1 Corinthians - chapter 3

1 I, brothers, am by couldn’t speak to you as by spiritual, but rather as by physical, such as by those who are immature in Christ.

On the one hand, Paul understands that Christian maturity develops gradually. One cannot expect a person to understand profound spiritual matters immediately after conversion, just as one cannot expect a child to behave like an adult. Some experiences can only be gained through time, a personal search for God, the study of Scripture and persistent prayer.
A child is not a small adult, and their development takes time.
On the other hand, Paul would have a great deal to say; he would like to convey a great deal of important information to the Corinthians, but he cannot. Why? It would be in vain; the Corinthians would not understand it.
Paul is clearly frustrated by this and blames the church for it. They should have been further along by then, their spiritual development was delayed compared to the norm.
It´s about spiritual spiritual knowledge, spiritual development. The physical condition has nothing to do with it – even young people can be well advanced in spiritual knowledge, whilst, conversely, older people may remain spiritual children.
A person’s spiritual state depends on two factors:
- It depends on how long ‘one has been with the Lord’, that is, how long one has been a believer. Some aspects of spiritual development cannot be rushed. Certain experiences must be gained over time¹. Studying the Scriptures and prayer also take time.
  - In fact, after his conversion, Paul’s fellow brothers ‘sent’ him off to Tarsus (perhaps because of his excessive zeal, perhaps because of his troubled past).
  - He spent about seven years there; in total, about ten years had passed between Paul’s conversion and his entry into public service (when Barnabas sought him out there).
- The pace at which time passes in terms of spiritual growth can be influenced to a certain extent – an active, zealous Christian matures more quickly than a passive and lazy one.
  - A child cannot skip developmental stages, but may either thrive or fail to grow properly.
  - It could be said that spiritual growth is easier to slow down than to speed up – though it is possible to speed it up as well.
Perhaps one could say (half-jokingly) that the following equation holds: Spiritual maturity = (time spent with the Lord) × (zeal).
Or, for example: Spiritual maturity ≈ (time × zeal) – external temptations + God’s grace.

2 I gave you milk to drink, and food I am yours Nogave, because that one you haven’t been able to yet endure. But even now, you still can’t,

Paul reproaches the Corinthians and laments their state: he would like to teach them more advanced Christian truths, but it would be of no use. It was not possible in the past, and it is still not possible now, as he writes this letter. (Paul wrote it whilst he was staying in Ephesus.)
We may well feed a baby a cutlet instead of breastfeeding, but this achieves nothing – it will not result in the baby growing and maturing any faster, but will only cause problems. We are not helping the child, but harming them. Their diet must be appropriate for their age.
Similarly, Paul could not simply ‘serve up’ to the Corinthian congregation all the knowledge he had acquired during his lifetime – he had to select and filter it: ‘I can tell them this, but not that yet; they wouldn’t “get” it’; ‘that would only do them harm’, and so on.
It could only bring them milk, that is, the biblical ‘fundamentals’, as listed, for example, in Hebrews 6:1–2 Therefore, if we have left behind the elementary teachings concerning Christ, let us press on towards maturity, and not lay again the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God, the doctrine of baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and the judgement to come.

3 for you are still even physical. After all, if "I have jealousy and discord amongst you^[and distribution^], whether you are physical and ⁽you don't live 21 in human terms⁾?

i.e.: you do not follow people;
On what basis did Paul make his diagnosis of the Corinthians’ spiritual immaturity?
It wasn’t complicated at all – he didn’t need any questionnaires or audits. He could tell easily, even from a distance, because the Corinthians were they were physical beings and lived like ordinary people. What does that mean? How did their physical behaviour – ‘walking in the manner of a human being’ – manifest itself in practice?
Both mean being ‘led’ by the body (one’s ego), acting according to the body, and indulging the body in whatever it desires.
- (The opposite of the physical is spiritual action, whereby a person does what the Spirit and the spirit desire)². The opposite of living in a human way is living according to the Holy Spirit).
What did the Corinthians’ flesh crave? To be important, to assert themselves at the expense of others, to assert their dominance, and to be right at any cost. This manifested itself in jealousy, strife and division.
There was no unity in the Corinthian church – the members quarrelled and were jealous of one another, which led to the formation of factions and, in some cases, tore the church apart. Being jealous of others, quarrelling and causing divisions are undoubtedly signs that a person is being led not by the Spirit, but by the flesh.

