[Steve Myers] Well, this is Epistles of Paul. We left off last time in 1 Corinthians 3. We had made the point that Paul was emphasizing to the Corinthians that the vision was unacceptable, that aligning themselves with different teachers was not evidence of God's Spirit. And so anything that separates God's Spirit or God's people is not of God's Spirit. And so he's pointing that out under the perspective of some people who were aligning with Paul, and some people who were aligning with Apollos. And he makes this point pretty strongly. If you take a look at 1 Corinthians 3:6, he shows how God is the one who is accomplishing the work, whether it be through Paul or through Apollos.

1 Corinthians 3:6 So he says, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase."

And so he talks about... In a sense, he's talking about this conversion process, that they played a part in that, but they were simply tools in God's hands, that ultimately, God's the one. God's the one that gave the increase. God's the one that calls. God's the one that opens our minds. Yes, He utilized Paul and Apollos in that process, but who gets the credit? Well, God gets the credit. And as you think about this example, does it bring other situations to mind, when he talks about planting and watering and growing? Maybe it brings to mind one of the Parables of Christ. Christ used this same analogy in a little bit more detail. If you want to take a look really quickly at Luke 8, if you go back to the Gospels, in Luke 8 it records for us Christ using a similar kind of a comparison here. And in this example, he doesn't just talk about watering and planting, but he uses the example of a sower and the seed, someone who is planting seed.

Luke 8:5-8 "A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trampled down, the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on the rock, and soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. Some fell on the thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up and yielded a crop a hundredfold."

And so here Christ uses this same type of a metaphor of a sower, as Paul and Apollos were the sowers. They were the ones getting that seed out there. Apollos watered, Paul was the planter, the sower, but ultimately, who gets the credit? Well, God gets the credit. God gets the credit. And so Christ, using this analogy, Paul kind of borrows from that idea as he talks about how he and Apollos were used in that same process that Christ was describing. And of course, then that takes away from the idea that, well, the one who was the sower is of ultimate importance, or the one that was the waterer should be given all this great credit for doing their job. Well, wait a second. If nobody planted the seed, what good would it be to be the waterer? It wouldn't matter at all, would there? You know, if there wasn't... Let's say you're the planter, you're the sower, you plant all the seed and no water comes, what great credit should you get? Eh, that doesn't help. And so ultimately, he points to God being the one, and so the growth then comes from God.

And so we begin to realize, and he's pointing this out to the Corinthians here, all of the work that we do, all the effort that we put into this, unless God is behind it, it doesn't mean anything. It's not going to really produce the kind of growth that He wants. And so go back to Corinthians here, if you go back to 1 Corinthians 3:7, he makes the strong point here.

1 Corinthians 3:7 He says, "So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase."

So in a way he's saying let's always keep the proper perspective here, that God is the one that's most important. No matter how wonderful a job we may do, God's the one who gets the credit, so have that kind of proper perspective as well. It's also interesting to think about the fact that here we are in Corinth, and we've described Corinth as this harbor city, merchants coming through all the time, some of the value that came because of the Roman road that came through, and being able to ship things all through the empire because of the strategic location of Corinth. There is something that kind of ties in with this example that he uses as well, and I can't help but think he probably has it in the back of his mind. I mean, there were some specific things that Corinth was famous for. We talked in our introduction about Corinthian marble as one of those things that even today is really prized.

But there was something that had to do with agriculture that ties in with this example, that Paul uses here as like a farmer, one who waters and one who plants. Corinth was known for what we might call black currants, or little, tiny, small grapes. In fact, they're called corinths. Corinths, these little... You can go to Jungle Jim's and buy them if you want. Sometimes in America we call them Zante currants. Zante currants. They take these little, teeny little grapes, they're seedless grapes, and most often they'll dry them out so they're raisins. They're little raisins. Sometimes they're called Corinthian raisins. And they're really...they're not really a black currant. They're kind of known as that, but black currants are kind of more sour, but these are really, really sweet, really tasty. And so they are corinths. They are these little currants that we might usually call them in America. But Corinth was known for that, and even today they still produce them. They only come... Well, you can get them from different areas, but this area of Greece was known for that.

