In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Paul talks about how the church is a temple. In ancient times, King Solomon built a temple (the First Temple) to house the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolized God’s earthly throne. God’s presence was literally inside of the temple. Now, Paul is saying that God’s Spirit lies in the church and also in its individual members as well. In 586 BC, the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple, and as a result, they were overthrown many years after that. After the destruction of the First Temple, God allowed them to build the Second Temple. The history of God’s temple shows that God will destroy those who ruin his holy temple, which is now us as the Church.
Verses 18-23 echo a similar message as the one we saw a few days ago. Those who follow the wisdom of this world are really fools while those who seek godly wisdom are truly wise. People should not boast in worldly victories or have pride in human works. Especially going back to whether the Christians follow Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or Jesus, all of them are united in Christ and they have been given by God for the benefit of the Christians. As followers of God, we need to remember that all of our blessings are really from God and we need to be humble instead of boasting.
The first part of chapter 4 describes the apostles, who the Corinthians apparently did not respect. Paul explains that the apostles were both servants and stewards of Jesus. They were faithful to Jesus while He was away, and they grew God’s kingdom on earth. The Corinthians may have judged the apostles for some reason, but Paul makes it clear that he does not care about their judgment and that he only considers the judgment of God. He doesn’t even judge himself, since he knows that his own measure will not be correct. Whenever he is not aware of any sin in him, that doesn’t mean that he is sinless, since God is the only one that knows. God looks at our actions, but he looks past that and into our hearts as well. He sees the motive behind our actions. On Judgment Day, after we give our account to God, He will look at the faithful works and motives of His servants and stewards and He will give them praise.
What does this mean today? I think today’s passage emphasized the way we act and think as Christians living in this sinful world. There are ways in which we can destroy the Temple of God, which is the Church. Additionally, the way we act when we see our blessings and when we know that God is our judge is also different. Just making conscious choices based on what we know about God is really important. God wants us to remember His blessings and to live life knowing that God knows our actions and motives.
Thankfulness:
• Spending lots of time with God
• Friends coming over and karaoke and card game
• Talking to my friend
• Free time
• Sunday tomorrow
• Practice time