Rationale: In order to run an effective Bible Study, you really do not need to know Greek, or have gone to seminary or read a dozen commentaries? You simply need to be able to ask a lot of questions. (The Inductive Bible Study method relies on questions.) Take a look at Jesus. He was always asking questions.
Now, this is not to endorse any sort of anti-intellectualism or to say that seminaries are not needed. It may be God’s will that the way that Solange become good at running Bible Studies is by getting training and learning Greek. It may not be God’s will however that Esperenza do the same. Quite frankly God may just bless her straight. It’s his prerogative. Anyway… Oh and btw … you gotta pray… a 1,001 times. You can have all the great questions in the world, but it is God who grants the increase… see below.
Questions for 1 Cor. 3
1Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ.
~ What would it be like if someone called you worldly?
~ When was the last time you told some one that they were worldly? Can you imagine doing this?
2I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
So it seems that you can give a person milk for sometime and they are still not ready.
~Who or what kind of a person do we generally give milk to?
~If we gave a baby solid food, what would happen to the baby?
~What kind of a person do we give milk to ? If not a baby (a baby believer)?
~Who do you think Paul has in mind?
Jesus said in John 16:12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.”
3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men ?
Everyone has verbal fights… husbands and wives, best friends, two people at the workplace, brothers, sisters, etc… and in some sense it can be healthy thing. However – what does it mean to be quarreling? If there is some sense in which it is good to fight, then how is this sense different from what is going on among the Corinthians?
~ What are some rules for a good fight?
From what I have heard – avoid the you statements. “You are #_(#+@!!!” or “You think you are so smart…welll” or “You always say….!”
And – Distinguish between a battle and a war. Something may not be worth fighting over.
And – Argue one issue at a time… don’t throw out multiple issues in one go.
And – stick to the issue… Don’t go off into other arguments or tangents…
And – Of course … avoid expletives
Yada yada yada
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?
Paul is once again using the words “mere men”?
~ Who do mere men follow?
~ Who do the not-so-mere men follow?
~ At this point we can say that Paul has given us three signs of immaturity or worldliness – What are they?
5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.
~ Paul calls these himself and Apollos what? (servants) What could have been some other terms that he could have used instead?
~ So why use servant?
~ The HIS in the italics … who is it referring to?
~ Meditate on the last part of that phrase… Do you think really – that God assigns tasks? What is/are the task(s) that God has assigned to you?
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” ~Eph. 2:10
Milton wrote a poem, titled, On His Blindness in which he wrote a line “Doth God exact labour, light denied?” What do you think this means? How would you answer this question?
6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
~ Think about evangelism … ultimately a person’s coming to the faith is in God’s hands. Solange could get hit by a car tomorrow and … kapish? Its over. Anyway… we often talk about sowing seeds. How often do we talk about watering seeds? What does that even mean?
~ Why is Paul telling the Corinthians this?
7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
~ So is the one who plants and the one who waters nothing at all?
~ What is the end result in our lives, when we try to make things grow? (Frustration)
8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor
~ On a farm, one person might plant in afternoon and another water later on in the evening. At the end of the day or week, what determines their wages? Will they get the same wages? If the boss decides so, then can they argue? On the other hand? Perhaps one job is harder than the other. Perhaps, one guy works harder than the other. Perhaps, the contract that they signed.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
~ Its interesting how it says that we are God’s fellow workers …
~ Does this mean that we are fellow workers side by side with God? or workers side by side with other workers, all of whom in turn are owned by God? (Or perhaps maybe both are involved?)
~ I.e. Is this about the relationship btwn the workers themselves or bwtn the workers and God?
~ Are the Corinthians God’s fellow workers or even His workers?
~ Why does Paul liken the Corinthians to a field or a building?
10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds.
~ Notice how Paul describes himself. He describes himself as an expert builder. Would you ever be able to describe yourself as an expert at anything?
~ Was Paul being arrogant or lacking in humility in describing himself as an expert builder? No.
~ Why? “By the grace God has given me” … huge part of the answer. He was telling the truth was another part. His intention or heart was clear…
~ What was the foundation that Paul had laid? A congregation? The gospel in the hearts of some people? Is he talking about Church planting?
11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
~ So perhaps the foundation that he laid was Jesus Christ. He could be talking metaphorically. That is he still means that he sowed the Gospel in people’s hearts. Or he planted a church… with many believers there.
~ What is the foundation for anything we do in life? Is it possible that the foundation for anything that we do in life is Jesus Christ? Perhaps I am working on project such as … oh… I don’t know… maybe I am running some site directed mutagenesis experiments or some polymerase chain reactions or writing the code for acoustic doppler profilers??? hahahaha… could the foundation for this be Jesus Christ?
(I think so… See Proverbs 3:4-6 and also Proverbs 16:3 – “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”)
Thot: Committing things to Jesus could be as simple as just running them by Him in prayer.
~ What are the things that you have to do in life? Why don’t you make a list and commit these thing to Jesus right now.
Exercise: For me: Finishing 6 papers + a final exam in the next two weeks… oieey… Finding a thesis topic over the winter break. Finding an internship… the one that I thought I could pursue … may not work out… just as well… altho I thot it would be good to go to India for a season… oh well… finishing next semester well… and strengthening my relationships at school… organizing the art show for next semester and possibly also a spoken word/ open mike thing… maybe … maybe tutoring little kids next semester… time to pray…
12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw
~ So are we saying that we can have a good rock-solid foundation and yet still build in a lousy way on top of it?
(Why is this a bad question? Its sort of bad – because it is asking for a yes/no answer. Sometimes a yes/no question gets a yes/no answer and then silence. They may not generate a discussion.)
~ Thot: I think so – Perhaps this is the reason why you hear about there being a revival in a certain place with X-thousand folks making professions… and then you go there 20 years later, and the supposed Xtns are so weak in the faith. Their lifestyle habits leave something to be desired. They are not spiritually disciplined. Syncretism abounds… Its questionable in many cases if these folks are even believers.
~ Thot: We accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord – both. The “Lord” part has to do with our lives. We hand over our lives to Him and ask Him to be Lord over it. Its not like some insurance that we buy. We buy it, sign the paper work and then the information sits somewhere. We do not need to worry about it anymore until some bad thing happens.
~ Thot: We do not simply bring people into the faith. We also disciple them. We train them. We encourage them to pursue the disciplines. One of the most important things is daily quiet times spent with God… in front of His Word and in prayer.
13his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.
~ What is this Day that Paul is referring to?
~ What is the nature of this fire mentioned here?
~ What kind of people will have reason to be afraid of this fire? What kind of people will not have reason to be afraid?
~ Thot: Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego never had any reason to be afraid even while in the fire. Deuteronomy 4:24 tells us that God is a consuming fire. But we can stand before God in confidence and with boldness.
~ Thot: Quality reminds me of quantity. It is interesting that the fire does not test the quantity.
14If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.
~ How do we build things that survive? Does Paul tell us anything in this passage that indicate how to build in such manner?
15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
~ What does Paul mean by “he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping thru the flames”?
Thot: My prof Dr. Carson says that he thinks … actually I cannot remember what he said exactly. I think he said something about a church where it is only the pastor who makes it through the flames. The rest of the church goes down the tubes. So perhaps a mega-church with a lot of fluffy teaching… or rhetorical talk… the Pastor is saved but the Church is not. They attend for all the wrong reasons and the Pastor feeds these because he knows it will keep the attendance going strong. … need to look up my notes.
Thot: This is not about carnal Christians… those who accept Christ as Savior and not as Lord. This is not about people who come to the faith and have no good works to their credit.
