Lessons #75 and 76
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Worldliness hampers communication of God’s word (1 Cor 3:1-4)
1Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as 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 men? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?
We have been considering the second major proposition of the message of this passage which is that a pastor can only communicate basic but not advanced doctrine when certain conditions are true of his congregation. To expound on this proposition, we asked: What are the conditions that would keep a pastor from communicating advanced doctrines to his congregation? To which we gave two major answers. If you recall, a first answer is when the congregation is not ready for such doctrines. This first answer we further considered as involving two situations: when the congregation consists of new converts or when there is no spiritual growth in a congregation that has received basic doctrines of the Christian faith. A second answer is when the congregation is worldly or unspiritual. This answer is provided in verse 3.
It does not appear that verse 3 provides a second major reason Apostle Paul gave for not teaching advanced doctrine to the Corinthians and by implication the reason a pastor would be unable to teach his congregation advanced doctrine. This is because verse 3 in the NIV and in a handful of our English versions does not begin with any connectives to verse 2. However, the Greek has a connective to verse 2 that is translated “for” in many of our English versions. The word “for” that appears in many of our English versions but not translated in the NIV is from a Greek conjunction (gar) that has several usages. For example, it may be used as a marker of reason or cause of what precedes it in which case it may be translated “for, because.” This is reflected in many of our English versions that used the word “for” to begin verse 3 and in the English versions such as the TEV that begin the verse with the conjunction “because.” Another usage of the Greek conjunction is as a marker of clarification with the translation “you see, for.” Under this second usage, the Greek conjunction may be translated “now” to signal an important point is about to be stated or to indicate a transition to another topic in which case it may be left untranslated. Thus, it is possible that the English versions that did not translate the conjunction may have considered it as indicating a transition or that it is used to continue what was stated in verse 2. The translators of the NEB interpreted the conjunction here as a marker of emphasis since they began verse 3 with the word “indeed.” While all these various interpretations make sense, but it is probably that the apostle used it as a marker of reason. This being the case, there are two possible interpretations of the use of the conjunction as a marker of reason. It could be interpreted as a reason the apostle stated that the Corinthians were still not ready to be taught advanced doctrines of the Christian faith. Or, it could be interpreted as an additional reason the apostle could not teach the Corinthians advanced doctrine of the Christian faith. Both say essentially the same thing. Nevertheless, it seems that the apostle intended for the conjunction to be understood as providing additional reason for not teaching the Corinthians advanced doctrine. This is because the apostle continued in the rest of verse 3 to elaborate on the reason he stated in in the first sentence of verse 3. Hence, we contend that the first sentence of verse 3 gives additional reason the apostle could not teach the Corinthians advanced doctrine and by implication provides additional reason a pastor could not teach his congregation advanced doctrine of the Christian faith.
The additional reason Apostle Paul could not teach the Corinthians advanced doctrine of the Christian faith is they were still unspiritual in the sense that they were habitually under the control of the sinful nature. Thus, a third situation that will keep a pastor from teaching advanced doctrine to his congregation is if the congregation is by enlarge unspiritual in the sense that they are habitually under the control of the sinful nature. It is this reason that is given in the first sentence of 1 Corinthians 3:3 You are still worldly.
How can we say that the Corinthians were unspiritual in the sense of being habitually under the control of sinful nature since the word used in their description, according to the NIV, is worldly, you may ask? There are two reasons for this assertion. The first reason that addressed our use of the expression “being habitually under the control of the sinful nature” is the apostle used a present tense in the Greek sentence translated You are still worldly. A present tense in the Greek is the verb tense where the writer portrays an action in process or a state of being with no assessment of the action’s completion. However, it has various usages that are not easy to capture in the English translation. For example, a present tense in the Greek may be used to emphasize that the results of a past action are still continuing. It is not easy to capture this concept in the English. In the sentence we are considering, it is used to signal either an action that regularly occurs or an ongoing state. This being the case, we have something habitual or occurring regularly with the Corinthians so that we are correct to say they were habitual, regarding what they are charged in this passsage.
