First Corinthians: The Physician, The Partners, and the Architect
Dick Onarecker
I Corinthians 3:1-23
These three illustrations help us understand God’s instruction through this passage in First Corinthians: The Physician, The Partners and the Architect.
God speaks through Paul to the church in Corinth. This church exists within the culture of humanistic values; values that place man above God and rely on philosophies, wisdom, and achievements of men. Just like an individual who occasionally becomes ill because of exposure to others illness, this church became infected with the illness of humanistic values. The results brought division and strife and the loss of any sense of divine worth among individuals.
God’s message to us today is vivid. Our need of this message is clear. Christians lose a sense of divine worth and value as they drift into the surrounding culture. They lose any sense of spiritual direction. There is failure. Spiritual fatigue. Foolish activities. Degradation of God’s church...
The physician.
There is a parallel here: the apostle Paul is similar to a spiritual physician. He pronounces a diagnosis and prescribes the remedy. Like today, the patient must apply the remedy.
Verse 1-4. Diagnosis based on pictures of symptoms.
Verse 1. Paul clarifies that he is speaking believers who have life yet are perishing. Spirit. They are carnal.
In I Thessalonians 5:23 Paul prays about the believers’ spirit, soul and body. The three words used I this verse is pneuma/spirit, psuche/soul, and soma/body. Three aspects/essential parts of each person. Our body is the instrument of the spirit. The soul is our conscious understanding of Spriit [see I Cor 2:10, 12]. Man is not to be mastered by his body or mind, but by The Spirit. Our bodies with fleshly lusts and physical pursuits and fulfillment; the mind/pride and works... but we are to be guided and led by His Spirit living in our spirit. God calls us to surrender our spirit, mind an ...
Dick Onarecker
I Corinthians 3:1-23
These three illustrations help us understand God’s instruction through this passage in First Corinthians: The Physician, The Partners and the Architect.
God speaks through Paul to the church in Corinth. This church exists within the culture of humanistic values; values that place man above God and rely on philosophies, wisdom, and achievements of men. Just like an individual who occasionally becomes ill because of exposure to others illness, this church became infected with the illness of humanistic values. The results brought division and strife and the loss of any sense of divine worth among individuals.
God’s message to us today is vivid. Our need of this message is clear. Christians lose a sense of divine worth and value as they drift into the surrounding culture. They lose any sense of spiritual direction. There is failure. Spiritual fatigue. Foolish activities. Degradation of God’s church...
The physician.
There is a parallel here: the apostle Paul is similar to a spiritual physician. He pronounces a diagnosis and prescribes the remedy. Like today, the patient must apply the remedy.
Verse 1-4. Diagnosis based on pictures of symptoms.
Verse 1. Paul clarifies that he is speaking believers who have life yet are perishing. Spirit. They are carnal.
In I Thessalonians 5:23 Paul prays about the believers’ spirit, soul and body. The three words used I this verse is pneuma/spirit, psuche/soul, and soma/body. Three aspects/essential parts of each person. Our body is the instrument of the spirit. The soul is our conscious understanding of Spriit [see I Cor 2:10, 12]. Man is not to be mastered by his body or mind, but by The Spirit. Our bodies with fleshly lusts and physical pursuits and fulfillment; the mind/pride and works... but we are to be guided and led by His Spirit living in our spirit. God calls us to surrender our spirit, mind an ...
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