1 Corinthians 3:10 - Exposition

According to the grace of God which is given unto me; rather, which was given. Here, again, we have St. Paul's baptismal aorist —his habit of regarding his whole spiritual life as potentially summed up in the one crisis of conversion and baptism. This phrase is a favourite one with him ( 1 Corinthians 15:10 ; Romans 15:15 ; Galatians 2:9 ; Ephesians 3:2 ). As a wise master builder. "Wise" only in the sense of subordinating every pretence of human wisdom to the will of God; and here the adjective only applies to the wisdom required by a builder. In other words, "wise" is here equivalent to "skilful." Since Paul had received the grace of God for this very purpose, he was made "wise" by the knowledge of Christ (for the metaphor of building, see Matthew 7:24 ; Matthew 16:18 ; Ephesians 2:21 ; 1 Peter 2:5 ). The foundation ; rather, a foundation. Though in truth there is but one foundation, as he proceeds to say, St. Paul always refused to build on the foundation laid by another ( Romans 15:20 ). Another . Perhaps the special allusion is to Apollos.