These men were in a low state of Christian development, their growth in grace having been arrested by the jealousy and strife dominant in their midst. Under such circumstances, personal progress and Church progress were impossible. Individual self assertion and arrogance could net but lead to the depreciation of others, nor could envious rivalries tolerate merit and worth in those whom it sought to crush. On the other hand, looking at the Church as an organic body, its virtue was a common stock, to be cherished, honoured, and diligently maintained by every one of its members. Its zeal was not a solitary flame burning on an isolated altar, but the combined warmth of many hearts. Diversity, too, is God's law, diversity reaching down into temperament, diversity in the highest realm of gifts, diversity of insight and experience, and this factious temper was fatal to diversity. Agreeably to the Divine method, diversity was preliminary to unity, and men were allowed free action of individuality, that the strongest and best elements of character, and especially its latent qualities, might be brought out and incorporated in the totality of the Church. A very miscellaneous world environed these Corinthians; the Christian community itself was made up of Jews, Greeks, and Romans; and the reasons were, therefore, exceptionally stringent that they should, as brethren, be very closely banded together in one mind, "the mind of Christ." Had they been a homogeneous people, circumstantial motives, which have a very important part to play in the scheme of providence, would not have been so imperative. But these dissensions involved their national peculiarities, and hence the antecedents of blood, the residuum of former bitterness, would surely come in to aggravate their animosities. They were "babes in Christ," and furthermore, they were "carnal;" and this infantile and carnal state, in which all growth had been stopped, was due solely to intestine discord. Had they considered what a grievous evil it was? Paul and Apollos, Tarsian and Alexandrian, had been put by no choice of theirs in a position very unenviable, nay, in despite of their earnest remonstrance. Leaders they were, leaders they must be, leaders of the Church; and on this very account, nothing could be more ill timed, nothing more abhorrent to their personal feelings, nothing so little like "the mind of Christ," as the attempt to make them heads of factions. Alas for such unwise friends, blocking up their way and multiplying the hazards, already enormous, of their ministry in Achaia! If this audacious effort continued, how could they withstand their enemies? The heart of St. Paul is stirred, and, in this chapter, it swells to the full compass of his apostleship. Intellectual heroism is needed now, and in that, as in the other qualities of an habitual hero, he is never wanting. - L.
I. "CHRIST IS GOD'S." To understand this high saying we must remember that Christ is God. But Christ is man also. As Man, Christ is God's great Agent for man in every respect.
1. He is God's Messenger, God's Witness, to reveal the mind and heart of God towards fallen men. His whole life is an index by which you may read the secret spring of love divine; in Him "God is love."
2. He is God's Servant — obedient in life, "obedient unto death."
3. He is God's Priest — the One only "Mediator between God and men," who "ever liveth to make intercession for them."
4. He is God's King, reigning now invisibly in truth, and to reign in due time visibly in righteousness over the whole earth.
II. "YE ARE CHRIST'S."
1. By creation, in common with all things. "All things were made by Him," &c.
2. By purchase, in common with all mankind. He "tasted death for every man."
3. By ordinance, in common with all Christendom.
4. By gift from God the Father.
5. By the secret power of the eternal Spirit working in due season, according to the purpose and plan of God.
6. In the enjoyment of a friendship and fellowship such as no other friendship can equal.
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Where we may observe the apostle in a climax rising higher, "All things are yours, you are Christ's, and Christ is God's." So that the highest round in this ladder teacheth to heaven as Jacob's did, and the lowest one is in the earth. "All things are yours," there is your privilege; but "you are Christ's," there is your duty; even to see that whatever you are, or can do, it be in reverence to Him. So all things are for the godly, and the godly is for Christ.
I. Let us consider IN WHAT RESPECTS THE GODLY MAN IS CHRIST'S.
1. He is bought and purchased by His blood, so that he oweth all his being, comforts, and privileges to Christ (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). So then, well may the godly man be said to be Christ's, for he cometh to be His at a dear rate. Never did king get subject, or master a servant, at so dear a price as Christ obtained thee.
2. The godly they are Christ's because by His Spirit they are made new creatures. They have a new being. For it cannot be theft any should be Christ's who live in the flesh and are carnally minded.
