Professor James D.

Romano
NE517 (Fall 2021)
Gary Chan
October 17, 2021
1 Corinthians 3:1-9 - True Wisdom: Unity in Christ

1 First Corinthians is one of the most quoted books in sermons, especially the passage

about “love'' in 1 Corinthians 13. Maybe because of this overarching “love tone,”, even when

Paul was trying addresses and confronting issues in the church of Corinth, his tone in his letter to

the Corinthians seems to be much more gentlegentler and carefronting compared to his letter to

the Galatians. Paul saw the Corinthians as his own children in Christ (1 Corinthians 4:14); thus,

his fatherly love can be seen throughout the whole letter. It can be imagined that when Paul, as

the spiritual father, heard about the issues that happened in the church of Corinth, his urge of

addressing those issues to his children was strong. Paul talked to his children under the influence

of his four major identities:; the Jew, the Roman citizen, the follower of Christ, and the

eschatological herald.1. On one hand, Paul as a Roman citizen, understood the worldly struggles

of the Corinthians very well; on the other hand, he as a Jew, carried the teachings that he

received during his youth and hoped that the Corinthians would understand the importance of

keeping the holiness of God. However, all the identities, the most important one for Paul was his

new identity in Jesus Christ. After his conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-22), he

could no longer see things in the old way, everything he saw, and he said was filtered through the

lens of the cross of Christ. In other words, Paul did not want the Corinthians to follow their old

gentile Greco-Roman worldly lives; he neither wanted to push the Corinthians to live like how

he used to live as a Pharisee, which was characterized by quarrels, arguments, and rule keeping.

Instead, Paul was hoping the Corinthians to live their lives as transformed Christians - unity in

one body of Christ in God’s love. Although in his letter, Paul addressed many issues such as

1 (Ciampa et al, 8)Roy E. Ciampa, and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, PNTC (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2010), 8.  this is what the full citation should look like. The first time you cite a source include the full
citation, subsequent citations of this source can be shortened to: Ciampa and Rosner, The First Letter to the
Corinthians, p#.
Professor James D. Romano
NE517 (Fall 2021)
Gary Chan
October 17, 2021
sexual immorality, lawsuit, marriage, meat sacrifice, and worship, the one main theme in this

letter is loving one another in unity. In this paper, we will look at 1 Corinthians 3:1-10 to see

Paul’s intention while writing his letter. Within these nine verses, we can see Paul’s relationship

with the Corinthians, Paul’s relationship with God, and why Paul emphasized unity in Christ as

the mystery of God’s wisdom. Paul wanted the whole church of Corinthians to be united in

Christ and with Christ for the glory of God.

1“Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit
but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not
solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You
are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you
not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?” 4 For when one says, “I
follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians

In Corinthians 3:1-4, it is clear that Paul saw his relationship with the Corinthians as in

father-child relationship. He saw his children still as babies who were “worldly” and

“unspiritual” because there was still “jealousy and fighting” among them (v. 3 CEB). It is worth

to note that Paul did not address the Corinthians as babies in terms of their deeds such as

committing adultery or eating sacrificed food, he referred to them as babies because they were

not united. It is because of their inability to unify that, Paul saw them as babies on their spiritual

journey. Matthew Malcolm suggests that in Greco-Roman culture, wisdom was highly valued

because of the influence of the philosophical schools.2 The Corinthians, under the influences of

the Greco-Roman culture, have been wanting to become the wiser one. It can be imagined that

Paul’s “babies statement” could bring a certain level of discomfort as well as awakening to them.

Paul says in 1 Cor 1inthians chapter one that there is a distinction between human’s wisdom and

2 Malcolm, The World of 1 Corinthians: An Exegetical Source Book of Literary and Visual Backgrounds, 12  this
also needs to be a full citation.
Professor James D. Romano
NE517 (Fall 2021)
Gary Chan
October 17, 2021
God’s wisdom through the cross; and in chapter two he further gives the definition of true

wisdom as the “secret” of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 2:7, CEB).3 The secret or mystery that Paul

talked about was revealed by being united with the Spirit that the cross of Jesus has given us -

the love of God. When the Corinthians were “mocked” by Paul as babies, we can see that in

Paul’s sight, they had not truly obtained the true wisdom of God. When the Corinthians

classified them as “I belong to Paul” or “I belong to Apollos,”, Paul realized that they were still

heavily influenced by the worldly values of the society that they even brought those values into

the church.4 Although the Corinthians showed a lot of immaturity, Paul seemed to show a lot of

understanding and grace to them. In fact, Paul’s usage of the term “babies” communicated the

message that he knew the Corinthians needed to grow up, but he was willing to be patient. Here,

