For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
To say I am of Paul and I am of Apollos is to divide into rival parties around human leaders. That party spirit proves carnality, walking as men in envy, jealousy, strife and division instead of in the mind and Spirit of Christ. It shows believers are still babes in Christ, able to bear only milk and not yet solid spiritual food. Paul, Apollos and their fellow workers are only servants by whom men believed, one planting and another watering while God alone gives the increase. Therefore glorying in men must cease, and all must humble the heart, glory in the Lord, and cleave together to Christ.
Factions at Corinth
The verse records a division in which one believer declared allegiance to Paul and another to Apollos, with some also claiming Peter or Cephas. Such taking of sides around different ministers in divisive comparison is the mark of a harmful party spirit.
Paul had planted the church at Corinth by preaching Christ and His mission in plain, simple truth, unadorned with worldly wisdom, after disappointment with the result of using learning and eloquence at Athens. Apollos later watered the seed that Paul had planted, teaching and helping it to grow, and his success in preaching through eloquent discourses and manifest learning led many hearers to contrast the two styles and exalt his labors above those of Paul. The differences between the ministers so contrasted were imaginary. Apollos had gone to Corinth to support Paul's labors among the Jews and worked in harmony with Paul for the advancement of the cause.
Paul and Apollos were in harmony and did not encourage the rivalry or the preference shown. Because of the division raised over him, Apollos left Corinth and returned only after its spiritual condition improved. Satan took advantage of the contrasting of the ministers to tempt the church to hold them in contrast. This rival, party spirit fostered by comparing the preachers and preferring the work of Apollos over that of Paul brought Paul conflict and trial inside the church as well as outside it, and threatened to greatly hinder the progress of the gospel and of truth.
Meaning of Carnal
To declare oneself for Paul and another for Apollos is carnality and walking as mere men. It reflects the natural, self-centered heart and human ways rather than God's order. It means walking governed by human ways instead of wholehearted surrender to God. The ministers themselves are only human servants commissioned to teach the truth, doing the same work marked out by the Father and dependent on Him for success, one planting and the other watering while God alone gives the increase and transforms character.
That carnal state is envying and strife and divisions over human leaders. Such factions arise from jealousy, strife and division and prove the absence of the mind and Spirit of Christ. They leave the church in great weakness with dwarfed spiritual growth and are the plain cause of its difficulties. In that condition even a plain message about self becomes an offense, and the one who speaks the truth is ranked as an accuser and faultfinder. Erecting separating barriers by human invention is that same carnal party spirit.
It means believers are still babes in Christ who must be fed with milk because they are not yet able to bear meat. Milk is the plainest, most simple truths suitable for converts young in the faith, while meat is solid, nourishing spiritual food suited to those who have made progress in knowledge of divine things. Remaining able to bear only milk and not meat or spiritual things shows failure to feed on Christ.
It shows they do not have the mind and Spirit of Christ but walk after narrow, conceited, selfish human wisdom, with views and feelings bound about by selfishness. It is life on a low level, dwelling on surface truth which calls for no thought and no deep research and no advance in spiritual knowledge. Such contending over human leaders does not show growth in grace but narrow, limited comprehension and defective, worthless experience. It is the opposite of feeding on Christ and partaking of the divine nature, for those who partake do not seek to stand at the head of a party but lead men to Christ and to the truth that makes all one in Him. Party loyalty reveals the absence of the liberality, generosity and tenderness that mark an abiding Christ.
It means glorying in men and being puffed up for one minister against another. It means showing and talking preferences by comparing one with another to the detriment of the one not preferred. It means judging brethren because they do not regard one's own words and spirit and actions as perfection. It means showing preference to men and leaning upon them as though eternal life depended upon them. It means linking up with the one man under whose labors light was received, placing oneself on his side and refusing harmony with brethren, and tying up in separate bundles. It means liking one speaker better and wanting to hear him rather than another, which is self and must be laid aside for oneness.
Ministers Are Servants
Paul and Apollos and those who followed them were only men commissioned of God to teach the truth, ministers and servants by whom men believed as the Lord gave to every man. They were individually engaged in the same work marked out by the Heavenly Father, each with his distinctive work, and wholly dependent on Him for the success attending their labors. Though gifts differed, they served to the same object and were not the source of success.
Paul planted and Apollos watered, for Paul first preached the gospel and planted the church at Corinth and Apollos later watered the seed by teaching and helping it grow. Neither he that plants nor he that waters is anything, for neither causes growth nor deserves its glory. God alone gives the increase and transforms character through divine power.
