Chapter Three

¹ Chapter Three. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal. He cast down their conceit over the outward wisdom, that they might not be able to say, We pride ourselves not over that, but over the spiritual; now he shows that they have not the perfect even in our wisdom, but are still imperfect; and he says, You have not yet heard any of the more perfect things. And well did he say “I could not,” lest he should seem out of envy not to tell them the more perfect things. For because you are still occupied about carnal things, I could not speak [to you] as to perfect men. And how, being carnal, did they perform signs? There were such men also, which has been said at the outset. And besides, it is possible both to do signs and to be carnal, as those who cast out demons by the name of Christ. For signs come to pass for the benefit of others; wherefore they are often wrought even through the unworthy.

² As to babes in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, and not meat. For you were not yet able, nay, neither even now are you able; for you are still carnal. So far as concerns the things of Christ, he says, you are babes; wherefore “milk”—that is, the simpler teaching—“I gave you to drink, and not meat” did I offer you—that is, the more perfect teaching. Why? Because you were not able. And pulling down their haughtiness, he says: “Neither even now are you able; for you still mind the things of the flesh.” Do you see that for this reason they cannot, because they will not be spiritual, but carnal?

³ For where there is among you jealousy and strife and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk according to man? The things he said before, he said all toward the rulers who exalted themselves over wisdom and noble birth; but now at last he strips himself for action against the ruled, and says: With reason do I name you carnal, where there is among you jealousy, and strife, and divisions. For he might have charged them also concerning fornication and many other faults; but since the pressing matter was the divisions and strifes, of these he makes mention. And everywhere he joins jealousy to strife. For jealousy is the father of strife; and this begets the divisions. Having these things, then, do you not walk according to man?—that is, Do you not mind carnal and human and earthly things?

⁴ For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are you not carnal? By the name of Paul and Apollos he hints at those among them who were renowned and teachers.

⁵ What then is Paul, and what Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed? Under his own name and that of Apollos he accomplishes what he wishes. For he establishes [the point]: If we are nothing, what would one say concerning the teachers among you? We are ministers, he says, not the very root and fountain of good things; for this is Christ. Be not exalted, then, because we ministered to you the things from God. For the whole belongs to him, the bestower of good things. And he did not say, We are evangelists, but “ministers.” For the former belongs to word only; but to minister has works also.

⁶ To each as the Lord gave. Not even this small thing of the ministry, he says, have we from ourselves, but this too we received from the Lord, one in one measure, another in another.

⁷ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. I, he says, first sowed the preaching; and Apollos, by his own teaching, watered; yet God increased you.

⁸ So then, neither is he that plants anything, nor he that waters, but God that gives the increase. Observe how he makes inoffensive the setting-at-nought of the wise and rich who presided in Corinth, having set at nought himself and Apollos, so far as appears, and having taught that one must give heed to God alone, and refer to him all the good things that befall.

⁹ Now he that plants and he that waters are one. So far as concerns not being able to do anything without God, they are one. How then are you exalted against one another, being one?

¹⁰ But each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. Since it was likely that those who had labored more about the faith would become more slothful on hearing that all are one, he at once sets this right, saying that “They are one,” so far as concerns not being able to do anything without the God who gives the increase; for so far as concerns the recompense, each shall have his reward according to his own labor. And he did not say, According to his own work, but, “According to the labor”; for what if one accomplished no work, but labored?

¹¹ For we are God’s fellow-workers. Those who teach, he says, are God’s fellow-workers, cooperating with the purpose of God, who wills to save; not being themselves the agents of salvation, or the givers of it. Neither, then, are they worthy to be despised—for we are God’s fellow-workers; nor to be exalted—for God’s is the whole.

¹² You are God’s husbandry, God’s building. Having said above, “I planted,” he keeps to the figure, and calls them husbandry. If, then, you are husbandry and a building, you ought to be called from the Master, not from the husbandmen or the builders. As husbandry, then, you ought to be fenced by one fence, that of concord; and as a building, to be united, and not torn apart.

¹³ According to the grace of God which was given me, as a wise master-builder I laid a foundation. He calls himself a wise master-builder, not exalting himself, but wishing to show what this is, the part of a wise master-builder, namely, to lay such a foundation—that is, Christ; and that he said this not in exaltation of himself is plain from this. For he says, “According to the grace of God.” For it is not my achievement to have become wise, but the grace of God.

¹⁴ But another builds upon it; and let each take heed how he builds upon it. Since he had discoursed to them concerning union, he now discourses to them concerning conduct, calling each man’s deeds a “building-upon.”

¹⁵ For other foundation can no one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. No one can, so long as he remains a wise master-builder; since, when one is not a wise master-builder, he is able to lay [another], and from the first the heresies [arise]. Among you Corinthians, then, since the one foundation is Christ, you also ought to build upon this, not the things of strife and jealousy, but the works of virtue.

¹⁶ If anyone builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each man’s work shall be made manifest. After we have received the foundation of the faith, we each build upon it—some good deeds, which differ, being greater and lesser; for example, virginity, as gold; honorable marriage, as silver; voluntary poverty, as precious stones; almsgiving in wealth, as some other of the less precious things. And others of us build evil deeds, which themselves too have their gradations; so that hay and stubble are the name for those readier to be burned—I mean, uncleanness, idolatry, covetousness; and wood, the less such; for example, drunkenness, scurrility, and the like. And perhaps some will say the contrary: wood, the things mentioned first; and hay and stubble, these latter.

