1 Corinthians 3

1 Corinthians 3:1

And I, brethren, although I was furnished with all manner of spiritual gifts, and was able to have revealed to you the highest mysteries, yet when I was among you I could not think fit to treat so with you, the greatest part of you being then but very slender proficients in the gospel, so far from spiritual men, (as some of you, the Gnostics, are wont to style themselves,) from men instructed by the Spirit of Christ, that you were gotten no higher than the imperfections and passions and sins of men, mere beginners in Christianity.

1 Corinthians 3:2

This was the reason that I gave you such tender food, proceeded not to reveal the mysteries of Christianity to you, for you were not fit for any higher diet, nor indeed yet are ye.

1 Corinthians 3:3

For ye are not yet raised to any pitch of spiritual or Christian temper, as may appear by the schisms and factions that are among you, which being so contrary to the commands of Christ, which are all for peace and charity, as long as they are among you, ye are advanced but little above the pitch of mere men, those which have nothing of spirit in them.

1 Corinthians 3:4

And herein your carnality consists: one pretends to follow the doctrine of Paul, another of Apollos, in opposition to all other Christians, and they that hold with one hold against the other. And what is this uncharitableness but carnality?

1 Corinthians 3:5

Where first it ought to be considered, that Paul or Apollos are not the authors of our faith, but only instruments of conveying the doctrine of Christ to us (and consequently must not be conceived to teach diverse doctrine) according to the different commissions given them by the Holy Ghost.

1 Corinthians 3:6

And so though I have taught you the doctrine of Christianity, and made you believers of heathens, and * Apollos baptized you, when you had been thus

¹⁹ which shall instruct him. the King’s MS. reads ἄνθρωποι.

¹ ye were not then able, οὕτω ἰδύνασθε. ² Or, men: for according to man, κατὰ ἄνθρωπον.

• Ego de pagano catechumenon foci, Apollo catechumenon baptizavit.—Optat.

1 Corinthians 3:7

And therefore there is no great matter imputable either to one or other, as that either of us should be deemed the author of your faith, but God only who hath made our endeavours so effectual to you.

1 Corinthians 3:8

But then, secondly, the doctrine of both of us is but one, both of us have had the same design and purpose of settling men in the doctrine of Christ, though, according to the labour that either of us have taken in the work, we may have different degrees of reward; and, consequently, though one labourer may deserve more honour than another, yet ought not this to be an occasion of division or schism among you, because our design and doctrine being the same, your faith ought to be the same also.

1 Corinthians 3:9

We indeed that preach, and they that baptize, are both servants or officers of God, and cooperate one with another in that great work of dressing and building up of souls, which, when it is wrought, must not yet be attributed to us the instruments, but only to God, the author and perfecter of all.

1 Corinthians 3:10

God gave me abilities and commission to plant and preach the gospel, to do as the master-workman doth, to lay the foundation; and accordingly I have done, preached the faith, laid the foundation, Jesus Christ and him crucified, ch. ii. 2, and some others that came after me to this church which I had planted, ver. 6, (I mean not Apollos, for he only watered what I had planted, baptized and further instructed whom I had converted, ch. i. 5, 6, 7, but) some others, I say, which I hear have come in, have superstructed on my foundation somewhat which I never designed. But let them take heed what they do; for if they have superstructed any other but that one pure precious doctrine of Christ crucified, and constant confession of him in time of persecution, if from the Gnostics they receive any infusions contrary to these, let them look to it.

1 Corinthians 3:11

For the faith of Christ being the foundation which I have laid, and that indeed the only one which can possibly be laid,

• but, &c.

1 Corinthians 3:15

But if it prove combustible matter, if the doctrine or practice shall upon examination prove false and unchristian, and so will not bear that trial, (such are the Gnostics’ doctrines of denying Christ when persecuted,) it shall then be so far from helping him to any advantage, as the Gnostic complier hopes it will, that it shall bring the greatest danger upon him; and if upon timely repentance, or by his not having actually denied Christ, (for all his superstructing of some erroneous doctrines,) he be more mercifully dealt with by Christ, and freed from having his portion with unbelievers, yet it shall go hard with him, as with one that is involved in a common fire, and hardly escapes out of it.