He that plants and he that waters are one, laborers together with God, with diversity of gifts to blend harmoniously as only instruments of divine grace and power in carrying forward the great work of salvation. Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor, while believers are God's husbandry and God's building. That building is on the only foundation that can be laid, which is Jesus Christ, whose building work will be made manifest and tried by fire, as the holy temple of God indwelt by the Spirit of God, which no man may defile without destruction. Consciousness of being God's servants inspires energy and diligence to perseveringly discharge duty with an eye single to the Master's glory.
Therefore the teacher of Christ's truth must stay near the cross himself in order to bring sinners to it, must preach Christ, and must studiously avoid calling attention to himself and attracting people to himself. He is to preach the truth that makes all men one in Christ Jesus and to attract men not to himself but to Christ. To draw attention to self encumbers sacred truth and hinders its saving power.
Unity and Humility Required
The cure begins with humbling the heart before God, refusing to think of men above what is written, and recognizing that Paul and Apollos and Cephas and all things belong to all believers alike because believers are Christ's and Christ is God's. Glorying in men, being puffed up for one minister against another, showing and talking preferences by comparing one with another to the detriment of the one not preferred, and judging brethren because they do not regard one's words and spirit and actions as perfection, must be put away. He that glories must glory in the Lord and not in men, for Christ Jesus is made unto believers wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Worldly-wise men count the preaching of the cross as foolishness, and men who have given their lives to worldly pursuits and cultivated sharp business traits after a worldly order do not come into the truth in large numbers, for not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. In the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, and it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, choosing the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things to confound the mighty and base and despised things and things which are not to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
Ministers are not to be idolized, and there are to be no religious pets and favorites, but the truths they bring from the Word of God are to be accepted and appreciated in meekness and humility. Seldom does one minister have all the qualifications necessary to perfect a church in all the requirements of Christianity, so God sends other ministers to follow one after another, each possessing some qualifications in which the others were deficient. The church should gratefully accept these servants of Christ even as the Master Himself and seek all possible benefit from their instruction, for God sends help as they need, not as they choose, since short-sighted mortals cannot discern what is for their highest good. Saying one likes one speaker better and would rather hear him than another is self and is carnal and unsanctified, and it must be laid aside for oneness, with workers presenting unity everywhere they go, studying early and late to defend their brethren, and laboring in harmony to fit men for immortality under God's mold instead of turning against fellow workers when their own way and will are crossed.
No one is to fasten the soul to a human leader or follow human devising, for Christ is the only Leader. Believers are not to claim allegiance to one worker against another as though the work belonged to them, nor try to manage God's work by personal ideas, for ministers are servants through whom people believe while God gives the growth, and Christian workers have different parts in the work as fellow workers under God. Believers must not act from an unconverted spirit to order, control, or dictate the work of God's servants, and human mistakes do not justify placing all workers under restrictive rules or the judgment of fallible people, for doing so brings confusion and dishonors God. God gives each person a distinctive work and freedom to seek His instruction through prayer and the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures, rather than being ruled by another person's mind, and no ruling power should compel men to obey the dictates of the finite mind, for men must cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils. Relying on human wisdom instead of the Holy Spirit turns people from seeing God, for turning minds to lean on human wisdom places a veil between God and man so that there is no seeing of Him who is invisible.
Workers in ministry and in medical missionary work must wear the yoke of Christ and walk in humility of mind before God, using their varied gifts to bless humanity. There is to be no jealousy of Paul or Apollos or Cephas, no friction, no quarreling, and no division between workers, but harmony in every action and in every part of the work controlled and guided by the wisdom God gives, drawing in even cords without friction as one united body under Christ. Ministers must give room to fellow laborers and not measure brethren by their own ideas, nor find fault with another person's work but improve their own. Those in whom Christ abides will not quarrel but will stand under His standard, united by the desire to strengthen His work, following His directions for restoring the moral image of God in man in His name and for the glory of God and blessing humanity.
The same carnal party spirit appears in erecting national barriers in the church, which is a plan of human invention that God can never endorse. It is seen in withdrawing from some brethren for reasons existing only in the imagination and binding up with others, and in cherishing prejudice, envy, jealousy, evil surmising and discord against brethren. It is seen in condemning a minister because he emphasizes a different phase of truth or presents the Word in a different way, or in fearing that brethren do not value his exposition of truth. Such envying and strife and divisions make the church weak, separate brethren from one another and from God, and hinder the manifestation of the Spirit of God, for ministers are only servants by whom belief comes, working to the same object with one planting and another watering but God alone giving the increase.