4 When one says, ‘I belong to Paul’, and another, ‘I belong to Apollos’, you are not ⁽like others People⁾?

var.: physical;
We learn what was the dividing line within the Corinthian congregation, what the subject of the disputes was, and on what grounds the members distinguished themselves from one another – it was a question of allegiance to the ‘founding fathers’.
Both Paul and Apollos played a significant role in the founding of the Corinthian church.
- Pavel founded the choir and spent a year and a half there³. Apollos then continued his work, and it is possible that his intellectual style of preaching impressed some members of the congregation.
In any case, this sort of distinction testifies to the physical nature of the members of the Corinthian congregation.

5 Who is Apollos? And who is Paul? They are servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord has appointed each one.

gr.: deacons;
The Corinthians should clearly understand the situation regarding pastors, preachers, evangelists and other church leaders – each of these servants of God does what they are able to do: everyone is different; everyone has their own level of understanding and their own style. None of this makes one person better than another, and none of it justifies building up a cult or a faction of followers around oneself.
The fact that someone believes is not, in any case, to the servant’s credit, but to God’s. Without ‘The Lord gave“, a servant may ‘go out of his way’, however good he may be, and yet no one will turn to God.”
However, very few people will believe ‘directly’, without a human intermediary – almost⁴ everyone will believe “through ‘someone’ who proclaims the Gospel to him.
Together, they are all God’s servants – Everyone does what God has ordained for them.
When God ‘divides up the work’, He does so rationally – He does not duplicate tasks, nor does He assign them in such a way that people compete with one another or ‘step on each other’s toes’, but so that they complement one another.

6 I planted, Apollos watered, but it was God who made it grow.

Paul uses a lovely ‘agricultural’ metaphor to describe the founding of the church: Paul arrived in Corinth, where there was nothing (no believers, no church). Zasadil the Gospel. That supported It flourished through the gods (the congregation gradually took shape), whilst Apollos ensured a steady supply of nourishment (sound teaching).
This is what is known as the biogenic Principle: Just as the potential for a plant to come into being is hidden within a seed – a potential that will unfold if the right conditions are provided (it is sown in the soil and supplied with light and water) – so too does the Good News of the Gospel hold the potential for the Church to come into being and grow – it simply needs to be sown in the soil of human hearts and nourished by preaching.

7 Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything particular, but it is God who makes it grow.

Planting and watering are important, but they are neither extraordinary nor complicated. The real ‘masterpiece’ is to instil that miraculous potential for growth into the seed (or the Gospel).
God’s plan is absolutely brilliant in this respect.

8 The one who plants and the one who waters are one and the same, but each will receive 6 Its rising their own wages according to their efforts.

God’s co-workers labour towards a single goal, in a single field or on a single building site. Their common goal is a harvest or a profit.
Each of them will then receive a reward commensurate with the effort they have put in. Neither more nor less. God is just and is able to judge perfectly the extent of the effort expended efforts.
God, unlike human leaders, is able to assess not only the amount of work done, but also the amount of effort a person had to put into that work.
- A strong and skilled bricklayer can build a metre of wall effortlessly in a few minutes, whilst it takes another a whole day and requires a great deal of effort. A human builder is concerned only with the result, but God also takes into account the worker’s heart and effort.

9 For we are God’s fellow workers; did You are God’s field, God’s building.

The Apostle Paul and his team worked together with God. Christians work together with God.
A co-worker co-works, works together (with God).
In Greek, it is accomplices (synergoi) from the word synergeó (to cooperate, to contribute),σύν (syn)
together, jointly, ἔργον (ergon) work, action, effort.
- In Czech, we use the word ‘synergický’, for example to describe a synergistic effect (paracetamol and ibuprofen work synergistically – both reduce fever, pain and inflammation, and are more effective together than they are separately).
In English: labourers together with God; co-workers; fellow workers;
Paul, and Christians in general, are certainly working towards the same goal as God Himself. God is striving for something; He has His own vision of the world and of history, and He guides them in some way.

