Chapter 3

In chapter three we find out what happens to carnality in time and in eternity.

Verse 1, “And I, brethren,” “brethren”: he is talking to believers, “could not speak unto you as unto spiritual.” How do you talk to a spiritual believer? You talk to a spiritual believer in terms of doctrine, in terms of categories, in terms of truth found in the Word of God. Paul says he couldn’t communicate to these people because he was controlled by the Spirit and had a lot of deep doctrine which they were not ready for, and they are controlled by the old sin nature. Whether you like it or not, when you are controlled by the old sin nature you do not desire doctrine, you desire entertainment. You can’t communicate to the carnal believer with doctrine of any type, he is not interested in that, he is interested in entertainment.

“but as unto carnal,” here is Paul’s frustration and problem. The Corinthian people were out of fellowship, they were not in the bottom circle. Therefore he could not speak to them as unto spiritual — in the bottom circle where they could learn. The Holy Spirit is the teacher and if a believer is quenching the Spirit he can’t learn. When the Spirit is quenched and grieved, which He is under carnality, you cannot assimilate. Therefore it becomes necessary for the believer to be controlled by the Spirit to learn. The word “spiritual” is a dative of advantage, and this says in effect that it is to out advantage to be Spiritual. The word “carnal” is dative of disadvantage. It is to our disadvantage to be carnal because we cannot assimilate doctrine which we need to learn before we can apply it; it is impossible.

“even as unto babies,” here “carnal” and “babies” are synonymous terms. The Greek word for “baby” here is nhpioj. There are many different types of words for babies. This is used for a minor who has no knowledge. It was used for a child who hadn’t gone to school and had no academic training, a young person who has no schooling, a young person who is ignorant. They have grown physically but not mentally because they have not been trained. When we are said to be born again regeneration uses the word brefoj which is the baby on the mother’s breast, but this is nhpioj which means a child. The characteristics of nhpioj is ignorance; the characteristic of brefoj is helplessness. It is all right to be helpless when you are first born into the family of God, but the word nhpioj means to be a baby in the sense of growing up and yet to be ignorant.

How do you learn to concentrate? The first secret to concentration is to be controlled by the Spirit. When you are controlled by the Spirit you can actually learn to concentrate.

When you have two datives together one dative comes out of the other, so they are not quite synonymous, one is really the result of the other. Carnality results in ignorance. If you stay in carnal conditions long enough the doctrine that you have learned you will forget.

“in Christ,” they are still in Christ. Here are a group of believers out of fellowship, are carnal and in miserable condition. In fact, he is going to say they walk just like unbelievers, they “walk as men.” But at the same time they are still in Christ. You can never improve positional truth, it is perfect from the moment you receive it and you will still have it in eternity. These last two words, “in Christ,” are extremely important. Here is a strong sentence but along with that sentence he has to bring grace into it. “In Christ” is something no one could ever do, it is something the Holy Spirit did for us — the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Even though these Corinthians have changed for the worse they are still positionally the same and always will be. God blesses the believer because of his position in Christ, regardless of his experiential status all believers have the same position in Christ. The reason God blesses us is not because we are good experientially or bad experientially but because of our position in Christ. In other words, God blesses us because of who and what Christ is.

Verse 2, the limitation of carnality. This is one of many limitations and it is mentioned just in passing. “I have fed you with milk,” the aorist tense, referring to any point of time when they would listen. Milk refers to simple things, the most basic type of food. We all have to start somewhere and milk refers to the simplest basic things. It refers generally to preaching salvation.

“and not with meat,” the Greek word for meat is “solid food.” In other words, they have to live on milk. Solid food refers to doctrine pertaining to spiritual life.

“for hitherto” is “for not yet”; ye are not able to bear it,” not able to assimilate it. They can’t take in solid food. In other words, spiritually they haven’t been weaned because of carnality.

“neither yet now are ye able,” he has talked to them before, he hasn’t got anywhere with them. He hasn’t been able to get anywhere with them even yet because they are babies.

Verse 3 — the great point is that a carnal believer cannot be distinguished from an unbeliever. When a believer is controlled by his old sin nature he produces human good [energy of the flesh], and he produces sin. His sin is just like the sin of the unbeliever and his human good is equivalent to the unbeliever’s human good. Tragically, without this information the average believer is living just like an unbeliever. The great punch in this chapter is found in the last three words, “walk as men.” The word “walk” is present active indicative, linear aktionsart — keep on walking like men. When you are carnal you always imitate some kind of an unbeliever.

“whereas there is among you,” the evidence of carnality among the Corinthians believers.