[a] he shall suffer loss] Of the word ζημιωθήσεται here it may first be inquired, whether it belong to the man or to his work, both immediately precedent, εἴ τινος τὸ ἔργον, if any man’s work. That which inclines it to signify the work is the αὐτὸς δέ that follows, but himself

1 Corinthians 3:16

For who can be imagined to know more of God’s mind than he doth who is informed by the Spirit, that so he should teach him God’s mind? Certainly nobody. And consequently nobody can teach you more of the truth of God than we (to whom Christ hath revealed his whole will as far as concerns any man to know) have or are able to do.

AND I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, eren as unto babes in Christ.

By this that I say you cannot but discern what care you are obliged to take, to beware of these false seducing teachers that creep in among you: you are a church of God’s plantation, built as the temple among the Jews, God’s direction given for every part of it; ye have had the Spirit of God to teach you all true doctrine and pure practices by your apostolical

[b] For who hath known the—] That this is a citation from Isa. xl. 13 there is no question, as also that the first words, Τίς γὰρ ἔγνω νοῦν Κυρίου; For who hath known the mind of the Lord? are set down, after this apostle’s manner, out of the Septuagint. Now the same apostle citeth that place again, Rom. xi. 34, and there in the latter part also sets down the Septuagint’s words, καὶ τίς αὐτοῦ σύμβουλος ἐγένετο; and who hath been his counsellor? which words being not here read, but to τίς γὰρ ἔγνω τὸν νοῦν τοῦ Κυρίου, these other immediately subjoined, δὲ συμβιβάσει αὐτόν; who shall instruct him? there will be no reason to think these latter words to be another rendering of that second part of the verse in Isaiah. For when the Septuagint had translated it truly out of the Hebrew, why should the apostle, who constantly useth the Septuagint’s translation, and that sometimes when that varies from the Hebrew, here use a new rendering of his own, and for καὶ τίς αὐτοῦ σύμβουλος ἐγένετο; who hath been his counsellor? set only δὲ συμβιβάσει αὐτόν; who shall instruct him? For this there is no probable reason to be given; and therefore it must be resolved, that no more than the first words are taken out of that place of Isaiah, and that the latter words are the apostle’s own, to bring them to his present purpose, Who hath known the mind of the Lord, which shall instruct him? that is, who doth know the Lord’s mind so well as to be fit to inform and instruct the spiritual man? ver. 15, for that αὐτόν, him, should signify the Lord, (as they conclude that make these words all one with the latter part of the verse in Isaiah,) would be very strange, not only because it would be far different from ver. 15, of which it is brought for a proof, but also because knowing the mind of God, although it be a fit preparative to instructing of others, yet is not so for the instructing of God himself.

1 Corinthians 3:17

And therefore if any false teacher shall bring in any unclean heretical doctrine into such a church of God’s planting, a place of God’s residence, and so pollute or defile God’s dwelling-place, (as when Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire on God’s altar,) then, as they were devoured by fire from heaven, so he must expect severe punishment; for all ye that are Christians make up this one temple of God’s, and that being a consecrated society must not be profaned or polluted with such impure doctrines as the Gnostics every where infuse.

1 Corinthians 3:18

And for that other conceit of theirs by which they get so many proselytes, that of the lawfulness of denying Christ in time of persecution, by which they promise themselves security from all the present evils, let no man cheat himself with this persuasion; any man that thus thinks to be more provident than other men, and by this means to secure himself, let him know that this will not thrive with him, he will find himself deceived at last, (see ver. 15, and Rev. iii. 18,) there is no such prudent way for him to secure himself as to lay aside this worldly wisdom, and constantly and cheerfully to adhere to Christ, when in the eye of the world it seems most foolish to do so.

1 Corinthians 3:19

For God is wont to take off and preserve the plain simple person that avowedly adheres to him, and to outwit the subtle designer; and it will soon befall those pretenders, according to that of Job v. 13, they that think to be wiser than other men are by so much verier fools than others, and so are discerned to be.

1 Corinthians 3:20

And to the same purpose is that of psalm xciv. 11, that all the subtle contrivances of crafty worldly-minded men prove vain and improsperous.

1 Corinthians 3:21

Let no man therefore factiously or schismatically divide from the unity of the church, following such or such a master or instructor, and so quarrelling or contending with others, ver. 4; for all the gifts that are in the church were given for your use, and whatsoever any man can boast of it is not peculiar to him, but belongs as well to every other person in the church.

1 Corinthians 3:22

He that planted the faith among you, and he