More generally: Beings endowed with free will (both angels and humans) essentially have two options – either they cooperate with God, acting as ‘sons’ (ergic), and follow the path He sets out; or they are ‘anti-’⁵“ (ergic), they do not support God’s efforts or even actively ‘throw a spanner in the works’.”
The devil and the demons are outright opposed to this – they deliberately seek to thwart and foil God’s plans.
For the most part, people do not cooperate with God’s plans either, although there are probably not that many outright, conscious opponents. Very few people (perhaps only Satanists?) would subscribe to the statement: ‘My aim is to thwart God’s work on this earth’. The fact that they are, in reality, doing just that through their attitudes (by rejecting Christ) is another matter entirely.

You You are God’s field, God’s building: There is talk of the Christians in Corinth, of the church in Corinth – which Paul refers to as God’s field and building. In what sense?
If I am the owner (if God is the owner) of a field or a building, I certainly intend to make use of it. How?
I expect a field to be sown and then to yield a harvest. I expect a building to be completed, to serve its purpose, and for me to benefit from it.
In both cases, I realise that I must first put in the effort to build up my assets so that I can benefit from them later on.
However, I do expect a return: if I invest in my property (build and furnish a house, plough and sow a field), it will bring some benefit.

10 According to ^[God’s^] By the grace given to me, I, like a wise builder, have laid the foundation, and another is building on it. Let each one take care how he builds on it.

Pavel sets aside the image of the field and develops the image of the builder.
He himself is the builder. The building consists of the churches, the local congregations – in this case, primarily the church at Corinth.
It was Paul who founded them – he went to places where there were no Christians and established the church.
He built on on a firm foundation, that is, on Christ (he preached about Christ crucified and risen).
Churches must always be built on Christ. If they are built on anything else, they are unstable and will eventually cease to exist.

This is illustrated by the following anecdote: A small Protestant church had an inscription above its entrance reading ‘We preach Christ crucified’. As time went by, the congregation dwindled and, at the same time, the entrance became overgrown with ivy. The ivy gradually covered the word ‘crucified’, so that only ‘We preach Christ’ remained. Eventually, the word ‘Christ’ was also covered – and all that remained was ‘We preach’.

If the cornerstone of a congregation is religion, theology, emotion or fellowship, such a congregation will not stand the test of time.
The same applies to the spiritual life of every Christian – everything is subject to change; only Christ Himself is unshakeable. Nothing and no one can take away our relationship with Christ; everything else, including life itself, can.
Pavel, like… wise builder knew. What does a wise builder know, and what did the Apostle Paul know? That if a person lays a poor-quality stone in the foundation of a building, the whole structure will collapse sooner or later.
- A ‘real-life example’ springs to mind: poor-quality material was reportedly used in the sub-base of the motorway from Ostrava to Bohumín and on to Poland. Shortly after it opened, the motorway became undulating, and to this day (2025) there is a speed limit in place.⁶
- However, there are many cases where someone cuts corners during construction and the house subsequently collapses; this is by no means unusual.
Paul is certain that he himself acted correctly when establishing churches. How can he be so certain? Because he took care never to place anything other than Christ at the centre of his message.
We know that Paul established churches, which he handed over to local leaders (he appointed elders) after a while, and then moved on to another place.
Those who took over the congregation from Paul had to pay attention to how they are building on Pavlov’s foundation. Whether, apart from Christ, they are beginning to incorporate unstable elements into the building of the Church – such as their own self-importance, elements of the Law, or other secondary and ‘unsteady’ things.

11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that is already laid, . That is Jesus Christ.

Paul took great care to ensure that the foundation of every church was laid on the pure Gospel – the teaching of the saving work of Jesus Christ.
This emphasis was so strong in his case that it was difficult for those who took over the choirs after him to change anything about it.
He also made corrections to the choral pieces during his subsequent visits and in his letters.
And it has to be said that there was plenty to correct – unhealthy tendencies and all manner of ‘excesses’ were commonplace in ‘his’ congregations.

