Materialism is the butt of every Dad joke. A child comes to the father of their youth, and say, “Dad, I’m hungry,” to which the beloved father figure replies, “Hello Hungry, I’m Dad!” It pokes fun at the idea that our whole identity could be the sum total of our physical markers, desires and chemical reactions. This would be akin to someone ‘coming out,’ to us and us responding, “Hello Gay! I’m Cis!” It’s ludicrous! But, our culture still does it–quite a bit, actually. We define ourselves and others concretely based on what we can see rather than on what we cannot see; our souls. This results in massive division, as what we can see is rather diverse and our mindsets cannot cope with how to categorise such diversity into unity. We cry out in our materialism with Shylock,
If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? If you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
Shylock, The Merchant of Venice
Shakespeare appeals to the materialist mindset of his day in finding commonalities in our material experience to appeal for our common humanity with one another. But, no matter how many correlations we amass to signify our common humanity, a simple diversion like an accent or the colour of someone’s skin can still elicit the strongest of discriminatory behaviour. This suggests that materialist reasoning fails to cut to the heart of the sins of racism, sexism and othering–simply appealing to common humanity is not enough for us to treat one another as common souls.
A New Classification I Give You
I don’t like using the words we have invented for the classification of those who differentiate themselves from others because it has the same effect for us as their divisiveness does. We don’t associate with racists because they don’t associate with other races. By the very notion of calling someone a racist we acknowledge the validity of defining someone’s whole identity based on their outward appearance. The materialist answer to this quandary is to ‘not see colour,’ which prompts another word materialists use called ‘erasure’. We ‘erase,’ women or people of colour in an attempt to fix in our minds that our blood all runs red–it runs red in muskrats as well but most of us don’t claim that we ought to treat them like people. So, I propose a new term, a term that promotes the love, mercy and understanding that we ought to be showing one another regardless of if we are material girls living in a material world, or idealists who believe in the unity of all things. This word is Agility.
Agility speaks to how nimble one is in their thinking and adaptability to any mental or physical situation based on both mental and physical preparedness. Ones agility may be present ideologically, politically, culturally, religiously, or, indeed, physically; any mode in which we can imagine there will be intersoul communication. So, one may be classified as ‘ideologically agile,’ but perhaps, ‘culturally clumsy,’ while this may seem like painting the pig, it acknowledges each one’s journey and that some of us continue classifying others in divisive ways, but, we will rise above divisiveness and encourage growth by the mass removal of pejoratives. Afterall, what is to be gained by speaking about someone pejoratively? Will they see the error of their ways as we scoff at them from behind our keyboards? Will they turn from their wickedness and see the light of Christ in our haughty eyes? No. The more we capitulate to materialist demand for concrete and divisive pejoratives, the more we live by the flesh instead of by the Spirit. Agility is also rather easily determined in a person–it is seen by their agreeableness, their winsome take, their ability to present the truth to anyone without trite talking points. It is in their humility to say, “I don’t know,” and in their expert intersoul communicative skills.
So the next time someone asks, “whose hungry,” and the group all responds extatically, “I AM!!” Have the bravery to gasp audibly and retort, “It must have been a popular name that year!”
The truth sets us free, but what is truth? It is more than abstract factual correctness. It is the fruit of which tree we are grafted into; the very language we learn from our Father upon our new birth.
John 8:31-32
31So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:32-33 English Standard Version
The Context
In the ramp up to his crucifixion, Jesus engages the Jewish leaders in a rather volatile exchange that nearly results in His stoning. Jesus is teaching in the temple testifying about Himself saying that He is light of the world, the Messiah and says to those who believed in Him that if they abide in the words He has just spoken about Himself then they are truly His disciples and that they will know the truth and the truth will set them free. The Jewish leaders take exception to the suggestion that they are not in fact free. They cite their political and heritage status as proof of their freedom but Jesus maintains that those who practice sin are not free but are enslaved to sin, and walk in darkness. Jesus cites their hatred of Him and desire to put him to death as proof that they walk in the footsteps of their murderous father and are indeed the offspring of the devil. This is what moves the elders to take up stones but Jesus disappears into the crowd to avoid death before His time.
