1 Corinthians 3-4: You Have Everything You Need

We keep reading through 1 Corinthians and watch Paul confront jealousy, factions, and the temptation to treat church leaders like teams to join. We land on a simple test for maturity: are we just talking, or is the Holy Spirit’s power changing how we live and treat each other?
• Paul’s correction for spiritual immaturity and jealousy
• Why picking sides around leaders fuels division
• A clear picture of ministry: planting, watering, and God giving growth
• Building on Jesus as the only foundation
• Gold versus straw work tested by fire and motives revealed
• The church as God’s temple and why that raises the stakes
• Becoming “foolish” to gain true wisdom
• Living as faithful stewards who let the Lord judge
• Paul’s hard example and his call to imitate him as he imitates Christ
• Contentment as an antidote to disunity and stagnation
• The kingdom of God shown through power, not idle talk

Accompanying this read-through of 1 Corinthians is an Echo Bible study that you can find on our website, outloudbible.com. 
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Transcript

Why Corinth Got Messy

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This is Mike with the Out Loud Bible Podcast. Last time we started the letter to the Corinthians, the first letter to the Corinthians. We called it the book of First Corinthians. And Paul was writing to address some issues that had come up in this group of fairly immature believers, and they had just got caught up in a lot of interpersonal drama, some sin issues, some clicks and factions, and some disagreements about Paul and really kind of questioning his authority as an apostle, because he even admitted last time we read in chapter two that when he first came there to Corinth and started this church, he intentionally didn't come with like this strong presence with wise words and really eloquent speaking and preaching and teaching. Instead, he just said, you know, I'm I'm I'm I came with fear, with trembling, kind of weak, just so that the power of God through the Holy Spirit could be on display, that if you got anything good, it would be clear that it was from the Holy Spirit. Well, as is often the case, Satan can twist things, and he seemed to kind of get in the minds of some of the people here in the Corinthian church, and using Paul's humility and keeping a low profile as reason to kind of criticize Paul and question his authority as an apostle. So now Paul's writing a letter to address that, among other things. It's a very messy church, but we find the more we read about it, the we find that it's not unlike our own lives, our own families, our own bodies of Christ, our own churches that we find ourselves in. Accompanying this read-through of 1 Corinthians is an Echo Bible study that you can find on our website, outloudbible.com. And you can download, if you have not already, the Echo

Echo Study Guide And Discipleship

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Bible study for 1 Corinthians. It's called Messy Church. And uh that will give you just some more discussion questions, whether you discuss them with someone, which I think is great or not, if you want to just kind of uh think and reflect on your own and and go a little bit deeper with what we read here. That's a great resource for you. I'm super thankful to uh heard from someone who uh listens to the podcast and uh reached out, and she said that she uses these echo guides to disciple her nephews. And uh they work together and they really enjoy the character studies like of Daniel and Joseph and and uh these sort of stories. And and the podcast provides a great jumping off point for discussions, and the echo Bible studies provide some great work to do together. So she didn't have to come up with what to say or what to talk about. It's all right there. So um I if if there's someone in mind that you're like, you know, I I want to reach out and just kind of disciple them, and I don't really know how, or I I want to talk about the Bible with this person. I just don't really know what to say. Invite them to listen to the podcast, listen to it together, and uh set a time to, hey, then can we chat maybe on a Tuesday night or something and and kind of just talk about what we've been listening to each other? Uh that's a great use for this podcast. I'm so uh honored and and and humbled that uh it would be used in that way. Uh that's the power of the word of God, man. Like it it never gets wasted. The time that you spend in the Bible is never wasted. God always, always plants seeds and waters them, grows them through your time in the word. And if you share it with someone, it's always, always gonna have a benefit. Not many things you can say that about. It's pretty good. So let's get back into 1 Corinthians. Last time in chapters 1 and 2, we kind of left off with Paul describing that the wisdom of God, it just looks so foolish

God’s Wisdom Looks Like Folly

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to the world. Unbelievers don't understand how the whole thing about Jesus being God and a man and coming as a baby and a virgin birth and him living a life and then dying, and then he rose again from the dead, and then he ascended to heaven, and now like the him, he lives inside us now, and none of this makes any sense. And frankly, we have to grant it, yeah, it does sound crazy, but that's the wisdom of God, which looks like foolishness to the world. And so we have to live like fools, frankly, if we're going to live like Christ. But while we do need to live like fools in the eyes of the world when it comes to our faith, we should not look like fools to everyone else by the way we treat each other poorly and by our disorderly conduct among ourselves and in church. And this is what Paul is starting to address here. So let's pick up First Corinthians chapter three as Paul addresses some of the divisions and the factions that are developing in this early messy church. Here's First Corinthians chapter three, starting in verse one in the New English translation. So, brothers and sisters, I I couldn't speak to you as spiritual people,

Milk, Not Solid Food Yet

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but instead as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I I fed you milk, not solid food, for you weren't ready yet. In fact, you're still not ready, for you're still influenced by the flesh. For since there's still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people? For when someone says, Well, I'm with Paul, or I'm with Apollos, are you not merely human? What is Apollos, really, or what is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, and each of us in the ministry the Lord gave us. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow. So neither the one who plants counts for anything, nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters work as one, but each will receive his reward according to his work. We're co-workers belonging to God. And you are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, but someone else builds on it. And each one must be careful