¹⁷ For the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and of what sort each man’s work is, the fire shall prove. By “the day” he means the day of judgment; and “in fire” he says that the works are revealed—that is, made manifest, of what nature they are, whether gold, or the contrary.

¹⁸ If any man’s work abide which he built upon it, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss. If you have silver or gold, your work shall by all means abide, and you shall receive a reward; but if hay and the like, your work shall not bear the rush of the fire (for this is the “shall be burned up”), but shall be proved to be evil. For just as, if one with golden armor should pass through a river of fire, he passes through unharmed; but if he should pass through having hay, not only did he gain nothing, but he even destroys himself; so is it also with works. So that faith does not profit without good works. For behold, here the foundation was Christ, yet the works that are not according to Christ are said to be worthy of being burned up.

¹⁹ But he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire. Not as the works, so also shall he himself perish, passing into nothing, but he shall be saved—that is, preserved, so as to be burned in the fire. For we too are accustomed to say of wood that is not burned up nor easily reduced to ashes, that it is “preserved” in the fire, so that the burning becomes more lasting. The sinner, then, suffers loss, in that he labored over such things, from which he perished, casting down all his labors upon things that have no substance and are not (for all evil is non-being); just as if one, paying a great price, should buy something dead, as though living. He himself, however—the sinner, that is—is saved, that is, is kept whole, undergoing eternal punishments.

²⁰ Know you not that you are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? And observe how reprovingly he uses the discourse. For from the grace given us, that is, the indwelling of the Spirit, he puts the fornicator to shame, even though he has not plainly set forth the person, but makes the discourse in common. And if we are a temple of God, since the Spirit dwells in us, then the Spirit is God.

²¹ If any man destroys the temple of God, him shall God destroy. That is, shall bring to nought. And this he says not as one cursing, but as one foretelling what shall be.

²² For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. Therefore the fornicator cannot be holy, since he has destroyed his being a temple, the Spirit that sanctified him having departed. And which is the temple? You, plainly, if you remain pure.

²³ Let no one deceive himself. Thinking that the matter stands otherwise, and not as I have said.

²⁴ If any among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. Having hinted at a few things concerning the fornicator, he again makes his discourse against those who exalted themselves over the outward wisdom, and says: “Let him who seems to be wise among you become a fool”—instead of, let him hold the outward wisdom in dishonor, that he may gain the divine. For just as poverty according to God is wealth, and dishonor likewise glory, so also folly according to God is wisdom. And observe, he did not say, Let him put away wisdom, but, what is far greater, “Let him become a fool”—that is, conceiving nothing of himself, not trusting to his own reasonings, but following God like a beast of burden, and believing all the things of God.

²⁵ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For not only does it contribute nothing toward the true wisdom, but it rather hinders, inasmuch as out of self-conceit it disdains to learn, and on this account ever keeps him who uses it in ignorance; whence as fools they are tripped up by God.

²⁶ For it is written: He that takes the wise in their own craftiness. He brings forward a testimony, how human wisdom is foolishness with God, and says that God catches the wise as fools—that is, he subdues them with their own weapons. For though they be crafty and wise, they are convicted as fools and senseless. For example: those men supposed they had no need of God, but conceived all things of themselves; God showed them, by the very facts, that their cleverness and craftiness profited them nothing, but that they most of all have need of God, even those who seem to have no need. So that in their craftiness, in which they thought to know all things, they were found to know nothing, but to be more boorish than fishermen and cobblers in the things needful.

²⁷ And again: The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain. If, then, the Lord knows the reasonings, that they are vain, inasmuch as they grasp nothing of the needful and saving things, how is it that you, O Corinthians, know the things contrary to God, and court these men as profitable?

²⁸ So then let no one boast in men; for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas. These things he seems indeed to say toward the ruled; but he strikes the rulers, saying that one ought not to boast at all, neither over the outward wisdom—for it is folly—nor over the spiritual gifts; for they are God’s, and are given for the sake of the ruled. For this is what he means by, “For all things are yours”—that is, Why do your teachers exalt themselves, and you puff them up and lift them on high? For have they anything of their own? Nay, the things they have are yours, given them for your benefit, and they rather owe thanks to you. And again he made mention of himself and of Peter, for the sake of inoffensiveness, and that he might show: If we received the gifts for your sakes, and for your sakes have been put forward as teachers, much more ought your present teachers not, as over their own achievements, to exalt themselves over the gifts, which are good things belonging to another.

²⁹ Whether world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. And the life, he says, of the teachers is for your sakes, that you may be benefited by being taught; and their death is for your sakes; for it is on your behalf that they are in danger, and for your salvation. Or also otherwise: That the death of Adam too is for your sakes, that you may be brought to sobriety; and that of Christ, that you may be saved; and, simply, the whole world is for your sakes, that through it you may be guided to the Creator, and may use its corruptibility as a teacher to the longing for the incorruptible things. And the things present are yours—that is, the good things which God already bestows here on those who believe; and the things to come have been prepared for your sakes.

³⁰ All things are yours; and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s. Not as we are Christ’s, so also is Christ God’s. For we are Christ’s as his work and handiwork; but Christ is God’s as a Son pre-eternal, and as having the Father for his cause. So that, though the word is one, the meaning is diverse; since neither are all things ours in the same way as we are Christ’s. For we are servants of Christ and his handiwork; but all things are not our servants, nor our handiwork. So that you do not well, assigning yourselves to men, and that when you are Christ’s.