1 Corinthians 3:5-15

1 Corinthians 3:5–15 HCSB

5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 Now the one planting and the one watering are one in purpose, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building. 10 According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each one’s work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. 14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire.

1 Corinthians 3:5–23 HCSB

5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 Now the one planting and the one watering are one in purpose, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building. 10 According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each one’s work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. 14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire. 16 Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s sanctuary, God will destroy him; for God’s sanctuary is holy, and that is what you are. 18 No one should deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he can become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, since it is written: He catches the wise in their craftiness; 20 and again, The Lord knows that the reasonings of the wise are meaningless. 21 So no one should boast in human leaders, for everything is yours — 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come —everything is yours, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

This week in the men’s restroom there was many shrapnel of paper towels. I am not sure what happens in there or how it happens but when we have that many young men using the restroom it sometimes looks like the boys exploded the paper towel dispenser and it went everywhere.

I started picking up what was in there with my hands and the thought occured to me if I ever get to high up in this church that I think I can’t pick up paper towels then I need to find something else to do. Little did I know that the Lord was preparing my heart for this message.

1 Corinthians 3:5 HCSB

5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.

Scripture uses the word what instead of who. What is Apollos and what is Paul. The word What where we expect the word who takes the attention away from the persons of the preachers and concentrates it on their functions.

Instead of who they are it leads us to what they do.

So what do they do?

Servants: translates diakonoi, a term which originally meant a table waiter. It was a term to generally mean lowly service

and in the New Testament this term is used to signify service that any Christian should give to God.

This term was applied to what deacons should do in the church. Deacons were servants or table waiters.

The term stresses the lowly character of the service rendered and ridicules the tendency to make much of preachers.

Let this be a caution to us today. We may not be in the same place as the church at Corinth with these arguments, but I believe we must be cautious to make sure that we don’t let preachers become idols we worship.

More and more I here people say I will just stay home and watch so and so on tv for my church and sometimes there is a tendency to glorify the preacher and not the message that is being preached.

Paul says here that they are servants. They are lowly table waiters for God.

1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary 2. The True Relation between Paul and Apollos (3:5–9)

Who would set servants on pedestals? The real work is done by God; Paul and Apollos are no more than instruments through whom he does his work. These ministers could work only ‘as the Lord gave’ to them.

1 Corinthians 3:6–8 HCSB

6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 Now the one planting and the one watering are one in purpose, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

Paul planted and Apollos watered but neither made the plants grow.

(Sermon Illustration)

Plant from the greenhouse

Jim helped to order the seeds. Jay helped with irrigation, Tommy and Jerry, with some electrical, mission team on putting up the greenhouse, Noah planted and Noah did some watering and others have helped to fill in.

None of these things grew this plant. They prepared the plant to grow but God made it grow.

With Paul and Apollos, God made it grow.

The focus is stripped from Paul and Apollos and placed upon God.

The structure of these words are such that the word planted and watered are completed but God’s activity in giving growth goes on.

1 Corinthians 3:7 HCSB

7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

1 Corinthians

Neither the planter or the waterer is important. The attention of the Corinthians should have been fixated on God, who alone does all spiritual work, and not on his unimportant servants of Paul and Apollos.

1 Corinthians 3:8 HCSB

8 Now the one planting and the one watering are one in purpose, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

There is unity in the one planting and the one watering. They both have one purpose. Neither can be successful without that of the other worker.

He does not minimize the individual work of each one. The gifts you have are to be used for the Glory of Jesus and the gifts you have should not be minimized. I am not as important as someone else in this church because my gift is not teaching or my gift is not music or my gift is not cooking. Each gift is used for growth in the glory of Jesus and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

1 Corinthians 3:9 HCSB

9 For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

God’s fellow workers, God’s field and God’s building

Ministers and those they serve are no more than God’s instruments. All is of God and all belong to God.

1 Corinthians 3:10 HCSB

10 According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it.

1 Corinthians 3:10–15 HCSB

10 According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each one’s work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. 14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire.

1 Corinthians 3:1-

The word skilled translates sophos, wise.

1 Corinthians 2:1–2 HCSB

1 When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. 2 For I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

1 Corinthians 3:11–15 HCSB

11 For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each one’s work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. 14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire.

1 corinthians 3:11-15

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Three: Be Wise about … the Local Church (1 Corinthians 3)

Gold, Silver, Precious Stones

Wood, Hay, Stubble

Permanent

Passing, temporary

Beautiful

Ordinary, even ugly

Valuable

Cheap

Hard to obtain

Easy to obtain