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Divisions in the Church [1 Corinthians 3] [message #791] Tue, 12 November 2019 21:57 Go to next message
john.svk is currently offline  john.svk
Messages: 297
Registered: October 2017
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1 But I, brothers,[a] could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 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? 4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human?

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled[b] master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-- 13 each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

16 Do you not know that you[c] are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," 20 and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." 21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future--all are yours, 23 and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
Re: Divisions in the Church [1 Corinthians 3] [message #792 is a reply to message #791] Tue, 19 November 2019 20:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
mohandoss is currently offline  mohandoss
Messages: 198
Registered: February 2017
Location: Virginia Beach
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OBSERVATIONS

Grow in spiritual
When Paul first planted the church in Corinth, it was only natural that these new believers would be spiritually immature. They were babes in Christ. They needed to learn the foundations of the faith. It's natural for new believers to struggle with going back to their old way of life--bad habits, bad crowd, bat theology, etc. But as we mature in our faith, we ought to grow up a little. We ought to develop a more Christ-like spirit. We ought to understand more and more of the Bible

GOD will grow his church
Preachers, teachers and church members plant and water and wait for God to grow his church. Unfortunately, many churches today have just stopped growing.We plant the seed of his Word, we water it, and we trust him to give the growth. There's one more form of growth Paul talks about
praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.Acts-2:47

Temple of God

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. -1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Jesus is our Foundation:
Jesus laid the foundation with his ministry--a ministry of preaching, teaching, and helping people. When we carry on that ministry, we build upon his foundation. Jesus cautioned his disciples, saying, "whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many - Matthew 20:26-28

APPLICATION:
- We should grow spiritually day by day and create close relationship with God
- Only God can grow his church
- Our Body is belongs to God and not our own so we have to live a holy life. So that God will dwell among us.
- Jesus is foundation for all the churches
Re: Divisions in the Church [1 Corinthians 3] [message #793 is a reply to message #791] Tue, 19 November 2019 20:11 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cpchellaa is currently offline  cpchellaa
Messages: 209
Registered: January 2017
Location: Halifax
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Observation:
Corinthians pride in following apollo and paul and had pride, jealous and fight between them. Paul treats them people of the world/flesh.
God wants us to keep growing in our spiritual life, if not our Christian life is questionable!
Apollo and Paul were servants of God. We should follow Christ, not the servants. we should not keep elders or apostles in the place of Jesus and divide among ourselves.

Peoples are pride in their denominations and they just hate other denominations. Even they don't want to talk to others. Gods want us to show his love to others. If we are not ready to show the love to other Christian brothers how can we expect God's peace upon us?

Christ is our foundation for our Christian life. We all should save ourselves and also save others by spreading the gospel. God uses us based on the need and what we are capable of? We should understand our role and responsibilities while building God's kingdom.

So we should not go after the world, as Christ has ultimate control over everything, so keep growing in the spiritual life and start storing your treasures in heaven.

Matthew 6:19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
Matthew 6:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Application:

we should be united in Christ, as we are part of the church and we are the bride and get ready for the bridegroom.
we should follow christ not others, not the church or denominations. Our foundation should be Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:5you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Re: Divisions in the Church [1 Corinthians 3] [message #794 is a reply to message #793] Tue, 19 November 2019 21:09 Go to previous messageGo to next message
john.svk is currently offline  john.svk
Messages: 297
Registered: October 2017
Senior Member
Observation:

People of Spirit Vs. People of flesh
Paul in this whole chapter addressed the divisions in the church by comparing the life led by Spirit and by flesh.
Those who live according to the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh and those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit [Christ centric]. To set the mind on the flesh is death but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. [Romans 8:5,6]
Even though the church in Corinth are saved by the blood of Christ, there are still living as infants in Christ rather than a mature adult in Christ [1 Corinthians 3:1]

Works of Flesh Vs. Spirit
As mentioned in Galatians 5:19-22, the works of the flesh are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love [**Agape'], joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Since the church in Corinth has strife and jealousy [fruits of flesh], Paul called them as people of flesh.

Builders Vs. Building
Paul used the analogy of building [God's people] and builders [God's workers]. The wages of each and every ministers of God is based on how it relates to Christ's work.

God's temple [In dwelling of Holy Spirit]
Christ's Spirit dwells in us and that is the mark of Christian life style. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. [Romans 8:9-10]. We should not think as of we are wise as in Romans 12:3, For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Application:
As we grow in Christ, we should constantly check on our attitude and character to see whether that lines up with Christ's nature of Love, humility, self-control, faithfulness etc., We should not take pride even in things related to Spiritual aspects like our denomination, principles and doctrines.
Re: Divisions in the Church [1 Corinthians 3] [message #795 is a reply to message #794] Tue, 19 November 2019 21:35 Go to previous message
isaac is currently offline  isaac
Messages: 45
Registered: January 2018
Member
Observation:
Jealousy and Strife among us reminds that we are still of the flesh. So we need to examine our self and see if we are still of the flesh.
It is clear that Christ is the only foundation and we can built on top of it. our works for God will be revealed through the fire so the motive behind what we do for God is what God looks at so we need to do the work of God with good intentions to Glorify God
We are God's temple and we need to keep our body holy as God is holy

Application :
We need toe examine our self each and every day and ask God for help to grow spiritually. If we continue to have Jealousy , strife and other fleshly nature of this body we will continue to drink milk and will not grow spiritually.
Our work for God should be only to Glorify God.
Our body is not something we own and it is owned by God and it is his temple so we need to be very careful with what we do with our bodies. Are we glorifying God or are we sinning and insulting God?. Not only that keeping our body healthy is also important so we should ensure that as well.

Prayer:
Dear God, help me to grow in spirit day by day and kill my fleshy nature and help me grow holy and become like Christ.
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