3. They are Christ's because He is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He is the Alpha; He is the Author and Fountain of all the spiritual good we have; and the apostle calls Him "the Author and Finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). It is He that giveth life and motion and all spiritual strength to us. Now every effect is more the cause's than it is its own. Seeing, therefore, thou hast no good but what thou hast received from Christ, thou art wholly to depend on Him, as the stream is on the fountain, as the light is on the sun — for take them away and these immediately perish. We are not to live to ourselves, but to Him (Galatians 3:20). All our graces are to carry us out of ourselves to Christ, our faith in Christ, our love and affections to be pitched on Christ.
4. We are Christ's in that all our Christian completeness is in Him (Colossians 1:19). It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell. The privileges of justification, and adoption, and sanctification, that we have by Him, are to be more than meat or drink unto us.
5. We are Christ's because we are wholly to be disposed by Him in all conditions, in all exercises and temptations. For Christ being made a Lord and King over us, He orders us in all things.
II. Now in the next place let us consider SOME CHARACTERS OR PROPERTIES OF SUCH AS ARE CHRIST'S.
1. They desire more knowledge of Him, more acquaintance with Him; they prize Him above all worldly things (Philippians 3:8).
2. Those that are Christ's abhor and have no communion with any sin or wickedness, because that only Christ hateth.
3. Those that are Christ's, they live not to themselves but to Him. They please not themselves or others in a sinful way. Exhortation to those who are Christ's to be self-denying, to take up Christ's cross, to love Him more than all they have; for Christ is not for thee, but thou for Christ.
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Now the doctrine speaks of Christ both in respect of His human nature, and as He is a Mediator — not as God. Let us see, then, how Christ as a man and as a Mediator is God's.
1. His incarnation and coming into the world, it was not for Himself but for God.
2. That Christ is God's appeareth, in that He acknowledgeth His doctrine and truth not to be His, but His Father's, taking all off from Himself, and making Himself only a minister or ambassador in His Father's Name, and revealing His will (John 8:26, 28; John 7:16).
3. That Christ is wholly God's appeareth in that as the doctrine He preached was the Father's, so He sought not His own glory, did not exalt Himself but the Father (John 8:29; John 17:4).
4. That Christ is wholly God's appeareth in that obediential resignation of Himself to do God's will (John 17:4).
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means that we are dependent on Him and belong to Him. Note —
I. CHRIST'S PROPRIETORSHIP.
1. In this is involved the denial —(1) That we are our own. We do not belong to ourselves in the sense that our own advantage can be the legitimate end of our pursuit, or that our will can be the legitimate rule of our conduct.(2) That we belong to the world, parents, friends, country, mankind in either of the above senses; that their good or their will can be the legitimate end or rule.(3) That we belong to the Church. It is a fatal error to live for and be governed by the Church, and know no higher end or rule or duty.
2. Positively the declaration includes that we are Christ's in such a sense that His glory is the end and His will the rule of our life. He, and He alone, has the right to us. To Him, and to Him alone, is devotion and submission due.
II. ITS BASIS.
1. Not specially creation, for as creatures we belong to the Triune God.
2. But —(1) Gift. From countless orders of creatures the people of Christ were given Him, in the counsels of eternity, as a peculium, a speciality, in which He was to have exclusive right. God as Sovereign of the universe can give what He pleases, and His will is the only real and stable ground of property or possession.(2) Purchase.(a) This gives the right of property as founded on justice.(b) The purchase involving redemption from infinite evil gives the higher and tenderer obligation of gratitude.(c) The price paid being His own precious blood it gives the highest of all obligations, that of love.(3) Conquest. We were the captives of Satan. Christ has destroyed his power and delivered us who were led captive at his will.
III. ITS VARIOUS FORMS. We are —
1. The servants of Christ, which expresses the relation as founded in justice. We are bound as His δούλοι to live for Him and obey Him.
2. His bride. This includes the ideas of —
(1)Exclusive possession.(2)Preference and peculiar love.(3)Perfect community of interest.3. His friends, bound to Him by mutual love and confidence.
4. His body. Nothing is so intimately a man's own as his body. It has a common life and consciousness with him. The pains and pleasures of the body are our own pains and pleasures. It has a common interest and destiny with us. So are we bound to Christ in all these ways. This is the nearest relationship of all.
IV. THE BLESSEDNESS RESULTING FROM IT.
1. Security. If we belong to Christ as His servants, &c., we are secure for time and eternity.
2. Participation in Christ's excellence, both as to soul and body — in His happiness, glory, and dominion.
V. DUTIES.
1. That we should act worthy of this relation. Remember that we belong neither to ourselves nor the world, but only to Christ.
