City Life Starter

The WORD:

1 Corinthians 3:18-23

 “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Psalm 139:12

“Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.”

By Heather Mattingly

Context

The context of these verses, as wonderfully explained by fellow authors on this blog, is that Paul is still lovingly admonishing the church in Corinth to set Jesus, and only Jesus, as their foundation – this means not intellectual knowledge, nor favorite human-teachers. These things, while good things are not a foundation for followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one foundation: Jesus Christ Himself. Our Lord is very clear about this when He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6).

Paul has just finished admonishing the Corinthian church about watching what they’re building in the Lord, and that the Corinthians themselves are indeed the building – the temple – of God. God’s fire will come and will test what they have built. How do you know that what you have built in your own life will stand the test of God’s fire for eternal glory? For His fire will indeed come to test your work; this is a guarantee. The Bible says that “each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.” (1 Cor 3:13).

The answer is to set and to keep Jesus as your firm foundation. But how do you do this? In today’s verses, Paul counsels the Corinthians (and us) how to practically do this:

Exegesis & Application:

“Let no one deceive himself….” (1 Cor 3:18). Upon first glance, this verse is scary: who would willingly let themselves be deceived? No one, but we are up against an evil and powerful enemy who hates us because we bear the image of God, Whom he hates the most. Satan’s very name is deceiver: “….that serpent of old called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world…” (Rev. 12:9). He’s very good at deception. The only guard you have against all deceptions and lies of the enemy is the dependence upon the Holy Spirit, for He is “..the Spirit of truth…He will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13). That’s His job: to tell you the truth about God and thus about yourself. But He cannot tell you the truth if you do not ask Him. Take a moment right now to ask Him to reveal the lies you’ve believed that keep you from putting all your weight on Jesus as your firm foundation.

“For the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God.” (1 Cor 3:19). This is another hard verse to read; we live in the Information Age, where knowledge is key. Knowledge is good, and God gave you your mind and wants you to use it to pursue Him, but beware of your intellect becoming a god to you. Are you resisting God because you can’t understand Him fully? You never will. He is infinite; we are finite. The finite can never fully understand the infinite. So, how can you fight this battle to understand within your own mind? Again, the only defense you have is the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to reveal The Truth to you, and He will do it. He wants to! And He will meet you where you are at and give you enough understanding for you to take your next step in Him. Even where we think we are wise (and this human wisdom can sometimes cloak itself against the cross), He lovingly corrects us, for the Bible says that, “Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to You.” (Ps 139:12). Isn’t this wonderfully encouraging? Even the darkness within you that you don’t even know is there, is light to Him. He sees it clearly. Are you willing to let Him reveal the darkness within you to you so you can let Him correct it for you and with you? If you are, He will do it, and He will do it gently.

“Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come – all are yours.” (1 Cor 3:21-22). Oh, what glorious words! What glorious Promise! “Things present and things to come” are yours; did you notice that your past is not listed in this verse? That is because it is bought and paid for and belongs to Jesus. It is hung on the cross and covered by His blood. You are set free! (John 8:36). And all things are yours – all! As Pastor Chris says, “that word ‘all’ in Greek means ALL!” If you only knew “…the riches of the glory of your inheritance…” in Christ Jesus! (Eph 1:18).  This world may operate in a zero-sum game mentality (which means ‘me first:’ if you win, then I lose, but if I win, then you lose: in a zero-sum game, there’s not enough resources for everyone to win). But, praise Jesus, those who are followers of Christ Jesus do not live nor operate in a zero-sum game! For our Father “…is able to do exceedingly abundantly all that we ask or think…” (Eph 3:20). Do you see? Abundance is His very nature! When He gave His only begotten Son for you, He gave extravagantly; He cannot give any other way. Do you think He has stopped giving you “exceedingly and abundantly” now? Test Him today and see: sometime today, dive deep into your Bible yourself. God, through His Holy Spirit, is your Father and wants to talk to you Himself. Go and hear what His personal words are to you today!

“And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” (1 Cor 3:23). You are God’s; you are His child! He is delighted with you! He says so Himself: “the Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness…” (Zeph 3:17). And He saves, indeed: Jesus bought and paid for you with His precious blood: “…do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor 6:19-20). Therefore, since we are not our own and have been redeemed, let’s joyfully take our eyes off ourselves today and lift them up to the heavens: to where our Lord Jesus sits in joyful hope and expectation of us joining Him there with Him in our Father’s timing.

Prayer

“Father, I earnestly desire to put all my weight on You and You alone, Lord Jesus, as my firm foundation. Show me where I’ve placed ‘additions’ to You as my foundation and please correct my building: both in the areas where I’ve willingly added to You as my foundation, and the areas where I’m ignorant that I’ve added to You. Holy Spirit, please guide me into all truth, as You said You would. Give me the “…spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of [You], the eyes of [my]understanding being enlightened; that [I] may know what is the hope of [Your] calling, what are the riches of the glory of [Your] inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of [Your] power toward us who believe, according to the working of [Your] mighty power which [You] worked in Christ when [You] raised Him from the dead and seated Him at [Your] right hand in the heavenly places’ (Eph 1:17-20). Amen”