What is Truth?
The Truth sets us free, but what is truth? It is more than abstract factual correctness. It is the fruit of which tree we are grafted into; the very language we learn from our Father upon our new birth. The Jewish leaders were not speaking a factual lie when they said that their ancestor was Abraham, nor that they themselves were not slaves in the social hierarchy. However, they were not speaking the metaphysical truth that Jesus was discussing. Jesus says that the one who claims Abraham as their father and yet walks and talks nothing like Abraham is a liar as Abraham walked and spoke by faith and the Jewish leaders walked and spoke by sight. Jesus likens this deep self deception of claiming to be something other than what we are, to claiming to speak the language of our so-called fathers and yet not speak their language. To say, for example, that we are Chinese, yet when a born and breed Han from China walks into the room and greets us in Mandarin, we don’t know the language and get angry at them for not greeting us in English! We are exposed as fraudulent in our claims. In the same way, if we do not know the voice of the Spirit of God and are offended when He speaks because we do not understand, then there is a good chance that we are not born of God. But, knowing this, the truth can set us free.
Free from Sin for Freedoms Sake
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1 English Standard Version
It would be very easy, reading a verse like this, to think that what Paul means is that since we have been physically set free we should not bind ourselves to a physical or political yoke of slavery. We need to remember that Jesus says that the one who sins is a slave to sin or to their flesh. Other verses say a slave to our passions; that is to the unconscious visceral reactions of our bodies to any exterior stimuli. When compared with other imagery in the New Testament we find that what Jesus means is that the one who sins is a slave to their own body. Paul, on the other hand flips the situation on its head. The New International Version gives us a vivid image of disciplining the body.
No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
1 Corinthians 9:27 English Standard Version
In Paul’s analogy, he is discipling his body for a race or a fight. He trains others to run and fight, but would be a sorry excuse for a coach if he himself could not run or fight. What Paul and Jesus are saying is that either we are slave to our bodies or our bodies are slaves to us! We are either controlled by the flesh and the things of this world, or we submit to the Spirit and make our flesh the servant and slave of our minds. The idealists (of which I am one) are wont to remind us to take back our thinking from our bodies and to give it back to our minds–this I think is the idea behind freedom. If freedom is a state of being–a state of mind–that results in a physical reality then the Spirit unleashes our minds from our bodies and we can then understand the sayings of Jesus in regards to food being for body and not the body for food, only perhaps we will slightly adjust to say that the body is for the soul and not the soul for the body. Both are integral to the interface, the body is the primary interface; the slave, but the soul is the one who communicates through the body. The body may be in chains and the soul free, but if the soul is in chains then so will the body be. When the soul is set free the body will not be far behind.
No one who is master of their body enslaves another in body or mind to do their will; they are perfectly capable of doing the work themselves and indeed say to themselves regularly, “if you want something done right, do it yourself”. However, when ‘like minds,’ meet they spark genius between them and move mountains by the power of two or more souls who were masters of their own bodies and therefore of their environment. These are the truly free ones. They are not, necessarily, marked by wealth or status, or ascetism or poverty–they are those who tell their bodies to behave a certain way and obey.
The Spirit is Willing But the Flesh is Weak
However, the interface is broken. No matter how masterful we are over our environment it is still marred by secondary interfaces that, over time, have weakened us. We attempt to tell ourselves what to do, and end up crying out in frustration with Paul,
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Romans 7:24 English Standard Version
Every action done in the flesh leads to death and every action done in the Spirit leads to life–Paul concludes that Christ saves us from this body infested with death. Belief in Christ as the light of the world sets us free, as Jesus testified about Himself. Not free as in separated fromour bodies of death but free from the control of the body, and indeed freedom to enslave the body to the soul to be used once again for intersoul communication.