2. Contentment. We may well be satisfied if we are Christ's, for all things are ours.
3. Joyful anticipation of Christ's coming.
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You are His —I. BY DONATION; for the Father gave you to the Son.
II. BY PURCHASE; for He counted down the price for your redemption.
III. BY DEDICATION; for you have consecrated yourself to Him.
IV. BY RELATION; for you are named by His name, and made one of His brethren and joint heirs. Application — Labour practically to show the world that you are —
(1)The servant.(2)The friend.(3)The bride of Jesus.()
A gentleman one day took an acquaintance to the top of his house to show him the extent of his possessions. Waving his hand about, "There," said he, "that is my estate." Then pointing to a great distance on one side, "Do you see that farm?" "Yes." "Well, that is mine." Pointing again to the other side, "Do you see that house?" "Yes." "That also belongs to me." "Then," said his friend, "do you see that little village out yonder?" "Yes." "Well, there lives a poor woman in that village who can say more than all this." "Ay! what can she say?" "Why, she can say, 'Christ is mine.'" He looked confounded, and said no more.
People
Apollos,
Cephas,
Corinthians,
Paul,
PeterPlaces
CorinthTopics
Acting, Aren't, Behaving, Carnal, Continue, Denied, Division, Divisions, Emulation, Envy, Envying, Factions, Flesh, Fleshly, Insofar, Jealousy, Manner, Mere, Natural, Ordinary, Quarreling, Strife, Unspiritual, Walk, Walking, Whereas, Worldly, YetOutline
1. Milk is fit for children.3. Strife and division, arguments of a fleshly mind.7. He who plants and He who waters are nothing.9. The ministers are God's fellow workmen.11. Christ the only foundation.16. You are the temples of God, which must be kept holy.19. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.Dictionary of Bible Themes
1 Corinthians 3:3 5606 warfare, nature of
5765 attitudes, to people
5924 quarrelsomeness
8733 envy
8773 jealousy
1 Corinthians 3:1-3
5864 futility
1 Corinthians 3:3-4
5834 disagreement
5882 impartiality
5937 rivalry
7025 church, unity
7570 sects
Library
Twenty-Third Day. Holiness and the Body.
The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you; therefore glorify God in your body.'--1 Cor. iii. 16, vi. 13, 19. 'She that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit.'--1 Cor. vii. 34. 'Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.'--Rom. xii. 1. Coming into the world, our Blessed …
Andrew Murray—Holy in ChristNovember the Ninth the Holy Spirit as Emancipator
2 CORINTHIANS iii. 4-18. In the Holy Spirit I experience a large emancipation. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." I am delivered from all enslaving bondage--from the bondage of literalism, and legalism, and ritualism. I am not hampered by excessive harness, by multitudinous rules. The harness is fitting and congenial, and I have freedom of movement, and "my yoke is easy and my burden is light." And I am to use my emancipation of spirit in the ministry of contemplation. I am to …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year
Temples of God
'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?'--1 COR. iii. 16 The great purpose of Christianity is to make men like Jesus Christ. As He is the image of the invisible God we are to be the images of the unseen Christ. The Scripture is very bold and emphatic in attributing to Christ's followers likeness to Him, in nature, in character, in relation to the world, in office, and in ultimate destiny. Is He the anointed of God? We are anointed--Christs in Him. Is He the Son of God? We in Him receive the …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)
God's Fellow-Workers
'Labourers together with God.'--1 COR. iii. 9. The characteristic Greek tendency to factions was threatening to rend the Corinthian Church, and each faction was swearing by a favourite teacher. Paul and his companion, Apollos, had been taken as the figureheads of two of these parties, and so he sets himself in the context, first of all to show that neither of the two was of any real importance in regard to the Church's life. They were like a couple of gardeners, one of whom did the planting, and …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)
Death, the Friend
'... All things are yours ... death.'--1 COR. iii. 21, 22. What Jesus Christ is to a man settles what everything else is to Him. Our relation to Jesus determines our relation to the universe. If we belong to Him, everything belongs to us. If we are His servants, all things are our servants. The household of Jesus, which is the whole Creation, is not divided against itself, and the fellow-servants do not beat one another. Two bodies moving in the same direction, and under the impulse of the same …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)
Servants and Lords
'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 ye are Christ's.'--1 COR. iii. 21-23. The Corinthian Christians seem to have carried into the Church some of the worst vices of Greek--and English--political life. They were split up into wrangling factions, each swearing by the name of some person. Paul was the battle-cry of one set; Apollos of another. Paul and Apollos were very good friends, …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)
Sanctified for Service.
