Corinthians is part and parcel of the task of exegesis. The opening and closing of units of thought are not merely arbitrary literary embellishments nor are they just convenient ways to structure Paul's thought and feelings. These units put linguistic and semantic limits on the words and thoughts of Paul. The recognition of these demarcations in 1 Corinthians is mandated, since it helps ensure that the flow of Paul's rhetorical argument remains within the limits set by the Apostle himself. Moreover, a respect for the conceptual units and subunits of Paul's letter will greatly reduce the tendency to make his words mean more than he intended them to mean. This tendency to generalize Paul's thought and words beyond the immediate rhetorical setting comes at a high price, since it can only be maintained by denying the occasional nature of the Pauline correspondence as well as the universally recognized fact that meaning emerges from rhetorical and contextual usage.

Introduction etc. 1:1-9

Issue 1 Disunity and Community Fragmentation 1:10-4:20

Issue 2 Reports of Immorality 5:1-6:20

Issue 3 Sexuality/Celibacy/Marriage 7:1-40

Issue 4 Foods Offered to Idols 8:1-11:1

Issue 5 Liturgical Aberrations 11:2-34

Issue 6 Misunderstanding of Spiritual Gifts 12:1-14:40

Issue 7 Misunderstanding of Believers' Resurrection 15:1-58

Issue 8 Instruction for the Collection 16:1-11

Concluding topics 16:12-24

HISTORICAL MATRIX FOR THE CORINTHIAN PROBLEMS

Without going into the multifaceted issues about the historical evidence from Acts for Paul's churches and how this relates to the evidence for Paul and his churches from his own letters, it seems prudent to rely initially and primarily upon the evidence of 1 Corinthians itself rather than Luke's material in Acts to understand the nature and extent of the problems in the church at Corinth. To be specific, one must not falsely conclude, on the basis of the Lukan picture of a predominant Jewish matrix of the church in Corinth, that Jewish beliefs and practices provide the matrix for most of the aberrations within the Corinthian church. In this regard, Gordon Fee is correct when he points out that many of the problems at Corinth are explicitly traced by Paul to the converts' pagan heritage. It can be argued, furthermore, that even those issues not explicitly traced to pagan heritage by Paul can be best understood by seeing them against the backdrop of Greco-Roman rather than Jewish mores and values.

The issues depicted in 1 Corinthians arose directly from the lives of that first generation Christian community, most of whom had been believers no more than 48 months. Since Paul nowhere implies in 1 Corinthians that the Corinthian problems were introduced by outsiders, the most reasonable course to follow in evaluating the origin of the Corinthian issues is to investigate the urban setting of Roman Corinth from which the converts came. This means that the religious and cultural perspectives which shaped the beliefs and practices of those whom Paul addressed in this letter provide the best circumstantial evidence and clues for the interpretation of 1 Corinthians.

While the need to recognize the Greco-Roman matrix of the Corinthian problems might seem self-evident, the history of the interpretation of 1 Corinthians clearly reveals that not all interpreters have shared this methodological concern. In practice this approach to 1 Corinthians means that:

1. One must not attribute the Jewishness of Paul and the Scriptural basis of his own theology to those recent converts whom he was correcting. To extract texts and vocabulary from Jewish sources (e.g., Mishnah, Dead Sea Scrolls, Gospels, etc.) to understand the matrix of the Corinthians' problems is highly suspect. The fact that Paul often cites Scripture to remedy the problems at Corinth speaks more of his own Jewish heritage, his apostolic ministry, and his convictions that all Christians are to be guided by Scripture than it does that there was some significant Jewish background to the Corinthian problems.

2. The mores, patterns of culture and specific religious institutions of Greco-Roman paganism must be seen as the soil in which the Corinthian problems were germinated and grew.

3. The specific condition of the Corinth of Paul's day should be taken as the immediate setting for the converts. One must exercise caution in using information about an earlier Greek Corinth which had been destroyed in the second century B.C. and no longer existed in Paul's day in order to describe the Corinth of Paul's day.

4. One must recognize the multicultural nature of Corinth at Paul's time. It was geographically Greek, it was administratively and politically Roman, and its denizens came from throughout the central and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Basin. Consequently, one must reckon with ethnic influences in Paul's Corinth which reflect Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Syrian, Jewish, and Anatolian influences.