The State of Affairs
Our bodies exude self absorbed death when they are in control and as a result we drive people away from us, whether they be controlled by the flesh or by the Spirit. People come together in the flesh when there is a common goal to legitimise, provide for and protect one another’s bodily well being. This is so engrained in us, that we all just thought, “well, what’s wrong with that,”. What’s wrong with that is that what or rather whom we are protecting one another from are other primary interfaces controlled by secondary interfaces. We fail in our common goal of intersoul communication and settle for the compromise of interbody cooperation.
People controlled by the Spirit, however, are not concerned about their own legitimacy, safety or provision because it does not rest in other people, nor even in themselves, but in the Spirit. They speak the words they are told to speak, they go where they are told to go and do what they are told to do without fear of alienation from their source of value. Those controlled by the flesh look on them as if they were the hyper-individual, but that is their own failed eyesight. If they were to look on them in the Spirit they would see that they are one with the Spirit and with all those who are also one with God; but again do not derive their value from one another nor their association with one another but with God alone. There is a deep love between them because of their deep love for God, their is a deep unity among them because of their indescribable unity with God and the ones who live by the flesh but claim to be redeemed are driven from their presence because the Spiritual ones don’t need those who walk by the flesh as much as they think they need to be needed by other people. This is the clash between the flesh and the Spirit. This is the battle for freedom that rages in the heart of every man, woman and child. The flesh cries out to more flesh for legitimacy, safety and provision and the Spirit rests full of value in the person of Jesus.
We who would be free and would tout ourselves as free in Christ, would do well to pay heed.
To help us illustrate what Paul has been teaching the Corinthians let us look at what exclusive human power and secondary power structures do to people.
In the time of the Judges in the Old Testament, Samuel was the last ruling prophet and judge. He had eight sons in his old age and he made them judges over Israel but they were wicked and corrupted justice for bribes. So the people protested to Samuel to anoint a king over them; an exclusive ruler to legitimize them among the nations, to keep them safe and to ensure provision for the future. God tells Samuel to capitulate to their demand for a king and , curiously, tells him not to get too emotionally involved or to think that they are rejecting him personally, but that the people were rejecting God and His legitimacy, security and provision for a face they could look on and appeal to directly, a sentiment that Jesus later echoes to His disciples. This is the warning God and Samuel gave to the people before asking if this is what they wanted:
10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men[a] and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
1 Samuel 8:10-18 English Standard Version
“Hold on,” I hear you say. “A governmental change has nothing to do with how the people of God organise themselves. It’s completely different,” and to that I say, “That’s not how God saw it.” Keep in mind that these are the people of God who have received mercy at the time; the nation of priests to declare God’s glory to the nations. God saw the people’s call for a king as a personal affront to Himself and so gives the above warning about placing an intentional secondary interface between God and humanity. He says that the king will eventually be an unfaithful steward of God’s people and tax them, extort them, pull them into wars that are not their own and make space for the world in God’s Kingdom ultimately thinking that it is their kingdom and in that day they would cry out to God whom they have rejected as their king but He will not answer them.
This event is juxtaposed to when God was going to give Moses and the people into the land of Canaan but leave them there. Moses responded that if God was not going to go with them then they would not go either–only at this time the people cried out louder that they should have a king.
Today we no longer ask God for a king, instead, we ask God for a Chief Executive Officer but the warning stands.
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? 3 For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,[a][b] so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:1-8 English Standard Version
The Fellowship of Light in Bodily Language
Paul draws yet another example of the body’s immaturity in the Spirit; instead of letting the light of love cast out all darkness, as we hear from John. They hid the light and made space for darkness within their hearts and within their fellowship. A member of the body, very likely one of these influential people calling people exclusively after themselves took his father’s wife (likely one of many) for himself. An act so dishonourable, and divisive that, Paul says, it can only have come from malice towards his father and the wickedness of his own unchanged heart. Paul doesn’t spell it out as black and white as John does later on in the century, but rather gets right down to handing down judgement on this man. Ultimately, Paul says that the ‘old leaven,’ their old gentile lives, are what is causing all of this immaturity and sin to enter the body and cause such division and defilement of the body. The natural state of the body is to reject diseased tissue not to accept it or to attack healthy tissue.