12 If anyone on ^[this^] is based on from gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw,

Every Christian is the architect of their own life.
He was given a foundation on which to base his faith (he heard the Gospel). It was on this foundation that he began to build his Christian life.
Some believers have a broader sphere of authority – they bear responsibility not only for themselves, but also for their family, for the people around them (for example, in a home group), or, as leaders, they may bear responsibility for the local church.
All of this can be done well or badly. It does matter how we live out our Christian lives and what we make of them.
Even Christians can waste their lives – devoting their time and effort to things that ultimately prove to be futile and pointless.
This is precisely what is meant by the image of building with materials that are valuable and durable, or, conversely, with materials that are of poor quality and cheap. We have a duty to ensure that what we do with our lives is of high quality, valuable and enduring.
It must be our priority to ensure that, when, after our resurrection, God ‘sits down’ with us and begins to review and assess our earthly Christian life, so that what we have devoted ourselves to may stand up to scrutiny in His eyes, be regarded as valuable, enduring and useful for God’s work. .
The alternative, in fact, is that God will judge our lives to have been wasted – declaring that what we have devoted our time, effort and money to is worthless. Our efforts will ‘go up in smoke’ and we will stand before God empty-handed.

13 Everyone’s work will be laid bare. On that day "I have will be revealed, for it will be made manifest in the fire, and the fire will test the quality of everyone’s work.

e.g.: is revealed;
Who is this tester? by fire? God’s piercing gaze – God looks deep into our hearts and reveals everything we have done in life, including our most hidden motives (everything will be revealed obvious)
So what, then, of our lives in this Will it really stand the test of fire? What will not be burnt up? That which was done out of love for Christ, from a pure, joyful and humble heart. That is what we will take with us into eternity. Whatever we did for other reasons will be rejected by God.
It will certainly not be a question of quantity (for example, the number of people we have led to Christ or the amount of money we have given to the poor), but of quality. God will reveal absolutely everything about our lives and our service to Him.
God does not need our money, our good deeds or our prayers. But He gives us the chance to offer them to Him precisely because He wants to give us the opportunity to build something valuable and lasting out of our lives. He gives us the chance to build ourselves a lasting, indestructible, eternal treasure in heaven.
We are all given the opportunity to become a precious gem in God’s edifice.

It is worth noting here that the ‘trial by fire’ of which Paul speaks is not the same as God’s judgement, at which each person’s acceptance or rejection will be determined.
Here, Pavel talks about To the judgement seat of Christ, as described in 2 Corinthians 5:9–10: That is why we strive so earnestly to please him, whether we remain at home or go out into the world. For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due for what we have done whilst in the body, whether good or evil.
At the judgement seat of Christ, the lives of Christians will be assessed by Christ – some of them will indeed be saved, but they will enter into eternal life with God empty-handed. It will become apparent that they have, to a greater or lesser extent, wasted their Christian lives; that what they devoted themselves to had no value in God’s eyes, or was even evil.
- No believer’s life is, of course, perfect; no Christian has done everything right. But we must strive to live as well as we possibly can.
- At this point, it is also worth recalling (as we know from the parables of the talents, the bridesmaids, and the sheep and goats) that Even for a converted Christian, it is possible to exclude oneself entirely from salvation through extreme passivity, and thus to be condemned (the lazy servant in the Parable of the Minas ended up where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth – that is, in hell).