Saying I am of Paul and I am of Apollos means linking up with the one man under whose labors the light of present truth was received, placing oneself on the side of the one who brought light and truth and refusing to be in harmony with brethren, ranging after human leaders and tying up in separate bundles. Such party loyalty proves want of meekness and humility and wholehearted kindness, making men independent atoms instead of sanctified channels and representatives of grace prepared and aided by one Agency from one great and powerful Source in love and harmonious action, each strengthening the other. It proves they are not being sanctified through the truth but are carnal babes in Christ fed with milk and not meat, walking as men with envying and strife and divisions among them, presenting division in place of unity to the world and to angels and to men. It is dangerous ground needing warning and education to a better understanding of the spirit that should control actions as believers in Christ Jesus, that each take diligent heed to his own course in presenting sanctifying truth to souls ready to die and make straight paths for their feet lest the lame be turned out of the way. Those cemented to the man who brought them the truth need reconversion as soon as possible, else their claimed conversion is a stumbling block to sinners.
Study and Present Application
The opening three chapters of First Corinthians, with the first and second as preparation for the third, are to be carefully read, studied, understood and practiced in every church as a special work and education for this time. They are to be read with much prayer for correction, teaching that faith rests on God's power and that spiritual understanding comes through the Spirit. Claiming to follow Paul or claiming to follow Apollos proves carnality and walking as men, the same as envying and strife and divisions over human leaders. That carnal state left the church in great weakness with dwarfed spiritual growth, still babes in Christ able to bear only milk and not meat or spiritual things. Milk is the plainest, most simple truths suitable for converts young in the faith, while meat is solid, nourishing spiritual food suited to those who have made progress in knowledge of divine things. Such party spirit shows life on a low level, dwelling on surface truth which calls for no thought and no deep research and no advance in spiritual knowledge, and not feeding on Christ. It is shown when a plain Thus saith the Lord about self is an offense and the one who speaks the truth is ranked as an accuser and faultfinder. Worldly-wise men count the preaching of the cross as foolishness, so men who have given their lives to worldly pursuits and cultivated sharp business traits after a worldly order do not come into the truth in large numbers. Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, because in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, and it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things to confound the mighty, and base and despised things, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. Christ Jesus is made unto believers wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so he that glories must glory in the Lord and not in men.
The instruction and reproof of the third chapter is given to ministers of the gospel and to all churches wherever they are located and to be read in every church. Ministers must receive its representation, humble their hearts before God, seek the truth for their souls' sake, and search the Scriptures, for unless they humble their hearts their names will not be placed in the book of life. The verse is to be taken home, thought over, and personally applied as a test of readiness for the Lord's coming, because many who think they are prepared are not. With prayer God will give understanding of it, and obeying it means separating from all hindrances, knowing the will of God and walking in that pathway, confessing Christ and coming out of darkness into His marvelous light, becoming free and all light in the Lord. Dividing into parties around human leaders is carnal strife that must cease among God's people. True believers will not range themselves under Paul or Apollos but will bear one testimony in cleaving to Christ. In view of common peril and coming trouble, all strife must be put away, and when the storm of persecution comes the true sheep who know the Shepherd's voice will gather to Him.
Envy, strife, and divisions that form around human leaders reveal a carnal, unspiritual spirit and bring a dearth of the Spirit of God in the church. Christians are not to claim allegiance to one worker against another or try to manage God's work by personal ideas, as though the work belonged to human preachers. Ministers are servants through whom people believe, while God gives the growth, and Christian workers have different parts in the work but are fellow workers under God. Believers should not find fault with another person's work, but improve their own and cooperate under God's direction. The verse is so applied to divisions over the medical missionary work and to the need for workers to cooperate under God's direction. Ranging after human leaders and making favorites is being carnal and not spiritual, marking those who are still babes in Christ, fed with milk, showing envy, strife and division, pomposity and grasping for supremacy. Applied to marriage it condemns giving first affection to another man's wife or to another woman, putting one's own wife second, and living in dangerous sentimental and spiritualistic impurity in mind and heart. Such favoritism dishonors God, spoils both persons, is a sign of the last days belonging to the wicked, and requires repentance, conversion, centering of the affections by Christ on proper objects, and being true as steel to marriage vows in thought, word and deed.
