I Corinthians 3:4-9

 

So, remember, Paul has been dealing with the problem of sectarianism within the Corinthian church. This problem was based on a misunderstanding of God's ways and a spiritual deficiency within the Corinthian Christians. It was their carnal status that led them to this problem, as Paul addressed in the last section. Here, he moves back to the general idea of sectarianism.

As we talked about before, what was happening in the church was that different individuals were forming parties around different religious leaders—especially Paul and Apollos, who had both had an influential role in the history of the church. In the rest of chapter 3 and chapter 4, Paul will address this idea of the role ministers have in relation to God's work and the various responsibilities that surround this relation. Here, in this passage, he lays out the general idea.

Verse 4 is the connecting point, linking this passage to what had gone before. In the first three verses of chapter 3, Paul addressed the fact that the Corinthians were in a carnal state; they were not where they should have been. You can argue that most of chapters 1 and 2 were all building up to that point. Having made it, Paul then uses it as a bridge to loop back to the topic at hand. The Corinthian carnal state showed clearly in their sectarian attitude. This is not how spiritual Christians should act.

So, the central topic here is the growth of the church—specifically the Corinthian church, but it is applicable to all churches. It was something the Corinthians lacked the character and wisdom to understand properly, leading them into sectarianism. And so Paul lays out the true picture for them.

Imagine any item around your house--anything was deliberatedly crafted or manufactured. There are three questions you can ask about it: who?, how?, and why? With anything that is made, there is a maker; there was some kind of method or process by which it was made; and there was some reason why it was made.

The church—in this sense—is not a physical object. But it is something that is created. And therefore, we can ask these three questions: Who makes the church? How is it made? And why?

So who makes the church? Who is the source and origin of the church's existence? It is God. In verse 5, Paul says that the various ministers of the church had worked “even as the Lord gave to every man.” The NET Bible translates it: “each of us in the ministry the Lord gave us.” In both verses 6 and 7, Paul states that in the growth of the church, it is God that gives the increase. In verse 9, Paul says that ministers are laborers together with God—and also pictures the church as belonging to God. The church belongs to God as a farm belongs to the farmer or a house to the householder.

That is the who. What about the how? In general, we have seen the answer earlier: “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18). It is the gospel by which men are saved; it is God's word which allows men to grow in grace and the church as a whole to go on with its work.

But here, Paul is interested specifically in the ministers, the servants, the workers—those that God uses. Paul speaks specifically of himself and Apollos. He uses the analogy of farming—he had planted the seed. He had first brought the gospel to Corinth. He had established a church; he had won many converts. But Apollos had watered the seed. He had come into this already established church and had continued the work that Paul started—just as someone who waters a field continues the work of the one who initially planted. And perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but perhaps the idea is that Paul's work was more about gaining converts, whereas Apollos' gift was more in helping establish those who had already been converted.

Remember what Paul said earlier about the gospel that is the foundation of the church: “But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians 1:24-25) The church is built by God—by Christ, who is the power and the wisdom of God. And all the means by which the church is built—the individual ministers and their particular methods—are only that—means. They are tools but not the carpenter, conduits but not the current. 

That was why the Corinthians' sectarian attitude was so wrong, why it was evidence of a carnal mindset—because they were focusing so much on the individual ministers that they were losing sight of God.

That is how the world sees the church. If you don't believe that God is at work in the church, then you have to posit something else as the source of the church's life, and that will most likely be the ministers. The world will assume that the church is an organization like any other organization—something built by humans using human wisdom. Even if they respect the church, they must see it as purely human.

But to be Christian means to recognize that the church is more than that. We saw that in the verse we just read---the gospel is not merely the work of men but a conduit of “Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”

Now, this doesn't mean that the work of ministers is unimportant. The church needs them. Notice what Paul says in verse 8. First, he says that both the planter and the waterer are “one”--in other words, both are part of the same work, and both are necessary to it. There are times when one person will do something, and others who have no share try to claim part of the glory. That's not the case here—both Paul and Apollos had their role; both were important. This is carried through in the second half of the verse. Both would receive their own reward according to their own labor.

They were working for God, and they would be rewarded accordingly. They had a role--it was important, and they would receive a reward. But that is all they were—laborers together with God—they were not God. They were farmhands, not the farm owner.

We've talked about the who and how. What about the why? God sent preachers, and the preachers preached, but to what end? In verse 5, Paul speaks of ministers as the means “by whom ye believed.” The goal of all this is faith—that people will hear and embrace the gospel in faith.

But it is not merely faith. I said that faith is the why—the goal or purpose. And that's true in the sense that the work of the church is aimed at bringing people to the point of faith. But faith itself is a how—it is a means by which God does more within the life of the believer. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Here, we see that faith leads to salvation. It is through faith that we are saved. I wanted to read these verses, however, for a specific reason. Paul goes on to say that we are God's workmanship. The Greek word is poiema and means “a product, i.e. fabric (literally or figuratively):--thing that is made, workmanship.” (Strong) It comes from a root meaning to create, which is the source of our English word poem.

The church—the individual Christians within the church—are something God makes. When a person is saved, that doesn't just mean that their names are checked off or put on some supernatural roaster. They become—or are in the process of becoming—something new. They are God's workmanship. In 1 Corinthians, Paul puts it that they are God's farm or His construction job. God is making something out of His people.

And, once again, this is why sectarianism was so wrong. God wanted to bring people together into something new and had used individual ministers to that end. And the Corinthians were undoing that work by dividing around those ministers. In their (perhaps sincere and well-intended) love and loyalty for Paul and Apollos they were working against the one and only thing that had motivated Paul and Apollos. They were burning down the forest out of regard for the trees; they were cutting off their nose because they loved their face.