14 If anyone ⁽on this basis will issue⁾ the work and it He if he stays, he’ll get a reward,

‘built an extension’ (onto that foundation);
var.: remains;
Christ will walk with us and assess our lives – what we have devoted ourselves to as Christians:
- Whatever has no value in His eyes will be burnt. It will be a great loss and a painful process – it will be excruciatingly painful to see how much of our Christian life we have devoted to vanities, how much time, effort and money we have squandered on worthless things.
  - What might be the ‘straw’ that breaks the camel’s back in our lives? Anything. It’s not about the thing itself, but whether we did it properly. For example, possessions can be as worthless as straw (if we have hoarded them needlessly) or as precious as a gem (if we have used them to serve God).
    - One example that springs to mind is a holiday cottage – I have often seen cottages or holiday homes turn into money- and time-sinks; in some cases, they have even led the owners away from the church, for example by ‘preventing’ them from attending Sunday services.
    - As with everything, the problem isn’t the cottage itself, but our attitude towards it. (On the contrary, a cottage can be a blessed place of peace and rest, or even a venue for the church’s community life.)
- There are countless examples, and there is no general rule – or rather, As a general rule, what we do must be in accordance with God’s will. As a general rule, we should seek and do God’s will.
  - The same thing can be either straw or a gem. (Even service in the Church can become straw if it was not what God wanted from us at that particular moment.)
- On the contrary, that which does not burn away – that which was in harmony with God’s will – has lasting value, will accompany a person into eternity, and will be rewarded.

15 if He his work will be consumed by fire; he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but as through fire.

Here, Paul reiterates what we have already mentioned – that we are talking about the assessment of believers’ lives, not about a judgement in which decisions are made regarding whether people are accepted or rejected.
To realise that I have devoted my time and energy to something that was ‘useless’ undoubtedly means to suffer considerable damage.
To waste your life – that really hurts. Although I did manage to achieve the most important thing in my life (I found Christ), I did not live my life wisely afterwards, as a Christian, and much of what I devoted myself to turned out to be in vain.
If Christians’ lives are ‘consumed by fire’, it will be a very painful experience for them – will go through the fire of remorse.
It is therefore of the utmost importance for believers not to make this mistake. How can it be avoided? We must seek to find out what God wants from us, and then do it. We must carry out God’s will, not our own.

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and all Does the Spirit of God dwell within you?

n.: amongst you;
How does this relate to the judgement of a Christian’s life at Christ’s judgement seat? Or is Paul changing the subject?
Apparently: If a Christian knew (or were more aware) that they are ‘indwelt’ by the Holy Spirit, they would live their life differently. They would allow themselves to be guided by Him more, take His views more into account, and devote themselves more to His work.
The question, ‘Do you not know?’, is clearly rhetorical. The Corinthians already had this information; they knew that they were God’s temple and the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit – but they tended to forget this and fail to act accordingly.
Do we know that? Are we sufficiently aware that, following his coming to earth (at Pentecost), the Holy Spirit chose Christians as his dwelling place?
God had originally set aside (and carefully prepared) first the Tabernacle, and later the Temple in Jerusalem, as His ‘dwelling place’ amongst people. The New Testament change in God’s approach is, in this sense, utterly radical: No longer just one place on the planet, and no longer a dwelling in the usual sense of the word.
The change does not involve moving the site from the Temple in Jerusalem to somewhere else (to another temple, to one of the churches, or to some other sacred place).
The place where God dwells is ‘diversified“. Since Pentecost, millions of walking human ‘temples’, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, have been moving about the world.”

17 If anyone destroys God’s sanctuary, he will be destroyedGod forbid. For God’s sanctuary is holy,⁽and that sanctuary⁾ It’s you.

e.g.: which;
For the Holy Spirit to be willing to take up residence somewhere, that place must be holy – that is, set apart from the world and cleansed of all sin. After a person has turned to Christ, they are sanctified by the blood of Christ – it is only through this that a person can become a temple of God.
If the human body is God’s temple, and the Holy Spirit has no ‘difficulty’ taking up residence within a person, this is a clear sign of the great value of a sanctified Christian.
Christians are therefore obliged to treat these ‘walking sanctuaries’ with respect – both in their attitude towards themselves and in their attitude towards one another.
The destruction of God’s sanctuary has terrible consequences – God’s retribution is ‘destruction ‘destroyers’. Nobody wants to be destroyed by God.
Why is Paul talking about this now? How does it relate to the judgement seat of Christ? Or is Paul returning to an earlier issue within the Corinthian church? There are several possibilities:
- He is speaking of people (in the Corinthian church) who were systematically destroying their own bodies, the temple entrusted to them as stewards for the service of God. People are capable of destroying themselves very easily through passivity (by failing to look after themselves⁷) or through their own actions, such as smoking, drinking alcohol or overeating. They are then unfit for God’s work purely for health reasons⁸.
- The Holy Spirit wishes to dwell in human temples that are pure and ‘pleasant to dwell in’. If a person defiles their temple with impurity and sin, they will pay the price for it⁹.
- Or perhaps Paul is referring to disputes within the congregation, where Christians were causing harm to one another. If I ‘drive someone out’ of the congregation or even, through my behaviour, drive them away from the faith, God will undoubtedly punish me for it.
- As regards the connection with Christ’s judgement seat, this would constitute a punishment for a Christian whom the devastation of his own temple had prevented from bearing any meaningful fruit for God during his lifetime.