And so I can't help but think that was probably something that Paul had in mind, because this is something you do in Corinth, you grow these wonderful little grapes, and you produce them, and you ship them throughout the empire. But somebody's got to plant, somebody's got to water, and why do they grow? And so he's making this spiritual analogy between these things. And so it's interesting. If you want to ever study the etymology of the word, currant comes along in the Middle Ages, during the medieval times, and it's really kind of a version or a corruption of the word Corinth, and so Corinth was known for that, so no wonder he kind of ties in this farmer planting kind of idea here in Corinthians, for the Corinthians. So go on to verse 8 then, he emphasizes this point.

1 Corinthians 3:8 "Now he who plants and he who waters are one." Yeah, they both want the same results. They want these beautiful Corinthian raisins to be the result. And it says, "Each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor."

So is the goal our personal, you know, recognition about how great we are? Or is the goal what's produced? You see for the farmer, it's the crop. It's the crop that's produced. And so, yes, we're contributors to the spiritual crop, and when we have a unified purpose, then the result can come about. And he says, okay, well, is there a reward? Well, yeah. The farmer can harvest the corinths, and sell them, and there's a profit in that. Spiritually speaking, there is as well.

And so here it seems that he kind of emphasizes, and maybe even takes off a little bit on the example of Christ, Christ used that example of the sower and the seed. Christ also used the one of someone doing the father's will, doing the master's will, a servant who accomplishes the things that he should. You might just make a note of Luke 12:47, Christ uses that example of a servant who does his Master's will, one that does and one that doesn't. In fact, that's that parable that he uses that I know you're familiar with. It's the one where he says, "To the one that much is given, much is required." Yeah, that's it. That's it. And so Paul, in a sense, plays off of that analogy and that parable as well here as he talks about that, "Each one will be rewarded according to his own labor." It doesn't matter what anybody else does, you know, what is my intent? What is my purpose? And so Paul points that out here. And collectively, together, as Corinthians or as God's people today, as God's people today, notice what he says in verse 9, then.

1 Corinthians 3:9 He says, "We are God's fellow workers." Yeah, we're all farming together, you might say. We're spiritual farmers, we're fellow workers. "You are God's field, you are God's building."

And so as fellow workers he says, all right, together we're in this, collectively we're in this. God does the growing part, but collectively we are co-workers with each other. No matter what our responsibilities are, no matter what our job titles may be, we're in this together. We are all servants of God. We're all in it for spiritual growth. We want to become like Jesus Christ, and so we are God's fellow workers. That frames it pretty specifically, doesn't it? No, Paul isn't on his own, Apollos isn't on his own, Peter's not on his own, we're all in this together. You as a congregation are in it together. We're all God's co-workers, you might say, we're all servants of God.

And then here in this verse, we see he begins to take a little bit of a turn, doesn't he? He's been using this example of the farmers planting and watering, now he says, "You are God's building." So he switches up the analogy a little bit to change it to the construction of a building, and he'll use this example to also show how the Church should be growing. And so notice this kind of change in direction, this change in his example that he uses here, and he starts a different analogy.

1 Corinthians 3:10 “According to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder.” Okay, now I'm not the planter, now I'm a master builder. He says, “I have laid the foundation.” How could Paul say that? Well, he's the one that showed up in Corinth. He's the one that God brought to Corinth. He taught them the truth. He brought the gospel to them, the plan of God. That's the foundation. He says, “And another builds on it,” he says, “but let each one take heed how he builds on it.”

And so here he points out that this analogy of a builder has to be on the foundation. That's where buildings start. That's what's so absolutely critical to the strength of a good structure, is that it's got to have the right foundation, and it's got to be a strong foundation. And so that becomes absolutely critical. Of course, we were noticing how Paul is using the Parables of Christ to kind of build on, you know, and whether it's that example of the sower and the seed, or whether it's the example of a good steward, you know, that does his master's will, does this remind you of another one? Hold your place here. I'll turn back to this one. In Matthew 7:24 is where Christ makes a similar connection here. In Matthew 7, notice the connection that Christ makes here toward the end of the chapter here. In 7, he's kind of wrapping up some of these teachings that began with the Beatitudes, and he makes this connection that ties in with what Paul was saying about the wise master builder.