The alcoholic, the drug addict, the absent parent, video game junkies, phone addicts;–it doesn’t matter what the coping mechanism is, the real addiction is the homeostasis that they bring to our bodies and minds–the stress release. When nothing is amiss…no screaming children, no nagging spouse, no concerned family member…just me and my own self resetting to zero. It is this addiction to zero that controls us. Our bodies produce the stress hormones we tell them to produce when we are out of touch with reality; when our expectations are beyond normal. We say or think things like, I have kids but they shouldn’t be quintessential children; they need to be emotionally mature adults around me or I can’t cope. Our bosses, our spouses, our family members all look down on us when we are in our sub zero state. So, when we’re resting comfortably at zero, or one or two we actually feel great! We feel respected and loved and cherished. We’re told that we are someone’s rock and steadfast lover of their souls, and we believe it. We also believe it, when we’re told that we are neglectful when no one is looking and a sorry excuse for a Christian and that we are leading people astray towards some errant belief. We want to be operating at 100% but, as well, we feel guilty for wanting more because we’re accused of wanting to be the big man on campus; the harvest gods. We operate at around 80% in some areas like work or faith, but around 10-20% in others. Our addiction to zero holds us steady in its grasp. Ask about any area in our lives and we will give a standard for what we expect our lives to look like. Unless we fix the standard in our minds we will not adjust how we behave on a regular basis to raise our standard of homeostasis.
14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you have countless[b] guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17 That is why I sent[c] you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ,[d] as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18 Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21 What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
1 Corinthians 4:14-21 English Standard Version
Many Guides but One Father
As their primary steward in the mysteries of God and their father in the gospel, Paul felt responsible for the present state of the people of God in Corinth. He bent over backwards while presenting the simple gospel around him to put out the fires of division in Corinth being caused by a few arrogant individuals who thought themselves to be something special, forgetting that they had been given all that they had by Paul and by God. Paul asserts his fatherly authority over the Corinthian believers as the one who presented the simple gospel to them and sent their older brother Timothy with a letter from their mutual father to display Paul to them in person and in word through His letter. Paul urges the believers to imitate him as he imitates Christ–this is not to the exclusion of the other apostles, but in tandem with them as they imitate Christ as well. Those who were drawing people away to their exclusive tribes were claiming that Paul had abandoned them. They spoke down about him saying that the other apostles were real apostles having walked with Jesus, and that they should not fear this lesser apostle who obviously didn’t have all of the answers or wisdom that the likes of the letters from Peter showed. Paul refutes this notion later but for now says that He is making his way to them quickly and will see if there is any substance to the faith of these detractors and dividers of the people of God. Finally, he admonishes them that he would much rather come to them in a spirit of gentleness than with a rod of discipline from God.
6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers,[a] that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. 7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
1 Corinthians 4:6-13 English Standard Version
And Would That You Did Reign
The Corinthian believers have everything that Paul and the rest of the Apostles pushing the borders of Christ’s influence on the earth could use. Besides for the wisdom of Christ, they have full access to the whole body of Christ, they are wealthy, they are well liked and they reportedly, ‘live like kings’. Paul’s situation is entirely different, and because of this he says that he wishes that the Corinthian believers were actually ruling–that they were full of the Spirit and using their influence for Christ and for obedience and unity’s sake because then the apostles would be ruling vicariously through them and with them and Paul would be comforted in his infliction knowing that his children were living lives of obedience to the Spirit and to Christ. But, he says, ‘you have everything you ever wanted’. They used the name of Christ to boost their own names, their own wealth and their own reputations. They aligned themselves with the apostle or teacher who seemed like the wisest according to the ways of the world and co-opted the gospel of Christ to suit their own means. They claimed that the table and house was theirs and so were found to be unfaithful Stewards. Paul will now address them as his children in the next section pleading for their repentance and return to the simple gospel they received from their spiritual father.