“envying,” mental attitude sin is mentioned first. If you are going to clean up the outside you must start with the inside. You cannot put whitewash over you! That is what tabooism does. Whitewash is simply hypocrisy, a facade of human righteousness which can be executed in the energy of the flesh constantly and is firmed up and crystallised by ego. There is nothing that appeals to the ego like accomplishing a certain number of taboos on the outside. Envy comes first because envy is a mental attitude sin and it actually represents all of them though it is a specific sin. Envy is synonymous with jealousy, the absence of love.

“strife,” hostility. Here it means mental hostility, hatred; and then next you have “divisions,” so you have a progression here.

“are ye not carnal,” the Greek says, “you are carnal.” This is not a question, it is a statement. This is a present active indicative, “you keep on being carnal, and walk as men.” Walking has to do with way of life, pattern of life. But “as men” isn’t quite correct. The preposition here means “walk according to the standard of men.” The carnal believer walks according to the standard of the unbeliever. The preposition here is kata, the preposition of norm or standard.

What happens when you walk according to the standard of men? Christianity becomes a mores or a system of ethics; or a regional, geographical system of taboos.

Verse 4, factions are a sign of carnality. “I am of Paul”, etc. In other words, they have hero guides in their factions. “Are ye not carnal” here is a question. They have all reduced themselves to little people by their factious division activity. When believers are generally out of fellowship they fight. They do not treat people on the basis of the character they have developed through the Spirit and through doctrine, but they treat people as savages, as animals. One dog snaps and the other snaps back! God never intended for believers to live in a dog-eat-dog fashion.

The doctrine of the carnal Christian

1. After salvation the believer continues to have an old sin nature, 1 John 1:8; Romans 7:14,15.

2. The old sin nature is desperately wicked, Jeremiah 17:9; Psalm 58:2-5; Mark 7:21-23.

3. The old sin nature has essence. We know this from such phrases as “the body of sin,” Romans 6:6; Colossians 2:11. The word ‘body’ indicates that the old sin nature is in the cell structure of the physical body and has many members. Four of these: area of weakness, source of sin; area of strength, source of human good. The trend of the old sin nature is either toward asceticism or lust. The lust factor itself: all lust is actually an inner operation of the old sin nature.

4. The old sin nature is perpetuated in the human race through physical birth, Psalm 51:5. The result is that man born with an old sin nature is born physically alive but spiritually dead, and this indicates the need for the doctrine of the virgin birth. Jesus Christ is the only person born into the world who was born without sin; He did not have an old sin nature.

5. The believer under the control of the old sin nature is designated as carnal.

6. The old sin nature is the basis for frustrating all bona fide production in the Christian life. The old sin nature has its own substitute for production which glorifies God, and that is energy of the flesh works, Romans 7:15.

7. The old sin nature is not found in the resurrection body. This is the doctrine of ultimate sanctification, 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Philippians 3:21.

8. The old sin nature has various types of nomenclature:

a) “Flesh,” not always used for the old sin nature but many times, John 3:6; Galatians 5:16.

b) “Old man,” used not simply because the old sin nature is old but to indicate something you carry over from the old life, Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9.

c) “Carnal,” Romans 7:14; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3.

d) “Heart,” this word is generally used to designate the mind, except in these cases: Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 12:34,35; 15:19; Mark 7:21-23; Psalm 58:2-5.

e) “Sin” in the singular as distinguished from “sins” plural. Sins plural = personal sins; sin in the singular is used to designate the old sin nature, Romans 5:12; 7:14.

The doctrine of spirituality

1. You must distinguish between the ministry of the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation and the post-salvation ministry of the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit does five things for every believer at the moment of salvation. He baptises them into the body of Christ — positional truth; He regenerates him; He seals, the basis of eternal security; and He indwells. He also gives every believer at least one spiritual gift. Every believer is indwelt by the Spirit at the moment of salvation, 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; Romans 8:10; Colossians 1:27. We must distinguish between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation which continues forever and the filling of the Spirit which is a post-salvation experience. We are said to be indwelt by the Spirit; we are never commanded to be indwelt by the Spirit. But as believers we are constantly commanded to be filled with the Spirit. In Ephesians 5:18 Paul calls it being filled with the Spirit; in Galatians 5:16 he says “walk by the Spirit.” In Romans 13:14 he says “put on Christ,” and these are three ways of commanding spirituality in the Pauline epistles. John has a different vocabulary: “Abide in him,” present active imperative, 1 John 2:27,28. All believers abide in Christ positionally. And John uses another phrase for being filled with the Spirit: “walk in the light.”

