Bible Chapter Summary
1 Corinthians 3 Summary
Spiritual Maturity and God's Foundation
Paul rebukes the Corinthians for remaining carnal despite their knowledge, comparing them to infants fed with milk rather than solid meat. He points to their envying, strife, and divisions as evidence of their carnality. Paul then uses the metaphor of building: he laid the foundation of Christ, but others build upon it, and their work will be tested by fire on the day of judgment. Believers are the temple of God, and anyone who defiles the temple will be destroyed. Paul warns against false wisdom and reminds them that all things belong to them as they belong to Christ.
Key themes
Key verses
1 Corinthians 3:1
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”
1 Corinthians 3:11
“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 3:13
“Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.”
1 Corinthians 3:16
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
Read 1 Corinthians 3 in full
Study the complete chapter with interlinear Hebrew & Greek, verse-by-verse, in the Gospel Daily reader.
Open the full chapter