So you’ve accepted Christ as your personal saviour, congratulations! You are now a member of the body of Christ; restored in relationship to God and to the people of God who have also received that mercy. You may have been told that the next steps for you are to join a fellowship, pray and read your Bible. But, there’s a good chance that you’re now reading this article because you’re not exactly sure what you’re supposed to do next. You’ve heard the gospel, that Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead on the third day according to the scriptures and responded by calling out to Jesus to save you, and now it seems like there’s a whole world of Christianity in front of you. You might be 12, 24, 36 or 48 and this whole thing seems like a bit much. You’ve joined a local body, spoken to the air a bit and tried reading the Bible, but you’ve never even heard of half of the words being thrown about and are eager to get started doing…well, whatever it is that you’re supposed to be doing. This might seem rather patronizing, but you’re a new baby in Christ. However, you’re not alone, you have the Holy Spirit of God inside you, and brother’s and sisters around you to edify, equip, encourage and raise you up to full reproducing maturity in Jesus. And it doesn’t take nearly as long as growing up physically to grow up in Christ–not if you’re serious about growing. So here are 5 pieces of advice you should consider when getting your feet wet in Christianity.
No. 1: Not Just the Feet
The first step after salvation is to be baptized; hopefully this is a step that was done for you as it’s actually an act of obedience for the one who led you to Christ. Because of this it’s not necessary for you to completely understand the significance of baptism at this time. It will be an act of obedience for you later when God calls you to be the final one who shares Christ in someone’s life to bring them to the point you are today. For now, it’s enough to know that baptism is submersion in and out of water as a symbol of dying with Christ to our life lived for ourselves, being buried and being raised to this new life in Jesus. If you have yet to do this, approach the one who led you to Christ and they should know what to do.
No. 2: Beyond the Body
There is nothing about your old life that we can use to put a pin in the new life you now have in Jesus. You have been born completely anew. Whatever gender, color, nationality, neuro-status, or any factor you can imagine that has defined you in the past is now dead to you and to the people of God who have received mercy. The Bible tells us that we are to treat one another as spiritual beings; to look beyond our physical differences and to discern the Spirit of God that is in each one of us and binds us together as a family. I wish I could tell you that everyone who claims Christ is going to treat you the same as everyone else, but many did not receive the simple gospel and instruction that you are now receiving. They will need to be handled with gentleness as they will have been robbed of this reality in Christ and will have been treated according to their old lives in the flesh. Be the first to see beyond their body and welcome them into the community you now enjoy with God.
No. 3: You’re Not Crazy
Having just been born, your connection with the Spirit of God is super sensitive, you may often hear His voice and wonder if you’ve gone crazy, but don’t worry–this is how it should be. Listen to that voice in community with others who regularly hear the voice of God and obey Him. They will know when it is God and when it is just your own intruding thoughts. There is a skill to seeking the wisdom of God and it comes with practice. The general rule of thumb is that if what is in your head is telling me to do or say things that would imply that Jesus is not God or anything like that then it’s not the Holy Spirit, it’s your old flesh speaking from beyond the grave. Those who are mature in Christ will help you discern the voice of God in your life by sharing examples of when He has spoken to them and how they obeyed. Paul–one of the men God used to write the Bible–says that these are, ‘assignments,’ from God. It is a sure sign of immaturity when we have stopped receiving assignments from God, but don’t worry, if you stop hearing His voice all of the time. There may just be some housekeeping to do in your heart.
No 4: Work it Out
One of the most important things to understand about your new life in Jesus is that while others may have been where you are now and can walk and guide you through many things, it is your responsibility to learn and grow in Christ. This means, as the Bible puts it, that you must, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” It is for God’s will and good pleasure that we work on our Christian life. Sometimes it can seem like we are copy and pasting some old dead guy’s salvation onto our own and while God did work in many of them, it’s important to remember that the value of their obedience to the Spirit is entirely down to the Spirit of God and not to them. Use them and your living examples as guides but not as the Holy Spirit.