2. Spirituality and carnality are mutually exclusive, therefore absolutes. You are either 100 per cent spiritual or 100 per cent carnal. The entire 1 John chapter three is devoted to this fact, that spirituality is an absolute. The Spiritual believer walks in the light, 1 John 1:7; 2:10. The carnal believer walks in darkness, 1 John 1:6; 2:11.

3. Imitation is the great issue in phase two, the Christian way of life. Spirituality is the subject of phase two, it is the normal experience of phase two.

a) First of all the spiritual believer imitates God, Ephesians 5:1; 1 John 3:9.

b) The carnal believer imitates the unbeliever, Galatians 5:19-21; 1 John 1:6; 2:11; 3:4,15.

4. The believer filled with the Spirit accomplishes three general objectives: a) You imitate God, Ephesians 5:1; b) You glorify Christ, John 7:39; 16:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19,20; c) The believer fulfills the law, Romans 8:2-4; 13:8.

5. The believer filled with the Spirit is not subject to the Mosaic law, Galatians 5:18,23; Romans 10:4; 8:2-4.

6. The believer filled with the Spirit produces the character of the incarnate Christ, Galatians 4:19; 5:22,23; 1 John 2:5,6.

7. The believer filled with the Spirit cannot sin when he is filled with the Spirit (under the status of spirituality), 1 John 3:9, (This doesn’t mean that a believer cannot sin, it just means that when the Holy Spirit controls the believer he cannot sin) but he magnifies Christ in his inner life, Ephesians 3:16,17; 2 Corinthians 3:3; Philippians 1:20,21.

8. The production of the Christian life depends on the filling of the Spirit. The believer filled with the Spirit produces divine good; the gold, silver and precious stones of 1 Corinthians 3:12. The carnal Christian produces human good, energy of the flesh good from his old sin nature; wood, hay and stubble from 1 Corinthians 3:12.

The carnal Christian cannot do anything which glorifies God. No matter how much good he does it is not rewarded and it does not count as far as God is concerned. In other words, when the believer is controlled by his old sin nature he will do two things: produce personal sins and produce human good.

Verse 5, producing Christians can be on the same team and still produce. Paul and Apollos are the illustration. “Who then is Paul.” The Greek says “What then is Paul” because “who” is an interrogative pronoun referring to a person, but the Greek has an interrogative pronoun in the neuter which should be translated ‘what.’ Not who is Paul but of what quality is Paul? The neuter relative pronoun refers to quality. What is he made of? What is he like?

“and who is Apollos,” ‘what kind of a person is Apollos.’ Paul and Apollos are the two believers who are going to illustrate the next principle of producing Christians. The results: Both of them are producing, they are different. One is an eloquent speaker [Apollos], one is a mental genius [Paul]. Paul is shy and retiring; Apollos is quite an extrovert. They have different spiritual gifts, they have different personalities, they do not look anything alike. So they are different in every possible way that people could be different. In the answering of these questions we have principles of teamwork, principles of production, and we find the great principle underlying everything: no matter what position you play on the team and therefore you have no right to a spiritual inferiority complex. As long as the believer is alive he is on this team as a member of the body of Christ, the Church.

“but ministers,” the word ‘minister’ is used three ways in the New Testament. It is used for political leadership in a national entity, Romans 13:4, where leaders in a national entity are said to be ministers of justice and they “bear not the sword in vain” [capital punishment]; it is used for the pastor of a local church, Ephesians 3:7; 6:21; Colossians 1:23,25; 4:7; 1 Timothy 1:12; every believer is a minister for Jesus Christ in full time Christian service, 2 Corinthians 3:6; 4:1; 6:4. In this case “but ministers” is a reference to every believer. While Paul and Apollos were ministers in the technical sense the word is used here in the sense of all believers being ministers.

“by whom” is literally ‘through whom’; “ye believed in the Lord,” Paul and Apollos actually led most of these Corinthians to the Lord. Here is one of the primary responsibilities of the believer as a minister: witnessing for Christ, leading people to the Lord. “Ye believed” is in the aorist tense, they believed in a point of time and in that point of time they were saved. Active voice: the Corinthians were unbelievers and they cranked up positive volition. The active voice indicates the correlation between positive volition and the faith in the frontal lobe. The Lord is the source of salvation — Acts 4:12.

“even as the Lord gave to every man,” the Lord gave the same to every person at the moment they believed: “even as the Lord gave to each [male or female].”

