Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

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1 Corinthians 3

1Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.

2I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, you aren’t ready even now,

3for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?

4For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly?

5Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed, and each as the Lord gave to him?

6I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.

7So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

8Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

9For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

10According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it.

11For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,

13each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is.

14If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward.

15If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.

16Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

17If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.

18Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”

20And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.”

21Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,

22whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours,

23and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Early Christian commentary

Late 1st century AD (traditionally c. 95–100) | Clement of Rome

Take up the epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul. What did he write to you at the time when the gospel first began to be preached? Truly, under the inspiration of the Spirit, he wrote to you concerning himself, and Cephas, and Apollos, because even then parties had been formed among you. But that inclination for one above another entailed less guilt upon you, inasmuch as your partialities were then shown towards apostles, already of high reputation, and towards a man whom they had approved. But now reflect who those are that have perverted you, and lessened the renown of your far-famed brotherly love. It is disgraceful, beloved, yea, highly disgraceful, and unworthy of your Christian profession, that such a thing should be heard of as that the most stedfast and ancient church of the Corinthians should, on account of one or two persons, engage in sedition against its presbyters. And this rumour has reached not only us, but those also who are unconnected with us; so that, through your infatuation, the name of the Lord is blasphemed, while danger is also brought upon yourselves.

Commentary · First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter XLVII · Original source · The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers (T. & T. Clark, 1870), edited and translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson; independent electronic transcription: David King and the Online Proofreading Team, Project Gutenberg ebook 77576. · Licence · Source revision · Whitespace normalized; source pagination and footnote reference markers removed. English wording unchanged.

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