No 5: There’s a Book
Finally, the most valuable resource you have to help you in your journey is in the testimony about God from the Bible. The Holy Spirit who wrote the Bible through many people in the past is now living inside you and the other people of God and will regularly bring to mind the things that Jesus has spoken as well as other aspects of the Word of God. You need a sensitive connection to the Spirit of God to discern what it says; it’s not that it’s hidden–every word is right in front of us in all its glory, but there will be times when the Bible comes to life and you hear a harmony of God’s voice through it applying themes in the passage to your own life. Familiarize yourself with the Bible and read it in community with other believers. The rule of thumb is that to know what the Bible says, we have to know what the whole Bible says.
So there you have it! 5 pieces of advice from your older brother in Christ. You may have noticed that all five of these pieces of advice include involving someone else with you along your journey. This is not by mistake. Just as God used someone to lead you to Jesus, He will now use others to raise you up to full reproducing maturity in Christ and to help along the way, this is most generally done in some kind of gathering. But that’s for another time.
Writer and Editor of Ammi Ruhama Community Christian Union. Also published on Baseline Christianity.
Daniel L. Bacon
Commentary on Paul’s Letters to the Corinthian Church
ARC Guide Level 1 Ideal for those getting acquainted with our thought process at Ammi Ruhama Community.
1 Corinthians 3:10-17
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.
1 Corinthians 3:10-17 English Standard Version
Wicker Dwellings and Roman Villas
Paul builds out the construction metaphor and says that if another builder comes on site, assumingly Peter or Apollos or any other mature believer, that they must build on top of the foundation that is Christ and will be either rewarded or suffer great loss based on the work they have done when it is tested by fire (likely persecution). He says that the proverbial work being done is the building of the temple of God which is done to specification (by the Spirit) and that anyone who thinks they can build using the materials they are used to building with like wood, hay and stubble; the usual iron age building materials for a double walled, wicker dwelling stuffed with straw for insulation and topped with a stubble roof, will find that these are unfit materials for the house of God and will burn up in the day of testing. These materials are used symbolically for the wisdom of the world, while the adornments of gold, silver and precious stones are symbolic of the wisdom from the Spirit. One type of dwelling comes from a deep, generational custom, especially among the farming community of building the same dwelling, the same way every ten to fifteen years and moving with the land when it goes fallow. The builder of the wicker dwelling builds only for themselves for the next 10-15 years. The builder of a Roman Villa, by contrast, does so not only for their own sake but for the sake of generations who would come after them. In this way, Paul sees his work and the work of Peter, Apollos and the other mature believers as progressive to the point of testing. If what is built on top of the foundation is made of wood hay and stubble, it will need to be rebuilt every ten to fifteen years and moved to where the soil seems more fertile as the common human wisdom says. However, if what is built is made with permanent things and adorned with gold, silver and precious stones like the temple of Solomon then the world will come to us to marvel at the beauty of the temple which we have built to God. The twist is that we collectively; the whole people of God who have received mercy are the temple of God built either with wood hay and stubble or adorned with silver, gold, and precious stones and headed for the day of testing. Will we burn up and move to more fertile ground to build another straw hut, or will we build the house of God on the foundation that is Christ and adorn it with silver, gold and precious stones?
Plural Not Singular
This is not a new passage to most of us. We have heard this passage preached again and again and again as a personal call to holiness, but it is in fact a continuation of Paul’s analogy of the one who plants and the one who waters, only this analogy focuses on the one who lays the foundation and the one who builds on it. It is Paul’s version of, “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. When Paul says, “do you (plural) not know that you (plural) are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells within you (plural),” this is another corralling statement by Paul to say that the Spirit of God is in all of us that we have all been given a portion of the Spirit of God and so when we dwell in unity we adorn ourselves as the temple of God with silver and gold and precious stones, and that the world sees us and marvels at the beauty of the temple and proclaims that Jesus was sent from the Father. However, when we live in our little enclaves we build ugly little huts of human wisdom for ourselves until the next wave of popular Christianity moves through and the fallow land around us causes us to burn our old models and move on to the next big thing; a slightly bigger wicker hut.
