Sunday Sermons
1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Possessing All Things
1 Corinthians 3:16-23
3:16 “Do you not know”: “A touch a amazement at their ignorance” (McGarvey p. 65). “An expression of surprise arising out of their conduct” (Alford p. 993). “That you are the temple of God”: That is, the congregation in Corinth was the temple of God in this city. The church is often spoken of as God’s house or God’s temple (1Peter 2:5; 1 Timothy 3:15; Ephesians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 6:16). “In verse 9 he had called them God's building; he now reminds them of what kind the building was”(McGarvey p. 65).
3:16 “Temple”: “The word used (naos) refers to the actual sanctuary, the place of the deity's dwelling, in contrast to the word ‘heiron’, which referred to the temple precincts as well as to the sanctuary. Now Paul is calling their attention to the fact that since there is only one God, He can have only one temple in Corinth, and they are it. ‘Do you not know that you are the temple of God in Corinth?’” “And that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”: (Ephesians 2:19-22). Reminding us of the fact that the glory of God inhabited the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34) and Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 8:11). “The main idea to be conveyed is that the church is just as holy as Solomon's temple was. During Christ's day, a person could be put to death for defiling the Temple. The Corinthians needed to be warned of the same danger with reference to the Church”.
3:17 “If any man”: Regardless of his position or status. “Destroys”: There are cases worse than the teacher who suffers the lost of those he converted (3:15). There is the man who had a hand in destroying the church. There is the individual that personally contributed to the downfall of other Christians (Matthew 18:6-9; Proverbs 6:19). “This signifies to corrupt morally, deprave, injure in character, as well as to waste, damage” (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 793). “God will destroy him”: The punishment is certain. “Those who are responsible for dismantling the church may expect judgment in kind” (Fee p. 17).
The temple of God (local congregation) can be destroyed. God will not step in and prevent division from happening. God will not rescue us against our will from our self-destructive ways. Many churches have been destroyed from within, rather than from without. This verse tells us that all those examples in the Old Testament, like Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:1-3); Uzzah (2 Samuel 6:1-7); and King Uzziah (2 Chron. 26:16-23); still accurately reflect God's attitude towards what belongs to Him. The local congregation is just as "holy" as the worship that Nadab and Abihu were involved in, the ark of the covenant, or the privileged work given to the priests. God still takes a dim view of those that show a lack of respect for what He says is holy. Hence the church is not a place to play the human games that people play in other organizations such as games of power, gossip, and popularity contests.
3:18 “Let no man deceive himself”: “A warning that implied that some of them were guilty of doing it” (Robertson p. 99). “By thinking himself wise enough to amend or modify God's truth” (McGarvey p. 66). “Let no one be under any illusion over this” (Phi). It appears that Paul now returns to the subject of God's wisdom verses the wisdom of this world. Dividing into parties and following men may have seemed "wise" to some, but Paul had revealed that such attitudes are destroying the church in Corinth, and those that pursue such attitudes will not only destroy the church, but they are self-deceived and a fearful judgment awaits them.
3:18 “If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age”: “Imagines that he is wiser than the rest of you, in what this world calls wisdom” (Gspd). “Paul then goes on once again to pin down the root cause of this dissension and this consequent destruction of the temple of God. That root cause is the worship of intellectual, worldly wisdom, it is this very worldly wisdom that makes the Corinthians assess the worth and the value of different teachers and leaders. It is this pride in the human mind which makes them assess and evaluate and criticize the way in which the message is delivered”. “He must become foolish, so that he may become wise”: “By receiving the gospel in its simplicity, and so becoming foolish in the world's sight” (Alford p. 993).(Acts 26:24; 1 Cor. 4:10) “Let him discard this wisdom, have himself called ‘a fool’ by the adherents of this wisdom” (Lenski p. 151). “This is simply a vivid way of urging a man to be humble enough to learn. No one can teach a man who thinks that he knows it all already” (Barclay p. 39) (Proverbs 9:8-9; James 1:21).
3:19 “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God”: Especially the wisdom that the world uses in the attempt to solve it's own problems and to deliver itself.
“And how do we know? Because once again, as in 1:19, there is sufficient evidence from what ‘is written’” (Fee p. 152). “For it is written”: The quotation here is from Job 5:13. “He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness”: “He traps the wise in their own cunning” (NEB); “God uses man's own brilliance to trap him” (Tay). “When the world's schemers think themselves cleverest, Providence catches them in their own toils” (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 794). “The very acts which man considers to be the heights of his wisdom are the acts which lead to his own downfall (cf. Romans 1:21-32)” (Willis p. 120).
3:20 “And again”: Another verse is quoted, that is, Psalm 94:11. “The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless”: “The Lord sees how fruitless are the deliberations of the wise” (TCNT). “What the Lord sees is that all their carefully thought-out conclusions are ineffectual, the ineffectiveness of these wise men is illustrated by the schemes, plots, and tricky questions of the Lord's enemies, by which they tried to entangle Him. Jesus always saw completely through their cunning and frustrated their designs with a word or two. Let the Corinthians keep that in mind and not deceive themselves by admiring worldly wisdom”.