The charge brought against them is concerned with their conduct or the way they lived their lives or the state in which they are found. This is because the expression “you are” is translated from a Greek verb (eimi) with a range of meanings. It may mean “to live” in the sense of temporal existence, as it is used in Matthew 23:30:
And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
The word may be used for explanation so may mean “means” as it is used in Mark 3:17:
James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder);
The expression which means is literally that is. The word may mean “to be, exist, be on hand.” It is in the sense of “to be” that the word is used with the meaning “was” in describing Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnation existence in John 1:1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
It is with the meaning “to exist” that the word is used to describe ruling authorities as from God in Romans 13:1:
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
The word may mean “to belong”, as in Romans 8:9:
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
The word figuratively may mean “to be controlled” as that is the sense in Romans 8:8:
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
The clause Those controlled by the sinful nature is literally those who are in the flesh. The Greek word may mean “to devote” as that is the sense Apostle Paul used it in his instruction to Timothy regarding devotion to God’s word in 1 Timothy 4:15:
Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.
The expression give yourself wholly to them may be alternatively translated devote yourself to these things. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 3:3, the apostle used it in the sense of “living” or “to be,” that is, in the sense of having the quality of being something. Thus, the apostle charged the Corinthians of habitually living or having the quality of what he described as worldly.
It is the word “worldly” that gives the second reason for stating that the Corinthians were habitually under the control of the sinful nature. The word “worldly” is translated from a Greek word (sarkikos) that may pertain to being material or belonging to the physical realm, hence means “material, physical, human, fleshly.” It is in the sense of earthly things, that is, “material, physical” in contrast to spiritual things that the word is used for the collection the Gentile churches were to give the poor in Jerusalem that the word is used in Romans 15:27:
They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.
The word may mean “merely human” as it is used to describe the wisdom that is natural to people in 2 Corinthians 1:12:
Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God’s grace.
The phrase worldly wisdom is literally mere human wisdom. The word may pertain to being human in the sense of behavior or characteristics that are sinful hence may mean “worldly” as the word is used in 1 Peter 2:11:
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
The translators of the NIV interpreted the word in its negative sense as it pertains to humans, so they used the meaning “sinful” although the phrase sinful desires is literally fleshly/worldly desires. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 3:3, the word is used in the sense of characteristics of the fallen human nature, so it means “worldly” or “fleshly”, that is, belonging to the flesh. In effect, the word “worldly” is in our passage concerned with the bad characteristics of the fallen human nature. These bad characteristics are sinful ways in which the fallen human conducts self. Thus, a person who is described as worldly is not merely a person who has the outlook drawn from the things of this world or one that is engrossed in the affairs of this world but one who indeed lives in a way that is opposite of God’s will. The problem with the use of the word “worldly” is that it is used to describe those the apostle already described as set apart in Christ or saints. Persons described that way are in a sense not of this world although still in the world as the Lord Jesus conveyed in His priestly prayer in John 17:14:
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
This being the case, the only way believers can be described as worldly is if they act in a manner that is consistent with the world of humanity that is characterized by sin. Hence, when the apostle stated the Corinthians were habitually worldly, he meant that they were habitually not under the control of the Holy Spirit and so they could be described as unspiritual as reflected in the translation of some of our English versions. Take for example the NCV rendered the sentence You are still worldly of the NIV as You are still not spiritual. The point is that because the Corinthians were habitually controlled by their sinful nature, the apostle could not teach them advanced doctrine. Consequently, a pastor is unable to teach advanced doctrine to his congregation if they are habitually under the control of the sinful nature. Of course, we should be clear that we are not saying that there is no moment in which believers so described are not under the control of the Holy Spirit, but it was not a habit for them yet. They were more habitually controlled by the sinful nature instead of being habitually controlled by the Holy Spirit as per the command of Ephesians 5:18:
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
It is not a pleasant thing to hear the truth that puts a person in a negative light. When we hear this, we are often defensive, or we try to convey that the person does not know what the individual is talking. Or, we may try to justify our conduct to prove that what is said of us is not true. The Holy Spirit knows that the Corinthians would behave that way, so He directed Apostle Paul to provide them the evidences for the charge that they were habitually under the control of the sinful nature instead of controlled by the Holy Spirit or that they were unspiritual. These evidences of the charge are introduced using the first phrase of the second clause of 1 Corinthians 3:3 For since.
