1 Corinthians 3:14-23 Bible Teaching

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1st Corinthians 3:14-end
February 4th 2018
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So we left off last week with Paul saying:

14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

Before we move on to our verses today I want to address this passage relative to them and then to us.

Paul has been telling them – his audience – that they ought to build upon the foundation that is Christ’s with proper durable materials which would withstand the fiery test that were coming with that day.

The prophets had foretold of this coming judgment upon them where the Messiah would return with reward and judgment upon them.

And at the day everything relative to God reconciling the world to Himself was over because of the finished work of His Son – and the Holy Spirit remains drawing all men to Christ.

Since Christ paid for the sins of the world past present and future, and since His work was efficacious for all the world, and since through His death and resurrection God was pleased and reconciled, and since His wrath was poured out upon that world who had the law and the prophets and the messiah, I would suggest that the wrath of God is over, over, over.

In James we read the following:

James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Do you see the flip of this and how the focus is on doing good and not the doing of evil? And how this is placed upon the individual who is a temple of the Holy Spirit?

In other words, with Jesus having paid for sins of the flesh and the universal products of the Fall, the command is now upon the individual, and

To him that knows to do good and does not do it to him it is sin.

Good NOT done is sin (here) and it’s NOT Evil that IS done.

I would suggest that because of Christ and his finished work for all human kind, the evil that is done is wiped away and that all people are now rewarded for the Good that they knew to do AND who did it.

Do you see the shift in focus here between the judgement and rewards on the Nation of Israel and that which is coming for all of us?

In my estimation, all who did evil without Christ will die and see that He was the one who took their sin – and they will break, filled with the Holy Spirit, and falling to their knees will confess Him – and be reconciled.

And THEN they – along with us – will be judged AND REWARDED on the Good we did verses punished for the evil or the good we did NOT do.

In His mercy He gave us His Son who saved us from our sin and death. In His justice He rewards all men with the Good they did because they knew it was what they should do. Simple as that. (At verse 15 he adds, speaking to them)

15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Remember, the two fires – one was literal and material wiping out that material age at its end by and through the Roman legions. The other was what I believe is the fire that is God.

Recall that the foundation that is Christ has been laid. What Paul is speaking of it the labors of those in that day being tried for their value.

It seems that he is saying that those who stood on the foundation but built badly upon it would suffer loss (as in the loss of physical life) but they themselves (not their labors but their soul – standing on the foundation of Christ) would be saved.

I am of the opinion – hear me if you will – that God had promised Israel that they would be saved – all of them – by and through their promised Messiah.

Paul writes in Romans 11:26 “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:”

All throughout the Old Testament God promises Israel that He would redeem them – that He would do this.

When the Apostles are writing, when Jesus was speaking to them in that day, I suggest that when they spoke of them being saved it was primarily them being saved FROM the coming material destruction that was headed their way.

That is why Jesus would say things like, “how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna (the Valley of Hinnom)?

And

“Oh Jerusaelm, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you like chicks under her wing but you were not willing!”

And because they were not willing they perished under Roman swords – but they themselves were saved thereafter – as God had promised.

Once Israel was obliterated, and there was no Jew or Greek, no bond or free, no male or female in Christ – and all people come to God in the same way, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ now saves all people from AFTERLIFE LOSS – of what?

Of all that they do that is not able to abide in the heavenly realm. It will be destroyed and they will not be saved from the destruction any more than the Jews were saved from material destruction.

But those who receive Christ in this life will bear fruits of Christian love, which will NOT perish, and such are saved from afterlife loss! Because their fruits were of Him, the vine.

For both the Nation of Israel and for non believers today, all things were and will be tried by fire – and will perish – will not be saved – and loss will be the result.

Just in different ways.

At this point Paul shifts gears and builds on principles underlying the heart and works of the Christians there in Corinth, and he tells them (just like he would tell us today).

At verse 16 Paul returns to the main subject of this epistle – that men in their wisdom had come in and had inserted false teachings of wisdom into the truths that Paul had formerly taught.

Remember, this has been the driving theme of this epistle – and to simplify it we might say that Paul is saying:

“The foundation of Christ was laid in complete truth. Be very very careful what you build upon this foundation, that it is by and with things that are absolutely of Him and NOT of men.”