Verse 6, each believer has a position on the team. “I have planted, Apollos watered.” They both have spiritual gifts, they both have responsibility before the Lord but they are entirely different. “I have planted,” aorist active indicative, indicates in the point of time when he was in Corinth Paul founded the church. Paul was a church founder. He is a person who leads people to the Lord and gets a church organised, follows them up with some doctrine and gets them started. But Apollos comes along and he is a waterer. He is an eloquent speaker, he doesn’t have the doctrinal approach that Paul has but he has a different responsibility. Paul gets them started and Apollos is a follow-up man. Each one has a different responsibility on the team.

Notice though, that regardless of what position you play, grace: “but God gave the increase.” God is the source of grace. “Gave the increase” is all one word in the Greek — imperfect tense, “God kept on giving the increase.” God caused the growth. The principles is that no matter what position you play, how well you play it depends on grace, who and what God is, not who and what we are.

Verse 7, all production involves grace. No matter where you play on the team if you are productive it is because of the grace of God. Members in the team are nothing in themselves. When any member of the team does his job and produces it is because of who and what God is, never because of who and what he is. “Giveth the increase,” present active participle, He always provides the power and the production and everything else.

Verse 8, all production in the Christian life is rewarded. “Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one,” they are on the same team; “and every man shall receive his own reward.” This reward is not on the basis of the other man’s gift but on the basis of their own gift. Some may have a greater capacity for service than others, based on spiritual gifts. If you are a five-gallon can and some other believer is a fifty-gallon drum do not try to evaluate your life on the basis of the one who has the greater capacity. Again, this is “each one shall receive his own reward.” This means that you are going to be rewarded on the basis of your spiritual gift, your capacity, your filling of the Spirit operation, and so on. The primary principle in production and reward is the filling of the Spirit. “Shall receive” is future tense, the judgment seat of Christ is a future event. The middle voice: you are personally benefited by receiving reward. The indicative mood is the reality of such reward. The judgment seat of Christ is mentioned in Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Timothy 2:12. What are these rewards? Some are mentioned as crowns. The crown of righteousness, 2 Timothy 4:7,8. This is a reward for faithfulness. The believer is required to be faithful, not to be scintillating or startling or spectacular. Faithfulness depends on two factors, the filling of the Spirit and the maximum operation of the faith-rest technique. The crown of joy, Philippians 4:1 and 1 Thessalonians 2:19. It is a reward for soul winning and for helping believers with doctrine. The crown of life, James 1:12; Revelation 2:10. This is reward for two things, endurance of temptation and occupation with Christ. The crown of glory, 1 Peter 5:4, a reward for doing pastoral work. Every believer is in full time service and you don’t have to be a pastor to do pastoral work. Pastoral work is communicating doctrine and information which causes believers to be edified or stabilised or oriented to their situation, oriented to divine viewpoint. Rulership, Luke 19:17-19. Rewards are only shadowed in lightly.

Verse 9, all production is based on partnership. “For we are labourers together with God,” we are in partnership with God. “Labourers together” is actually coworkers; “ye are God’s husbandry,” husbandry means farm. The believer is barren land, Gods provides the seed, sun, water, everything necessary for production. This is the analogy found in Hebrews 6:7-10.

“ye are God’s building,” this prepares the way for the next analogy. The foundation is salvation, the superstructure is your production or phase two.

Verse 10, “According to” is a preposition of norm or standard or criterion and it should be translated “According to the standard [or criterion] of the grace of God.”

The grace of God is the absolute norm or standard for the Christian way of life, the absolute norm or standard for everything pertaining to Christianity.

“of God” is a genitive of source and it means that God is the source of all grace. Grace is one thing that man can make no claims on, he has never used grace or understood grace in the flesh. He can appropriate grace but grace belongs exclusively to God. Grace is among believers when they are filled with the Spirit but grace is a divine monopoly as well as the criterion or standard for determining the right and wrong things.

“which is given to me,” aorist tense, it was given to Paul in a point of time. The aorist tense refers to the point of time when he was saved for one of the things that happened to Paul at the point of salvation was that he became the recipient of spiritual gifts — the gift of apostleship, pastor-teacher, miracles, tongues, etc. The passive voice: Paul received it apart from any human merit. The word “me” is a dative of advantage, it was to Paul’s advantage to be the recipient of grace, as with all of us. Paul’s production was based on grace, Paul’s preparation was based on grace, and Paul’s ministry was based on grace.

