1 Corinthians 3:1-9 ESV
“But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not being merely human?
“What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.”
Now today we might relate this to those who follow Arminianism or who adhere to Calvinistic doctrine. And please don’t ask me what those are for I never remember. But you can look them up. Basically they are theologies of men and of their biblical interpretations and leanings. Or we might relate this passage today to someone saying he is Baptist or Methodist or Presbyterian or Episcopalian or Church of God (charismatic) or whatever. And this can go to the issue of being followers of man in place of being followers of God and of his word, as led by the Spirit of God.
I can recall that years ago there would be people who would try to identify me with a particular church denomination to which I would respond that I was a Christian. But they weren’t satisfied with my response. For they thought that I had to be Baptist or Methodist, etc. And they would insist on it, for that was their upbringing that we had to be one of these. And then I have had people ask me about my theology, but I don’t adhere to a particular theology, but I just follow the Scriptures and what they teach. But did I use to identify myself with a particular church denomination? Yes, I did.
Now I used to teach women’s Bible studies, mostly in people’s homes, but some in “church” buildings, too. And this one time I was teaching on the deity of Christ, showing in the Scriptures where it taught that he was God and not just the Son of God. And this one woman tried to argue with me that Jesus wasn’t God but that he was only the Son of God, because that is what she thought she had been taught. But then she asked her dad who was a deacon in the church and he told her that Jesus is God, and she believed him.
But many times in these Bible studies I would ask questions and I would attempt to lead the women to learn from the Scriptures themselves and not to rely on what they were taught by another human. But, if what the Scriptures were clearly teaching was opposite of what their pastor was preaching, they would choose to believe their pastor and not the Scriptures, for they believed their pastors were God’s voice to them and that they were correct because they were ordained or because they went to seminary. And sadly that is instilled in many people of church denominations.
So, what is Paul saying here? For one, we are not to raise one servant of the Lord over another as though one is superior to the other unless one is clearly following the Lord and the other is clearly not being led by the Spirit but by the flesh and by the teachings of man. So, just because someone is a man, or he is a deacon or an elder in an institutional church, or just because he holds the title of “pastor” and because he went to Bible college and/or seminary, it doesn’t make him superior in biblical knowledge and in the wisdom of God to a woman or to someone who hasn’t gone to seminary.
For, no matter who we are, if we are followers of Jesus Christ, in truth, and if we are students of the Scriptures who are diligent in making certain that we correctly handle the word of truth, and who are not willfully teaching what is false, but who are adhering to the Scriptures and to the leading of the Spirit, then we are equal, i.e. one of us is not better than the other. And we should not follow one while rejecting the other. For we are all servants of the Lord doing what God has assigned us to do individually, walking in his power and strength. And he is the one who brings the increase, not us.
Now one of the dangers here is that people end up following personalities, and typically they are drawn to people who are more gregarious and witty and charming and who appear to be knowledgeable and who are smooth-tongued, and who know how to draw in large crowds of people from the world. But this isn’t always the case. And some people are drawn to credentials, i.e. if you have a Bible college degree or a seminary degree or if you are a reverend, etc., you tend to get more respect than someone who does not have credentials, and this shouldn’t be our criteria for godly or not.
So, Paul called this kind of thing of the flesh and representative of spiritual immaturity and an indication of professing Christians behaving in a human way rather than in a godly and spiritually mature way. And sadly, so much of what is called “church” here in America is largely of the flesh of man, and they are following after church denominations and theologies of men and personalities and credentials and marketing schemes, and most seem to not be following the Lord and his gospel message and the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
And so what is happening is that many professing Christians are following after lies and not the truth because they have put their faith and hope in other humans they admire, who they sometimes worship, and who have become God’s voice to them in place of God’s voice. And many of them are, thus, rejecting the truth of God’s word and of his gospel message because it doesn’t agree with what their pastor is teaching, or because it doesn’t agree with their church denomination or their biblical theology which they got from theologians of old (from dead men).
So, what is the lesson here for us? It is to be followers of God – Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit – and not followers of other humans, especially not based on worldly qualifications. We are not to be followers of church denominations nor of theologies of men nor should we be followers of personalities nor prejudicial against someone who doesn’t have all that worldly stuff. But we are to be followers of God who listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us in our spirits and who do not quench the Spirit by rejecting what is of God in favor of what is of man (of the flesh).
Testing the spirits: [Matthew 7:15-23; Matthew 24:11-14; John 10:1-15; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15; Philippians 3:2; 2 Peter 2:1-22; 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 1 Timothy 6:3-10; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 1 John 4:1-6; Jude 1:1-25]
Just a Closer Walk with Thee
Hymn lyrics by Anonymous/Unknown
Music by American Melody
“For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you” (2 Co. 13:4 NASB).
I am weak, but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I’ll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.
Through this world of toil and snares,
If I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares?
None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.
When my feeble life is o’er,
Time for me will be no more;
Guide me gently, safely o’er
To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Ks49apflE
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