1 Corinthians Jewish New Testament and comments of David H. Stern

chapter 3
1. As for me, brothers, I couldn’t talk to you as spiritual people but as worldly people, as babies, so far as experience with the Messiah is concerned.
2. I gave you milk, not solid food, because you were not yet ready for it. But you aren’t ready for it now either!
3. For you are still worldly! Isn’t it obvious from all the jealousy and quarrelling among you that you are worldly and living by merely human standards?
"Worldly" in v. 1 renders Greek sarkinos, but in v. 3 it renders "sarkikos." Both are adjectives derived from "sarx" ("flesh"; see Ro 7:5N). The first adjective refers to literal, physical flesh; the latter is more figurative. Understand these verses in this sense: "I couldn't talk to you as people who had spirits capable of responding spiritually. Instead, I had to talk to you as one talks to babies made only of flesh, who can understand what is said to them only in the most literal way, whose spirits will develop later but are developmentally incapable of being so addressed now. And I must still talk to you that way, because you are still worldly, thinking only about the world and its things, so that your spirits, though in principle mature enough to respond, are underdeveloped; your IQ is normal, but your 'SQ' is way below par because of the way you run your life." 

4. For when one says, “I follow Sha’ul” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you being merely human?
5. After all, what is Apollos? What is Sha’ul? Only servants through whom you came to trust. Indeed, it was the Lord who brought you to trust through one of us or through another.
6. I planted the seed, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.
7. So neither the planter nor the waterer is anything, only God who makes things grow —
8. planter and waterer are the same. However, each will be rewarded according to his work.
9. For we are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
10. Using the grace God gave me, I laid a foundation, like a skilled master-builder; and another man is building on it. But let each one be careful how he builds.
11. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Yeshua the Messiah.
12. Some will use gold, silver or precious stones in building on this foundation; while others will use wood, grass or straw.
13. But each one’s work will be shown for what it is; the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire — the fire will test the quality of each one’s work.
On the Day of Judgment, the Day ofAdonai, God's Fire will reveal and refine what is worthy to remain in his Kingdom and destroy what is not. 

14. If the work someone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward;
15. if it is burned up, he will have to bear the loss: he will still escape with his life, but it will be like escaping through a fire.
15 This passage speaks of the judgment of believers. Although all who put their trust in Yeshua will be delivered from the final judgment of unbelievers (Rv 20:11-15), their rewards in Heaven will depend on their works as believers on behalf of the Kingdom (5:5, 9:25; Mt 16:27, 25:14-30; Lk 14:13-14; Ro 14:10-11; 2C 5:10; Ep 2:10; 2 Ti 4:8, 14; I Ke 5:4; 2 Yn 8). 

16. Don’t you know that you people are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
You people as the Body of the Messiah are God's Temple and... God's Spirit lives in you. In Jewish understanding God lives in his Temple; that is where his glory dwells, his Sh 'khinah (MJ 1:2-3N), his Spirit. The Samaritan woman knew that Jerusalem was where Jews worshipped (Yn 4:20), where the Temple was; but Yeshua replied that the time would come when "the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth" (Yn 4:23). According to the present verse, that time has come. Sha'ul uses the word "temple" in another sense at 6:19 below; there it means the physical body of the individual believer. 

17. So if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you yourselves are that temple.
18. Let no one fool himself. If someone among you thinks he is wise (by this world’s standards), let him become “foolish,” so that he may become really wise.
19. For the wisdom of this world is nonsense, as far as God is concerned; inasmuch as the Tanakh says, "He traps the wise in their own cleverness" (Job 5:13)
20. and again, "Adonai knows that the thoughts of the wise are worthless" (Psalm 94:11).
21. So let no one boast about human beings, for all things are yours —
22. whether Sha’ul or Apollos or Kefa or the world or life or death or the present or the future: they all belong to you,
23. and you belong to the Messiah, and the Messiah belongs to God.

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