“as a wise masterbuilder,” the Greek word for ‘masterbuilder’ is architect. However, when the word architect is brought into the English we use it in a different way, he is someone who designs a building. The word in the Greek means the chief contractor, the head of the builders. So Paul is the chief contractor as far as the Corinthians church is concerned, he was the one who started the Corinthian church; “I laid the foundation,” Paul went into Corinth and there was evangelism. So the first activity: operation evangelism. Every shortly he had some converts. The second thing is teaching the Word. There is a period where there is a need for orientation to doctrine. Very rarely are new churches started in our day, but when new churches are started on a biblical basis there must first of all be evangelism and it must be followed by a period of indoctrination. After the period of indoctrination then the believers are ready to form a church, but not before for the period of indoctrination follows several lines of activity. First of all there is basic doctrine necessary to function in the Christian life. Secondly, some concept of spiritual gifts so that the believers who have the proper spiritual gifts will take the proper place. Thirdly, all believers must recognise that a local church operates on authority, and this includes human authority which is correlated with spiritual gifts. Then there is another entirely different concept and that is the areas of doctrine which deal with personal responsibility of the individual believer in worship and prayer and other factors, the responsibility of mission fields, and so on. There is also the relationship of the church to the state — it must never be the state. The role of the church is the state is a spiritual role. All of these things must be understood. Church function and organisation must be based upon doctrine. The intake of doctrine must be based upon regeneration. Paul organised the church leaving behind men in authority. Apollos ministered in Corinth for some time and then walked out on the church. Now the church is in a great state of disorganisation and carnality. All of these things are going to be straightened out by 1 Corinthians. How a church goes does not depend upon its pastors but it depends upon the personal relationship of the general congregation to the Holy Spirit and to doctrine.

“another” means another of the same kind and it is a reference to Apollos who became the pastor after Paul; “builded thereon,” so Apollos followed the general policies of Paul.

Then we have a second analogy, beginning with the word “but.” “But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon,” this sentence explains what went wrong at Corinth, what went wrong in the Galatian churches, what went wrong at Laodicea, what went wrong in many of the churches of the ancient world that went apostate.

“let each man [one] take heed,” the general character of a local church is determined by the people in the church, not the leadership. This sentence starts with a conjunction and the conjunction sets up a contrast. The contrast is between Paul and Apollos who did their job faithfully unto the Lord, and a did a good job, and the individual members of the congregation who have not accepted this Bible teaching and doctrine, and who have now fallen apart in various types of carnality. So “but” is a conjunction of contrast, the contrast between the faithfulness of its pastors and the failure of its constituents. “But let each man” should be “But let each one.” It refers to an individual believer.

“take heed” is the verb for ‘beware.’ It is a present active imperative and it says in effect that when you as a believer get doctrine beware what you do with it. What can you do with Bible doctrine which you hear? First of all, you can ignore it. Secondly, you can hear it temporarily and hear it later. Some people are stimulated by hearing it one but they still do not retain in, they forget it. Thirdly, you can learn it but not apply it. In other words, it eventually becomes an ego matter. You just simply learn doctrine so that you know more than anyone else, you say to yourself you are a better Christian because you know more doctrine. And that isn’t true. Then there is a final thing which you can do, the ideal situation, you can learn doctrine and apply it. So this warning is for believers to be sure that they take this doctrine, remember it, learn it, and then use and apply it; orient to life through doctrine, make doctrine the basis of orientation rather than circumstances in life. “Let each one beware” is a little weak, it actually doesn’t give us what the Greek says here, “you, beware.” This is linear aktionsart: “keep on your toes with regard to what you do with doctrine.”

“how” brings up two issues: the issue of intake of doctrine and the output of production. Doctrine in a sense is an energy that starts a system of activity out of which you are going to have production. The great issue which is going to come up now is going to be, is your production Spirit-filled or is it from the old sin nature.

“you build thereon,” the superstructure of a building in the analogy here and Paul will now amplify what he has been saying in verse 10. The amplification will come in verses 11-16.

In verse 11 we have a foundation — salvation. In other words, the rest of this chapter and in chapter four we are talking to believers are only and the challenge is for believers only. Here is a challenge for those who are already on the foundation — faith in Jesus Christ. Either you are building on this foundation from the Spirit-filled life (the filling of the Holy Spirit), in which case you are going to have production which is permanent, or you are building from the old sin nature (carnality), in which case your production is temporary. Permanent production is rewardable; temporary production is non-rewardable.

