THE BOOK OF 1 CORINTHIANS: Tested by Fire
Pastor Steven Osborne
Transcribed by DaVinci Resolve (with edits)
Correction Out Of Love
Think back as a kid—if you can recall many years ago—maybe a time that you got into trouble and your parents had to step on your toes a little bit and have that heart-to-heart conversation with you. Now as a kid, it wasn’t fun, right? Nobody enjoys those moments. But it was obviously much needed. And then you even think about, as a parent, how many times you’ve had to have that talk with your kids, right? And also not fun, but it’s always (hopefully it’s always) out of a loving perspective and because you want to correct and you want to make sure that your kids don’t do dumb things
And so we’re gonna see, as Paul continues to write to the Corinth church, it’s a strong word. It’s a hard message. But it’s an important message, and he’s doing it from a loving perspective because he is the founder, the church planter. He started this church. He wants this church to succeed. He wants them to make an impact in their community in their city, because at this point the city is impacting the church, and now he’s gonna call them out with love, but he’s gonna tell the truth. He’s gonna challenge them. And as I was reading this, it’s like, “Man, it is so good,” because it was challenging me! And I just took so much out of this passage, and I hope that the Holy Spirit will speak to you as well
Review
Last week we talked a little bit about the city of the city of Corinth, and I shared with you that there were two ports, one in the north one in the south, and this really made them a dynamic and influential city. And somebody asked me for a map, so I just want to give you a map of Corinth, and there you see kind of the harbor on the north and the south. And we said, hey, they had to stop, they kind of unloaded some of their goods to to another ship, maybe on the south, or sometimes they would lift up the boat and then kind of on rollers push it over to the other side. It was about 200 miles to sail around, and it was a dangerous journey, so they really did not want to risk doing that, so they kind of came up with a different plan. And so a lot of movement in the city, and a lot of influence and a lot of different cultures in this.
Points to Consider
And so this morning as we read chapter 3, I want you to consider four points. This is also in the Bible app. I put it there because I want you to think about it this week. I want you to think about it this year, because it’s really important points to consider.
We must achieve spiritual maturity, and you’ll see this in our passage.
Affirm Christ as our only foundation.
Build with eternal material.
And foster personal responsibility for ministry.
And so we will talk through some of these points as we read through this passage.
Spiritual Immaturity
So if you have your Bible ready, open up 1 Corinthians chapter 3. It says:
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly…
And so you’re gonna see him address the church. He’s not talking to nonbelievers. He is talking to believers. He’s talking to the church. And there’s an issue here. He’s saying, “Hey, I want to talk to you about spiritual things, but you are busy with worldly things, with fleshly things, and you’re not getting it.”
[You are] mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.
Now again, when we think about the church, we need different levels of our faith, right? When you give your life to Christ, you are a babe. Things are brand new to you. You have to drink milk. It is good, it is fitting, and we all go through those seasons. And those are really fun seasons when everything is new.
There were some of our people yesterday that’s kind of new to the Covenant Church and new to the faith, and it’s just so exciting to hear them ask all of these great questions and to, you know, hear their perspective. It was like, man, it is so exciting how I enjoyed those early stages of my faith and my relationship with Jesus Christ.
And then, but he says, “Hey, you have to grow.” We have to strive for spiritual maturity. We can’t stay on milk, right? There’s got to be a time—okay, vegetarians, you’re not gonna like this—but you got to get to a time where you have to eat meat.
That was a weak “Amen” there. Amen, thank you, fellow South African!
All right. It says, so we can’t stay on milk. We got to eat meat. We got to get to that place, and where we can talk spiritual things and not just worldly things. So now he’s gonna say—he’s getting their attention to say, “You’re not in a good place. You’re still babies, and I can’t speak to you about spiritual things because you’re busy with worldly things.”
And now he’s gonna give them some signs. He’s gonna prove his point, why they are still immature in the faith.
Jealousy and Quarreling
And so he says:
For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
So a couple of things that he’s addressing here, and obviously there’s some more things, but at least in context of this church, they are dealing with jealousy and quarreling. And he’s saying that these things are a sign of immaturity. And so when you see these things in believers’ lives, guess what? It’s gonna give you a hint to say, well, maybe they haven’t arrived yet. Maybe they’re still babes in Christ. And again, I want to say that there’s a place for it. We all go through it. So don’t feel bad if you’re brand new in the faith this morning—it is all good.
But at some point we have to mature in our faith, in our relationship with God, that these things are not part of our lives anymore. And as a healthy and as a mature church—and next year we’ll be celebrating 135 years—I would like to think that we are spiritually mature as a church. Amen? And so for those reasons, we want to work hard to say, we got to get rid of jealousy and some of these things that are signs of the world and signs of young believers.
Factions and Divisions
Then he continues, and he’s addressing to say, “Hey, there’s some factions and divisions that’s going on because you are still picking sides. You’re making it about people. You’re making it either about Paul; you’re making it about Peter; you’re making it about Apollos, right? And it is not about people. And we’ve heard this now in chapter one, and we see it again now in chapter three, and because this is a big issue. They have been divided because they have been picking people.
