1 CORINTHIANS 3

Heart Issues
My identity stems only in the fact that I am in Christ and Christ is in God. He is the author and perfecter of my faith. I do not need to exalt any man for how good of a speaker he is, but I should give glory to Jesus for gifting him by His grace. The issue is never how good man is but how Great God is. I don’t want to see divisions happen because of “better speakers” or cooler churches. I am brought back again today to the issue of what it means to work alongside God. What a privilege it is to serve alongside such a magnificent and awesome creator. He loves me and rewards me for my work. I want to have the right heart before Him as I serve, not trying to gain His pleasure, but knowing that He is pleased with me independent of what I do. My body is a temple that exalts an amazing creator. I need His grace for I am broken and unable to perform without Him. I do desire the solid food and I want to continue to walk closely and eat from my Master’s table.

Notes
-Paul calls the Corinthians brothers and he truly loved them. He was brokenhearted that he couldn’t address them as spiritual brothers for they were still acting worldly.
-There is a difference in what we give to those that are beginning to know Christ and those that know Him. We don’t start them out on solid food for they are not quite ready yet, but we want them to be quickly. Caedmon is not ready for solid food yet, it would hurt him.
-The Corinthians held great allegiance to the one that lead them to Jesus. They were abandoning their brotherhood and creating divisions based on who spoke the words of life to them. Paul here confronts that by showing that it doesn’t matter who led you to Christ, but that Christ is the one that matters. The speaker doesn’t matter, God is the issue. We will be rewarded for our work though and I feel rewarded just in that I get to be God’s fellow worker. I get to work alongside/with God Himself.
-Jesus is a solid foundation and we must be careful to keep Him as that foundation and to not build upon the law/other people/good works. We can build upon our foundation good things, but always looking back to Jesus as the foundation and worker of our goodness.
-The rewards thing is still so hard to fully understand. It does seem that some will receive more reward than others in heaven. The reward is in direct proportion with what we have done for the Lord. Some will make it to heaven, but will not have much to show from their lives.
-This truth of God’s presence in our lives is so vital to understand anything about the Christian life. We are the temple now, we have replaced Solomon’s temple and we individually have the Creator of all living within our very hearts. We offer sacrifices of our service and may our deeds make a beautiful sound of worship to Him.
-There is nothing to be worshipped about any man for Jesus alone is to be worshipped. We should be found to be foolish in the sight of others who place such importance upon other people. Paul, Piper, and Peter hold nothing over me for I am in Christ and Christ is in God.