“For other foundation can no man lay” is actually a Greek idiom. “There is one foundation on which to build” is the way we would say it in English. If you are not on that foundation you are not building anything. The foundation is Jesus Christ. “No man,” again, is “no one.” To lay has to do with the establishing of the foundation, aorist active infinitive. Aorist tense: the point of time of salvation. That is when the foundation is built completely in less than a second by the 36 things that God provides for every believer at the moment of salvation. One second after you are saved you can start erecting a superstructure, and you will do it on the basis of carnality or on the basis of spirituality. The infinitive indicates God’s purpose and design.

“than that is laid,” present passive participle. The present tense denotes many, many acts. The passive voice indicates that the foundation is received, it is not earned or deserved. With an aorist infinitive followed by an aorist participle it indicates that many times the foundation has been laid and will be continuously be laid in the future.

“which is Jesus Christ,” Acts 4:12.

Verse 12, the superstructure: operation phase two, the emphasis on production. “Now if any man build upon this foundation.” The subject is production. What is not given here but will be filled in later on is that between the laying of the foundation and effective production there is certain knowledge of doctrine. The word “if” is a first class condition and it recongises the reality of some kind of production in the life, i.e. that every believer has production. The word “build” is present tense, linear aktionsart; we keep on building as long as we live. Either we express human good from the old sin nature or we express divine good through the filling of the Spirit. The active voice: human volition is involved in the building.

“gold, silver, precious stones,” category #1. These are permanent type things out of which to build something. Gold generally in the scripture is used to represent deity. So gold would represent anything that glorifies God, and God is glorified by the Spirit-filled life, John 16:12,14. Silver always speaks of redemption wherever it is found in the scripture. It would therefore be connected with witnessing in the power of the Spirit. Precious stones is the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, and so on.

“wood, hay, stubble,” these are temporary things. Wood speaks of good deeds performed from motivation lust. Hay is a great energy developer for horses and mules, plus other quadrupeds. There are a lot of believers who are just full of human energy, deeds that they do constantly to glorify self, area of strength of the old sin nature. Stubble refers to good things that people do out of spite, out of envy, out of hostility. These all add up to production of the old sin nature.

Verse 13, the test. “Every man’s work” should be “Each one’s work.” The word ‘work’ is the subject — production; “shall be made manifest,” literally, ‘shall become manifest,’ future tense. ‘Manifest’ is a noun which means apparent, clear, obvious.

“for the day shall declare it,” ‘the day’ is a reference to the judgment seat of Christ, the day of the evaluation of the believer’s production mentioned in 2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:10. During the Church Age there is no attempt to evaluate production. After the Rapture of the Church when all of the Church is assembled in heaven in the presence of the Lord and in resurrection bodies, then their efficiency ratings will be turned in. Every believer is going to have an efficiency report and yours is not going to be based on comparison with others. You are going to be evaluated strictly on what you have done and it will be for phase two only. The evaluation is based on several principles. The one that is brought into focus here: Are you filled with the Holy Spirit or controlled by the old sin nature. The general basis is how much time you log in the filling of the Spirit. A very important principle: Notice that the believer’s sins are never mentioned. Not one sin that you commit after salvation is ever mentioned or ever will be. It says “every man’s work,” the sins of the believer are not mentioned, it is their production that is mentioned. Why? First of all, the sins of the believer judicially are blotted out, past present and future, at the cross when he believes. Secondly, sins he commits after salvation destroy his temporal fellowship. Therefore his temporal fellowship is restored by 1 John 1:9 whereby these sins are forgiven so that you have restoration of fellowship. Thirdly, those sins come from the old sin nature. Christ bore those sins, therefore He cannot mention them. The good deeds that came from the old sin nature, He has to destroy them because there is nothing in the old sin nature that is acceptable to God. Even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in His sight, Isaiah 64:6. At the judgment seat of Christ God gets rid of the last bit of the old sin nature. There is no old sin nature in the resurrection body but there is just one thing that has to be burned up: all of the good that we accomplished in the old sin nature, and that is the last big bonfire. At the judgment seat of Christ the last thing to be destroyed from the old sin nature will be all the good deeds you did in the power of the old sin nature. Personal sins are never the issue at the last judgment and personal sins are never an issue at the judgment seat of Christ. The issue at the judgment seat of Christ is the believer’s production, “each one’s work.” The issue at the great white throne, the judgment of unbelievers — “judged according to their works.”

“because it shall be revealed,” dramatic present tense. The word ‘revealed’ means to uncover. The passive voice: it receives revealing. We do not even have the ability to reveal our production, but God does.

“by fire” is literally, “in the fire.” In other words, energy of the flesh burned up; production of the Spirit goes through the fire unsinged; “for the fire shall test” means to test something to find what is good. This was an assayer’s term Every believer is like a rock in the assayer’s office, he is tested and if there is anything precious in it, it is maintained. The rest is just thrown out.