And we still see this today. It’s interesting when you get to visit Israel, a lot of times their rabbis are almost like movie stars. Rabbis are a big thing in Israel, right? And so you want to say, “Hey, I’m following rabbi so-and-so,” right? And you might have things that identify that you are one of those rabbis’ followers. But a lot of times the focus becomes on a person, and guess what? We do the same thing, where we elevate people and we follow people instead of Christ.
We are never, never to follow anybody but Christ. Amen? We can look at people and use them as an example, but we don’t make them the focus and lift them up. The only one we want to lift up is Jesus Christ. And so they’ve been doing it, this early church, and they are getting in trouble, and Paul is writing to them. And so now he’s gonna say why we shouldn’t be following these guys, why we shouldn’t make them kind of the focus.
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.
So he’s just saying they are disciples. They are deacons. They are servants that the Lord is using. They are just a tool. At the end of the day, you and I are just a tool that the Lord is using. But none of us—in a sense of just how we would say, “You are special,” right? You are special in God’s view, but you’re not that special. We’re just a tool. And we’re grateful that the Lord is using us to make a difference in the kingdom of God.
Verse 6:
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
Now, I’ve shared with you, I kind of went the extra mile this year for Venessa. I was so excited about our veggie garden and some extra work that I did for her. And I had a high expectation, right? I was like, my wife will not need to go to Aldi again, right, because we’re gonna have it all. I was excited to see our little chilies come up and tomatoes. Now, between all of the rain and all of the wildlife in our backyard, yeah, Venessa had to make a lot of trips to Aldi.
Now again, I can plant—we went early in the season, we went to Menards and Home Depot like you and bought the little packets and different things, and you plant the seed, and then you try and remember to water it, right?
And the same way, Paul is saying, “Hey, I am using people. There’s some of you that over the years you have been faithful in planting the seed,” right? And God uses us in that way. And over the years, you know, we get opportunities, people that come along our path, and we get to share the gospel with them. We plant the seed in their life. And then there’s somebody else. Somebody else gets an opportunity to water that seed, right? But at the end of the day, none of us can make it grow. It is only the Holy Spirit. I can stand next to that pumpkin, next to that tomato; I can plant it, I can water it, but I can’t make it grow. My singing is not gonna help. Right? My motivational speech is not gonna help. Some of you might say, “Well, it will actually help.” I don’t know. Okay? But at the end of the day, it is the Spirit of God that will make it grow. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit.
And so he’s just putting everything into perspective to say, “Don’t lose sight. You have a role to play. You have to plant…” We get to plant the seed, and we have to water, but behind the scenes is the Spirit of God that will do the growing. So put that in perspective. Don’t just put your eyes on men.
Christ is the Foundation
Verse 10. Now he’s actually gonna switch. Kind of same message here. In the beginning, first part, he’s talking about farming, and now we’re gonna go into construction. And I don’t know anything about either of these.
Verse 10:
By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder…
And right next to that “builder,” the Greek actually is where we get our word “architect.”
… and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their 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 person’s work.
So a couple of things he is mentioning here, and it’s a strong word. And so he’s saying, “Hey, we got to build on Jesus.” That foundation is always Jesus. Don’t build on anything else but Jesus. It’s a temptation. It sounds good today for us here in church, right? Amen? We want to do it, there’s a desire to do it, but outside, there’s so many different things that is pulling us and calling for our attention, calling for our money, calling for our calendar, and it is so easy to build on other foundations. I have done it, and then I had to correct it. The Church all over the world have done it, right, where we get it wrong and we put our focus and our attention on the wrong things, and then we discover that Jesus is not the foundation. The foundation is not social justice. The foundation is not programs. The foundation isn’t anything else. The only foundation is Jesus that we want to build our lives on.
Build With Eternal Material
And then he says, as we think about our lives here, every day we are building with material. And it says, are you building—kind of as you think about eternity—are you building with straw, or are you building with gold? Now, I think we can all agree every day we’re doing a little bit of both. There’s a lot of times that we build with straw and wood, and we know that all of those things will be consumed by fire, because we see here, what Paul is saying is to them, there’s gonna be a day that you’re gonna stand in front of God, right? We talk about judgment, but remember, this is a judgment as believers. It is not about Heaven or Hell. It is about your works, that as believers, you and I will stand in accountability through Christ. I don’t know exactly what that day is gonna look like, right? I have no idea. I’m not that smart. But all I know is when I look at this passage, Paul is warning this church. He says, “You are getting it wrong. Your foundation is wrong. You’re still babes, and you’re actually building with the wrong material.” And so he wants to get their attention.
And it’s a wakeup call for us as well. When we look back at our life—I want to encourage you now, even look back at your life, and if you stand in front of Christ right now, what is that fire gonna reveal? The things that you have spent your money on, the things that you have spent your time on, is it things that will be refined through this fire, and God is saying, “Well done. You are building with the right material.” Or, when you look back over your life and the things that you’ve spent your time and money and effort on, and he’s gonna say, “It means absolutely nothing. It is destroyed by fire. You have nothing. It’s not making any difference in this world.”