Matthew 7:24 “‘Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.’”

You think Paul got his idea about a master builder maybe from this? Yeah, very possible. Very possible. So the wise man builds his house on what kind of foundation? One that's not going anywhere. One that's rock solid. It's built on the rock. He says, "The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall because it was founded on the rock." So that wise master builder that Paul talks about builds on the rock, builds on an absolutely sturdy foundation.

But on the other hand, Christ says, verse 26.

Matthew 7:26 "Everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them..."

Well, could that apply to some of the Corinthians? And maybe Paul's bringing up this point to think back to Christ's example, what Christ taught. You Corinthians, are you on the rock, or have you got a shaky foundation here?

Matthew 7:27 He says, "You hear these sayings of mine, but you don't do them, you'll be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rains descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall."

And so Paul is certainly helping the Corinthians to recall this teaching of Christ, that as God's fellow workers, we'd better build as wise master builders, not just an apprentice, right? You don't want to be just the new kid on the block, you know, in construction here, you'd better be a wise master builder.

So you head back to Corinthians, we see that emphasized here in Paul's teaching for them, that we have to be wise master builders. Yeah, Paul himself was pointing out he needed to be. I'm the master builder that built this foundation for you. Now you've got others that are building on it, but you've got to be careful how you build. So this applies to ministry, but I think we can also see how it applies to all of us. If we aren't strong in our foundation, it doesn't matter how hard we work, how much we strive, yeah, it's still on the sand, and when the waves come in, and the rains come, it's all going to fall apart. And so we recognize that, that great fall that Christ described brings to mind that fact that he emphasizes, verse 11.

1 Corinthians 3:11 He says, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.”

And so there's the foundation. If our foundation isn't in Christ, we need a savior. We need forgiveness of sin. It only happens through Jesus Christ. That's all there is. And so this needs to be the starting point of everything we do spiritually. Without Christ we have no hope. Without His sacrifice, we have no forgiveness. Without His crucifixion and resurrection, there is no eternal life for us. So it has to start at this foundation. There is no other, none whatsoever. And so he points that out, and the Corinthians were getting off track. They were getting off track. They weren't remembering what Christ Himself taught, what Paul taught them. They were missing the point. And so they've got to have that foundation. Don't think you can build on any other one. And so we see that problem in Corinth.

Verse 12 then, as the starting point of everything we do, he's saying, don't look to the world, don't look to some private teacher, don't look to anything but to Christ, which kind of brings us back to where Christ said, you know, "What did I speak among you," you know, I was focused on Christ. I was focused on Christ. That's what my focus was. And so now he says, verse 12.

1 Corinthians 3:12 "If anyone builds on this foundation, this foundation of Christ, this rock, the rock of Christ," he says, "If you build on that foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw..."

So he lists all these building materials, and you see you start with, you know, the most expensive one first, and kind of work your way down, do you notice that, as he's going along? Yeah, you can build with any kind of materials, here's all examples, physical examples, and he's using this physical to tell a spiritual principle here.

Yeah, you can build on a foundation with any kind of building materials, and any of these really can probably look pretty good for a while. And there are some pretty amazing things you can do with hay and with straw, you can build a pretty good roof with some of those materials, can't you? Yeah. Yeah, you can. It could be good for a while. But it has to last. It has to last.

1 Corinthians 3:13 And so he emphasizes that point as he says, "Each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it because it's revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is."

So don't be so reliant on Paul or Peter or Apollos, you better build on the rock, and you better use the best building materials. The most spiritually-oriented perspective is what we need to have, because it's going to be recognized, you know? Is it just something that's going to get burnt up, that isn't going to last, or is it something of spiritual value? And so here he says, "The day will declare it." Now in some translations, you might see they've capitalized the word "Day." Is "Day" capitalized in your version? I think King James, New King James does. Not all the versions capitalize that particular word. It could be a reference to the day of the Lord, to the time of Christ. Certainly, yeah, things are going to be revealed at that time, no doubt about it. But there's a problem if we only relegate it to that, because who is going to be there, where works will become clear? Well really, only the ones that are alive at that time, right? If you're alive at that time, either you're going to be resurrected or not, and then it's going to become clear.