Apostle Paul seems to have used the Greek phrase translated for since in such a way to avoid any guessing as to how to understand what follows. We say this because he used two conjunctions adjacent to each other. The word “for” as we have already noted is translated from a Greek conjunction (gar) that has several usages. It is used as a marker of cause or reason with translation “for.” Another usage is as marker of clarification or explanation and so may be translated “you see, for.” Another usage is as a marker of inference with the meaning “certainly, by all means, so, then.” The various usages mean that what follows could be interpreted in at least three possible ways. It could be interpreted as providing reason for what is stated or explanation of what was stated in the first sentence You are still worldly of the verse. It could be taken as an inference that is due to what was stated in the first sentence You are still worldly. In other words, it is possible to take the position that what the apostle wrote result from the fact the Corinthians were worldly. To avoid any misinterpretation, the apostle used a second conjunction that should narrow down the correct interpretation. He used the word “since” that is translated from a Greek word (hopou) that may mean “where” as a marker of a position in space as Apostle Paul used it to describe his preference regarding the preaching of the gospel in Romans 15:20:
It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.
It may mean “where” as a marker of more immediate circumstance or expressing a premise as it is used in James 3:16:
For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
The word may be used as a marker of cause or reason with the meaning “since, in so far as.” It is this meaning that is intended in our passage of 1 Corinthians 3:3. Hence, what the apostle wrote next should be taken as evidences that are the reason for charging the Corinthians with being unspiritual or habitually under the control of the sinful nature.
A first evidence of the Corinthians being unspiritual or habitually under the control of sinful nature consists of an attitude and an action that are not difficult to recognize as sins or evidences of the control of the sinful nature. The attitude and the action are stated in the second sentence of 1 Corinthians 3:3 there is jealousy and quarreling among you.
Jealousy indicates that the apostle charged the Corinthians of being unspiritual or of being habitually controlled by the sinful nature. This is because “jealousy” is an activity of the sinful nature as we can gather from the apostle’s description of the activities of sinful nature in Galatians 5:19–20:
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions.
The word “jealousy” is translated from a Greek word (zēlos) that is used both negatively and positively in the Greek NT. Negatively, it means “jealousy, envy” as that intense negative feelings over another’s achievements or success. It is in this negative sense that the word is used in 2 Corinthians 12:20:
For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.
Positively, the word means “zeal, enthusiasm”, that is, an intense positive interest in something marked by a sense of dedication. Thus, the translators of the NIV used the meaning “enthusiasm” to translate the word in Apostle Paul’s commendation of the efforts of the Corinthians towards helping suffering believers in Jerusalem, as described in 2 Corinthians 9:2:
For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action.
It is in a positive sense of “zeal” that the apostle used it to describe his dedication to the persecution of Christians because of his dedication to the law prior to his salvation, as we read in Philippians 3:6:
as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
It is in the negative sense that the word is used in 1 Corinthians 3:3 and so means “jealousy.”
