1 Corinthians 3 Bible study: God gave the increase

Favor's introduction to 1 Corinthians begins a new part of the letter here, God gave the increase. It opens, "Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ." (3:1) (tap babies). Then: "I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, you aren’t ready even now" (3:2) (tap milk). The letter gives its own reason: "for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?" (3:3) (tap strife). And it names the sayings it named in chapter 1: "For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly?" (3:4). In 1:12 there were four such sayings; here there are two.

Job 5:13→leads to1 Corinthians 3:19

Eliphaz says of God, "He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong" (5:13). Paul writes, "If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise" (1 Corinthians 3:18), "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”" (1 Corinthians 3:19). Paul gives the words as scripture with "it is written", but he doesn't name Job or the one who spoke them; in Job they are Eliphaz's (4:1), and the WEB words the two a little differently: Paul has has taken and their craftiness, where Job 5:13 has takes and their own craftiness. In the same chapter Paul writes that no other foundation can be laid "than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11), and he ends, "Therefore let no one boast in men" (1 Corinthians 3:21), "and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s" (1 Corinthians 3:23). Paul quotes this one saying; he says nothing about the rest of Eliphaz's speech, and the LORD's words to Eliphaz in 42:7 still stand.

αὐξάνωauxanosay owx-AN-o

Strong's: "to grow". "I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase." (3:6), and "So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase." (3:7): behind gave the increase and gives the increase is this one verb. 1 Corinthians has it only in these two verses (counted in RP2018). Favor's Acts 6 studies it where the WEB has increased (Acts 6:7). Colossians has it in "grows with God’s growth" (Colossians 2:19), where it is the verb behind grows.