"We are labourers together with God; ye are God's husbandry; ye are God's building."--1 COR. iii. 9. In this passage St. Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for that spirit of party which was dividing them into followers of this or that teacher and so destroying their unity in Christ. You do not belong, he says, to Paul or to Apollos; we have no claim upon you; ye are not to be called by our name: you are God's husbandry, and God's building, not ours; we are but labourers in His service and …
John Percival—Sermons at Rugby
On the Wisdom of this World
"The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."--I Cor. iii. 19. It is remarkable that about the time of our Saviour's coming into the world all kinds of learning flourished to a very great degree, insomuch that nothing is more frequent in the mouths of many men, even such who pretend to read and to know, than an extravagant praise and opinion of the wisdom and virtue of the Gentile sages of those days, and likewise of those ancient philosophers who went before them, whose doctrines are left …
Jonathan Swift—Three Sermons, Three Prayers
On the Interpretation of Scripture
IT is a strange, though familiar fact, that great differences of opinion exist respecting the Interpretation of Scripture. All Christians receive the Old and New Testament as sacred writings, but they are not agreed about the meaning which they attribute to them. The book itself remains as at the first; the commentators seem rather to reflect the changing atmosphere of the world or of the Church. Different individuals or bodies of Christians have a different point of view, to which their interpretation …
Frederick Temple—Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World
The Existence of Merit
1. HERETICAL ERRORS AND THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH.--a) The medieval Beguins and Beghards held that man is able to attain such a perfect state of holiness here below as no longer to require an increase of grace or good works.(1226) Luther, holding that justification consists in the covering up of sin and the external imputation of the justice of Christ, consistently though falsely asserted that "the just man sins in every good work,"(1227) that "a good work, no matter how well performed, is a venial …
Joseph Pohle—Grace, Actual and Habitual
The Objects of Merit
After defining the existence of merit the Tridentine Council enumerates its objects as follows: "If anyone saith that the justified, by the good works which he performs, ... does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that eternal life,--if it be so, however, that he depart in grace,--and also an increase of glory: let him be anathema."(1320) Hence merit calls for a threefold reward: (1) an increase of sanctifying grace; (2) heavenly glory; and (3) an increase of that …
Joseph Pohle—Grace, Actual and Habitual
The Christian Church
Scriptures references: 1 Corinthians 3:11; 3:6-9; Colossians 1:18; Acts 2:47; Ephesians 5:23-27; Matthew 16:16,18; 18:17; Acts 5:11,12; 13:1,2; 14:23; 16:5; 1 Corinthians 11:18-34; 12:28-31; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2:14; 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 12:22,23; Revelation 1:4,11,20; 2:7,11; 22:16; 22:12-15,17. THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH What is the Christian Church?--One of the best definitions is as follows: "The church consists of all who acknowledge the Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, the blessed Saviour …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian
Carnal Christians.
1 Corinthians 3:1.--And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. The apostle here speaks of two stages of the Christian life, two types of Christians: "I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." They were Christians, in Christ, but instead of being spiritual Christians, they were carnal. "I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet are ye able, for ye are …
Andrew Murray—The Master's Indwelling
The Indwelling Spirit Fully and Forever Satisfying.
The Holy Spirit takes up His abode in the one who is born of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul says to the believers in Corinth in 1 Cor. iii. 16, R. V., "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" This passage refers, not so much to the individual believer, as to the whole body of believers, the Church. The Church as a body is indwelt by the Spirit of God. But in 1 Cor. vi. 19, R. V., we read, "Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit
Dedicatory Letter.
To the respected and worthy NICOLAUS VON AMSDORF, Licentiate in the Holy Scriptures and Canon of Wittenberg, [14] My particular and affectionate friend. Dr. MARTIN LUTHER. The Grace and Peace of God be with you! Respected, worthy Sir and dear friend. The time for silence is gone and the time to speak has come, as we read in Ecclesiastes (iii. 7.) I have in conformity with our resolve put together some few points concerning the Reformation of the Christian Estate, with the intent of placing the same …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation
Alcuin on True Missionary Labours.