Anyway, because the Greek word translated “jealousy” can have both negative and positive meanings, we should comment further on the word. This is particularly important because it is a word that describes God’s attribute, as for example, in Deuteronomy 4:24:
For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
God asserted directly that He is jealous God in Exodus 20:5:
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
In its use to describe God we should remember that in a general sense jealousy is a strong feeling of possessiveness, often caused by the possibility that something which belongs, or ought to belong, to one is about to be taken away. Thus, when it is used of God it should be understood to mean that God is One who desires to preserve that which belongs to His person. Hence, it is often in the context of idolatry that the word is used to describe God to indicate He does not tolerate any rivals as it involves worship of Him. The point is that when the word is applied to God it does not have the negative connotation that applies to humans. Therefore, jealousy as a word should be understood positively when applied to God. It is because when the word is used of God it has positive sense that Apostle Paul used it to describe his deep concern for the Corinthians, as stated in 2 Corinthians 11:2:
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.
The sentence I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy is literally I am zealous for you with zeal of God. The apostle meant that he had such affection for them that he does not wish for them to via away from being devoted to the Lord. He led them to Christ and so he sees them as part of the fruit of his labor and so was not willing to see them be anything but completely devoted to the Lord. This notwithstanding, when the word “jealous” is generally applied to humans, it is usually in the negative sense of a destructive emotion. In some case, the emotion may be understandable but no excused so long as it does not lead to sin. For example, a spouse may become jealous if there is an indication of marital infidelity. This kind of jealousy can be destructive so that that a man is advised not to place a husband in that kind of position where he may act violently, as in Proverbs 6:34:
for jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
The passage used a husband, but the same truth applies to a woman. A wife becomes very vicious towards another woman that becomes a threat to her marital life. Therefore, like we said about a man, a woman should not want to become involved with another woman’s husband because it is a fearful thing since a wife in that kind of situation may do what ordinarily she would not.
The threat of taking another person’s spouse is not the only reason for jealousy. There are at least two more reasons for jealousy. It can be triggered by another person’s success. We have an example of this when Rachel became jealous of her sister Leah, as recorded in Genesis 30:1:
When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
In the ancient world, having children was considered a blessing. Therefore, when Leah continued having children but not Rachel, she considered her blessing a success as a wife. This then led her to become jealous of her sister. The fact is that when others are successful, and we are not; their success could be a reason for jealousy. Another factor that triggers jealousy related to the previous is when someone receives praise or commendation and we do not. In effect, we humans want all the attention directed to us. We do not like to see or hear that a person is better than we are in anything. When we hear that, we may become jealous of the individual that receives the praise or commendation. This reason is demonstrated with King Saul. The women of Israel praised David through songs because of his military success, the result was jealousy on the part of Saul, as stated in 1 Samuel 18:7–9:
7 As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” 8 Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” 9 And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.
Thus, we should be conscious to recognize that other people’s success or praise could trigger jealousy in us and so to be careful not to allow the enemy to trick us into the sin of jealousy.
We should be cautious of sin of jealousy because as we have stated, it is very destructive. Jealousy could lead to plot of murder. Joseph’s brothers’ plot to kill him was due to their jealousy, as we can gather from Genesis 37:11:
His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
It is the jealousy of Joseph’s brothers that was manifested in their plot to kill him, as recorded in Genesis 37:17–20:
17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. 19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”
King Saul’s various attempts to kill David were caused by his jealousy. Take for example, his first attempt to offer his daughter in marriage to David was part of his plot to kill him. At first, he did not want to do it directly, as stated in 1 Samuel 18:17:
Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage; only serve me bravely and fight the battles of the LORD.” For Saul said to himself, “I will not raise a hand against him. Let the Philistines do that!”
But when this plot failed, Saul resorted to direct approach as indicated by his various pursuits of David to kill him. The examples of jealousy leading to the plot to commit murder are not limited to the OT. We find examples of such plots to kill or abuse others in the NT. It was because the apostles were preaching the gospel message to which the people were responding that caused the Jewish religious authorities, because of jealousy, to arrest some of them, as stated in Acts 5:17–18:
17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
It is jealousy that caused some Jews to insult or to become abusive towards Apostle Paul during his first missionary journey, as we read in Acts 13:45:
When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.
