Year 5, Day 72: 1 Corinthians 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Information, Imitation, Innovation

• Information: This is the initial phase of become a disciple of Jesus.  Before we can do anything meaningful we must begin to understand what we are doing.  We may never gain full understanding of God and His ways, but God calls us to study Him, His Son, and His ways as the foundation of being His follower.
• Imitation: This is the second over-arching step of the discipleship process.  First we gain information, then we imitate our spiritual mentor.  Imitation leads to innovation of spirituality in our own life.
• Innovation: When we have studied God and learned to imitate Him, then we can begin to apply what we have learned and practiced into our life in new and innovative ways.  In this way we truly become the person of God that He sees us to be.

Paul opens this chapter with an incredibly harsh critique.  He tells the Corinthians that they are still only capable of spiritual milk.  He couldn’t give them spiritual food because they simply weren’t mature enough!  They weren’t developing.  They weren’t growing.

Let’s remember something.  Paul was likely with the Corinthians longer than he was with any other church that he planted.  We know that he stayed 18 months after he got frustrated with the Jews in Corinth.  So that means that Paul was there at least a year and a half – and probably longer than that.  (See Acts 18:1-11)  Paul was there a long time, long enough to see the people transition from spiritual infants to spiritually maturing.

What is preventing their maturation?  They are divided.  Rather than focusing on God and God’s work in their midst, they are focused on themselves and their own desires.  They are focused on their own ways, their own perspectives, and their own status.  They are focused on being right so everyone else is wrong.

What are they missing?  They are missing humbleness.  They are missing the crucified Lord who allowed Himself to die so God could be at work in it.  They are missing submission.

In truth, they are missing discipleship.  They are refusing to be humble and submit.  They are refusing to move beyond the information stage.  They may be learning the how’s and why’s, but they are missing the transformation that comes through imitation and innovation.  They are missing the transformation that comes by abandoning their own desires and embracing God’s ways and allowing that transformation to happen.

What I find sad about this chapter is that truly Paul was with the Corinthians for a long time.  They more than any of his churches had time to not just learn the information but imitate his behavior and then allow their transformation to be innovated into their own life.  They had an incredible amount of time in the presence of Paul and they seem to have wasted much of it.  We clearly see Paul imitating Christ and innovating in his own life.  But the Corinthians just don’t seem to be willing to do that.  Because they are focused on their own agendas and their own status, they are unable to submit, imitate, and innovate.  So the information stays simply that.  It stays as information and not life-altering transformation.

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