Article from the East Main Messenger, dated 4/20/2025.
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:11
The Corinthians were giving undue loyalty and adulation to the preachers who had taught and converted them (1 Cor. 1:10-13). Thus, the Lord through Paul (cf. 1 Cor. 14:37) was teaching them that those who had taught them such as Paul and Apollos were nothing more than “servants through whom you believed” (1 Cor. 3:5). Whatever work Paul did in “plant(ing)” and Apollos did in “water(ing)” for Corinth’s benefit, ultimately it was God himself who “gave the growth” (1 Cor. 3:6-7). Paul and Apollos were “one” in their work in that they ultimately were nothing more than God’s servants who would be rewarded for their labor (1 Cor. 3:8). Paul now elaborates further by saying that he and Apollos as teachers of the gospel “are God’s fellow workers” (1 Cor. 3:9a), while the church at Corinth (and, by extension, all local congregations which make up the church universally) “are God’s field” (1 Cor. 3:9b). Throughout the world, preachers and teachers of the Bible “plant” and “water” (1 Cor. 3:6-7) in the “field” which is God’s church (cf. John 4:35-38; Lk. 10:2).
The apostle then changes analogies by calling the church “God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:9c), later specifying the church to be “God’s temple” in which “God’s Spirit dwells” while warning, “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Cor. 3:16-17). He expounds upon this comparison by writing, “According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it” (1 Cor. 3:10a). Paul was the one who had initially brought the gospel to Corinth (Acts 18:1ff). After he had “planted” (1 Cor. 3:6-7), or “laid the foundation” (1 Cor. 3:10a), Apollos had subsequently come to Corinth and had “watered” the Corinthian church, “building upon” the foundation Paul had laid. This continually happens today. Christians at any congregation are initially taught and converted by someone, and as the years go by others come along and teach them even more of God’s Word. Here at East Main, I am building on the work of great preachers who came before me like our dear brother Wayne Lankford, who also has built upon the work of those in this congregation who had stood in the pulpit before him.
Paul’s warning, “Let each one take care how he builds upon it” (1 Cor. 3:10b), must be heeded by all who decide to preach or teach to others. To proclaim God’s Word to others and strive to give instruction, edification, and admonition from it to one’s brothers and sisters in Christ…that is no small thing. Many treat it as such by not committing themselves to hours of humble, hard, open-minded study and reflection of Scripture, or by choosing to base their messages and instructions primarily upon the theological whims of man (cf. 2 Tim. 4:3-4). Those who make these grievous mistakes do their brethren, themselves, and the cause for which Christ died a great disservice because the eternal destiny of souls always hangs in the balance, and those souls are being led astray by such error (cf. 2 Pet. 2:1-22).
The apostle gives another reason why all of us must “take care how (we) build upon it” in verse 11: “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” The Corinthians needed to be reminded that the foundation of their faith and devotion was not Paul, Apollos, Cephas (Peter), or anyone else who had baptized them or to whom they looked up. In like manner, those who wield influence within the church today – elders, deacons, preachers, teachers, mentors, encouragers – must all take care to build, and build with great care, upon only one foundation. That foundation cannot be themselves. It cannot be based on the musings and opinions of whatever theologian has caught the public eye. No, that foundation must be Jesus Christ and Jesus alone…his teachings and his example, all of which being found only within the entirety of rightly-divided Scripture (Ps. 119:160; 2 Tim. 2:15; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; cf. 2 Pet. 1:19-21; John 16:12-15; Eph. 3:3-5). It must be God’s Word that is taught and preached, Scripture and Scripture alone which is the basis of all influence.
–Jon
To read Jon’s series on 1 Corinthians from the beginning and many other articles, visit https://predenominationalchristianity.com.