And so here it would seem that it's probably using it in more of a general kind of a term, that whether you're alive at the end time doesn't matter, your individual works are going to be tested along the way. You're going to go through personal challenges. You're going to have to stand for the truth throughout your life, no matter when you live, in order to have it revealed. And so I think in a sense, this is probably talking more in a general type of a thing, rather than only referring to the Day of the Lord, and so it applies to everybody, that everybody's work is going to be tested, everyone in their application of God's truth in their life.

Isaiah prophesied about that as well. He talked about the fact that God refines us. He refines us in the fire, and he tests us. So you might just make a note of Isaiah 48:10 mentions that very thing, that kind of ties into this very thing, that, yeah, you Corinthians, you can kid yourself. You can feel that you're wonderful Christians, and you're applying God's way, and you are true followers of Apollos or Peter or Paul, but he says it's going to become evident. It's going to become evident whether or not you're really built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:!4 "If anyones work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyones work is burned, he'll suffer a loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."

Yeah, so here he makes this point, build with spiritual building tools. That's what we need to do. And if you allow God to do that work through you, then that's going to help you through the trials, that's going to help you through the testing. And ultimately, he talks about the fact there will be a reward. If your work is burned, if it's the hay and the straw, it's probably going to get burned up, it's not going to be valuable, God's going to provide you the materials you need to grow, the things that you need to overcome, but is He going to force you to do it? Is He going to force you to be spiritual? Is He going to make you? No, He's not going to. You have to choose that. You have to provide the motivation to utilize the things that you've been given.

And so ultimately, he points that out, that yes, there is a reward. There is a reward that's there. You can't earn salvation, but certainly there are rewards that God gives. And so he points that out as well, if these things endure, there is a reward. And it's not earning the Kingdom of God. That's a gift. God gives us the Kingdom. We can't earn our way into the Kingdom of God. But if we build on a spiritual foundation, there are rewards for the things that we have done, enduring trials, overcoming, service, all of those types of things. We'll talk more about that as he deals with the Corinthians a little bit farther along in the letter as well.

So overall, he's stressing that major point, that things are going to come clear. And don't kid yourself into thinking you're spiritual when you're not. They were hampered by division, and the differences that divided them, they were fooling themselves. And so he's reminding them, and certainly us by extension, that we have to be about our Father's business. And look at this connection that he makes with the building. We talked about the farmer analogy, now the building analogy, here's a specific building he compares us to. Not just a house, not just an office building, but now, what's the comparison lead to?

1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God?” Boy, that's a very specific building. Not any old building, no, you're the temple of God, “and that the Spirit of God dwells in you.”

So now he's taking that analogy to the next level. You're not just a house, you are the temple of God. You're the temple of God. You're to be a spiritual building, right? And look at that connection. That's kind of an interesting one, because he'd been telling them, oh, you're carnal, you're fleshly, you're babies. Yeah, you're looking at things from a human's perspective. Now babies are just a house, but grown-ups are a temple. Grown-ups are spiritual. And so he's keeping that same idea going here, and showing that's the kind of building we need to be.

In fact, it's kind of interesting here, he uses this word, "You are the temple of God." It doesn't come across in English in the way it was initially intended here, it does a little bit better in the Old King James version. In the Old King James, it uses the word "ye," "Ye are the temple of God," and that "ye" is plural. It's a plural of you. It doesn't come across in English here, but this is all of you. Or we Southerners would say y'all, right? Y'all are the kingdom of...or the temple of God, all of you. So this is the collective, the plural you. Sometimes they call it the royal you, you know, in grammar. The royal, this is all of you. So he's telling Corinth, the collective body of Christ, you as a congregation, the Church, telling us the Church as a whole is the body or the temple of God. And so he really emphasizes that's the kind of building that we need to be, and so every part is vital, that the structure of the temple, in this case, is going to be secure, and it's going to be solid.

