Contemporary Christians, particularly American Protestants, are particularly afflicted by two disorders: personality fever and individualism. Ever since the Reformation, when Protestant Christianity replaced the altar with the pulpit, and the sacraments with the preached word, the individual preacher's status and power have risen sharply. These days, Christian personalities may pastor local churches, or they may be high-profile, larger-than-life televangelists, authors, apocalyptic prophets--figures with fiercely loyal, subscription-paying, book-buying, T.V.-watching followers. As for the plague of individualism, it shows itself in our bold insistence on privacy, independence and free agency. (If you bore or offend me, I'll just switch churches.) Writing to the Corinthian church of his day, Paul saw too many self-appointed key players and honored personalities. His focus in chapter 3 is on the leaders themselves, on the roles they play, and on the risks and rewards that go with the job. For the personality-obsessed, individualized church of our day, these words provide a timely and sobering warning.
What is the big idea in this section?
Are these remarks targetted at individuals or the group?
How does Paul characterize the important leaders of the church?
3:5-6
3:7
3:8
3:9How does the farming metaphor work?
Planter Waterer Life force Field
How does the construction metaphor work?
Master builder Other builders Foundation Building What are the 6 building materials in v.12?
What is the big idea? Who is the primary target for these warning?
What are the illegitimate foundations or building materials?
What is the day?
1 Cor 1:7-8
1 Cor 4:2-5
1 Cor 5:5
2 Cor 1:14; 5:9-10
Rom 2:5, 16; 13:12; 14:10-12
Phil 1:6, 10; 2:16
1 Thess.5:2-11
2 Thess.1:6-10
2 Tim 4:7-8Has John Chrysostom properly understood v.15?
"If any man have an ill life with a right faith, his faith shall not shelter him from punishment... He shall not perish in the same way as his works, passing into nought, but he shall abide in the fire."
Might there be a hint of purgatory here?
Must the church of our day continue to believe in a coming day of judgment?
Does Paul teach degrees of rewards in heaven?
Who or what is God's temple? Is this a claim about individuals or about the christian community?
What difference does it make to be God's Temple?
What would it look like to destroy the Temple of God?
Should we distinguish between builders who use the wrong materials (12-15) and any would-be destroyers of the community (17)? Are the former saved, but the latter judged?