Now again, I don’t know exactly how the Lord is evaluating that process, and when he looks at our life, and all I know, when I look at my life—I’m not here to judge your life this morning. You got to do it in your own life. All I know, when I look at the big scope of my life over the last 28 years, I’m sure that there’s a lot of hay in there. But I’m praying that there’s a lot of gold in there, too. Things that will actually make a difference in this life.
And so for us as a church, I want to just encourage you, as you think about it this week, as you think about your calendar, as you think about your money, are you building with the right material? And again, I’m not judging. You’re not gonna stand in front of me one day. I have to face Jesus Christ myself, right? I was like, man, and so, and that’s why I got so emotional even this morning, just thinking about all of you and volunteers and the effort that you are putting in. When I think about Angie building that bread so that she can feed us on a Wednesday and so the kids can come, families can come, and they can hear the gospel. Guess what? Gold. Amen? Beautiful! When I think about all of our volunteers that are right now with the kids—they’re dealing with your kids! Somebody’s like, “Praise the Lord,” you know? It’s like, this is like date morning for you. But they’re investing. They’re building with gold.
There’s just some things that we get so excited about that will mean absolutely nothing when we stand in front of God. And this is what Paul is just encouraging them. And it’s not a hard word. He’s not mad. He’s just a loving pastor, and he wants them to build on the right foundation. He wants them to get involved with Kingdom work, things that will actually make a difference.
And I wonder maybe even for us as a church, and if we’re courageous enough to even speak into each other’s lives when we’re seeing that somebody is kind of going astray a little bit and to say, “Hey, you know what? You’re building with the wrong material.” I wonder what that will look like when we are that honest with one—and not “Minnesota nice,” right?
Signs of Spiritual Maturity
Continue there from verse 13.
… their 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 person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
There’s a great image again this morning of man. We are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. We are so blessed.
Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is 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 human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
Now, Paul speaks to their immaturity, and so that made me think this morning just my own life again to say, okay, well here’s some signs, you know. We have two or three things here that he’s addressing. So then what are signs of spiritual maturity? And so I’m not gonna go through all of these verses, but loving other sacrificially, regardless of who they are or what they’ve done is a sign of maturity (John 13:35).
Humility.
Spiritually mature people maintain faith and trust in God through difficult seasons, understanding that trials produce perseverance and deeper character (James chapter 1). This is, just kind of was thinking about it this week and different things that I’m dealing with and just, you know, different relationships and stuff, on spiritual maturity, to get to that place, when we are going through trials, that we will persevere and that we won’t give up on the church, that we won’t give up on our faith, that we’re just gonna say, “Man, I am more mature than that.” I might not understand all of the things that I’m dealing with right now.
Just think about that hurt and all of the destruction that is happening in Florida. Guess what? A lot of people are gonna be tested this week about their spiritual maturity. There’s gonna be a lot of people that’s gonna hate God for sending the storms. There’s gonna be a lot of people that’s gonna have hard questions and may even want to give up on their faith. And we should be praying for them this morning as well.
But what about us? When life really squeezes us, and we deal with those waves and that storms, are we gonna be mature enough to put it in its right perspective and to say, “I’m gonna persevere. I’m gonna do it with joy.” And I got to say, it is not easy. It’s not easy for me, but that’s probably just revealing a little bit of lack of maturity in my life. But it doesn’t make it okay. Because as believers, we want to get to that place of spiritual maturity where we can look at James chapter 1 and say, “I’m gonna find joy in this moment, and I’m gonna allow God—even though I don’t understand it, I’m not gonna curse God. I’m gonna worship him. I’m gonna praise him, gonna worship him, because guess what? He’s gonna use this for his glory and he’s gonna grow in me character and faith, and good is gonna come out of this situation. But I’m not gonna turn my back on God. I’m not gonna turn my back on the church. I’m gonna stand strong, and I’m gonna stand firm.”
Striving for peace and unity within the body of believers, even when there are differences. And boy, are we gonna be tested again. And we have been tested already. And November is coming, right? Are we gonna stand strong? Are we gonna protect our unity even when there are differences?
Quick to forgive, seeks reconciliation in relationships, understanding that holding on to bitterness hinders their walk with God. Again, not always an easy thing, but as we want to grow in our maturity and our walk with Jesus Christ, this is something that we need to learn in our lives. There’s too much of holding on to bitterness and pain and anger, and it destroys your relationship, it will destroy your joy, will destroy your relationship with God. And so maturity is asking us and challenging us to forgive and to seek reconciliation.
Recap
So this morning, just that recap again for us. I want you to know we must achieve spiritual maturity, affirm Christ as our only foundation, build with eternal material, and foster personal responsibility for ministry. You and I have a role to play. Don’t waste this time. You might have opportunity this week to plant a seed. You might have opportunity this week to water that seed. God is using you, and it’s wonderful, and it’s amazing, and it is a gift. And grow that personal responsibility. Look for opportunities every day where you can make a difference in God’s Kingdom.