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.
1 Corinthians 3:1-9 English Standard Version
The Through Thread
Paul asserts, if there was any question about where the Corinthians were on the spectrum of being naturally or spiritually minded, that they are in fact quite naturally minded; unobservant of spiritual things and, as a result, full of jealousy and strife, pitting Peter, Apollos and Paul against one another by claiming to hold exclusively to any one of their teachings as being distinct from another. Today we might say that they believed that they had distinct truth claims on the gospel of Christ. Paul’s point here is that they only saw their respective words, analogies and arguments for the gospel and not the through-thread of the Spirit of God which joins them all together. He uses the example of being a labourer in God’s field or a builder of God’s building.
From Simple Seeds and Stones
Paul relates his work in the gospel to sowing seeds or laying a foundation. Seeds were sown by broadcasting them which is literally walking for absolute miles back and forth casting the same seeds over a large area. Foundations were laid by digging a hole and dropping massive stones into the hole and surrounding them with smaller stones to fall between them to give a solid base to build on later. Both of these are rather boring, laborious jobs that rely on seeing the bigger picture to see the significance of what would otherwise seem to be busy work. Paul says that while putting seeds or stones in the ground might seem like simple work, it is this work that allows for others to come along and add water that activates the seed when the sun hits the soil around it allowing it to become a more complex fruit bearing plant. In the same way putting stones in the ground prepares the way for the more complicated work of building the walls, hanging doors or setting a roof on top. They are all the same work, for the same person and so are all connected. The point is that from the simple seed of the gospel comes the fruit of the life of one controlled by the Spirit, and from the foundation that is Christ comes a building made of precious stones–both themes Paul will return to later in the letter.
Fulfilling the Assignment
Paul’s use of, ‘assignment,’ is not as permanent as it might sound. In the same way that his later use of, ‘gift,’ of the Spirit is not a once for all time gifting but rather a living manifestation of the Spirit of God. In the same way, our, ‘assignments,’ (some call them vocations) from God are less like homework or employment and more like listening to and obeying the voice of His Spirit. Too often we think of a “call into ministry,” as being a lifelong commitment to one job within the body in the same way that we think that, having once manifested the gift of administration, the Spirit won’t manifest Himself in us in other capacity and that, that’s our life’s purpose. What happens is that God uses us in some way, either to speak or to teach or to call people to Himself and it feels so good to be used by Spirit of God in any capacity that we attempt to reproduce the environment in which it happened. I felt this same pull after inviting a homeless man into my garden to live for a week. We walked very closely together for that week as we discussed spiritual things and worked on procuring more stable living conditions for him. I felt afterwards that God must want me to start a homeless ministry, but when I prayed and searched the scriptures for confirmation God asked me to let my experience of being used by the Spirit be what it was and to let it go and to continue to listen to His voice instead. He told me that if I went forward with starting a homeless ministry that it would be a hinderance to other’s responsibility to invite the homeless into their homes and feed them their food and walk with them for the week that He calls them to do that. My assignment had been completed; I listened and obeyed and was shown the state of the body of Christ as a result.
Paul had been assigned to sow seeds in Corinth. He did a bit of watering and harvesting while he was there as well as he attests, but his main assignment was to plant the pure seed of the gospel in their hearts and then leave it to the work of another whose assignment had been to water the seeds of the gospel. Paul generally allowed others to water and harvest, he took special interest in a few who he personally raised to full reproducing maturity in Christ but allowed the rest of the body to raise one another up to full reproducing maturity. He did not allow himself to be side tracked with the task of being the one to whom everyone outsourced their assignments–and neither should we. We all have our own listening and obeying to be getting on with, and only the Spirit knows our next respective assignments.
Ammi Ruhama Community 