Scripture Daily

Context No. 1402 of 4322 · 1 Corinthians

Context · Reflection

1 Corinthians 3:16-23: in context

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.

Paul continues to address the divisions at Corinth, where people were aligning themselves with rival leaders. He reminds them that they are God's temple, that the Spirit dwells in them, and that God's temple is holy. He warns against the wisdom of this world, which is folly with God, and against boasting in human leaders. And then he turns the whole thing around with a sweeping declaration: let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, or the future. All are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

The Corinthians were shrinking themselves, each one claiming a small allegiance: I belong to Paul, I belong to Apollos, I belong to Cephas, as if the point were to attach oneself to one favored leader. Paul answers with a striking reversal: you have it backwards; the leaders do not own you, they belong to you. All things are yours, he says, and then sweeps in everything, the teachers, the world, life and death, the present and the future, all of it yours, because you are Christ's and Christ is God's. Those who belong to Christ are not the property of some faction or the followers of one small figure; they are heirs of everything, because in belonging to Christ they belong to the one to whom all things belong. There is an immense enlargement offered here to people who were making themselves small. Why cling to one leader as your party badge, Paul asks, when the whole inheritance is yours? Life is yours, and death is yours, and the future is yours, because you are Christ's. To grasp what it means to belong to Christ is to stop shrinking ourselves into little partisan identities and to receive the vast inheritance that comes with being his. All things are yours, if you are Christ's; do not settle for less than the whole.

Am I shrinking myself into some small allegiance or partisan identity, when Paul says that all things are mine, life and death and the future itself, because I am Christ's, and can I live as an heir of everything rather than the follower of one small thing?

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