Verses 1-4: Spiritual Immaturity and Party-Spirit

¹ Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ. ² I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, you aren’t ready even now, ³ for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men? ⁴ For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly?

• True spiritual growth is expected and measurable:

  Paul addresses them as “babies in Christ,” showing that genuine belonging to Christ can coexist with immaturity, yet the goal is maturity. The “milk” and “meat” language teaches that Christian formation involves progress into deeper understanding and steadier obedience, not remaining in arrested development.

• Division reveals a “fleshly” way of thinking:

  “Jealousy, strife, and factions” are treated as indicators that the community is “still fleshly,” meaning they are acting according to merely human patterns rather than the Spirit-shaped life the gospel produces. This warns that church conflict is not a neutral personality issue but a theological problem that contradicts the nature of the body of Christ.

• Person-centered loyalty distorts discipleship:

  Identifying primarily with a favorite leader (“I follow Paul… Apollos”) is presented as evidence of immaturity. Theologically, the church is called to receive ministers as gifts without turning them into rival banners that fracture fellowship and replace Christ-centered unity.

Verses 5-9: God Gives the Increase, Servants Labor

⁵ Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed, and each as the Lord gave to him? 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 the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. ⁹ For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

• Faith comes through ministry, yet its fruit comes from God:

  Paul calls ministers “servants through whom you believed,” affirming the real role of preaching and teaching in bringing people to faith. Yet the decisive cause of growth is that “God gave the increase,” preserving both the dignity of means (human labor) and the primacy of grace (God’s effective action).

• God’s sovereignty humbles ministers and stabilizes the church:

  “Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters” strips away celebrity and competition. The church’s health does not ultimately rise or fall with a personality, because God is the one who gives growth; therefore boasting in leaders is misplaced.

• Human responsibility matters and will be rewarded:

  Although growth is from God, labor is not meaningless: “each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.” This holds together divine initiative and genuine accountability, encouraging faithful service without claiming credit for results that belong to God.

• The church belongs to God and is shaped by his purpose:

  Calling the believers “God’s farming, God’s building” teaches ownership and identity: the church is not a human club but God’s cultivated field and constructed dwelling. This frames discipleship, leadership, and unity as matters of stewardship under God.

Verses 10-15: One Foundation, Tested Work, Real Reward and Real Loss

¹⁰ According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it. ¹¹ For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble, ¹³ each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is. ¹⁴ If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.

• Ministry is a gift of grace before it is a skill:

  Paul describes his foundational work as “according to the grace of God which was given to me,” teaching that even apostolic labor is rooted in God’s enabling grace. This guards against pride in spiritual gifting and encourages gratitude and dependence on God.

• Jesus Christ alone is the church’s foundation:

  “No one can lay any other foundation… which is Jesus Christ” establishes Christ as the non-negotiable center of the church’s life and message. All teaching, worship, sacraments/ordinances, discipline, and mission must be built upon Christ rather than human philosophies or rival identities.

• Believers must build carefully with lasting materials:

  The contrast between “gold, silver, costly stones” and “wood, hay, or stubble” teaches that not all Christian work has the same quality or endurance. The warning “let each man be careful how he builds” emphasizes discernment, faithfulness, and integrity in doctrine and life.

• Final evaluation is certain and purifying:

  “Each man’s work will be revealed… the fire itself will test what sort of work” points to a real future assessment by God (“the Day”). This is not merely public opinion or historical reputation; it is divine testing that exposes what is truly aligned with Christ.

• Reward and loss are real, even when salvation is secure:

  Paul teaches both outcomes plainly: enduring work receives “a reward,” burned work brings “loss,” yet “he himself will be saved, but as through fire.” This supports a sober theology in which salvation is God’s gift, while the believer’s faithfulness still matters profoundly for eternal reward and for what remains of one’s labor before God.

Verses 16-17: The Holy Temple and the Seriousness of Harm

¹⁶ Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.

• The church is God’s dwelling by the Spirit:

  “You are a temple of God” and “God’s Spirit lives in you” teaches the profound holiness of the Christian community. The “you” here is plural, emphasizing that the church together constitutes God’s temple—a corporate reality that makes division and corruption especially serious. God is not distant from his people; he indwells them, making their shared life a sacred reality that must shape worship, unity, and moral seriousness.

• To attack the church’s holiness invites divine judgment:

  The warning “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him” underscores that harming the church—through corrupting, tearing down, or treating it as common—provokes God’s protective justice. This reinforces that unity and sanctity are not optional ideals but realities God defends.

Verses 18-20: The Humbling Path to True Wisdom

¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.” ²⁰ And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.”

• Self-deception is a spiritual danger requiring repentance:

  “Let no one deceive himself” exposes how easily religious people can confuse worldly categories with godly truth. The call to “become a fool” teaches that humility—willingness to lose status in the eyes of the world—is often the doorway to genuine wisdom before God.

• God judges worldly wisdom and exposes its limits:

  Paul declares that worldly wisdom is “foolishness with God” and supports it with Scripture: God catches the “wise in their craftiness,” and he knows the “reasoning of the wise” is “worthless.” Theologically, this asserts that God is not impressed by mere technique, rhetoric, or prestige; he evaluates truth by his own holy standard.

Verses 21-23: No Boasting in Men—Belonging to Christ

²¹ Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, ²² whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, ²³ and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

• Christian confidence excludes boasting in human leaders:

  “Let no one boast in men” applies the chapter’s argument to the heart: pride that attaches itself to personalities is incompatible with life in Christ. Leaders are gifts, but they are not grounds for superiority, division, or identity.

• In Christ, God grants a vast inheritance for the believer’s good:

  “All things are yours” expands perspective: even ministers, the world, life and death, the present and the future are encompassed under God’s providential care for his people. This does not make believers owners in a selfish sense, but recipients of a God-ordered inheritance that cannot be reduced to factional competition.

• Belonging to Christ anchors unity, and Christ’s relation to God anchors worship:

  “You are Christ’s” grounds identity and unity in a shared belonging that transcends every party label. “Christ is God’s” directs the church upward to the living God, safeguarding reverence, order, and the ultimate priority of God’s glory over human ambition.

Conclusion: 1 Corinthians 3 calls the church from immaturity and division into Christ-centered unity, humble ministry, and careful building on the one foundation, Jesus Christ. It holds together God’s decisive work in giving growth with the real responsibility and reward of faithful labor, warns that the Spirit-indwelt church is holy and must not be harmed, overturns worldly pride through God’s wisdom, and ends by rooting the believer’s security and hope in belonging to Christ, who belongs to God.