the fire—they fail to persevere in Christ or are otherwise unfit for final salvation on judgment day. The workers lose their disciples in the fire; their many hours of laboring to convert and nurture them turn out to be a costly waste of time. The workers themselves, however, remain saved.240 This loss imagines the realization of what Paul means when he fears that his own work among his converts will turn out to be in vain if they commit apostasy (Gal 4:11; 1 Thess 2:1; 3:5; Phil 2:16).241 The Corinthian believers are susceptible to such judgment if they persist in discord, vices, and assimilation to worldly ideologies.242 Their destruction would take away from the joy, honor, and other rewards Paul and his team of workers might otherwise receive on the day of the Lord (cf. 2 Cor 1:14; Phil 2:16; 1 Thess 2:19–20).243
Rewards in the afterlife are not unknown,244 but in our text any boon beyond blissful experiences is left unspecified and may be variegated depending on the worker’s labor (3:8, 14).245 Paul’s warning to be careful how one builds pertains to all workers in Christ—they must make sure their messages and teachings are Christ-centered and promote the cruciform way. Everyone, including all workers, will have to go through the fire of eschatological judgment and in this manner be purified.246 Hence, the popular image of this worker escaping the burning house’s fire by the “skin of his teeth” is not accurate. He goes through the fire rather than escapes it.247 Both worker and work are engulfed in the flames, and only those of quality material survive the ordeal.
Do you not know? With this question Paul urges auditors to ponder on their present behavior (3:16; cf. 5:6; 6:2–3, 9, 15–16, 19; 9:13, 24). The question might assume they already know from previous teachings what Paul will now tell them.248 More pointedly, however, it may be expressed ironically in light of their boastful knowledge as something they ought to know and do something about. Belief that the Spirit dwells in God’s temple was not a new concept for Jews,249 but Paul speaks metaphorically of his Gentile audience as this sanctuary: You Corinthians are God’s temple! His aim, as John Lanci affirms, is not to replace Jerusalem’s temple, “but to provide powerful imagery that will engage the emotions of the audience and kindle in the imagination a different way of looking at community.”250 As such, Paul implies that this community in Christ is to be holy; the very Spirit of God dwells in their midst.
In Jewish tradition a person who desecrated God’s temple or holy objects may be put to death (e.g., 2 Sam 6:6–7), and an inscription at Herod’s temple warned Gentiles of this same fate if they entered the balustrade of the sanctuary (Jos. Bell. 6.2.4).251 It is in this sense of holiness that Paul’s warning becomes lucid. Any Corinthian among them who damages or destroys God’s temple—that is, anyone whose divisive and immoral behavior causes fellow members to stumble in their faith—God will destroy that person. The indefinite anyone (τις) in 3:17 recalls the same pronoun in 3:12, 14–15, all of which refer to believers. Those who are susceptible to destruction are not outsiders, but insiders, the Corinthian believers. The congregation’s problem involves members harming other members (e.g., 8:7–13). The idea of reciprocating destruction recalls the lex talionis principle of ruin for ruin,252 and is akin with the common adage, “whoever does x will receive x.”253 The notion of recompense is clear, and since Paul is referring to divine judgment, what may be foremost elicited is that on judgment day when Christ returns, everyone will receive as their works deserve, whether good or bad (2 Cor 5:10; Rom 2:6, 16; 14:12; Col 3:25; cf. Jer 32:19; Job 34:11; 1 En. 100.7). Consequently, this punishment is more than merely physical death.254 It refers to eschatological destruction on judgment day.255 It follows that the one who damages the temple where the life-giving Spirit dwells will be severed from the Spirit and that life which the Spirit gives.256
Exhortations against Boasting (3:18–23)
With further imperatives Paul discourages his auditors from self-deception and boasting. With let no one deceive himself, one of the main causes of potential damage to the temple’s holiness is evident—some of its members have been misled to follow and emulate an ideology that exemplifies the wise in this age and wisdom of this world, which as we already explored (1:18–21; 2:6–8), helps instigate factions. The apostle now challenges the Corinthians to abandon this influence—if any among them want to be wise, let him become foolish so that he may become wise.257 This inverted way of thinking recapitulates earlier thoughts in which weakness related to the crucified Christ marks truly divine wisdom and power, and what is wise in this world is foolishness in God’s sight (e.g., 1:18–25).
Two quotes from Israel’s scriptures reinforce the idea. The first seems to be a loose reference to Job 5:13 in which God is the one who catches the wise in their own craftiness.258 Paul may have been attracted to the wisdom in Job 5 because, complementary with what he argues, God graciously waters earth (Job 5:11/1 Cor 3:7), and there is an anticipated day in which darkness will come upon the wise (Job 5:14/1 Cor 3:13) as well as a request that clever ones be destroyed (Job 5:15/1 Cor 3:17). For Paul, the catching of the clever ones means more than simply making their wisdom look foolish, as Job’s context and Paul’s similar language in 1:18–19 make clear. The second scripture comes from Ps 94[93]:11—the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise; that they are useless.259 Hook words relevant for Paul, such as wise, fools, and the idea of cultivation with the God who plants (94[93]:8–9), may have drawn him to this psalm after being informed by Job. Likewise in this text, the Lord judges with recompense the proud and boastful (94[93]:1–3), similar to how Paul connects the advocates of worldly wisdom with arrogance and boasting (3:21; cf. 1:31; 4:6–7, 18–19). Together these quotes confirm that human cleverness is folly before God, and divine judgment awaits those who are deceived by it.
The final imperative in this passage exhorts the Corinthians to let no one boast in humans. This seems to reference their divisive claims of allegiances to Paul, Apollos, and Cephas (cf. 1:12) and advances a compelling resolution. These allegiances are turned upside down by Paul’s assertion that he and other leaders belong to them—they are committed to serving the Corinthians and being in solidarity with this congregation. Moreover, he affirms to them that all things are yours! This affirmation may be adopted from the Stoic maxim, “all things belong to the wise person;” that is, sages are lords over whatever circumstances might come their way (Seneca, Ben. 7.2.5; Cicero Fin. 3.22.75; Diogenes Laertius Vit. 6.37).260 But if so, our apostle reconfigures its meaning to suggest to the Corinthians that they are gifted with every salvific benefit that comes from God. They are receiving the future inheritance of the new creation, eternal life, victory over death, and conquest of the present world through the cross and resurrection, not because of any power or cleverness of their own, but because they belong to and have an ultimate allegiance with Christ, and Christ belongs to God. The eight correlative conjunctions of whether . . . or . . . (εἴτε . . . εἴτε . . . ) in these verses lead up to and stress this sense of belonging along with its salvific benefits.261 If they have all sufficiency in Christ, then it follows that their only
