1 Corinthians 3

Paul answers the Corinthians’ party spirit, where some boasted in Paul and others in Apollos. He shows that ministers are only servants, that God alone gives growth, and that the church is God’s field, building and temple. He closes by telling them to stop boasting in men, because everything is theirs in Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:1

Paul could not treat the Corinthians as mature, Spirit-led believers. They were real Christians, but they still acted like people ruled by the old nature. He calls them infants in Christ: truly alive, yet not growing up.

BSA: worldly (“controlled by the flesh, carnal”): The word points to a life still steered by the old self instead of by God’s Spirit. infants (“babes, young children”): Being a baby is no shame at first, but staying one is a problem.

Greek: σαρκίνοις (sarkinois, G4560) — “made of flesh, fleshly.” Paul describes them as people still shaped by the flesh, though they belong to Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:2

Paul fed them simple teaching, as one feeds a baby milk. They could not yet take solid food. Worse, they still could not. Spiritual growth had stalled, and their behavior showed it.

BSA: milk (“nourishing drink, elementary Christian teaching”): Milk is good and necessary, but it is the starting diet, not the whole one.

See also: Hebrews 5:12-14.

1 Corinthians 3:3

Jealousy and quarreling were the proof. Envy and strife are not signs of Spirit-filled maturity. They are how people behave when they follow their own human instincts rather than God’s ways.

BSA: dissension (“quarrel, strife”): It describes the splits and rivalries that were tearing the church apart.

See also: Galatians 5:19-21.

1 Corinthians 3:4

Saying I follow Paul or I follow Apollos turned servants into rival leaders. Such talk showed they were thinking like ordinary people, not like those who belong to Christ.

BSA: mere men (“fleshly, carnal, worldly”): They were acting like people with no new life from God.

See also: 1 Corinthians 1:12.

1 Corinthians 3:5

Paul and Apollos are not heroes to rally around. They are servants, tools God used to bring the Corinthians to faith. Each has a task the Lord himself gave.

BSA: servants (“ministers, attendants”): They are helpers who serve someone else’s purpose, not masters.

Greek: διάκονοι (diakonoi, G1249) — “servants, attendants.” The word pictures a household worker who carries out the master’s orders, which shrinks any talk of leadership glory.

1 Corinthians 3:6

Paul uses a farming picture. He started the work, Apollos followed, but only God gives life and growth. Human effort matters, yet the result is always God’s gift.

BSA: planted (“sowed the seed of the gospel”): Paul first brought the gospel to Corinth. made it grow (“caused to grow, gave increase”): Growth comes from God’s power, not from the skill of the worker.

See also: Acts 18:1-11.

1 Corinthians 3:7

Compared with God, the planter and the waterer are nothing. This is not an insult. It means all credit belongs to the one who gives life. Rivalry over servants makes no sense.

BSA: anything (“significant, important”): On their own, workers cannot make a single seed live.

1 Corinthians 3:8

The workers share one aim, so they are not competitors. Yet God sees each person’s own labor and will reward it. Faithful service is noticed, even when others get the attention.

BSA: rewarded (“receive their due wages”): God pays what is fairly earned by faithful work, like a wage. labor (“toil, effort”): The reward goes by the toil spent, not by visible results or fame.

See also: Hebrews 6:10.

1 Corinthians 3:9

Paul changes the picture. We work together under God, and the church belongs to him. You are his field to cultivate and his building to construct. Everything about the church is his.

BSA: fellow workers (“co-laborers”): Servants work together with each other, and with God, who owns the project.

Greek: συνεργοί (synergoi, G4904) — “fellow workers.” The Greek joins ’together’ with ‘work.’ Paul and Apollos are on the same team, not rivals.

1 Corinthians 3:10

Paul laid the foundation by preaching Christ in Corinth. He credits God’s grace, not his own cleverness. Others now build on it, and every builder must take care what he builds with.

BSA: expert (“skilled”): Paul describes his work as skilled, but given by grace. foundation (“a strong base”): Everything later rests on it, so it must be sound.

Greek: ἀρχιτέκτων (architektōn, G753) — “master builder.” This is the word behind our word ‘architect.’ Paul sees himself as the chief builder who set up the groundwork.

See also: Ephesians 2:20.

1 Corinthians 3:11

There is only one foundation for the church, and it is already laid: Jesus Christ. Teachers cannot swap it for something else. Everything true must rest on him.

BSA: foundation (“a base or starting point”): Christ is both the start and the support of everything built on him.

See also: Isaiah 28:16; Acts 4:12.

1 Corinthians 3:12-13

Builders may use lasting materials like gold, silver and stones, or flimsy ones like wood, hay and straw. A coming Day will show which was used. Fire will test the true quality of each person’s work.

BSA: Day (“of judgment, of the Lord”): This is the day when Christ will examine all service. fire (“a testing, refining flame”): The fire does not merely destroy; it shows what the work was made of.

See also: 1 Peter 1:7.

1 Corinthians 3:14-15

Work that lasts brings reward. Work that burns is lost, though the worker is still saved. Salvation rests on Christ, not on service, but how we build matters. Christians understand the fire in different ways, but the point is clear.

BSA: loss (“harm, damage, to lose something”): What is lost is the reward and the work itself, not the person’s place in Christ. saved (“rescued, delivered”): The worker is rescued, but narrowly, like someone snatched from a burning house.

Greek: ζημιωθήσεται (zēmiōthēsetai, G2210) — “will suffer loss.” It is a word for being fined or deprived of something, so the loss is of reward, not of the person.

See also: Jude 1:23.

1 Corinthians 3:16

Now the picture is a temple. The whole Corinthian church together is God’s holy dwelling place, because his Spirit lives in them. ‘You’ here is plural, so Paul speaks of the community as a shared home for God.

BSA: temple (“a sacred place of worship”): The church is the place where God himself lives, not just a building for meeting. dwells (“lives, resides”): God’s Spirit is truly at home among his people.

Greek: ναός (naos, G3485) — “inner sanctuary, temple.” This word refers to the innermost holy place where God dwelt, not just the temple grounds.

See also: Ephesians 2:21-22; 1 Corinthians 6:19.

1 Corinthians 3:17

Anyone who ruins the church, perhaps by splitting it or by corrupting it with proud teaching, faces God’s own judgment. The church is holy to him. This warns teachers to handle his people with great care.

BSA: holy (“set apart, consecrated”): The church belongs to God, so harming it is serious.

1 Corinthians 3:18

Beware of self-deception. Anyone who prides himself on worldly cleverness must be willing to look foolish by the world’s measure. Only then can he receive God’s real wisdom.

BSA: fool (“foolish, dull, stupid”): Paul means giving up pride in human wisdom and trusting what the world calls foolish.

See also: 1 Corinthians 1:20-25.

1 Corinthians 3:19-20

What the world prizes as wise looks like folly to God. Paul quotes the Old Testament to show that God sees through human scheming and knows how empty it is.

BSA: craftiness (“cunning, deceit”): The clever plans of the proud turn into a trap for them. futile (“vain, useless, without real value”): Human reasoning apart from God leads nowhere lasting.

See also: Job 5:13; Psalm 94:11.

1 Corinthians 3:21-22

Boasting in leaders makes no sense, since the leaders belong to the church, not the other way round. Paul, Apollos and Peter are gifts to all. Even life, death and the future serve those who are in Christ.

BSA: boasting (“glorying, taking pride”): Pride in a chosen leader misses that every leader is God’s gift to all. belong to you (“as your possession, for your benefit”): All things are given for the good of Christ’s people.

See also: Romans 8:32.

1 Corinthians 3:23

The chain ends with God. You belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. So the believer is not owned by any human teacher, and is secure and rich in Christ.

BSA: belong to Christ (“as Christ’s possession, belonging to Him”): Believers are his people, and that settles every claim of rival groups.

See also: 1 Corinthians 11:3.