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Originally Posted by Sons to Glory!
And I had never considered that the passage in 1st Cor 3 was toward the teachers and leaders. Interesting. (However, chapter 3 does say, "If anyone builds," right? Other verses Paul penned talk about the members building up each other . . .)
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Even "anyone" can have a context. Paul has spent from early chapter 1 though this point and on into the beginning of chapter 4 talking about the leaders that the Corinthians are arguing about. Just before he says "if anyone builds" he has stated that he is talking about himself, Apollos, Peter, etc., when he says "we are coworkers in God's service, you are God's field, God's building." (NET Bible, but consistent in others) I think he was earlier using a farm metaphor, then changes to a building metaphor at this point.
You are correct that other places say we build each other up. But that is not what he is talking about here. He is making a very specific statement about the ones that the Corinthians have been chosing-up sides about. I would never suggest that the following verses can never be applied in any way to the "average" Christian. But Paul is not doing that here. That is an application that he does not make. It could be true. But it is not stated as being so.
But what was the result of teaching the LC saints this? We became constantly introspective about how we were building, in the context of a "church life" that was somewhat exacting if you wanted to be "in" with God's chosen remnant and not part of the Whore of Babylon.
See . . . one more brick in a wall of a system of error.