The point is that jealousy leads to desire to harm its object. The sad thing about jealousy other than the harm it causes is that it makes a person to forget a past kindness someone may have demonstrated to an individual guilty of jealousy. A good example of this was Saul. It is because of jealousy that he forgot that the Lord helped him as the king by using David to kill Goliath. Furthermore, he forgot that the Lord used musical therapy through David to bring relief to him whenever he was tormented by an evil spirit from God, as we read in 1 Samuel 16:23:
Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.
To forget past kindness one showed to another, is the height of ingratitude. This is what jealousy can do. Consequently, it is important to avoid jealousy.
How could a person avoid jealousy, you may ask? The simplest answer is to be filled of the Spirit. This means that when a person is presented with a feeling of jealousy that the individual should reject that thought by confessing it and distancing oneself from it. To help the believer to do this, requires application of the word of God not only by appealing to the fact that the Scripture forbids jealousy as part of the sinful nature but to apply a passage of Scripture that would enable the believer to have the proper perspective. This correct perspective results from understanding that no human being attains any success without it being given to the individual by God, as the we gather from John 3:27:
To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.
The Holy Spirit through John the Baptist indicates that the proper way to respond to any temptation towards jealousy is to reason that whatever success a person receives is from God. You see, John received a report about Jesus’ success that was intended to cause him to become jealous, as we can understand from John 3:26:
They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
The report of John the Baptist’s disciples is certainly one that was intended to cause him to be jealous of Jesus’ ministry. Of course, John knew that Jesus is God since he had already confessed his unworthiness to untie His sandals. Nevertheless, the temptation was for him to be jealous of Jesus Christ in His humanity. John’s response was that there was no need to be jealous because the success of Jesus is from God. We say this because when John used the phrase from heaven, he meant to say from God since the phrase from heaven is a way that the Jews spoke of God. John’s response indicates that it is unnecessary to be jealous of a person if we recognize that the person’s success is from God. It is foolish to be jealous of a person for what is not really from the individual. If a person has a problem about another person’s success, then the individual should take it up with God who is the source of the success. The point is that by remembering the truth that no one receives any success unless it is given by God should keep the believer from being jealous.
Anyway, we have stated that a first evidence of the Corinthians being unspiritual or habitually under the control of sinful nature consists of an attitude and an action that are not difficult to recognize as sins or evidences of the control of the sinful nature. These attitude and action we indicated are stated in the second sentence of 1 Corinthians 3:3 there is jealousy and quarreling among you. Thus far, we have considered the attitude of jealousy, so we consider the action stated in the phrase quarreling among you.
The word “quarreling” is translated from a Greek word (eris) that means “strife, discord, contention” in the sense of engagement in rivalry, especially with reference to positions taken in a matter. It is in this sense that the word is used in the list of vices given in Romans 1:29:
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
It is in the sense of “quarrel” that the word is used in Titus 3:9:
But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 3:3, it is used in the sense of “quarrel” because of the phrase among you. You see, the phrase quarreling among you is concerned not necessarily with physical fights as it is with verbal fights. The implication is that there were heated arguments among the Corinthians. It is not that believers should not discuss matters of concern in their local congregations but that such discussions should not lead to sin. There should not be any kind of bitterness towards one another if there will be no quarrels as issues are discussed. Furthermore, believers should avoid gossips as that would cause some people to come to a meeting of believers with biases that will lead to quarrels. The Scripture implies that gossip fuels quarrels, as stated in Proverbs 20:3:
It is to a man’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel.
That aside, Apostle Paul indicated that there was quarrelling among the Corinthians. However, because quarreling is an indication of sin then its presence among the Corinthians indicate they were unspiritual and so controlled by the sinful nature.