“and the fire shall try [test] each one’s production of what sort it is,” the words ‘what sort’ are literally, ‘what quality.’ The quality is determined by the filling of the Spirit.

Verse 14, “If [first class condition] any man’s work abide,” recognising the fact that many believers are going to have permanent production. The word “abide” is dramatic. It is a dramatic thing to be able to do something in time that will survive the cataclysm of the universe and will last forever.

“which he hath built thereon,” ‘hath built’ is an aorist tense, it squeezes together everything in your life into a single whole; “he shall receive a reward.” The believer is rewarded for the production of the Spirit.

Verse 15, loss of reward. This does not entail loss of salvation. “If,” again, is a first class condition; “any man’s [one’s] production shall be burned,” here is the believer who is operating in the energy of the flesh; “he shall suffer loss,” loss of reward.

“but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire,” not ‘by’ fire, but ‘through fire’ the Greek says. He shall be saved, doctrine of eternal security.

Verse 16, “Know ye not” is one of the most important phrases in the New Testament. Principle: Know and do. This is a perfect tense used as a present tense for doctrine in the frontal lobe.

“that you [believers] are,” absolute status quo verb, “you keep on being the temple of God.” The Greek says “a” temple of God. There is no definite article, and the absence of the definite article places emphasis on the temple. You as a believer are a temple of God. In the Church Age there is no sanctuary or sacred building. A sanctuary today is the human body of the believer. The Church Age is different, no sacred buildings. All the sacred buildings are made of flesh and the thing that makes the building sacred is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, who is also the basis of production.

“and the Spirit of God [the Holy Spirit] dwelleth in you,” ‘dwelleth’ is present active indicative, He keeps on dwelling, always will dwell. He may be quenched and grieved or He may fill, but He always indwells. This is the basis of production, and you have to know how to be filled with the Spirit before you can produce in the power of the Spirit and have something permanent and something which is rewardable.

Verses 17-21, the principle of hindrances to production.

Verse 17, false teaching and false doctrine is the first reason why these Corinthians have failed. The do not know that the Holy Spirit indwells them, verse 16. They do not realise the impact of this, that there is no reason for the Holy Spirit to indwell a believer unless the power of the Holy Spirit is going to be used in the life. These Corinthians are indwelt and their body is the temple of the Holy Spirit but they are controlled by their old sin natures therefore the purpose of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is neutralised.

“If any man defile the temple of God.” In verse 16 the temple of God is said to be the body of the believer. The word for ‘defile’ here has to be clearly identified. It is not a really good translation. It generally means to corrupt or to lead astray, and the general way it is used in the Greek means to corrupt someone mentally, to lead someone astray mentally, to change their viewpoint and give them a wrong view of life. So the word ‘defile’ has to do with what you think and thinking the wrong thing because someone you admire or someone who is persuasive makes you think that. It means to corrupt the mental attitude actually. In this particular passage we have the fact that the Corinthians were living under systems of pseudo spirituality because they had accepted the teaching of the Judaisers. In other words, to defile the temple of God means that because of some false viewpoint in your frontal lobe you adopt a system of pseudo spirituality. The word “if” here is a first class condition, which means this was actually going on. There were Judaisers in Corinth and they were leading people away with false systems of spirituality. All of this defiling is having a false concept of spirituality, and getting it, of course, from false teaching. So, “If anyone,” literally. “Anyone” refers to the false teachers, the one who gave the false concept.

“him,” the false teacher, “shall God destroy.” The word ‘destroy’ is used in two ways: for discipline in time and for judgment in eternity. Both concepts are in view here. The unbeliever who is a false teacher is obviously judged in eternity, 2 Peter 2:3,9; the believer who leads astray obviously can only be disciplined in time. But regardless of whether it is an unbeliever or a believer who is doing the corrupting God handles the situation through discipline or judgment.

“for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are,” the reason that the temple of God is holy is because Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, and He is said to be holy because He is seated at the right hand of the Father, ‘holy’ means separated unto God. The moment we accept Christ as saviour we enter into union with Christ, and entering into union with Christ we share His holiness. This is positional sanctification. This is the principle: we are holy because we are in union with Christ. False teaching is the basis of this difficult situation where the temple of God is corrupted. The corruption, or the defiling here, is false doctrine in the frontal lobe.

There is a second logical progression problem, a second hindrance, verses 18-20: human viewpoint.