THE cause of the first failure of the mission amongst the Saxons, may serve as a lesson and a warning to all times. It was this: that they sought to introduce from without what can only be effected from within; that worldly aims were blended with the diffusion of Christianity; that men did not follow the example of the Apostle Paul, who, in preaching the Gospel, allowed the Jews to remain Jews, and the Greeks, Greeks, and knew how to become to the Jews as a Jew, and to the Greeks as a Greek. The …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places
Certain it Is, Albeit all this Disputation Go from Side to Side...
38. Certain it is, albeit all this disputation go from side to side, some asserting that it is never right to lie, and to this effect reciting divine testimonies: others gainsaying, and even in the midst of the very words of the divine testimonies seeking place for a lie; yet no man can say, that he finds this either in example or in word of the Scriptures, that any lie should seem a thing to be loved, or not had in hatred; howbeit sometimes by telling a lie thou must do that thou hatest, that what …
St. Augustine—On Lying
It Follows after Commendation of the Trinity, "The Holy Church. ...
14. It follows after commendation of the Trinity, "The Holy Church." God is pointed out, and His temple. "For the temple of God is holy," says the Apostle, "which (temple) are ye." [1801] This same is the holy Church, the one Church, the true Church, the catholic Church, fighting against all heresies: fight, it can: be fought down, it cannot. As for heresies, they went all out of it, like as unprofitable branches pruned from the vine: but itself abideth in its root, in its Vine, in its charity. "The …
St. Augustine—On the Creeds
Now it Has Been My Wish on this Account to Say Something on This...
22. Now it has been my wish on this account to say something on this subject, by reason of certain of our brethren most friendly and dear to us, and without willful guilt indeed entangled in this error, but yet entangled; who think, that, when they exhort any to righteousness and piety, their exhortation will not have force, unless the whole of that, wherein they would work upon man that man should work, they set in the power of man, not helped by the grace of God, but put forth by the alone choice …
St. Augustine—On the Good of Widowhood.
Homilies on the Statues.
Abel, beloved of God, yet slain, [466]342; more blessed in his death than Cain, [467]374; died the first to instruct Adam, [468]414; his sacrifice good, [469]422. Abraham, rich but not covetous: entertaining angels, [470]349; tent of, stronger than Sodom, [471]456. Absolution, [472]356; at the altar, [473]443. Accused at Antioch, tortured, [474]474. Acrobats, [475]470. Actions, few, for their own sake, [476]379; end of, [477]459, n.; the proof of philosophy, [478]465. Adam, fell when idle, [479]353, …
St. Chrysostom—On the Priesthood
Epistle Xlvi. To Isacius, Bishop of Jerusalem .
To Isacius, Bishop of Jerusalem [159] . Gregory to Isacius, &c. In keeping with the truth of history, what means the fact that at the time of the flood the human race outside the ark dies, but within the ark is preserved unto life, but what we see plainly now, namely that all the unfaithful perish under the wave of their sin, while the unity of holy Church, like the compactness of the ark, keeps her faithful ones in faith and in charity? And this ark in truth is compacted of incorruptible timber, …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great
Epistle Xlix. To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch .
To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch [35] . Gregory to Anastasius, &c. I received the letters of thy Fraternity, rightly holding fast the profession of the faith; and I returned great thanks to Almighty God, who, when the shepherds of His flock are changed, still, even after such change, guards the faith which He once delivered to the holy Fathers. Now the excellent preacher says, Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor. iii. 2). Whosoever, then, with love of …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great
How the Wise and the Dull are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 7). Differently to be admonished are the wise of this world and the dull. For the wise are to be admonished that they leave off knowing what they know: the dull also are to be admonished that they seek to know what they know not. In the former this thing first, that they think themselves wise, is to be thrown down; in the latter whatsoever is already known of heavenly wisdom is to be built up; since, being in no wise proud, they have, as it were, prepared their hearts for supporting …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great
First Sunday in Lent
Text: Second Corinthians 6, 1-10. 1 And working together with him we entreat also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain 2 (for he saith, At an acceptable time I hearkened unto thee, and in a day of salvation did I succor thee: behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation): 3 giving no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our ministration be not blamed; 4 but in everything commending ourselves, as ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II
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