Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo

1 Corinthians 3

Paul confronts factions by placing church leaders under God’s authority and identifying the congregation as God’s holy building.

Paul addresses believers in Corinth who are dividing into factions around Paul and Apollos. He calls their jealousy and strife signs of immaturity, then describes himself and Apollos as servants whose work depends on God. Moving from farming to building, Paul names Jesus Christ as the foundation and warns that each builder’s work will face testing. The congregation is God’s holy temple. Paul closes by rejecting human boasting and declaring that these believers belong to Christ.

leadership weightchurch hurtsermon or Bible study notes
Read
1Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.
2I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, you aren’t ready even now,
3for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?
4For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly?
5Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed, and each as the Lord gave to him?
6I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.
7So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
8Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.
10According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it.
11For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,
13each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is.
14If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward.
15If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.
16Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
17If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.
18Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”
20And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.”
21Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,
23and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
1 Corinthians 3:9This verse joins the farming and building images, placing both the workers and the congregation under God’s ownership.
1 Corinthians 3:16God’s Spirit dwells in the congregation, making its holiness central to Paul’s warning against those who destroy it.
1 Corinthians 3:18Paul exposes self-deception about wisdom, challenging the worldly standards that support the Corinthians’ boasting in leaders.
Where this chapter reaches

Ephesians and 1 Peter share the image of believers as a building belonging to God, with Christ central to its foundation and identity. Paul’s quotation about the Lord knowing the worthlessness of human reasoning connects with Psalm, reinforcing the contrast between human wisdom and God’s judgment.

1 Corinthians 3's chapter linksAll strongest linksHover or tap a book
Notice

After reading the whole chapter

How does Paul’s picture of planting and watering shape your view of church leaders?

Write on this

What questions does the testing of each builder’s work raise about your service in the church?

Write on this

Questions people ask about 1 Corinthians 3

What does God’s temple mean in 1 Corinthians 3:16?

Paul addresses the congregation together: the believers form God’s temple, and God’s Spirit lives among them. The surrounding building imagery and warnings about factions make the church’s shared life the focus. Verse 17 adds a severe warning against destroying this holy community, though Paul does not specify how that destruction occurs.

What does being saved through fire mean in 1 Corinthians 3:15?

Paul pictures a builder whose work burns up when tested on the Day of judgment. The builder suffers loss yet is saved. The fire tests the quality of work built on Jesus Christ. The passage distinguishes the worker’s salvation from the work’s survival; it does not describe the mechanics of an after-death purification.

What are milk and solid food in 1 Corinthians 3?

Milk and solid food picture teaching suited to different levels of maturity. Paul does not list which teachings belong in each category here. His stated evidence of the Corinthians’ immaturity is their jealousy, strife, and allegiance to rival leaders. Their divisions show that they remain unready for solid food.

Read it. Now write it.

Start an entry on 1 Corinthians 3. Your words go beside the text, and you get one next step for the week.

1 Corinthians · 16 chapters
12345678910111213141516

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).