3:21 “So then”: What is the proper conclusion to be drawn from all this? “Let no one boast in men”: “To glory in men, means to boast about them, their qualities, teachings, and wisdom in any measure or degree apart from Christ and the wisdom of the gospel. The Corinthians were on the way to that type of glorying” (Lenski p. 153). There is no good reason to glory in man, seeing that man by himself cannot find God! (1:21; Jeremiah 10:23) Why in the world would one want to boast in a "wisdom" that is so helplessly inept? “For all things belong to you”: This is further explained in the next verse.
3:22 “Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas”: “How can the Corinthians say, ‘I am of Paul, or Apollos’? That is too narrow, too constricted a view. You do not belong to them; they belong to you, as your servants” (Fee p. 154). “Why should they claim Paul as theirs and leave Peter? They're all yours!” (McGuiggan p. 54). “Or the world”: “The point is that the world exists and subsists for the usefulness of the saint. Only the Christian can properly use the things of the world; the non-Christian generally lets the world use him” (Willis p. 122). “Or life or death”: “Do not choose life and reject death; both are yours!” (McGuiggan p. 54). Both life and death "serve" a useful purpose for the Christian. The Christian can use both to his or her advantage. "Death" is very handy when we are ready to exit this life, and go to our reward (Philippians 1:21,23). Without "death", the Christian could never get any closer to God and could never be with the Lord. “Life with it's possibilities and death with it's gain Philippians 1:21” (McGarvey p. 66).
3:22 “Or things present or things to come”: “Do not choose now and reject the future; all is yours!” (McGuiggan p. 54). All periods and possibilities of time belong to the Christian. The present and the future "serve" a useful function for the Christian. Both present and future contain blessings for the child of God. For Paul, the present meant useful service, the future contained more opportunities, and the future beyond this life was even greater (Romans 8:18). Thus how "poor" the people of the world look who "live for today", but have nothing to look forward to in the future, who grasp for every bit of life, and yet fear death, who merely "exist" in this world because they are "slaves" of the world they were created to "use". How sad to only possess a little "slice" of life. Paul noted the same truth in 2 Corinthians 6:10 “as having nothing yet possessing all things”. “Disinherited, and the world is ours” (Knox); “We are penniless, and yet in reality we have everything worth having” (Phi) “To the uncomprehending onlooker the Apostle Paul must have presented the picture of destitution--without home, without money, without possessions, hatred and hunted by his own countrymen, proclaiming a message despised by Jew and Gentile alike” (Hughes p. 237), yet Paul possessed everything of true value (Mark 10:29-30). He may have lost a few material possessions and an inheritance, but Paul had a relationship with God, he had a clear conscience, he had his integrity, he had character, he had the gospel message, he had many real friendships that were grounded in true love, he had peace of mind, contentment and personal fulfillment and satisfaction, and he had the hope of eternal life. He had what money cannot buy! As Christians, we can end up admiring the wrong people. I wonder if Christians ever stop and think that they themselves might be the objects of envy? How many unbelievers envy the stable marriages and family structures that even Christians can take for granted? What is the value of a loving wife? (Proverbs 31:10). Or obedient children? (Proverbs 10:1 “A wise son makes a father glad”). What is the value of a clear conscience, the absence of worry and anxiety? How many people really have genuine and true friends? Christians possess so many things of tremendous value that many people spend their entire lives searching for and still never find. Jesus mentioned the same truth in Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. This is an allusion from Psalm 37:11 “But the humble will inherit the land”. When this verse was written, God’s people already dwelled in the land promised to them, thus inheriting the land must mean something other than possessing it. The context of Psalm 37 is that of not envying evildoers (37:1, 7-9). The theme seems to be that while evil men many prosper for a season, they who struggle most feverishly, in the end lose it all, while those who humbly serve God, inherit it all. “The advice, Fret not yourself, or in terms of the Hebrew verb, ‘do not get heated’, is virtually the refrain of the opening passage (1,7,8)” (Kidner p. 148). “The wise man must carefully watch his response to the wicked. It is all too easy to be adversely affected by their prosperity. Evil men may get their way and move up. They may gain power and prestige. They may abuse power, causing great suffering to others. Rather than destroying themselves with negative emotions, the godly must keep things in perspective” (Gaebelein pp. 297-298). “The words ‘do not fret’ literally mean ‘do not get heated’, which is also how we might express it. This is what the Psalm chiefly wants to say to us. So in case we might miss it, the words ‘do not fret’ are repeated three times (1,7,8)” (Boice p. 316). How many times have we become very angry and bitter over the apparent success and prosperity of the wicked? Have we been tempted to think or say, “nice guys finish last?” Clearly, this has been a common temptation (1 Cor. 10:13) for God’s people of every age (Psalm 73; Proverbs 24:19; 23:17). Fowler points out that inheriting the earth involves: enjoying this life more fully than sinners, because Christians enjoy whatever God sends. The wicked, in their rush to possess, usually miss or overlook the best of this world. Christians have the character that guarantees to them a greater measure of happiness, peace, contentment, and stability.
3:23 “And you belong to Christ”: “Here is the true slogan which abolishes all others. 'You' means all of the Corinthians as one body. This wipes out the ‘I’ in the old slogans, one individual over against the others” (Lenski p. 158).
“It is not that ‘all things are yours’ willy-nilly, or selfishly. They are yours because you belong to Christ; and all things are His (1 Corinthians 15:23-28). Thus it is only in Him that the believer possesses all things” (Fee pp. 154-155). “And what is their response to be? You are Christ's! Act like it” (McGuiggan p. 54).
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com