And so after discussing how they and their works will be judged, he returns to the principle of building – which includes the foundation which is Christ that Paul laid as the chief architect.

So he says:

16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

This return to a building – the temple of God – was in contradistinction to the Temple made with hands that was still standing on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.

Instead of “that” temple Paul now directs these believers to see or understand God’s new temple – which is both them as individuals and them collectively.

I would suggest that in reality the building materials that Paul was talking about them adding to the foundation that is Christ are themselves as people. Make sure that you, standing on the foundation of Christ, are gold and silver and precious stones and not believers who are made of wood hay and stubble.

In context of the earlier chapters, he is telling them to make sure that they are not incorporating the wisdom of Man into their temple materials.

And speaking of the materials that would be added to that foundation he now brings it all together and tells them that as believers that they THEMSELVES “are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in them.”

Paul, Peter and the writer of Hebrews all appeal to this imagery in other parts of scripture.

1st Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

2nd Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Ephesians 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Hebrews 3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

1st Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Now, let’s do a little on board diagraming of temples to help ourselves to understand their role in the plan of God to have relationship with His children.

Like Man, outer court, inner court, holy of holies.
God’s Patterned House
First a tabernacle then a permanent fixture
When it was desecrated, God moved out.

Perfect Temple
But on the cross His Son cried, Why have
You forsaken me?” Because of our sin!
But God moved back in to this temple – once and for all. And His Son took His rightful place by His Side in heaven.

Is that it? No, as evidenced by what Paul is saying here.

We have had a primary house of God through Adam.
We have had a patterned house of God though the One Temple.
And we have had the perfect house of God through Jesus Christ.

But suddenly, we are being told by Paul, and Peter and the writer of Hebrews that now BELIEVERS are the temple of God! By faith in Christ! We have God MOVE IN. And since I have appealed to alliteration in this example what “P” word would best describe God moving into us? Well, let me give you a hint. In every case before of temples God has done the same thing – even in the case of Jesus – what has He done? (He has moved out) And what has caused Him to move out? (His temple was desecrated by sin). So, God’s PRIMARY house was abandoned, and God’s PATTERNED house was abandoned, and God’s PERFECT House was temporarily abandoned, but now, because of the work of His perfect Son, ANYONE who has faith in Him will never be abandoned – and so I call this God’s PERMANENT house. Us! Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ!

So what Paul is doing here is he is reminding the believers in Christ of their identity.

That they are literally the house of God, a person in whom the Truth and Living God does dwell.

God did NOT move in BECAUSE we were worthy and clean by our preparation, He moved in because we were cleansed by our faith on the shed blood of His Son.

And because He moved in while we were yet sinners He does NOT move out because we are still sinners.

Sin does NOT remove God from our person – except the sin – which is a permanent, separative sin and not a sin of wavering of faithlessness.

Yes, we can grieve the Holy Spirit and we can torture our relationship with God by the Spirit, but there is no abandonment of God because of our failures – ever.

The ONLY time there is a potential for wholesale abandonment seems to be when a person decides that they have zero faith in the vine and are detached from Him once and for all.

But that is a willful determined act and not a matter of doubts, fears or wonder.

For the Nation of Israel they got too locked into the idea of God dwelling in temples made with hands, forgetting that all the way back in 1st Kings and 2nds Chronicles, God told them (through Solomon, for instance,)

1st Kings 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?

Moving out to the New Testament, those who bore witness against Him said that He said:

I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.

Of course, this was a bastardization of His message, but the principle is still in tact. Moving out to Acts chapter 7

Acts 7:44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
46 Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
47 But Solomon built him an house.
48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
50 Hath not my hand made all these things?

Later in chapter 17 Paul says at verse 24:

“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;”

Later in 2nd Corinthians 5:1 he wrote:

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

And then in Hebrews 9:11

But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

So again, Paul is telling the believers that Corinth to be careful of what they embrace, to be cautious of what they try and add to the foundation called Christ, and to remember that they themselves, in their souls, make up that temple that is God AS THEY ARE THEMSELVES the very temple He resides in individually.

So just as God dwelled with our first parents, and then among His first nation and people in temples made with hands, and then in His first Son, He has made His home in those who have first received His Son by faith. How does God dwell in us? Paul tells us, saying:

16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Most refer to the Spirit of God as the Holy Spirit of God who is the Third Person of the Trinity where I see the Spirit of God as exactly that, the Spirit of God, which dwells in us by faith in Christ as God – not a member of the Godhead that unitedly creates God.