5. Vague and anachronistic labels such as gnosticism should be avoided until appropriate historical evidence and documentation can be discovered and shown to be relevant to the issues at Corinth addressed by Paul. A commitment to the notion of a gnostic background to 1 Corinthians still has advocates, though their numbers are surely down from that of the 19th and earlier part of the 20th century. Quite recently, for example, Pheme Perkins argued that

. . . gnostic mythologizing does form part of the horizon within which the New Testament should be interpreted. Students of Christian origins have become accustomed to comparing the New Testament material with a wide variety of Jewish and Greco-Roman sources. The same efforts of analysis and comparison should be applied to the gnostic material.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexander, L.C.A. "Chronology of Paul." In Dictionary of Paul and His Letters . Ed. G.F. Hawthorne et al. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993, pp. 115-123.

Aune, David E. The New Testament in Its Literary Environment . Library of Early Christianity. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1987.

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Banks, R. "Church Order and Government." DPL , pp. 131-137.

Barnett, P.W. "Apostle." DPL, pp. 45-51.

________________ . "Opponents of Paul." DPL , pp. 644-653.

________________ . "Revolutionary Movements." DPL , pp. 812-819.

________________ . "Tentmaking." DPL , pp. 925-927.

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-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

ABBREVIATIONS

ABD . . . Anchor Bible Dictionary

AUSS . . . Andrews University Seminary Studies

BA . . . Biblical Archaeology

BAGD . . . Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, Danker

BAR . . . Biblical Archaeology Review

BiblThecSac . . . Bibliotheca Sacra

BJRL . . . Bulletin of the John Rylands Library

BTr . . . Bible Translator

CMM . . . Introduction to the New Testament by Carson, Moo, L. Morris

ChrSt . . . Christian Standard

DPL . . . Dictionary of Paul and His Letters

ed. . . . edited by

EQ . . . Evangelical Quarterly

ExpT . . . Expository Times

HTR . . . Harvard Theological Review

JBL . . . Journal of Biblical Literature

JSNT . . . Journal of Studies in the New Testament

JETS . . . Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JTS . . . Journal of Theological Studies

n. . . . note

NovT . . . Novum Testamentum

NTS . . . New Testament Studies

RevEx . . . Review and Expositor

TB . . . Tyndale Bulletin

TDNT . . . Theological Dictionary of the New Testament

TS . . . Theological Studies

trans . . . translated by

WThJ . . . Westminster Theological Journal

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

College: 1 Corinthians (Outline)

