Children Who Grow
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
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- Read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge in this month’s issue of the Nurturing Faith Journal
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Key Verse: 1 Cor. 3:3 – For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?
Don’t you love babies? Many love to see them and rub their little heads, but have no desire to raise them. It takes an amazing level of love and commitment to care for children and help them grow from being totally helpless to becoming mature and functioning human beings. Parents who do a faithful job of that are worthy of great admiration.
Infants can bring both transcendent joy and persistent trials to life. They cry in the wee hours and require sleep-deprived parents to feed and change and comfort them. Babies soil their diapers at the most inopportune times, spill things with great frequency, and often totter on the edge of danger, leaving their caretakers emotionally ragged.
As children grow older and approach adulthood, some accept increasing responsibility for themselves, while others seem to avoid maturity at all costs. Parenting is a challenge.
Paul, the parent
Today’s text is about infants of the spiritual kind. The Apostle Paul approached his work of growing churches as a father with his children, and often used that terminology (1 Cor. 4:14-16). He knew the prodigious joy of seeing people forsake their sins and come to Christ – but he also knew the predictable frustrations of nurturing those same persons to maturity.
The letter of 1 Corinthians suggests that believers in Corinth were slow to mature, causing Paul considerable aggravation and sleepless nights as he tried to clean up some of the messes they made. [DD] His letters mention issues such as blatant immorality, elitism, and infighting between various factions within the church. Some church members considered themselves to be more spiritual than fellow Christians, or privy to secret knowledge that others had not attained.
Paul dealt with some of these matters in the previous chapter in an ironic, almost sarcastic manner, and then focused on factionalism as a particular issue in 3:1-9. Instead of taking sides with those who considered themselves to be more spiritual or wise than the others, Paul accused them all of acting like babies.
Spiritual infants (vv. 1-4)
Some Corinthians had complained that Paul was not introducing them to the deep mysteries of the faith, but his reply was straightforward – spiritual things can only be revealed to spiritual people, and “I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ” (v. 1).
Thus, Paul kept them on a steady diet of the most basic truths. Until they proved themselves mature enough to digest spiritual milk, he knew they would not be ready for more solid food (v. 2, cf. 1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:12-14). Even then, Paul insisted that all they really needed to know was what he had already taught: God was at work through Christ to bring about a new age of salvation. To be faithful was to focus on Jesus and follow his teachings.
What evidence of immaturity did Paul see? “You are still of the flesh,” he said in v. 1. “For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?” (v. 3). Words such as “fleshly,” or “merely human” are awkward translations for the words sarkinos (v. 1) and sarkikos (v. 3), which carry the sense of being earthly-minded rather than spiritually directed. [DD]
Paul charged that his readers were self-centered, “behaving according to human inclinations” (v. 3b), directed by their own interests rather than God’s. They were more concerned with supremacy than service, more devoted to factionalism than to friendship (v. 4).
Paul was not implying that the Corinthians had no experience with the Spirit: there had been any number of spiritual manifestations among them, from speaking in tongues to healing and other demonstrations of power.
The problem is that they had not let the Spirit possess them. God’s Spirit was alive within them just as a surely as human life is present in the tiniest baby, but they had given the Spirit scant room for promoting growth.
As long as human persons remain self-serving in their behavior and relationships with others, they cannot experience the spiritual growth that comes through humility and service. Division, strife, and jealousy are not the product of the Spirit’s work, but of human nature – of the “flesh” (see Gal. 5:16-21). [DD]
This is why Paul insisted that he had fed them only with milk previously, and that they were still too immature for spiritual pabulum, much less anything more substantial (v. 2).
In the opening section of his letter, Paul said he had learned that some church members claimed to follow Paul, others Apollos, and others Cephas (Peter), while another group apparently claimed to follow Christ alone (1:12). Paul returned to this problem of factionalism in 3:4 to illustrate his contention that they were still thinking and acting on a human level rather than a spiritual one.