Paul was demonstrating the first, and maybe the most important element of love - “love is

patient.”.5

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom
you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the
seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one
who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things
grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they
will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in
God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Paul’s relationship with God

In Corinthians 3:5-9, Paul saw himself and the other God’s workers as the gardeners in

God’s field. Paul declares the master-servant relationship between him and God. What Paul

demonstrated here, him as a servant, might be quite shocking to the Corinthians. The

CorthinansCorinthians who have been debating who was the wiser one based on which leader

3 In some other Bible translations, such as NIV, secret is translated as mystery.

4 Ciampa et al, The First Letter to the Corinthians. The Pillar New Testament Commentary, 3.  where are your
other citations?
5 1 Corinthians 13:4 (NRSV).
Professor James D. Romano
NE517 (Fall 2021)
Gary Chan
October 17, 2021
they followed, were forced to see the story from another angle. It might be hard for the

Corinthians to see themselves fully as the follower of Christ until that point, but once they saw

how Paul viewed himself as a servant of God, they had to submit to the lordship of God and the

meaning behind the cross. Paul described his relationship with Apollos as co-workers and the

servants of God. Even as the founding leaders of the church in Corinth, neither Paul or Apollos

could claim any credit as the one who grew the people in the church was God.

The Mystery

In fact, the gardener metaphor that Paul used here on the emphasis of the unity among

Paul as a seed-planter, Apollos as the one who watered, and God as the one who made things

grow, might mean more than just bringing a sense of harmony to the church. This metaphor

points us to God’s initiative that in the beginning God invited His people to share His kingdom

and let everyone rest in His presence in the garden.6 This is God’s grace and love for His people.

Nothing on earth could make anyone earn this privilege to share God’s kingdom, not even

worldly wisdom. Paul understood very well just as God’s mission is accomplished through the

unity of Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the profound mystery could only be

revealed through the unity of Christ and His church because of the love of God.7

From this short segment of Bible verse, we can see that finding unity because of the love

of God is the way to true wisdom. The historic background and the complexity of the society in

Corinth makes Paul’s message relevant to us, the modern Christians, who are living in this much

more complicated and divided world. When the modern church, on one hand encourages more

inclusivity, and on the other hand praises a certain individuality and allows some specific

personal gifting and wisdom from the secular world to dominate the church culture, it is
6 Genesis 2:2-3.
7 Ephesian 5:32.
Professor James D. Romano
NE517 (Fall 2021)
Gary Chan
October 17, 2021
important to be reminded what it truly means to have the wisdom of God - to maintain unity

because of the love of God.

Professor James D. Romano
NE517 (Fall 2021)
Gary Chan
October 17, 2021
Bibliography

Ciampa, Roy E., and Brian S. Rosner. The First Letter to the Corinthians. The Pillar New
Testament Commentary. Eerdmans, 2010.

Jeong, Donghyun. “Wrapping It Up Like Paul: 2 Corinthians 13:11–13 and the Possibility of
Redaction.” Novum Testamentum 63, no. 1 (2021): 63–89.

Malcolm, Matthew R. The World of 1 Corinthians: An Exegetical Source Book of Literary and
Visual Backgrounds. City: Cascade, 2013.

Porter, Christopher A., and Brian S. Rosner. “‘All Things to All People’: 1 Corinthians, Ethnic
Flexibility, and Social Identity Theory.” Currents in Biblical Research 19, no. 3 (June
2021): 286–307.

Rhodes, Michael Jemison. “Arranging the Chairs in the Beloved Community: The Politics,
Problems, and Prospects of Multi-Racial Congregations in I Corinthians and Today.”
Studies in Christian Ethics 33, no. 4 (November 2020): 510–28.

Tucker, J. Brian. Reading 1 Corinthians. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017.

Hays, Richard B. First Corinthians. Interpretation:, Aa Bible Commentary for Teaching and
Preaching. Louisville, KYy: Westminister John Knox, 2011.

Gary, you can clearly write well, but in many ways you just have not really followed the prompt.
You lack required cited works in your paper. This is more like a reflection paper, not a biblical
studies paper. The required paper structural elements are lacking, from thesis to the structural
requirements of the intro and conclusion. Please review all of thesis things.