To illustrate this, we can imagine our body as a car entrusted to us by God at birth. It is up to us in what condition we return our car to God when we die:

- I could return them to God ‘as good as new’, practically untouched, polished, with just a few hundred kilometres on the clock.  I certainly won’t be praised for that – a car like that would be like a buried talent. - - Can I return the car in a wrecked, damaged and dirty state? The car didn’t work as it should have; it didn’t stand a chance of transporting anything properly because I didn’t look after it. In this case, too, I’ll have a problem with God.
- The third option is ideal: I will return the car to God worn out and damaged, not through neglect, but through service to God. It has clocked up millions of kilometres ‘for God’ and it shows – it is battered, has been in several accidents, is dented, and has lost its original lustre and beauty. For treating my car in this way, I will undoubtedly be rewarded by God.

18 Let no one deceive themselves. If any of you think you are wise in this age, you should become a fool, so that you may become wise.

that is to say, by the standards of this world;
This seems to be a new area of discussion – I can’t see how this idea relates to the theme of human bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. (Perhaps in the sense that someone thinks they’re treating their body in some particularly wise way, but in reality that’s not the case at all.)
Paul puts wisdom into perspective in the sense that he understands it this age, that is, the unbelievers of this world – is, from God’s point of view, not really true wisdom at all.
What does it mean to act the fool in order to gain wisdom? To believe in the Gospel without a doubt. The Gospel—that is, the good news of salvation offered through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ—is, from the world’s perspective, truly foolish, ‘strange’. It defies the way people of this world think.
But whoever rejects them remains a fool in the eyes of God. It is better to be a fool in the eyes of the world than in the eyes of God.
It is practically impossible to be wise in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of God. Not even Christ Himself – that is, God Himself – managed to please the world; even He was rejected and condemned by the world. How, then, could we possibly succeed in doing so?
One might even say that being held in too high regard by the world can be a sign that something is amiss in our lives.

19 For the wisdom of this world is folly in God’s sight. For it is written: ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness.’

Paul quotes Eliphaz from the fifth chapter of the Book of Job: “who (meaning God) thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands will not succeed, 13 who catches the wise in their own craftiness”. Here, Eliphaz ‘defends’ God against Job, and does so in a rather unpleasant manner. Nevertheless, Paul uses his words as universally true.
God does not truly value what is known as the wisdom of this world. To Him, it seems foolish.
And God has no trouble ‘backing up’ His position with facts; He can easily refute the arguments of worldly wisdom.
What exactly the wisdom of this world What does this amount to? We can illustrate this, for example, with Christ’s Beatitudes, where Jesus contrasts what this world considers ‘blessed’ with what God considers ‘blessed’¹⁰:
- The world: intelligence, cunning – God: poverty of spirit, simplicity
- A World of Joy – God Weeps
- The world: noise, assertiveness – God: stillness
- The world tolerates injustice – but God does not
- A World of Retribution – The God of Mercy
- The world tolerates impurity – God loves a pure heart
- The world is at war – God is peace
- A world that yields to evil, God who upholds justice
- The world of turning away from Christ – God, who remains faithful to Christ despite opposition.

20 And again: ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise’ and knows‘…that they are futile.’

Paul illustrates the fact that God is well acquainted with what this world regards as wisdom with yet another verse – namely, Psalm 94:11: The Lord knows the thoughts of men; He knows that they are futile.
Not only does God know worldly wisdom well, but He also knows full well how poor its quality is – it is futile, is useless. Worldly wisdom leads nowhere; it takes a person nowhere, nor does it provide answers or solutions.

