1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Sectarianism Is Carnal
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.
2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;
3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
4 For when one says, “I am of Paul, ” and another, “I am of Apollos, ” are you not carnal?
Watering, Working, Warning
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
Context
- How were the Corinthians not reflecting “the mind of Christ’? (1 Corinthians 2:14-16)
Reflection
- What does it mean to be “carnal”? (1 Corinthians 1:12, 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12, 1 John 2:9-11)
- How had they become spiritual “junk food junkies”? (Hebrews 5:12-14, 6:1, James 1:6-8)
- What role do “planters” and “Waterers” play? (Matthew 13:19, 28:19, 20, Romans 12:6, 15:20, 1 Pet 1:23, 25)
- How are ministers “servants”? If we”re all on the same team, why the “cliques” and “divisions”? (Matthew 9:38-40)
Testimony Time
- How do we “grow up” and mature in the Lord? (2 Timothy 2:22-26, Ephesians 4:3, Hebrews 10:24, 25, 1 Pet 2:2, 2 Pet 3:18, James 1:19-21)