And of course that brings back, especially if you were a good Jew who now was converted in Corinth, would that bring back certain thoughts and maybe images to mind, when he brings up the the Temple of God? Oh, your thoughts would immediately go back to Jerusalem, and immediately go back to the Temple Mount and the Temple of God. At this time, guess what? That temple was still standing. It was still standing. They were still doing sacrifices at the temple. The Jews were still carrying those things on at this time. They would have thought of that, and most likely thought back to the time of Solomon, and Solomon's temple, when the glory of God filled that temple. No record that it did that in that last temple at the time of Christ. No, at Herod's temple, don't have that as an example. But Solomon's temple, absolutely.

And so, I imagine their thoughts would have went to that. You're the temple of God. The temple of God was filled with the Spirit of God. His presence was there. And so you, as a collective body of believers, you are that temple now. You house the Spirit of God. He just got done pointing out that we've got to submit to God's Spirit, to be unified, and as a building, that points to that very fact. So the importance of everybody becomes critical, which is pretty reminiscent of what he writes to the Ephesians. If you want to turn, and hold your place here and turn over to Ephesians 2, he makes this similar connection here in Ephesians 2, if we begin in verse 21... Well, let's go back just a little bit before that, verse 20, here he uses the same analogy of a building, but not just any old building. Here you can see the same connection to being the temple of God.

Ephesians 2:20-22 He says, "Build on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone." So there we've got that image of the rock we're built on. He says, "In whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."

And so here he's emphasizing that very fact, that we house God's Spirit individually, we receive God's Spirit in us at baptism, but collectively we house the Spirit of God. We are the temple of God. We are joined and fit together perfectly, and we're to be that holy temple of God. And so he's emphasizing their calling, and so we recognize that very fact, and we can know, we can know that we are the temple of God because he points out some of those very things as we consider what he writes about. So make your way back to 1 Corinthians 3 for a moment, because he's going to emphasize how we can know it, how we collectively can know it, how we can individually know that God's Spirit dwells in us as we're to be this spiritual house.

1 Corinthians 3:17 He says, "If anyone defiles the Temple of God, God will destroy him," he says, "for the Temple of God is holy, which temple you are."

So once again, he uses that royal you, that's all of us. That's y'all. That's ye, right, "You are," all of you are. Now, what would that tell a Corinthian who says, well, I'm with Paul, or I'm Apollos? No, we're all in this together. We can't think that we're better than someone else. And there was certainly, we're going to see as we work through the letter to the Corinthians, there were all kinds of different individuals from different social status. You had the richy-rich, and you had the very poor, you had the slaves that were also church members. Well, were some better than others? Well, you kind of think that way if you only look from a human perspective. But here, this is a pretty startling statement to tell them, listen, we don't have any social castes, not that way in the Church. All of us are a part of the Temple of God. We comprise the Temple of God. And if we defile that temple, just like, you know, in ancient times if the temple was defiled, that person would be cast out. And so here he uses the word, "God will destroy him, for the Temple of God is holy, which temple you are."

And so this word for destroy, yeah, it can literally mean to be just...it can mean destruction, it can sometimes be translated punishment, which of course he's saying nobody's exempt. Nobody's exempt for this. It doesn't matter what your heritage is, it doesn't matter if you're a Jew or Gentile, it doesn't matter if you're educated, or you know, ignorant, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, rich or poor, none of those kinds of things. We all live by the same standard, the standard of God. And so God preserves His holiness of the temple, you know, and God delineates between what is pure and what is impure. And so when it comes to this, he says God's going to destroy the defiler. And so ultimately, that is the fate. That is the fate which seems then probably to infer, you know, ultimately eternal destruction. The fact that those who will not change, those who will not recognize God, will not accept Christ as their savior, will not submit to God ultimately will be destroyed because they'll defile the Temple of God.