21 So let no one boast about other people. After all, everything belongs to you:

Paul returns to the disputes within the Corinthian church: ‘From God’s point of view, the question of whether you belong to me or to Apollos is completely pointless; boasting about belonging to one or the other is nonsense.’
Your arguments are not even logical, After all, it’s all yours. Presumably meaning: ‘I, Paul and Apollos are yours.’ We can understand more clearly what Paul means from the following verses:

22 Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, whether the world or life or death, whether things present or future — everything "I have yours, 23 then you you are Christ and Christ the Son of God.

Christians ‘belong’ not only to Paul and Apollos, but also to other ‘things’ – life and death, the present and the future, Quite simply, everything.
The concepts of life, death, the present and the future encompass all the possible circumstances that may arise in the lives of Christians.
In what sense are all possible life circumstances, including the very worst, ‘our“, that is, Christians?
Everything a Christian encounters in life — people, events, even death or the future — ultimately serves our good, our benefit and our ultimate victory.
Everything takes on new meaning and becomes part of our heritage and a means by which God shapes and guides his people.
This is the same principle as Romans 8:28: ‘We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’

Even the best of spouses don’t know much about married life after just six months of marriage. ↩︎
That is to say, the Holy Spirit and the spirit as the spiritual aspect of our personality. ↩︎
Paul arrives in Corinth from Athens. He is introduced to a Jewish couple, Aquila and Priscilla, who had been expelled from Rome under Emperor Claudius’s decree. Paul stays with them and works alongside them as a tentmaker. He first preached in the synagogue to the Jews and to ‘God-fearing’ Gentiles. However, he encounters resistance, so he focuses on the Gentiles – his first significant convert is Titus Justus, a Gentile ‘worshipper of God’, who provided him with a place to stay. Crispus, the head of the synagogue, also accepted the faith, which caused tension. Apollos He came from Alexandria; he was educated and ‘well-versed in the Scriptures’, ‘fervent in spirit’. Aquila and Priscilla took him aside and enriched his understanding of Christ. Subsequently, Apollos arrived in Corinth and continued Paul’s work.
It is possible that his intellectual and oratorical style made an impression mainly on the educated inhabitants of Corinth. ↩︎
It is said that in Muslim countries, where the preaching of the Gospel is forbidden, people quite often encounter Christ directly – for example, in their dreams – without anyone having preached the Gospel to them. ↩︎
‘Syn’ and ‘anti’ are Greek prepositions denoting opposition. In Latin, ‘cum’ would probably be used instead of ‘syn’, and ‘contra’ instead of ‘anti’. ↩︎
The D1 motorway between Ostrava and Bohumín began to show signs of significant undulation very soon after it opened in 2007. The unevenness began to appear after just half a year. The Roads and Motorways Directorate introduced a speed limit, which remains in place to this day. According to the court’s ruling, the cause was the use of poor-quality embankment materials – specifically, a mixture containing slag from steelworks and material from the so-called ‘cold spoil tip’ at Nová Huť. ↩︎
I certainly don’t think people should ‘pamper’ their bodies excessively, spoil them or treat them too gently. Bodies are meant to serve God, and in doing so they can be put through their paces. After years of service, the Apostle Paul’s body was thoroughly ‘worn out’ and covered in scars. ↩︎
For example, I have seen countless men who died prematurely, ruined by alcohol and smoking, leaving their wives widowed. ↩︎
We are responsible for ‘keeping an eye on what we take in’. If I spend a lot of time looking at filth on the internet, I will drive the Holy Spirit away – He certainly won’t be watching with me. ↩︎
The wisdom of the world is also well documented by the so-called ‘Nine Commandments of Satan’, which recommend: the indulgence of desires as opposed to abstinence; the pursuit of anything that brings mental, emotional or physical satisfaction. physical existence over spirituality; treating man as a mere animal; ‘kindness to those who deserve it’ as opposed to ‘love squandered on the ungrateful’; revenge rather than turning the other cheek; ‘responsibility towards those who are responsible’. Such is the wisdom of this world. The vast majority of the world’s population lives by it. ↩︎

Vít Šmajstrla

Vit.Smajstrla@bormed.cz