1 Corinthians 3

Think for a moment about the people who have shaped your faith.

Maybe it was a pastor whose sermons opened the Scriptures for you in a way you had never experienced before. Maybe it was a mentor who walked alongside you through a dark season. Maybe it was a teacher, a book, a podcast, or a small group leader.

These people matter. Their work is real. Paul never says otherwise.

But here is the question chapter 3 is pressing on us: Has the servant become the source?

The church at Corinth was fractured along exactly those lines. Some said, "I follow Paul." Others said, "I follow Apollos." They had taken gifted, faithful teachers — and turned them into tribal identities. Their spiritual lives had become organized around human figures rather than around Christ.

Paul names the diagnosis bluntly.

"Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly — mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready." — 1 Corinthians 3:1–2, NIV

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