And so, yeah, that's a pretty stark warning, a pretty stark warning for all of us, you know? Do we defile the Temple of God? God demands purity. God demands purity. And so, you know, I know you've been learning about the priesthood as you've been beginning to go through some of the earlier sections of the Bible, certainly purity was absolutely required. And whether it was in the priests as they prepared themselves to serve God, whether it was in the sacrifice, purity was absolutely required, and so God's going to preserve the holiness of his temple. And of course, the Corinthians, this must have felt kind of like a pretty shocking statement, you know, to apply this standard to them. And you kind of can see that, as you look at what he says next in verse 18.

1 Corinthians 3:18 He says, "Let no one deceive himself."

Now, whenever I see those kinds of passages in the Bible, I think that should cause us to pause for a minute. You know, Christ said similar things many times. Even in Matthew 24, when He's going through the scenario of end times, He said, you know, be careful that no one deceives you. Well, what does that mean? What does it mean when He said, "Let no one deceive you?" It means this is absolutely possible, you could be taken in. You could be fooled. Don't fool yourself, because this is possible. Don't put it outside the realm of possibilities here. Don't fool yourself. Don't let others fool you.

1 Corinthians 1:18 He says, "If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise."

And so it is kind of interesting, if we really dissected the Greek here, this "Let no one deceive himself" seems to carry the connotation not only watch out, or be careful, or don't be fooled, it seems, and some of the more modern translations even translate it this way, it really carries a connotation of stop fooling yourselves. Stop deceiving yourself. You're already being deceived, so knock it off. Stop letting yourself be deceived. And of course when you see with human eyes, and from a human perspective, that happens. Some seem really smart. Some seem really on the ball. Well, wait a second. You think you've got your act together? He says, "Become a fool that you may become wise."

Now, that ties back into some of the things he said before, you know, not many wise men are called, not many noble, right? So that ultimately, God gets all the credit. So here, he's making that point. Reject the ways of the world, reject its thinking, reject its wisdom, and live by God's perspective. Live by Godly wisdom. Submit to God's Spirit. And so, yeah, does that mean sometimes we're going to look pretty foolish? Sometimes. Oh, you don't believe in evolution? What's wrong with you? Don't you know science has proved this? How can you be such an idiot? Yeah, you're going to look like a fool sometimes. You really believe in God? How can you do that? Yeah, people are going to think, you know, we're ignorant. They're going to think we're foolish We have to be willing to look that way now.

Now, it's not true. It's not true. But that's from that human perspective. So we believe in Creation. Yeah, that's pretty foolish to some people, right? They think that's ridiculous. And so when you consider those kinds of things, yeah, do we look foolish in the world's eyes? Wow, we believe that men should be men, and women should be women. You think that's a big deal today? Yeah. Do they think we're crazy? Yeah, they're looking at us like we're nuts. Yeah, we may look foolish in their eyes. Okay, "Become a fool that you may become wise," because that is the Godly perspective, and it is true. Even though the world may make fun of it, and think we're ridiculous, this is the truth. So we can't try to fit in when it comes with those kinds of things. The reality is they may accuse us of these things, but that's God's perspective.

And so no matter what they say, or what they do, or their perspective may be, we don't want to fool ourselves and try to fit in in that regard. So yeah, not many noble, not many wise according to the ways of this world, so we've got to keep that Godly perspective in things. Then he says, verse 19, he has a quotation here.

1 Corinthians 3:19 He says, "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it's written, 'He catches the wise in their own craftiness.'"

Catches the wise in their own... You think you're so smart? You're going to get trapped. You're going to get trapped. So he uses this quotation, this is from Job 5:13. Job 5:13, it may read a little bit differently in your Bible, it seems like this is a quotation from the Septuagint, from the Latin version of the Bible, which kind of shows Paul's education, right? This seems to be a quotation from the Septuagint, from Job 5, yeah, "The wise will be caught in their own craftiness." Their craftiness...

And that's an interesting one too, because crafty is kind of connected to being deceitful, more of a trickery kind of thing. And of course, when you think of who is cunning, and who is deceitful, and who is tricky, and ready to do anything it takes to fool us? I mean, certainly think of Satan's influence. Yeah, you're going to get caught up in these things, he says. And then again, he has another quotation. This one is from the Psalm, Psalm 94:11 here.