OUTLINE

I. INTRODUCTION - 1:1-9

A. Salutation - 1:1-3

B. Thanksgiving - 1:4-9

II. DISUNITY AND COMMUNITY FRAGMENTATION - 1:10-4:21

A. Divisions in the Church - 1:10-17

1. Report Received by Paul - 1:10-12

2. Christ Undivided - 1:13-17

B. Christ the Wisdom and Power of God - 1:18-2:5

1. The Message of the Cross - 1:18-19

2. Both Jews and Gentiles Offended - 1:20-25

3. God's Choice of Foolish Things - 1:26-31

4. Paul's Message Not Based on Eloquence - 2:1-5

C. Wisdom and Spiritual Maturity - 2:6-3:4

1. God's Secret Wisdom - 2:6-9

2. The Teaching of the Spirit - 2:10-16

3. Divisions a Sign of Worldliness - 3:1-4

D. God the Master Builder - 3:5-23

1. Paul and Apollos Merely Servants - 3:5-9

2. Building on the Foundation Laid by Paul - 3:10-17

3. God's View of Wisdom - 3:18-23

E. Apostles of Christ - 4:1-21

1. The Apostles as Servants of Christ - 4:1-5

2. Overcoming Human Pride - 4:6-7

3. Honor and Dishonor - 4:8-13

4. Paul's Warning as Father - 4:14-17

5. Arrogance to Be Confronted - 4:18-21

III. REPORTS OF IMMORALITY - 5:1-6:20

A. Discipline for the Immoral Brother - 5:1-13

1. The Corinthians' Pride in Tolerance - 5:1-5

2. Getting Rid of the Old Yeast - 5:6-8

3. Separating From Evil - 5:9-13

B. Lawsuits among Believers - 6:1-11

1. Settling Disputes in the Church - 6:1-8

2. The Inheritance of the Wicked - 6:9-11

C. Sexual Immorality - 6:12-20

1. The Body As a Member of Christ- 6:12-17

2. The Body As the Temple of the Holy Spirit - 6:18-20

IV. SEXUALITY, CELIBACY, AND MARRIAGE - 7:1-40

A. Godly Use of Sexuality - 7:1-7

B. Celibacy vs. Marriage - 7:8-11

C. Divorce and Separation - 7:12-16

D. Remaining as You Were Called - 7:17-28

E. Freedom from Concern - 7:29-40

V. DEALING WITH IDOLATRY - 8:1-11:1

A. Food Sacrificed to Idols - 8:1-13

1. The General Principle - 8:1-3

2. The Nonreality of Idols - 8:4-6

3. The Weak Brother's Dilemma - 8:7-8

4. The Proper Use of Freedom - 8:9-13

B. The Rights of an Apostle - 9:1-27

1. Paul's Rights as Apostle - 9:1-6

2. General Principle Stated - 9:7-14

3. Paul's Deferment of Rights - 9:15-18

4. To the Jew as a Jew - 9:19-23

5. Looking Forward to the Prize - 9:24-27

C. Warnings From Israel's History - 10:1-13

1. Wandering in the Desert - 10:1-5

2. Punishment for Sins - 10:6-10

3. Examples for Us - 10:11-13

D. Idol Feasts and the Lord's Supper - 10:14-22

1. The Lord's Supper a Participation - 10:14-17

2. The Lord's Table and the Table of Demons - 10:18-22

3. The Christian's Freedom - 10:23-11:1

VI. LITURGICAL ABERRATIONS - 11:2-34

A. Propriety in Worship - 11:2-16

1. Head Coverings in Worship - 11:2-10

2. Hair in the Nature of Things - 11:11-16

B. The Lord's Supper - 11:17-34

1. The Corinthians' Practice - 11:17-22

2. The Lord's Supper As Instituted - 11:23-26

3. Self-examination to Avoid Judgment - 11:27-34

VII. MISUNDERSTANDING OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS - 12:1-14:40

A. Spiritual Gifts - 12:1-11

1. Influence of the Spirit - 12:1-3

2. Different Gifts for a Common Good - 12:4-11

B. One Body, Many Parts - 12:12-31a

1. One Body in Christ - 12:12-13

2. Body Members Not Independent - 12:14-20

3. Special Honor for Weaker Parts - 12:21-26

4. Application to the Body of Christ - 12:27-31a

C. Love - 12:31b-13:13

1. Gifts Without Love Pointless - 12:31b-13:3

2. The Virtues of Love - 13:4-7

3. The Permanence of Love - 13:8-13

D. Gifts of Prophecy and Tongues - 14:1-25

1. Tongues and Prophecy Compared - 14:1-5

2. Tongues and Clarity - 14:6-12

3. The Spirit and the Mind - 14:13-19

4. Maturity and Spiritual Gifts - 14:20-25

E. Orderly Worship - 14:26-40

1. Control of Tongues and Prophecy - 14:26-33

2. Submission of Women - 14:34-35

3. Everything Fitting and Orderly - 14:36-40

VIII. MISUNDERSTANDING OF BELIEVERS' RESURRECTION - 15:1-58

A. The Gospel Paul Preached - 15:1-11

1. Relation of the Corinthians to the Gospel - 15:1-2

2. Basic Issues of the Gospel - 15:3-4

3. Appearances and Apostleship - 15:5-11

B. Christ's Resurrection and the Resurrection

of the Dead - 15:12-34

1. Consequences of Denying the Resurrection - 15:12-19

2. The Fact of Christ's Resurrection - 15:20-28

3. Baptism, Suffering, and the Resurrection - 15:29-34

C. Answers to Some Problems about the

Resurrection - 15: 35-58

1. A Twofold Question - 15:35-41

2. An Explanation of the Resurrection of the Dead - 15:42-50

3. The Secret Revealed - 15:51-58

IX. INSTRUCTION FOR THE COLLECTION - 16:1-11

A. The Collection for God's People - 16:1-4

B. Paul's Travel Plans - 16:5-9

C. Assisting Timothy - 16:10-11

X. CONCLUSION - 16:12-24

A. Personal Requests - 16:12-18

B. Final Greetings - 16:19-24

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV