1Cor 3:9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's cultivated land [farm], God's building. 10 According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it. But let each man take heed how he builds upon it. 11 For another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 But if anyone builds upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, stubble,
The church is not only God's farm, but also God's building. As we grow on the farm, we produce precious materials for the building of God's habitation on earth. God's eternal goal is the building, the temple built with precious materials on Christ as the unique foundation. The work of building is accomplished not only through those such as Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, but also through every member of the Body, as revealed in Ephesians 4:16. The foundation of the building is unique, but the building may differ due to different builders with different materials. All the Corinthian believers had accepted Christ as the foundation. However, some Jewish believers among them attempted to build the church with their Judaistic attainments, and some Greek believers attempted to use their philosophical wisdom. They were not like the apostles, who built with their excellent knowledge and rich experiences of Christ. The intention of the apostle in this Epistle is to warn the believers not to build the church with the things of their natural background. They must learn to build with Christ, both in objective knowledge and subjective experience, as Paul did. The philosophical Greek believers at Corinth did not have the proper realization that God's eternal goal is to have a temple. Instead of caring for this goal, they cared for their philosophy, culture, and wisdom. In chapter three Paul was endeavoring to show the Corinthians that God's eternal goal is the building. This means that God does not want the believers to be individualistic. God cares for the building, and He desires that all the believers in a locality be built together as His temple. Moreover, if we would be built up together to become God's dwelling place, we need to grow, and in order to grow, we need the watering. Thus, the planting, the watering, and the growth are all for God's goal, the building. (c) Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of 1 Corinthians, pp. 207-208. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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