To say I am of Paul and I am of Apollos is to divide into rival parties around human leaders. That party spirit proves carnality, walking as men in envy, jealousy, strife and division instead of in the mind and Spirit of Christ. It shows believers are still babes in Christ, able to bear only milk and not yet solid spiritual food. Paul, Apollos and their fellow workers are only servants by whom men believed, one planting and another watering while God alone gives the increase. Therefore glorying in men must cease, and all must humble the heart, glory in the Lord, and cleave together to Christ.
Factions at Corinth
The verse records a division in which one believer declared allegiance to Paul and another to Apollos, with some also claiming Peter or Cephas. Such taking of sides around different ministers in divisive comparison is the mark of a harmful party spirit.
Paul had planted the church at Corinth by preaching Christ and His mission in plain, simple truth, unadorned with worldly wisdom, after disappointment with the result of using learning and eloquence at Athens. Apollos later watered the seed that Paul had planted, teaching and helping it to grow, and his success in preaching through eloquent discourses and manifest learning led many hearers to contrast the two styles and exalt his labors above those of Paul. The differences between the ministers so contrasted were imaginary. Apollos had gone to Corinth to support Paul's labors among the Jews and worked in harmony with Paul for the advancement of the cause.
Paul and Apollos were in harmony and did not encourage the rivalry or the preference shown. Because of the division raised over him, Apollos left Corinth and returned only after its spiritual condition improved. Satan took advantage of the contrasting of the ministers to tempt the church to hold them in contrast. This rival, party spirit fostered by comparing the preachers and preferring the work of Apollos over that of Paul brought Paul conflict and trial inside the church as well as outside it, and threatened to greatly hinder the progress of the gospel and of truth.
Meaning of Carnal
To declare oneself for Paul and another for Apollos is carnality and walking as mere men. It reflects the natural, self-centered heart and human ways rather than God's order. It means walking governed by human ways instead of wholehearted surrender to God. The ministers themselves are only human servants commissioned to teach the truth, doing the same work marked out by the Father and dependent on Him for success, one planting and the other watering while God alone gives the increase and transforms character.
That carnal state is envying and strife and divisions over human leaders. Such factions arise from jealousy, strife and division and prove the absence of the mind and Spirit of Christ. They leave the church in great weakness with dwarfed spiritual growth and are the plain cause of its difficulties. In that condition even a plain message about self becomes an offense, and the one who speaks the truth is ranked as an accuser and faultfinder. Erecting separating barriers by human invention is that same carnal party spirit.
It means believers are still babes in Christ who must be fed with milk because they are not yet able to bear meat. Milk is the plainest, most simple truths suitable for converts young in the faith, while meat is solid, nourishing spiritual food suited to those who have made progress in knowledge of divine things. Remaining able to bear only milk and not meat or spiritual things shows failure to feed on Christ.
It shows they do not have the mind and Spirit of Christ but walk after narrow, conceited, selfish human wisdom, with views and feelings bound about by selfishness. It is life on a low level, dwelling on surface truth which calls for no thought and no deep research and no advance in spiritual knowledge. Such contending over human leaders does not show growth in grace but narrow, limited comprehension and defective, worthless experience. It is the opposite of feeding on Christ and partaking of the divine nature, for those who partake do not seek to stand at the head of a party but lead men to Christ and to the truth that makes all one in Him. Party loyalty reveals the absence of the liberality, generosity and tenderness that mark an abiding Christ.
It means glorying in men and being puffed up for one minister against another. It means showing and talking preferences by comparing one with another to the detriment of the one not preferred. It means judging brethren because they do not regard one's own words and spirit and actions as perfection. It means showing preference to men and leaning upon them as though eternal life depended upon them. It means linking up with the one man under whose labors light was received, placing oneself on his side and refusing harmony with brethren, and tying up in separate bundles. It means liking one speaker better and wanting to hear him rather than another, which is self and must be laid aside for oneness.
Ministers Are Servants
Paul and Apollos and those who followed them were only men commissioned of God to teach the truth, ministers and servants by whom men believed as the Lord gave to every man. They were individually engaged in the same work marked out by the Heavenly Father, each with his distinctive work, and wholly dependent on Him for the success attending their labors. Though gifts differed, they served to the same object and were not the source of success.
Paul planted and Apollos watered, for Paul first preached the gospel and planted the church at Corinth and Apollos later watered the seed by teaching and helping it grow. Neither he that plants nor he that waters is anything, for neither causes growth nor deserves its glory. God alone gives the increase and transforms character through divine power.