1 Corinthians 3:20 It says, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile."

He knows our thinking. God understands our thoughts. He understands the way we reason through things, right? He knows out opinions, He knows out decisions, He understands everything about us. He is all-knowing, He is omniscient, He knows everything. And you think you're wise? You think you're so smart? You think you've got your act together? He says, that's useless thinking. That's useless thinking. It kind of takes us back to Ecclesiastes, vanity, vanity, all is vanity. Yeah, it's useless. It's useless to think that you're going to get somewhere just by your own human abilities. So at the conclusion, then, he says in verse 21.

1 Corinthians 3:21 "Therefore let no one boast in men."

No one boast, so that's the conclusion. The conclusion of the matter is that no Christian should take heart in that fact that, wow, I am so wise, or I'm so smart, or I've attained these wonderful things, or I've done these amazing things. And don't attribute that to either Paul, or Apollos, or any of these other guys. Don't put your trust in those human aspects of things. And so we have to be careful about that. He says, no, that's not where our focus should be.

Oftentimes, he'll...Paul will use the word "cosmos" to talk about the world, the world itself, the cosmos, which generally carries this negative connotation that this process of living and dying, and those types of aspects, all of it has to be viewed from God's perspective, what is His purpose, what is His plan? And when we do that, that changes our way of thinking. And so then he says, "For all things are yours." All things are yours. Well, what does he mean by that? You know, don't boast in men, don't put your trust in others, you can trust God...things are yours.

Or in other words, think about the Creation. Everything that God created, everything that God has done, what's the purpose of those things? Did He create things for our detriment? Did He create things to trip us up, and keep us from trusting in Him? You know, that was the Greek gods. They did a lot of that. The Roman gods did the same thing, tried to trip up human beings, and make it more difficult for them. No, God's not like that. So he's saying, "All things are yours." Everything that God created, in other words, is ultimately for your benefit. It's for your good. It's for your benefit.

And so he points that out, and he ties that into the construction of this building, this spiritual temple that we're to become, that we all have a part to play in it. We all have a vital part in the building, the building can't be the building without all of us. And whether Paul was the one who came and initiated your faith, whether Apollos was the one that came along and continued to preach, he points out that together, together we are the building. And so he says that very fact in verse 22.

1 Corinthians 3:22 Notice what he says, "Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas," or Peter, "or the world, or life or death, or things present or things to come, all are yours."

So that idea, once again, that God created all these things, God utilized these different individuals ultimately for our benefit, for all of us, that we can all profit spiritually from these things. So what was behind Paul's service? God was. What was behind Apollo's service? God was. What about Peter? Same thing. Same thing. They were all empowered for the service of the Church, to benefit the Church by God. And so we are as well, all of us, all of us as members. And as members of the Church, we all have a part in that. We all have, I guess you could say, a piece of that service, that we benefit from Paul's teachings, we benefit from Christ's teachings, we benefit from Peter's teachings. And so all of that is ours. All of that is ours, and ultimately God intended it that way so we can be this spiritual building. And so ultimately, the ultimate connection here, verse 23, as he concludes this thought.

1 Corinthians 3:23 He says, "And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

And so that even helps us then, don't center on some individual. Don't center on a Peter, or a Paul, or an Apollos, or anything like that. Yeah, even though all things are for our benefit, where's our center? Where do we focus? Well, he says it's Christ, and then ultimately, all things belong to the Father. Ultimately, they all belong to God. And so that kind of frames this amazing spiritual temple that God has called us to, and to fulfill our part in that temple, and so we've been given duties and responsibilities.

We'll talk more about that as we continue through the book of 1 Corinthians, that each one of us have a vital part to play. We read a little bit about that in Ephesians, Paul talks quite a bit about every one of us as different parts of the body have a critical function. And so when we get finally to chapter 12, we'll talk more about that. So we'll have to remember this, and this idea of we're all in this together as an important point that Paul is making in order to unify the body of Christ, because that was one of the chief problems with Corinth, was division. So we'll pick it up with chapter 4 next time.