But that is a whole other discussion, isn’t it? But getting back to context, Paul is speaking about how the temple of God was now the very bodies of those who believed on God’s Son.

We know from our examples on the board, that in the past God would destroy, deconstruct, put to death His temples of they were violated or corrupted by sin once He moved out.

For Adam He moved out that day but it took 930 years for the destruction of Adam to occur.

For the temple God moved out and the temple was destroyed within a few decades.

For Jesus, God moved out and within hours Jesus was dead – even though He returned to Him.

The principle Paul is making to the Saints here is that if those who are saved by God moving in defile their temples, God will destroy the temples they inhabit.

17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

The word translated defile is the same word translated destroy, so in reality, the passage says:

“If any man will destroy the temple of God, God shall destroy him.”

I tend to see this in harmony with verse where Paul adds, yet he will be saved so as by fire.
Jumping out to chapter five we are going to read Paul say:

1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

It could be that this is alluding to the principle discussed here. That when a person unrepentantly sins against his body the body will be destroyed by God, but the subject may be saved.

We’ll talk more about this principle when we get to this situation in chapter 5.

At this point Paul returns to the topic that launched the epistle – the wisdom of Man in this world and he says:

18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

Because he says this here, returning to the subject he started with, I tend to think that whoever stepped in and started teaching or building on the foundation that Paul laid (which was Christ) that the teaching had something to do with sexual liberty, perhaps tied to the resurrection. Maybe some licentiousness of some sort.

I can’t prove this but the topics he seems to touch on allude to this. And at this point he now says:

“Let no man deceive himself.”

“Let no man be puffed up with vain conceit of his own wisdom, for this seems to have been the real cause of the problems you are all facing.”

Some of you have relied way too much on the wisdom of men, and not on the foundation of Christ which I laid for you.

Some of you are building upon the foundations with wood and hay rather than allowing Jesus to fill you God’s temple and produce fruits of love.

Looking at the history of the church at Corinth it is very likely that philosophies of Man had snuck into the building and the temple (their temples) were being defiled.

So Paul reiterates and says:

If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

If any teacher, whatever may be his rank or his confidence in his own abilities; or any private member of the church, any pastor, any leader, guru seems to be wise in this WORLD (that’s the key – where they are basing their wisdom) . . .“if any man among you sees to be wise in the world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.”

This passage takes us all the way back to the contents of chapter 1 and 2, doesn’t it?

“If a man seems to be wise in the things of this world let him become a fool,” with the key again being “in the things of this world.”

Let him esteem or see his reputation of being wise in the world be seen as foolishness, and let Him be seen as a fool (or better yet as a moron).

To the world a believer in God, a follower of what the Bible says, a truster that God is and lives and is all knowing is moronic, a fool. Because in the end, the belief IS a matter of faith.

Paul says that if those who are seen as wise allow themselves to be seen as fools they are truly wise.

This thinking is all over the New Testament, especially in the words of Jesus where he speaks in terms of reversed positioning:

“The last will be first.”
“The least will be greatest”
“Must become as little children.”

And on and on.

Here Paul tells us the same thing. If anyone seems to wise in this world let him become a fool – and the quickest way to do that is to become a sold out follower of Christ, right?

Verse 19.

19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

Now, God is the creator of truth, so we cant take this as an indictment against progress in the hard sciences, law, medicines and the like.

We were made in His image and given gifts to use in this world.

Psalm 92:4 says

For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

But the meaning seems to apply more to the wisdom of their philosophers and the ways they lifted them up and heralded them as such knowledgeable and wise men in their godless postulations.

These vanities and especially their false opinions on God or no God, are what Paul assails. I would imagine that God is very much like a human father who is encouraged when his child steps forward and tries to understand a concept that has otherwise been foreign to him.

But when men begin to think that their ideas and philosophies are better than God and his Word, there’s a problem brewing – and I tend to think that it is here that God sees the thoughts and philosophies of man as foolish.