He that plants and he that waters are one, laborers together with God, with diversity of gifts to blend harmoniously as only instruments of divine grace and power in carrying forward the great work of salvation. Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor, while believers are God's husbandry and God's building. That building is on the only foundation that can be laid, which is Jesus Christ, whose building work will be made manifest and tried by fire, as the holy temple of God indwelt by the Spirit of God, which no man may defile without destruction. Consciousness of being God's servants inspires energy and diligence to perseveringly discharge duty with an eye single to the Master's glory.
Therefore the teacher of Christ's truth must stay near the cross himself in order to bring sinners to it, must preach Christ, and must studiously avoid calling attention to himself and attracting people to himself. He is to preach the truth that makes all men one in Christ Jesus and to attract men not to himself but to Christ. To draw attention to self encumbers sacred truth and hinders its saving power.
Unity and Humility Required
The cure begins with humbling the heart before God, refusing to think of men above what is written, and recognizing that Paul and Apollos and Cephas and all things belong to all believers alike because believers are Christ's and Christ is God's. Glorying in men, being puffed up for one minister against another, showing and talking preferences by comparing one with another to the detriment of the one not preferred, and judging brethren because they do not regard one's words and spirit and actions as perfection, must be put away. He that glories must glory in the Lord and not in men, for Christ Jesus is made unto believers wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Worldly-wise men count the preaching of the cross as foolishness, and men who have given their lives to worldly pursuits and cultivated sharp business traits after a worldly order do not come into the truth in large numbers, for not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. In the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, and it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, choosing the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things to confound the mighty and base and despised things and things which are not to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
Ministers are not to be idolized, and there are to be no religious pets and favorites, but the truths they bring from the Word of God are to be accepted and appreciated in meekness and humility. Seldom does one minister have all the qualifications necessary to perfect a church in all the requirements of Christianity, so God sends other ministers to follow one after another, each possessing some qualifications in which the others were deficient. The church should gratefully accept these servants of Christ even as the Master Himself and seek all possible benefit from their instruction, for God sends help as they need, not as they choose, since short-sighted mortals cannot discern what is for their highest good. Saying one likes one speaker better and would rather hear him than another is self and is carnal and unsanctified, and it must be laid aside for oneness, with workers presenting unity everywhere they go, studying early and late to defend their brethren, and laboring in harmony to fit men for immortality under God's mold instead of turning against fellow workers when their own way and will are crossed.
No one is to fasten the soul to a human leader or follow human devising, for Christ is the only Leader. Believers are not to claim allegiance to one worker against another as though the work belonged to them, nor try to manage God's work by personal ideas, for ministers are servants through whom people believe while God gives the growth, and Christian workers have different parts in the work as fellow workers under God. Believers must not act from an unconverted spirit to order, control, or dictate the work of God's servants, and human mistakes do not justify placing all workers under restrictive rules or the judgment of fallible people, for doing so brings confusion and dishonors God. God gives each person a distinctive work and freedom to seek His instruction through prayer and the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures, rather than being ruled by another person's mind, and no ruling power should compel men to obey the dictates of the finite mind, for men must cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils. Relying on human wisdom instead of the Holy Spirit turns people from seeing God, for turning minds to lean on human wisdom places a veil between God and man so that there is no seeing of Him who is invisible.
Workers in ministry and in medical missionary work must wear the yoke of Christ and walk in humility of mind before God, using their varied gifts to bless humanity. There is to be no jealousy of Paul or Apollos or Cephas, no friction, no quarreling, and no division between workers, but harmony in every action and in every part of the work controlled and guided by the wisdom God gives, drawing in even cords without friction as one united body under Christ. Ministers must give room to fellow laborers and not measure brethren by their own ideas, nor find fault with another person's work but improve their own. Those in whom Christ abides will not quarrel but will stand under His standard, united by the desire to strengthen His work, following His directions for restoring the moral image of God in man in His name and for the glory of God and blessing humanity.
The same carnal party spirit appears in erecting national barriers in the church, which is a plan of human invention that God can never endorse. It is seen in withdrawing from some brethren for reasons existing only in the imagination and binding up with others, and in cherishing prejudice, envy, jealousy, evil surmising and discord against brethren. It is seen in condemning a minister because he emphasizes a different phase of truth or presents the Word in a different way, or in fearing that brethren do not value his exposition of truth. Such envying and strife and divisions make the church weak, separate brethren from one another and from God, and hinder the manifestation of the Spirit of God, for ministers are only servants by whom belief comes, working to the same object with one planting and another watering but God alone giving the increase.