One Foundation, Many Builders

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how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than what's been laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw, each builder's work will be plainly seen, for the day will make it clear, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what kind of work each has done. If what someone has built survives, he'll receive a reward. If someone's work is burned up, he'll suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If someone destroys God's temple,

You Are God’s Temple

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God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy, which is what you are. Guard against self-deception, each of you. If someone among you thinks he's wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise. For the wisdom of this age is foolishness with God. As it's written, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile. So then, no more boasting about mere immortals, for everything belongs to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. One should think about us this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now, what is sought in stewards

Faithful Stewards, Not People Pleasers

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is that one be found faithful. So for me, it's a minor matter that I'm judged by you or any human court. In fact, I don't even judge myself, for I'm not aware of anything against myself, for I'm not acquitted because of this. The one who judges me is the Lord. So then don't judge anything before the time, wait until the Lord comes, and he'll bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the motives of hearts, and then each will receive recognition from God. I've applied these things to myself and Apollos because of you, brothers and sisters, so that through us you may learn not to go beyond what's written, so that none of you will be puffed up in favor of the one against the other. For who concedes you any superiority? What do you have that you didn't receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though you did not? Already you're satisfied, already you're rich. You've become kings without us. I wish you had become kings so that we could reign with you. For I I think God has exhibited us apostles, last of all, as men condemned to die because we've become a spectacle to

The Apostles’ Costly Example

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the world, both to angels and to people. Now we're fools for Christ. But you are wise in Christ. We're weak, but you're strong. You're distinguished, and we're dishonored. But to this present hour, we are hungry and thirsty, poorly clothed, brutally treated, and without a roof over our heads, and we do hard work, toiling with our own hands. When we're verbally abused, we respond with a blessing. When persecuted, we endure. And when people lie about us, we answer in a friendly manner. We are the world's dirt and scum. Even now I'm not writing these things to shame you, but to to correct you as my dear children. For

Imitation, Correction, And Real Power

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though you may have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you don't have many fathers because I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I encourage you then, be imitators of me. For this reason I've sent Timothy to you, who is my dear and faithful son in the Lord. He'll remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere, in every church. Some have become arrogant as if I were not coming to you, but I will come to you soon, if the Lord's willing, and I will find out not only the talk of these arrogant people, but also their power. For the kingdom of God is demonstrated not in idle talk, but with power. What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline or with love and a spirit of gentleness? Paul's talking to a church that really has everything they need and more. By most every metric, they are blessed and abundant. They have all the spiritual gifts they need, they

Contentment That Breaks Disunity

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have the resources they need, they have people, they have an abundance of good teachers coming through. What more could you want? It's easy for us to kind of look at the things we lack, to think about the things that we wish we had. And that discontentment can spread into all sorts of other issues between other people. It's a poison to our own hearts, and it keeps us from growing. That's what keeps us immature. Paul's here demonstrating contentment and humility, demonstrating that, hey, if you have any good thing, it's only because you're on the backs of those who have come before you who have been treated like dirt for the sake of the gospel. And it's not to make you feel bad. Like Paul says, I'm not I'm not saying this to shame you. I'm just here to correct you. You just need a little bit of correction. And the way to get back on track is to just be an imitator of me, says Paul. Maybe that's something that we can keep in mind as we read through Paul's letters, specifically here in 1 Corinthians and beyond. Paul spends a lot of time being very transparent about his struggles, being transparent about his weaknesses. Not so that he can boast, but like he says, if I'm going to boast about anything, let's boast about Christ and what he does. But his transparency allows us some example to follow. Now, maybe not Paul, maybe you have another believer in your life, maybe your spiritual father, a pastor, or maybe your actual parent, or someone that you see that, you know, I admire their walk with Christ. Can you imitate them? Now, of course, we know people are flawed. But what do they do? Ask them, talk to them, watch them, live a life, live like they do, and then you can start having the life that other people will look at and be like, I want to have a life like that, not because you're anything, but because you're following Christ. And they want that too. And this sort of change, this sort of life is going to require doing something. It's going to require doing something, not in our own strength, but through the power of the Holy Spirit. That's why Paul says here at the end of our reading today that the kingdom of God is demonstrated to

Doing What Christ Says

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those looking, not by the way we talk, not by the things we say, not in idle talk amongst ourselves, not in podcasts where we say, Oh, yeah, that's good. Oh, great, great point. No, but in power. God's kingdom is demonstrated with power, the power of the Holy Spirit on display in our lives as we go do the things that He wants us to do. Imitating Paul ultimately, as he imitates Christ. And therefore, imitating Christ is not just agreeing with Christ. It's not just appreciating his teaching, it's doing what he says. And when we do that, that's where we can see change in our lives and the lives of the people around us. That's the Thinking Out Loud thought for the day. Thanks for joining me here this time. We'll see you next time as we continue through the book of 1 Corinthians.