THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians
Message Two—God’s Cultivated Land and God’s Building
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 3:1-17
I. God’s goal is to have a farm that will grow materials for the building up of His holy temple as His dwelling place—3:6-7, 9, 12, 16-17. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
II. The believers, who have been regenerated in Christ with God’s life, are God’s cultivated land, a farm in God’s new creation to grow Christ that precious materials may be produced for God’s building— cf. 4:15. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
III. Paul regarded all the believers in Christ as plants which need growth—3:6-7: (2002 WT. msg. 4)
A. In verse 1 Paul refers to the believers at Corinth as infants in Christ; their need was to grow in life to maturity, to be full-grown—2:6; Col. 1:28. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
B. The reason for division and lack of building is that the believers remain in their natural life and natural being—1 Cor. 1:12-13; 3:3-4; 2:14. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
C. The Corinthians, who were still infants with respect to the initial gifts, desperately needed to grow—3:2; 1:7: (2002 WT. msg. 4)
1. The Corinthians exhibited three signs of infancy: (2002 WT. msg. 4)
a. Being unable to receive solid food but only milk—3:2. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
b. Being full of jealousy and strife and walking according to man—1:11; 3:3. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
c. Exalting spiritual giants to cause divisions— 1:12; 3:4. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
2. The initial gifts—the divine life and the Holy Spirit (Rom. 6:23; Acts 2:38; Heb. 6:4)—are the seed sown into us (Mark 4:26); now these gifts need to be developed and cultivated: (2002 WT. msg. 4)
a. In 1 Corinthians Paul is seeking to develop and cultivate the initial gifts received by the believers. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
b. What we need in the Lord’s recovery, and what the Lord is seeking among us, is more growth in life, more development of the initial gifts. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
D. The life with which the believers grow in the church is the crucified and resurrected Christ—1 Cor. 2:2; Col. 3:4. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
E. The growth in life is caused by God; as far as the growth in life is concerned, all the ministers of Christ are nothing, and God is everything—1 Cor. 3:6-7. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
F. God’s desire is that our heart would be open to Him, soft toward Him, and longing for Him, and that we would draw near to Him, eat Him, drink Him, enjoy Him, and digest Him that daily we would grow with the growth of God—10:3-4; Col. 2:19. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
IV. The Lord Jesus came as a Sower to sow God into us; we are the earth, the cultivated land, the farm, to grow Christ—Mark 4:3-4, 14; 1 Cor. 3:9: (2002 WT. msg. 4)
A. God’s farm grows Christ, and Christ is for the building (v. 11); as Christians, we are growing Christ. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
B. When we grow properly, Christ will be produced in us; the issue of our growth will be Christ—Eph. 4:15; Col. 2:19; Gal. 4:19. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
C. The church is built with the Christ we experience and who is even the produce grown by us—1 Cor. 3:12. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
V. The church is God’s farm which produces gold, silver, and precious stones—vv. 9, 12: (2002 WT. msg. 4)
A. The church, the temple of God, must be built with gold, silver, and precious stones produced from Christ’s growing in us—vv. 16-17. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
B. First we have the growth on God’s farm; then the plants on this farm become the precious materials for God’s building—vv. 6-7, 12. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
C. Gold, silver, and precious stones signify the various experiences of Christ in the virtues and attributes of the Triune God; these precious materials are the products of our enjoyment of Christ—v. 12; 15:45b; 6:17. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
D. The precious materials for God’s building are related to the Triune God—to the Father’s nature, the Son’s redemption, and the Spirit’s transforming work—2 Pet. 1:4; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:12; 2 Cor. 3:18. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
E. We are becoming gold, silver, and precious stones for God’s building—1 Cor. 3:12: (2002 WT. msg. 4)
1. In God the Father, we have His life and nature as the gold; in God the Son, we have His redemption as the silver; and in God the Spirit, we have transformation as the precious stones. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
2. In order to build with these materials, we ourselves must be constituted with them; we need to be constituted with the Father’s nature, the Son’s redemption, and the Spirit’s transformation. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
3. We need the growth in the nature of God the Father, the redemption of God the Son, and the transformation of God the Spirit; this growth makes us gold, silver, and precious stones for God’s building—vv. 12, 16-17. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
4. Through digestion, assimilation, and metabolism, Christ becomes us, and we become Him; then we become the precious materials for God’s building— Eph. 3:17; Gal. 4:19. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
VI. God’s eternal goal is the building—the temple built with precious materials on Christ as the unique foundation—1 Cor. 3:11-12, 16-17: (2002 WT. msg. 4)
A. The growth in the divine life produces precious materials for the building of God’s habitation; this habitation, the church, is the increase, the enlargement, of the unlimited Christ—Eph. 2:21-22; John 3:29-34. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
B. First we have the farm for the growth in life; then we have the building for God’s eternal purpose—1 Cor. 3:9; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20-22; 4:16. (2002 WT. msg. 4)
C. The actual building of the church as the house of God is by the growth in life of the believers—1 Cor. 3:6-7, 16-17; Eph. 2:20-21; 1 Pet. 2:2-5. (2002 WT. msg. 4)