Saying I am of Paul and I am of Apollos means linking up with the one man under whose labors the light of present truth was received, placing oneself on the side of the one who brought light and truth and refusing to be in harmony with brethren, ranging after human leaders and tying up in separate bundles. Such party loyalty proves want of meekness and humility and wholehearted kindness, making men independent atoms instead of sanctified channels and representatives of grace prepared and aided by one Agency from one great and powerful Source in love and harmonious action, each strengthening the other. It proves they are not being sanctified through the truth but are carnal babes in Christ fed with milk and not meat, walking as men with envying and strife and divisions among them, presenting division in place of unity to the world and to angels and to men. It is dangerous ground needing warning and education to a better understanding of the spirit that should control actions as believers in Christ Jesus, that each take diligent heed to his own course in presenting sanctifying truth to souls ready to die and make straight paths for their feet lest the lame be turned out of the way. Those cemented to the man who brought them the truth need reconversion as soon as possible, else their claimed conversion is a stumbling block to sinners.
Study and Present Application
The opening three chapters of First Corinthians, with the first and second as preparation for the third, are to be carefully read, studied, understood and practiced in every church as a special work and education for this time. They are to be read with much prayer for correction, teaching that faith rests on God's power and that spiritual understanding comes through the Spirit. Claiming to follow Paul or claiming to follow Apollos proves carnality and walking as men, the same as envying and strife and divisions over human leaders. That carnal state left the church in great weakness with dwarfed spiritual growth, still babes in Christ able to bear only milk and not meat or spiritual things. Milk is the plainest, most simple truths suitable for converts young in the faith, while meat is solid, nourishing spiritual food suited to those who have made progress in knowledge of divine things. Such party spirit shows life on a low level, dwelling on surface truth which calls for no thought and no deep research and no advance in spiritual knowledge, and not feeding on Christ. It is shown when a plain Thus saith the Lord about self is an offense and the one who speaks the truth is ranked as an accuser and faultfinder. Worldly-wise men count the preaching of the cross as foolishness, so men who have given their lives to worldly pursuits and cultivated sharp business traits after a worldly order do not come into the truth in large numbers. Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, because in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, and it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things to confound the mighty, and base and despised things, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. Christ Jesus is made unto believers wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so he that glories must glory in the Lord and not in men.
The instruction and reproof of the third chapter is given to ministers of the gospel and to all churches wherever they are located and to be read in every church. Ministers must receive its representation, humble their hearts before God, seek the truth for their souls' sake, and search the Scriptures, for unless they humble their hearts their names will not be placed in the book of life. The verse is to be taken home, thought over, and personally applied as a test of readiness for the Lord's coming, because many who think they are prepared are not. With prayer God will give understanding of it, and obeying it means separating from all hindrances, knowing the will of God and walking in that pathway, confessing Christ and coming out of darkness into His marvelous light, becoming free and all light in the Lord. Dividing into parties around human leaders is carnal strife that must cease among God's people. True believers will not range themselves under Paul or Apollos but will bear one testimony in cleaving to Christ. In view of common peril and coming trouble, all strife must be put away, and when the storm of persecution comes the true sheep who know the Shepherd's voice will gather to Him.
Envy, strife, and divisions that form around human leaders reveal a carnal, unspiritual spirit and bring a dearth of the Spirit of God in the church. Christians are not to claim allegiance to one worker against another or try to manage God's work by personal ideas, as though the work belonged to human preachers. Ministers are servants through whom people believe, while God gives the growth, and Christian workers have different parts in the work but are fellow workers under God. Believers should not find fault with another person's work, but improve their own and cooperate under God's direction. The verse is so applied to divisions over the medical missionary work and to the need for workers to cooperate under God's direction. Ranging after human leaders and making favorites is being carnal and not spiritual, marking those who are still babes in Christ, fed with milk, showing envy, strife and division, pomposity and grasping for supremacy. Applied to marriage it condemns giving first affection to another man's wife or to another woman, putting one's own wife second, and living in dangerous sentimental and spiritualistic impurity in mind and heart. Such favoritism dishonors God, spoils both persons, is a sign of the last days belonging to the wicked, and requires repentance, conversion, centering of the affections by Christ on proper objects, and being true as steel to marriage vows in thought, word and deed.