1 Corinthians 3
| 1 Corinthians 3 | |
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Page 79 of Papyrus 46 (ca. AD 200) showing 1 Corinthians 2:11-3:5. P. Mich Inv. 6238. University of Michigan.
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| Book | First Epistle to the Corinthians |
| Bible part | New Testament |
| Order in the Bible part | 7 |
| Category | Pauline epistles |
1 Corinthians 3 is the third chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is authored by Paul the Apostle and Sosthenes in Ephesus. In this chapter, Paul begins to deal with the issue of factionalism in the Corinthian church which is one of his main reasons for writing the letter.
The New King James Version organises this chapter as follows:
Paul's intention in this chapter is to address the spiritual immaturity of the Corinthian church, which is displayed through its intense factionalism.
A similar image is used by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Corinthian church appears to be divided into factions supporting or allied with Paul, Apollos and Cephas (1 Corinthians 3:4 and 3:22). "Allegiance to people was obliterating the Gospel for them. Instead of being wise, they were becoming worldly fools".
Also stated in 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16
The apostle having spoken of the saints as God's building, of himself as a wise master builder, of Christ as the only foundation, and of various doctrines as the materials laid thereon, proceeds to observe to this church, and the members of it, that they being incorporated together in a Gospel church state, were the temple of God; and which was what they could not, or at least ought not, to be ignorant of: and they are so called, in allusion to Solomon's temple; which as it was a type of the natural, so of the mystical body of Christ. There is an agreement between that and the church of Christ, in its maker, matter, situation, magnificence, and holiness; and the church is said to be the temple of God, because it is of his building, and in which he dwells: what the apostle here says of the saints at Corinth, the Jewish doctors say of the Israelites (F14 R. Alshech in Hag. ii. 5.), היכל יהוה אתס, "the temple of the Lord are ye"; and which being usually said of them in the apostle's time, he may refer unto; and much better apply to the persons he does, of which the indwelling of the Spirit was the evidence:
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