To support his thoughts Paul cites words from Job and says:

“For it is written”,

And Job 5:13 says:

“God captures the wise in their subtilty, and the counsel of wrestling ones was hastened,”

Which in our language is saying, no matter how crafty self-confident may be, God grips them and defeats their schemes. As a way to reiterate Paul adds:

20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

And we come to a grand summation of these first three chapters where Paul says what I believe are really remarkable words here to the believers at Corinth – and therefore to us as well as they represent an eternal principle in the faith.

You ready. He summarizes it all by saying:

21 Therefore let no man glory in men.
22 Whether Paul, Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
23 And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

Go back to verse 21 where Paul begins this summation with, Therefore, let no man glory in men.

In the previous verse he quoted Job and explained how God captures men in their ways, so there’s an implication that He is the master of all information.

In context, Paul has been speaking to the propensity there among the Corinthians to establish themselves under different men – one of Paul, one of Peter, one of Apollos.

This was a VERY common practice in the ancient world and it continues to be a very common practice today whether politically, in education and professors who mentor us, in schools of philosophy, economics, and of course religion.

With respect to the faith, Paul here is telling them that standing in line with one man, under her or his umbrella (so to speak) is not necessary because everything that everyman has that can contribute their Christian walk is already theirs.

Isn’t that radical? It is all ours – so there is no need to glory in others – meaning there is no need to exult how smart or wise this guy or that girl guru is – we already possess all that they are sharing, because all of it is truly ALL GODS!

No need to glorify ANY human being. And if we are on his side, then nothing anyone teaches or offers that is of Him ought to be pointed to their glory – only to God’s.

He then gives us some specific examples of the things that are ours – ready for this? He says:

22 Whether (the information or insights come from) Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

The sense of this is pretty clear – whatever is offered – from Paul or Apollos or Peter or the world of life or death or things present or things to come ALL ARE OURS.

Whatever advantages result from the information or labors or experiences of the former – are ours — we have the benefit of them, full access to them because they were first God’s.

All are as much entitled to the benefits of all of it as another. Therefore, stop gathering under banners of others, stop the hero worship, and acting like someone is anything or anything is something – all of it is God’s and all of it is free to everyone.

Therefore, there ought to be no arranging ourselves into parties or sects or denoms.

This is right from the mouth of the apostle to the believers at Corinth. You would THINK believers today would demand that the faith come together in this way – but no.

(beat)

Paul wraps this up with a statement of order. And it is an order that is repeated throughout scripture.

He has just taken EVERYTHING under the Christian sun of that day – Himself, Apollos, Peter, the contents of the world itself, of the experiences and powers of death and life and has said,

Don’t glory in men – all things are YOURS. And then he adds:

23 And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

All things are ours.
And we are Christ’s.
And Christ is God’s.

Let’s wrap today up with a few thoughts on this beginning with, “And we are Christ’s”

I think its key to remember that without Christ we are nothing because by and through Him and His labors which He did out of love for His Father, we are saved.

Paul says in Romans 14:8

For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

The order is spoken of again (and in more detail) in 1st Corinthians 11:3 where Paul writes:

“But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.”

Of course, in that passage Paul is speaking contextually of marriage in the body, because when it comes to us and Christ Paul also said:

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

So believers have all things, and we are Christ’s, who won us by His shed blood and resurrection, and Paul wraps it up by saying something we often forget:

“And Christ is God’s.”

As Christ came to do with will of God as a man, the Messiah is God’s only human begotten Son. The only one born of a woman and the only one who loved God enough to obey him perfectly as a means to bring glory to His father.

The line, Christ is God’s is an important one because in my estimation it is hard for one of the three persons of God to also “be God’s.”

When Jesus rose from the grave and Mary came to Him He instructed her, saying in John 20:17:

“Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”

Strange that Jesus would refer to God as His God if He was a second person of God.

There are all sorts of hoops that people jump through to explain this but I want to make the explanation clear –

The fulness of God, even His Word, was made flesh – was made a man born of woman.

His name is Jesus of Nazareth, and as our mediator, this MAN, full of God, had a God and Father – YAHWAY – who Jesus called His God – because that is what He was to Him – His God and His Father.

And God with us in His only Son Jesus of Nazareth, overcame sin and death, and brought His Only Human Son, who worshipped Him as the only true God, into His kingdom (as Man) to rule and reign and mediate . . . for us.

We will stop here.

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