Verse 18, “Let no man [no one] deceive himself.” In the previous verse false teachers were deceiving believers, in this verse the believer is deceiving himself. It is understandable how a false teacher could deceive a believer who is ignorant of doctrine but for a believer to deceive himself is the quintessence of stupidity. This is a present active imperative. The present tense plus the imperative means they are already in the process of deceiving themselves; they are in it. So get out of it — present imperative. The best translation would be, “Stop deceiving yourselves.” The active voice: self deceives self. The point is that self cannot deceive self when there is an active criterion in the frontal lobe. The criterion is doctrine. If you have doctrine in the frontal lobe and refer to it you have no problem, you can’t deceive yourself. But if you are ignorant of doctrine or ignore doctrine then you move into operation self-deception.

“If,” first class condition, if, and this is a true condition; “anyone among you seemeth to be wise.” This self-deception must always have a front. The word ‘seemeth’ means to assume, to assume a fact not in evidence; “let him become a fool,” this is addressed to believers who are egotistical. The one who assumes that he is wise is the one who is really blinded by his ego. There are two hindrances at this point to good production, both of them are basic. First of all, being led astray by a false teacher, following some system of pseudo spirituality. The second is self-deception. This is a logical progression because first of all you have to be led astray into a false system and then you must derive some pride of achievement in that false system. This pride of achievement comes from operation energy of the flesh.

“let him become a fool,” this command is an aorist active imperative, and the point is that first of all these people are in a system of self-deception whereby they think they have arrived and have achieved something in the Christian life when they are actually fools. The aorist tense says there is a point at which this must stop. The point at which the change comes is when the person becomes a fool — aorist active imperative. The Greek word for “let him become” is ginomai and it means to become something you were not before. In this case you were not before a fool, now become a fool. What is a fool? A fool is a believer oriented to grace, a believer who has no illusions about himself. He knows that he has never earned or deserved anything from God, that as long as he lives on this earth and for all eternity the basis of his blessing is who and what God is, who and what Christ is, never who and what he is. So to become a fool here is to become oriented to grace. This is necessary before one can take the step that leads to the filling of the Spirit, which is rebound. The word ‘fool’ simply means that I recognise that I have no merit in myself, that I do not earn or deserve anything from God, and never will; and that who and what I am always depends on who and what Christ is.

“that” introduces a purpose clause; “he might become wise.” The second time we have the word ‘wise’ here it refers to the divine viewpoint of life. It is the wisdom found in 1 Corinthians 2:6.

Verse 19, “For the wisdom of this world” refers to the human viewpoint, and specifically some system of spirituality by works, some system of legalism; “is foolishness with God.” Wise in this world means to live the Christian life in the energy of the flesh, to live in the power of the old sin nature. The Greek word for ‘foolishness’ here really means ridiculous. The wisdom of this world is ridiculous as far as God is concerned, it is ludicrous.

“For it is written,” now we have our first quotation. The perfect tense: it was written in the past with the result that it stands written forever. We have a quotation from Job 5:13. “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness [cleverness, literally].” In other words, any system of pseudo spirituality or legalism will be turned around and used against the believer and become a system of discipline.

Verse 20, “And again,” a quotation from Psalm 94:11; “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are empty.” The thoughts of the wise refers to the believer who has in his frontal lobe a system of pseudo spirituality.

Verse 21, the conclusion. “Therefore let no one glory in men.” Glorying in men is where all of this started. The legalists and the Judaisers came to Corinth. You can’t glory in false teachers, you can’t follow personality. If you are going to have a stabilised Christian experience the sooner you are oriented to doctrine the better.

“For all things are yours,” don’t follow the personality, the false teacher, go back to doctrine. ‘All things’ refers to doctrine; ‘are,’ present linear aktionsart, keep on being yours. This simply means that doctrine belongs to you, your life is doctrine from the Word of God.

Verse 22, the source of doctrine is. It doesn’t make any difference who the person is, doctrine belongs to all believers. “All are yours,” you can’t follow people, you must have your eyes on the Lord and then pastors such as Paul and Apollos, and Peter, etc., will have a meaningful ministry in your life.

Notice he mentions three things: world, life, death. These three factors mean: If you are going to understand the world, if you are going to understand death, or ‘things present, things to come,’ your understanding and your orientation must be based on doctrine. So he says again, “all are yours.”

Verse 23, goes back to the basic concept of grace. “Ye [plural] are Christ’s” simply means you belong to Christ, we are in union with Christ; “Christ is God’s,” we are acceptable to God the Father because we are in union with Christ.