[Steve Myers] Good morning, everyone. This is the Epistles of Paul class. Welcome to another edition here. We've got some interesting things to talk about as we kind of finish up chapter 2 in 1 Corinthians. We left off last time talking about the Spirit in man. Paul makes this really interesting point in verse 11 of chapter 2.

1 Corinthians 2:11 Where he says, "For what man knows the things of a man except the Spirit of man which is in him?"

And so we walk through a number of different passages that really points out the fact that there is a spiritual component in the human brain. And that spiritual component is something science can't measure. They don't understand why mankind can do the things that they can do compared to animal brain. So, there's this vast difference between the human mind and animal brain that we can function, and we can plan, and we can create, we can reason, all of that accentuated by the fact that we have this spiritual component that the Bible calls the Spirit in man.

We looked at passages back in the Book of Job. Job 32:8 talked about that very fact. There is a Spirit in man, and God has breathed that into us, kind of connected that all the way back to the beginning in Genesis at the creation of Adam, how God breathed into Adam. And so we recognize that fact that we can think, reason. You know, our thinking is accentuated by the fact we have this spirit. Now, Paul doesn't stop there because there's something here that also is critically important.

1 Corinthians 2:11 Not only does he say, "We know things by this Spirit in man," but then he also says, "Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God."

And so what's he getting at in this particular point that he's trying to make here? Well, we understand things, we can think and reason because of the Spirit in man, but what one thing can't the Spirit in man do? And that's what Paul's really emphasizing here. Yeah, there's something. Just because we can think and we can reason, there's something we can't do. Spirit in man cannot give spiritual understanding. Now we have the potential for a relationship with God because of the Spirit in man, because we can think, because we can reason. That's something animals... Animals can't have a relationship with God. They don't have that potential. Every human being has that potential because of the Spirit in man. But the only way we can have spiritual understanding is by God's Spirit.

And so that's really where all of the potential lies. Mankind's greatest potential is recognized through the Spirit of God. It's by God's Spirit. And so this spiritual component of thinking and reasoning provides the ability to have spiritual understanding. So, just as the human spirit gives human understanding, Paul's making the point here, "By God's Spirit, we can have spiritual understanding." That's a critically important point that he makes. We can have godly understanding by the power of God's Spirit. And so that's such a critical thing. And so as he talks about this here, that's how God reveals things. If we step back just for a moment, take a look at verse 10.

1 Corinthians 2:10 “God has revealed them to us.” Well, what does He reveal to us? Well, “the things that I hasn't seen, ear hasn't heard, man as a whole doesn't understand this.”

They don't understand God's plan, the things that God has prepared for them. But God reveals them, how? Through His Spirit, through God's Spirit. And so this is the amazing thing that Paul is recognizing here, that the human spirit can combine, you might say, with God's Spirit. And then what does the Bible call that? Well, it tells us we're a new creation in Christ. Now we can have a spiritual connection with God that was never possible before. So, the human spirit can join with the Holy Spirit and we'd say that's why we're converted. We are converted. We are converted Christians because that Spirit joins with our human spirit, and that gives us spiritual understanding, and that takes us so far beyond what the animal world could possibly be. And so he emphasizes that point here that we need to be spiritual creations in Christ. And so he emphasizes this very thing as he gets into 1 Corinthians 2:11. And so he tells this very fact, look at verse 12.

1 Corinthians 2:12 He says, "Now we've received not the spirit of the world..."

Wrong to think that there aren't spiritual influences in our world today. Are there? Yeah, no doubt about it. No doubt about it. Mankind doesn't generally want to admit that. But, yeah, there is a whole realm out there that we can't see, that we don't understand necessarily. The world certainly doesn't understand it but it influences the world. Look at what's going on in the world scene even today. Demonic influences certainly dominate the world. But that's not the Spirit we've received.

1 Corinthians 2:12 He says. "We've received the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God."

And so in a way, you could almost compare this idea of man without God's Spirit. You know, what does that look like? Now, last time, we talked about what does it look like to have a man without the Spirit in man. And we went to that example of King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, that he was like an animal. He was like an animal. He didn't have his reasoning, thinking capabilities that God had removed them from him. And so that's what man is like without the Spirit in man, like an animal. Well, what is man like without the Spirit of God? Well, he tells us right here that we don't know the things of God. We can't really understand spiritual things without the impact of God's Spirit. And so God's Spirit makes that possible. And so we recognize how important that is. If we're to be spiritually connected to God, if we're to be spiritual creations in Christ, we've got to have God's Spirit. That's what gives us that Godly understanding, that spiritual understanding.

And so Paul is emphasizing that because, however, the Corinthians have been acting, well, they haven't been submitting to that Spirit. You know, there's been difficulties, and divisions, and schisms in the congregation. And so they've been acting like people without God's Spirit, without the impact of God's Spirit. And so we recognize that very fact that God's Holy Spirit is absolutely critical for us to act in a spiritual way. There's an interesting passage if we want to turn back just a little bit to Romans. If you'd look with me over to Romans 8. In Romans 8, it emphasizes this point. Let's notice what we're reminded. Of course, here Paul is writing to God's people in Rome and he makes a similar point here in Romans 8.

Romans 8:14-15 It says, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." And so we have that relationship because our human spirit has joined with the Holy Spirit. We are God's sons. And if we allow God's Spirit to lead us, that's the evidence of that very fact. And so he says, "You haven't received the Spirit of bondage again to fear." Spirit of bondage kind of connects with what we read in Corinthians about the Spirit of this world, the Spirit of bondage. He says, "That's not it, but..." verse 15, "You've received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father." And so we are in this relationship with God. God is our Father. We are His children. We'll talk more about this adopted idea later. Literally, it means we are sons, sonship. We've received a sonship through God's Holy Spirit. “And so the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

Important point, you read over it really quickly and miss it? Well, what is He saying there? The Spirit itself bears witness with our Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit in man. Those two things, at conversion, they join together in that sense. And what's the effect? We're God's children. We are God's children. And so this is a powerful point that Paul is making here that together, this is what it means to be converted. This is what it means to be a Christian. This is what it means to be led by the Spirit, that no longer... We're no longer ruled by just our human spirit, but that God's Spirit is bearing witness with our Spirit. And the end result is we're His children. We're sons of God.

In fact, if you flip back to Corinthians, that's the point that he continues to make. He continues to make that very point that we're no longer a part of the world. We're no longer thinking the way that they think. No, because of the impact of God's Spirit, it changes our entire perspective. And that's where we get to this idea that this is transformational. This is transformational. It changes who we are. We're no longer that old man. We're no longer that person any longer. We are a son. We are a child of God. So, take a look at where he goes with this idea after he really kind of delineates this idea of God's Spirit, man's Spirit, the Spirit in man, and how they join together.

1 Corinthians 2:13 He says, "These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual."

So, here, he's emphasizing that very point. Man's wisdom can do certain things. Definitely offsets us from the animals. But what happens spiritually speaking? You know probably many people, they have no clue what the Bible is all about. They've no clue what God's plan and what His purpose is. That's the majority of mankind. That's the majority of it. But when we join God's Spirit with our Spirit, then he says we can compare spiritual things with spiritual. What does that mean? Now we look at the world and examine things from a spiritual perspective. We're not just looking at things from a physical point of view. Now we recognize we can evaluate things by God's standard. We can examine things by the spiritual guidelines that God gives us. And that happens by the power of God's Spirit.

And so he kind of gets at this idea that there's a spiritual value here. How much more important is that than just the physical value of things? I mean, imagine your experience here at ABC. Physically speaking, do you put a physical value on that? Well, yeah, it's costing me this much and I have to pay this much for my rent and then there's the food. Well, wait a second. How valuable is it to know the one true God? How valuable is it to understand God's purpose and His plan? How valuable is it to know God's way of life? You see, you can't put a physical value on that. And so Paul is saying here, listen, there's only certain things that can be judged and evaluated from a spiritual perspective. That's where it becomes so critical. We see things now from a spiritual perspective. And so no wonder he says in verse 14.

1 Corinthians 2:14 "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God," the natural man.

This word is kind of an interesting one. It's the word psuchikos. Psuchikos is the word here. And now it can be spelled in different ways because this is just an English transliteration of a Greek word here. I think I forgot the... Yeah, let me change this for just a second here. Get it closer to... Let's see. There we go, psuchikos. You can see this word psuche is in here which connects to this idea of wind, or air, or breath type of thing. But the psuchikos is something that connects with just looking at things from a natural, normal, physical perspective. And so he's emphasizing this. This normal, everyday human being, what's their perspective? They don't receive the things of the Spirit of God. And so when you're without God's Spirit, how do people view us? Here we are. We have God's Spirit. We've been given the blessings of a relationship with God. How does the world view us? Well, you guys are crazy. You're nuts. What are you doing? You're so out of touch with everything. Well, why? Why would that be? Well, because they're psuchikos. They're seeing things only from a normal, everyday physical perspective.

And we're told, as Paul says here, they don't get it. They can't even receive the things of the Spirit of God. And so they only see things from their senses. Because it's where psuchikos can even kind of connect to the sensual side of things. Not necessarily talking about the sexual side of things, but just from what you perceive with your senses, just the physical things that we hear or see, or that sort of thing. And so he's saying that's why they don't get it, because they don't have a connection with God. Instead, our perspective, verse 15.

1 Corinthians 2:15 "He who is spiritual judges all things, yet He Himself is rightly judged by no one."

And isn't that part of our calling? Now, because God's Spirit is working with us and because, you know, if we're baptized, we have God's Spirit in us, we actively submit to God's Spirit and we utilize God's Spirit to judge circumstances. We recognize situations. We evaluate. Well, we should be evaluating every aspect of our life, shouldn't we? And that's what he's getting at here, actively using God's Spirit to judge every aspect of our life, our thinking, our actions all come into play. And so as God's people, that should be something... We're not just doing this at Passover time, you know, where we say, "Examine yourself, you know, whether you're really into faith." Well, that's something that should be an ongoing process. It's not just a once-a-year kind of a thing. So, he says, "Yeah, that's what we should do. If we're spiritual, we should be judging all things. We should be discerning in our lives. "You know, is this of God or not? Is this something that is in line with the character of Jesus Christ? Is this something that, wow, I stepped out a lot? I better repent. I better change. I better go before God and ask for forgiveness. You see, those are the kinds of things that... He's saying, "This is what a Christian life is all about." We're not judging certain things, once in a while evaluating things. No. He says, "If we're spiritual, we judge all things." We all think...

And others looking at us really cannot evaluate things. You know, it's hard to do that. So, he says, "He's rightly judged by no one." Even though we as God's people are discerning, evaluating kinds of things, for somebody that doesn't have God's Spirit to properly evaluate us, doesn't work. They don't get it. They don't understand. So, he's emphasizing that very point. And then bringing us to understand with the power of God's Spirit, it does change our thinking. That should be the end result, that we are transformed in our thinking by God's Spirit. Verse 16 really emphasizes that point.

1 Corinthians 2:16 "Who has known the mind of the Lord that He may instruct him?"

Okay, nobody's on that level, right? Nobody can do that. Yeah. And, you know, do we understand every single aspect of why God does this or why God allows that, or that type of situation? You know, no. We don't know. You know, ultimately, we have to trust God that He's going to fulfill His promises and trust that whatever happens, whatever circumstances there are, whatever decisions that God allows or makes are on His level. And we have to trust Him in that.

But he concludes with this really critical concept. I mean, this is absolutely vital. We have the mind of Christ. We have access to Christ's mind. We have that opportunity to think like Christ thinks. How phenomenal is that? Hold your place here. We're told about that also in Philippians. Take a look at the beginning of the letter to the Philippians. Paul makes this point to them as he discusses our thinking. In Philippians 2, he connects this thought with our human spirit, combining with the Spirit of God. It changes the way we should view the world. It changes the way we should evaluate and judge ourselves. It should change the way we think. And that's the critical part. In verse 5, he gives us a, I suppose you could say, a new view. As converted individuals, we have to have this perspective.

Philippians 2:5 He says, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus so we can have this kind of thinking."

And that changes from my normal way of thinking. Any individual's average person, the way they consider, the way they look at life is totally changed now. We can have the mind of Christ. And, of course, doesn't take away our free choice. He says, "Let this mind..." We have to make that choice to allow God's mind to be in us. We have the ultimate choice and so we choose to do this. We choose to submit to God's Spirit and allow that mind to be in us. And so he emphasizes this point throughout chapter 2 here in Philippians, and it helps us to recognize that that's really evidence of conversion, is that we're thinking differently. We're not thinking the way we used to think. We're allowing God's way of thought to be in our minds, and we can have that kind of thinking. So, it's not just that we have the Spirit, that Spirit and submitting to that Spirit changes us. It changes the way we think. If we're going to change our life, you got to change the way you think because we recognize the fact that our thoughts are where everything begins. Where do our actions begin? It begins with our thinking. And so he emphasizes that very point.

In fact, if you're still nearby here before we go back to Corinthians, another interesting aspect of this way of thinking. Let's go to Romans. Go to the book of Romans for a second, near the end of the book in chapter 12. In Romans 12, here we see the impact of the Spirit of God in our lives and how that mind of Christ changes our entire perspective here. Romans 12, notice the way that he words it here.

Romans 12:2 He says, "Do not be conformed to this world." That's a world without the Spirit of God. "But be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."

How's that possible? By God's Spirit. By God's Spirit, it transforms us. It changes us. In fact, this word for transformation here is the word that is where we get our word morph from. We are morphing. We are changing. You've probably seen some of those videos, if you've ever watched on YouTube, how you have one person's face and then they morph into this other person's face, or seeing some with animals. They take a man's face and suddenly they turn into a lion, or a bear, or something by this morph. This is kind of the idea here, yet with our thinking. Here, we're just seeing life from a physical human perspective, but we can morph into the mind of Christ. Our mind can be changed and transformed. This is a similar word that we get the word metamorphosis from. Yeah, and like a metamorphosis, what do you think of when you think of the word metamorphosis? I think butterflies. Right? You think of butterflies. I do, anyway. All right. These caterpillars, they make a cocoon and they morph into a butterfly. Well, similar thing with our thinking, that we were one thing before just seeing things humanly. Now, it changes everything and we can be transformed into Godly thinking, Christ-like thinking. We can have His mind and then we prove the will of God.

That ties back, if you want to head back to 1 Corinthians 2:16, yeah, we have the mind of Christ. We can prove the will of God. We can rightly judge. We can spiritually judge all things. Yeah, what is the will of God? Is this God's will or not for my life? Is this the thing that I should be doing? Is this how I should be acting? All of those things then become available to us from a spiritual perspective because we have God's Spirit and now have access to the mind of Christ. And so what a powerful, powerful thought that he emphasizes here, that this is where the Corinthians need to go. They have not been allowing the mind of Christ to transform it. They have not been submitting to the Spirit of God. And so that's the overall point that he's making here. We don't want to miss that. Yeah, he's making some critical doctrinal statements here of how we can be spiritual. But overall, he's mentioning here, you Corinthians, you're kind of missing it. You're acting like everyday people rather than the people of God.

All right. Well, then that brings us, if you're back in 1 Corinthians, brings us into chapter 3. Chapter 3, remember, Paul's experience in Corinth, he knows these people. He's certainly very, very familiar with them. He's lived with them for a year and a half. He spent time with them, so he knows the brethren there. And he thinks back to that time that he was there, and he makes a couple of interesting points here as he begins chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3:1 He says, "And I brethren could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ."

And so how was their relationship? Was it at the ultimate spiritual level? He says, "Nope." It was down here on a carnal level. We talked about psuchikos and the breathing kind of natural being. This one puts it a little bit differently. This word for carnal is the word sarkikos. Sark meaning...it's the base word for like a body, for a human being. And so it ties in with being fleshly, being temporary, right? Bodies don't last. We grow up and we live and we die. We die. They're temporary.

And so the sarkikos ties in with the fact that this is fleshly. This is temporary. I couldn't speak to you on a spiritual level. I had to come down to you because you're like not only human beings but you're like little babies. In fact, the word for babes here literally means newborns. You're this little, tiny little baby that can't do much of anything for itself, nothing for itself. And so how does a person act when they don't submit to God's Spirit? Well, we've got sarkikos, fleshly, temporary. That's it. Apart from God's Spirit, that's where humanity is at. And Paul really is telling them, "This is where you're at." So, as I came to you, what do you do with little babies? What do you do with newborns? Well, I guess they really only do two things. They eat and you've got to change their diapers, right? That's about it. So, what does he talk about? He tells them that very thing.

1 Corinthians 3:2 "I fed you with milk and not with solid food. For until now, you were not able to receive it and even now, you're still not able."

Okay. They had to start out as little babies, and so he just gave them milk. They can't handle... In fact, this word for food here is the word broma. Broma, some translations translated it as meat. It's really not meat. It's not the Greek word for meat. The broma is just the general word for food, just that kind of general term. So, I couldn't give you food... So, yeah, all kinds of foods, this could be breads and anything that's solid. He uses that as a kind of delineating term. Couldn't give you grown-up food, right? The food that grown-ups eat. Yeah, couldn't give that to you because you couldn't take it. Yeah, you're a newborn, you're a baby. They don't eat that kind of stuff. And so he's telling them, okay, starting out that way. Well, everybody starts out that way, but you remain that way.

And spiritually speaking, he says, "Yeah, you're still not able to take it. You're still not able to take solid food. You're not growing spiritually the way that you should be." And so that's why he says, "I had to speak to you as carnal, just temporary." You know, you're little newborns that aren't able to take the spiritual direction that you should. You haven't really allowed God's Spirit to transform you. You're still the people you were when God initially started to work with you. And so, in a way, what's he telling the Corinthians? Time to grow up. It's time to grow up spiritually speaking, right? That's the goal. You have to utilize and submit to God's Spirit. This is kind of reminiscent of what's written back in the book of Hebrews. If you turn it with me over to Hebrews 5:12, here, we find a similar admonition to the Hebrews. They were in much similar situations that the Corinthians were in. And so see if this sounds vaguely familiar to what he just wrote to God's people in Corinth. This is in Hebrews 5, let's begin in verse 12.

Hebrews 5:12 It says, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God."

Here, by this time, the Hebrews should have been grown up spiritually. They should have been the ones to be able to convey the truths of God, the oracles of God, His Word, the Bible. They should have been able to explain those things.

But because they didn't submit to God's Spirit, because they didn't grow spiritually, he says, "Someone needs to teach you again." You've got to go back to kindergarten. The first principle, you've got to go learn your ABCs all over, spiritually speaking. Yeah. So, it's really similar to this idea. You're just a baby. We give you some milk, but you're not growing. You should be teachers by now, but no, you're not there.

Hebrews 5:13 It says, "You've come to need milk and not solid food." He says, "Everyone who partakes of only milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe."

Sounds pretty familiar to what Paul told the Corinthians. Yeah, you're just little newborns. You're just little babies. And instead of growing up and putting this word to work, hasn't done anything.

Hebrews 5:14 He says, "Solid food." That's that broma word again, food. "You're going to eat real food, grown-up food. It belongs to those who are of full age. That is, who by reason of their use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

So, this full age, of course, they're grown-up. They're mature. They're mature. They're not little babies anymore. And so they're judging things. Remember, he just got done saying in chapter 2, we judge everything. We discern everything through the lens of God's Spirit. What happens to those that are babies? Yeah, they're not doing that. They're not doing that. They're not discerning the things that are right and wrong, good and evil. They're not putting God's Spirit to use in that way. They're not submitting to it. So, by not doing that, they're not transformed. They're not growing up. They're not growing up spiritually speaking. And so no wonder Paul makes that point to the Corinthians that, you know, you're just still milk-eaters. That's all you're doing. You're just drinking the milk. You're not getting on to growing up and getting to real spiritual growth. And that's where you need to be.

So, does that set up the whole scenario? Well, no wonder you've got these issues. No wonder you've got problems because you're not utilizing the Spirit of God. And when we don't do that, then we're just dealing with things from a physical perspective. The Hebrews were doing that to some extent, and certainly, the Corinthians were as well. So, I head back to Corinthians for a minute because some of this is... I mean, Paul just lays it on the line. He's just telling it like it is. He's saying, "Listen, you're babies. You're babies and I had to deal with you like you were spiritual babies. You should be grown up, but you're not. And so because you're babies."

1 Corinthians 3:3 He says, "You are still carnal."

Ouch. Can you imagine? Here's people who are supposed to be converted individuals. He's talking to the church. Remember that. He's not talking to Corinthians that are just out there in the world. He's talking to the people who should be converted. He's talking to the baptized members of the church. You are still carnal. In other words, you're leaving God out of your lives. You're leaving God out of the picture. You're only thinking with your human aspects of your brain. If you do that, he says, "There's all kinds of other influences then. If you're not allowing God's Spirit to govern your thinking, if you're not judging all things, you are still carnal."

1 Corinthians 3:3 And so he says, "Where there are envy, strife, and divisions, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?"

So, it's not like, "Well, I just think you're doing these things." No, we can judge by the results. We can judge by their actions. What are they doing? Well, they're acting like people without God's Spirit. They're striving with each other. They're divided among themselves. He says, "They're jealous of each other." All of these attributes are evidence of the fact you're not submitting to God's Spirit. You're leaving God out of the picture. And so you're living like anybody else, like an ordinary sinful man. That's what he's saying here. You are carnal and you're behaving like anybody else.

Interesting thing is you think most of the Corinthians recognize that fact? No. Most of them didn't even get it. Paul's got to point this out to them. He's got to write this letter and try to get them back on track and point out all these various ways. They haven't been judging themselves. They haven't been aligning themselves with God's way. They haven't been judging right and wrong and good and evil, and then aligning their actions to match what God would will. And so instead, they've deceived themselves. They've kidded themselves. You ever notice that? We can be really good at deceiving ourselves. We can think that, "Wow, I've got just wonderful, godly motivation here," when in reality we're just selfish and we're just out for what we can get out of situations.

And so Paul's basically pointing that out. The best way to judge yourself, look at the actions. Look at the results. What are the results of what you're doing? If it's envy, and strife, and division, it's obvious you're not godly. You're not transformed. You're not submitting to the Spirit of God. God's Spirit does not produce those things. And so, what is being produced? Well, you're deceiving yourselves, thinking that you're so wonderfully attuned with God's way. You're such spiritual people. You judge yourself as being wonderful, and good, and righteous. And some of the problem was, "Well, I'm better than you. I'm a better Christian than you. I'm a better follower of God's way than you."

And so, Paul's going to give some specific examples of that very thing. All right. He's already pointed out envy and strife. He's pointed out divisions. All right. You want an example of how you deceived yourself, Corinthians? Here's how.

1 Corinthians 3:4 "When one says, 'I am of Paul,' and another, 'I am of Apollos,' are you not carnal?"

Aren't you just thinking from a human perspective, a temporary vision here? You're choosing upsides. Do you think this is a kickball game or something? No. No, you don't do that. This is evidence that you're just led by normal everyday human thinking and reasoning rather than being led by God's Spirit. Does God's Spirit leads to dividing up? Divide up the team. Here's team Apollos, here's team Paul. And I'm better because I'm Paul. He's the guy that came here and he lived here and he's the guy that taught us these things. Well, I'm of Apollos because he's so much better speaker and he's a wonderful example. No, that's the division that that kind of thinking brings.

What does God's Spirit bring? Unity. I mean, God's Spirit brings unity. It wouldn't be I'm of this guy or I'm of this. No, no. And so he's pointing out this very fact. No matter how justified you may think or reason around the truth, no matter what it is, these kinds of attitudes are unacceptable. Attitudes, words, actions that lead to division, wrong. Anything that leads to the separation of God's people, it's unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. It is not the result of God's Spirit. Division is not the result of God's... No matter how justified you may say, no matter how many reasons that you can come up with for dividing the body of Christ, wrong. Unacceptable. Separating God's people, Paul is telling us that's carnal, everyday human thinking. And it's not the will of God. Not the will of God at all. And so he emphasizes that point.

1 Corinthians 3:5 “Who is of Paul? Who is of Apollos?” Of course, this would never happen in our modern world, would it? Yeah, all too often. And so he points out, “Paul and Apollos, they are ministers through who you believed as the Lord gave to each one.”

Interesting here, he doesn't say that they're apostles. He says they're ministers, they're servants. They're diakonia, is the Greek word, diakonos is the base word. They're ministers. Same word that's used for deacons or deaconesses. They're attendants. Literally, the word comes from someone who waits on tables, somebody who waits on a table. So, interesting that Paul doesn't frame his service to the people, or Apollos for that matter, you know, as being these great spiritual leaders. He says, "Hey, we were servants. We came and we waited on tables," is the comparison that he's making. Yes, it certainly stands for a minister in the context we understand that. But you see what he's pointing out here? He's pointing out that we were just instruments in God's hands. We weren't doing this work. God's the one that was accomplishing this work.

And so no matter how impressive a human being may seem, or a minister, or how likable they are, or how wonderful a speaker they are, or any of those kinds of things, they're still just instruments in God's hands to accomplish the will of God. And so he's saying, "Don't get distracted by the instrument." That's not the thing. Focus on where it begins. It begins with God. God's the one. And so God is the one that gave. God is the one that we submitted to so that He could use us as His instruments. And so he really makes a strong point. Now he's not done yet. And he's going to emphasize this because this is a major issue in Corinth, that they were picking and choosing sides. They were dividing up the congregation. And it was unacceptable. Anything that led to that division was certainly something that they had to root out. Even if they felt they were justified by it, they had to get rid of that. And so we'll pick it up there and kind of recognize where Paul is going to lead and emphasize this point as he goes on here in chapter 3. So, we'll go ahead and take our break right now and we'll pick it up there in verse 6 next time.