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If any man among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise

  Good morning. Let no man deceive himself. Did you realize that you can deceive yourself? We do that all the time in the natural. We want something so badly that we come up with all kinds of reasons or excuses to justify obtaining it. “If we buy this or that, we can use it for God’s glory”. In the end though we are just deceiving ourselves. If any man among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. Say what? Remember that in the beginning of Corinthians we were talking about the difference between the wisdom of this world and God‘s wisdom. It is foolishness to believe in the power of the cross, but that is where true wisdom lies. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness.”; and again, “the Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.“ In the book of James, he says that the wisdom of this world cannot compare to the wisdom from above...
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Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

 Good morning. Now we come to a couple of verses that are commonly misapplied. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. Sometimes people apply these verses to an individual’s body. However, Paul has just been talking about building the church. In chapter 6 he is talking about your own personal body. My Bible says that when it says temple of God, Paul is talking about God’s church. Paul does not mean here that each of his readers is a temple of the Holy Spirit. He says, “you yourselves (plural in Greek) are God‘s temple (singular in Greek)”. All of us together are a holy temple of God. Here he is not talking about each of us individually being God‘s temple. If you ruin God’s church, He will ruin you. Father help us to always work together to build Your church, not to tear it down. Keep the Destroyer and his allies from ev...
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Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; but the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work

  Good morning. All right so we have laid the correct foundation for the church – Jesus Christ; now what? Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; but the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. The one building upon the foundation chooses which materials they’re going to use to build with. Even though the foundation is solid, if the builder uses flimsy materials, the house will not stand during a storm (I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down). It may be “cheaper“ to use wood, hay, or straw; but they won’t last. Paul just said it would be tested with fire: if any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer a loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. My Bible says that that last statement is perhaps a Greek prov...
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For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

  Good morning. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. Paul was the one that helped start the Corinthian church. He laid the foundation, which is what an apostle does. If the foundation is bad, the building won’t stand up under a storm. You remember Jesus talking about the man that built his house upon the foundation of sand. But just laying a good foundation is not enough. If the ones building upon the foundation do not do a good job, the building will also collapse. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. If you lay a foundation of good works etc. instead of Christ, the building will not stand. It will crumble at the least disturbance. Once the foundation is laid, then one must choose what type of materials to use the build the building. Of course there is a parallel with our own lives. The ...
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So then neither is the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth

  Good morning. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. The building of a church generally takes more than one person. Each one is important for a particular stage of the work. In the end, no matter how many or how great the people that build, the church will be nothing without God causing the growth. So then neither is the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Therefore no one can claim that it was their doing that established the church. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God‘s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. God used several different ways of describing His church. Each way gives a different aspect of the meaning of the word church. It’s OK to expand a little bit on the interpretation of those different ways. Sometimes people will take it too far and make generalizations that really don’t exist in real life. Fa...
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For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

  Good morning. And I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food; for you were not able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? They were still trying to operate in human wisdom, and not the wisdom of the Spirit. When you do that, your human desires get in the way of hearing from God. What jealousy, and what strife? For when one says, “I am of Paul,“ and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men? They were looking to men for their teaching, not to God. Paul did not want even himself to be the one they looked to, but rather for them to look to God. What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. Sadly even today Christians look to men rather than to God for their inspiration. T...
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The things freely given to us by God: which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

  Good morning. The things freely given to us by God: which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. Paul did not talk about things that his human mind came up with. He only talked about things that the Spirit of God revealed to him. Why did he do that? A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. Paul was not trying to persuade them about anything from the natural point of view. Once they were born again, he could then speak to them about the things of God. Unbelievers try to reason out the things of God; but their reasonings never come up with the truth. But he who is spiritual appraisers all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. That does not mean that we...
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