When one claimed to be of Paul’s party while another pledged allegiance to Apollos, Paul wrote, “are you not merely human?”
Faithful Christian leaders are not focused on taking selfies with crowds of followers, but on selfless service to God and “the least of these” whom God loves (Matt. 25:40).
This text challenges us to think about our own lives and the relationships we see within our church. What signs do we see of spiritual maturity, or the lack of it? When we think of how our church relates to other congregations, do we cooperate in service to others, or compete for more members to serve our cause?
If Paul were to visit our homes, where would he direct the conversation? If he were to speak in our church, what might be on his preaching menu? What worldview would he be promoting? [DD]
Spiritual growth (vv. 5-9)
Having introduced the subject in vv. 1-4, Paul spoke directly to the folly of factionalism in vv. 5-9. Why should the Corinthians align themselves with one leader or the other when all of the leaders were working for the same goal (v. 5)? [DD]
Were Paul and Apollos guided by ego or the desire for fame, determined to build up a personal following and start their own television network?
No, Paul insisted. They were both servants of the same God “through whom you came to believe.” They were people who were simply doing what God had led them to do, proclaiming the gospel and the teachings of Jesus (v. 5). [DD]
Paul described himself and Apollos as field hands who had worked among the Corinthians at different times, but for the same purpose: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (v. 6). We learn elsewhere that Paul had begun the work (Acts 18:1-8), and Apollos came after to build it up (Acts 18:24-19:1). [DD] [DD]
It was only natural that church members would feel closer to one than the other, even as any of us can name our favorite pastors or teachers. Paul, the straight-talking rabbi from Tarsus, would have been popular with many people, especially those from a Jewish background. The eloquent Apollos, from the city of Alexandria, would have been the darling of others, particularly among Greeks who were enamored with oratory.
It is unlikely that doctrinal issues were involved in the factionalism involving Paul and Apollos. According to Acts 18:24-28, Apollos knew the scriptures, taught them accurately, and had been tutored by Paul’s friends Priscilla and Aquilla in understanding the way of God (probably a reference to Christ’s work) more accurately.
Paul wanted the Corinthians to get past their human favoritism and realize that both he and Apollos were nothing in comparison to Christ. They both played a role in planting and watering the Corinthian fields, but it is “only God who gives the growth” (v. 7). Human leaders cannot take credit for God’s work of grace, nor should they claim the personal loyalty of persons saved by Christ. God’s servants will receive appropriate rewards in due time (v. 8, cf. 3:3; 4:5): it is not for them to organize fan clubs to sustain their egos.
Paul pointed to himself and Apollos as examples of the kind of unity the Corinthians should be pursuing. They saw themselves as God’s fellow servants, working together in God’s field or cooperating to construct God’s great building project of the church (v. 9).
As Paul and Apollos were different persons but united in ministry, so Paul called the Corinthians to a new solidarity in faith. Unity in the congregation would have to come from surrender to the Spirit of God and devotion to following Jesus.
Only a fortunate few among today’s Christians have escaped some aspect of church conflict, from temperamental tiffs over minor issues to heated disagreements that lead to division and an exodus of church members, even a church split.
While we sometimes joke about churches “multiplying by division,” Christ is not honored by infighting among those who are called to be peacemakers. Working for unity among believers is serious business, and it is the work of the spiritually mature. It is the way of Jesus, the way those who follow a “Jesus worldview” should adopt.
What kind of work are we doing?
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Youth Teaching Resources
Parent Prep
“Parenting can be hard.” What an understatement! Stresses and excitements. Joy and tears. Love and times when you may not want to be around them. But the ultimate goal of parenting is to help them grow into an adult. This means at some point you have to let go. The hardest part of this is knowing when to let go. The best part of this is that you don’t have to let go all at once. Help your students grow into adulthood by having less control over their lives, so when they do make mistakes, you can help them through them.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“Basketball and Dreams” from The Pursuit of Happyness
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