The apostle indicates that the presence of jealousy and quarreling signal the control of the sinful nature. This point he conveyed not with a direct statement but with two rhetorical questions given in the last part of 1 Corinthians 3:3. The first question is simply to assert they were unspiritual as we read are you not worldly? The word “worldly” is the same Greek word (sarkikos) used in the first sentence of the verse that we indicated has the meaning of “worldly” or “fleshly”, that is, belonging to the flesh. A person described with the Greek word is one that is unspiritual. Thus, the apostle indicates that when anyone is involved in jealousy or quarreling then that individual is unspiritual so is under the control of the sinful nature.
The second question of 1 Corinthians 3:3 in the NIV is Are you not acting like mere men? This second rhetorical question is intended to explain what the apostle meant in the first question. This is because the literal Greek reads and you behave like man. The conjunction “and” in the literal translation is translated from a Greek conjunction (kai) that is often translated “and” in our English versions, but it has other usages. In our passage, it is used to provide explanation to the first question so that it may be translated “that is.”
The word “man” is translated from a Greek word (anthrōpos) that may mean “a human being” without regard to gender, as Apostle Paul used it to describe the fate of evil doers in Romans 2:9:
There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
The word may mean a male person, that is, “a man” as Apostle Paul used it in relation to marriage instruction in 1 Corinthians 7:1:
Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry.
The word may mean “a person, someone, one” although some English versions may use the word “man” in their translation of the Greek word in some passages as it is translated in Apostle Paul’s usage of the word in stating the spiritual law of sowing and reaping in Galatians 6:7:
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
It is true that the translators of the NIV used the word “man” in their translation of our Greek word, but the sense of the word is “person” since the applicability of the spiritual law of sowing and reaping is not limited to male members of humanity. The word in some contexts is used in idioms with several meanings. For example, it may mean “self” when it is used with a Greek adjective (palaios) that means “old” in describing a pattern of behavior as Apostle Paul used it to instruct believers to behave differently than they did as unbelievers in Ephesians 4:22:
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
The phrase your old self is literally the old man. Likewise, it may be used to describe the inner being of a person so may mean “being” as the apostle used it in Ephesians 3:16:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
The phrase inner being is literally inner man. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 3:3, the Greek word is used in the sense of “person” or “human being” in a negative sense of characteristics unbecoming of a believer. For example, when unbelievers debate or dispute issues, like in politics, they often become very vicious to each other. Unfortunately, some Christians act this way when there is disagreement regarding doctrinal matters. This should not be. When believers disagree, they must do so in love since love is that which is the hallmark of true disciples of Jesus Christ. To behave or act like unbelievers is to be unspiritual. Hence, with these two questions, the apostle underscored that a first evidence of the Corinthians being unspiritual or habitually under the control of sinful nature consists of jealousy and quarreling.
A second evidence of the Corinthians being unspiritual or habitually under the control of sinful nature is the existence of partisanship among them. It is this partisanship that is stated in the first part of 1 Corinthians 3:4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos”. The word “for” is used to give another reason the apostle charged the Corinthians as being unspiritual. The apostle had already condemned the partisan spirit among the Corinthians in verse 12 of the first chapter of this epistle. Thus, the apostle provides another reason or an explanation that indicates the Corinthians were unspiritual. After this reason or explanation, he then came back to the point that when partisan spirit exists that that is an indication of being unspiritual as in the question of 1 Corinthians 3:4. are you not mere men? This question conveys the same point as in verse 3 which is to state that the Corinthians were unspiritual because they maintained partisanship among them. They acted like unbelievers in congregating themselves around individuals, the kind of things we see the people of the world do with politics where personality is more important to them than truth. Thus, the message the apostle intended to convey is that a pastor cannot communicate advanced doctrines to a congregation where there is infighting and partisanship.
The reasons a pastor cannot communicate advanced doctrines to a congregation that we have considered, obligate you if you want your pastor to communicate advanced doctrines. Your obligation is to seek to be under the control of the Holy Spirit and to avoid anything that will lead to quarreling and partisanship in local church. Do not forget that a local church where there is no advanced teaching of the word of God is one that is worldly.
09/14/18