...
An Occasion for Pride and Division
So there’s the issue and the goal: Paul and Apollos have become the flashpoint for the people being “puffed up in favor of one against another.” Two leaders becoming the occasion for pride and division. That’s what Paul addresses in our text in 1 Corinthians 3:5–9. What can we learn about God and about human leadership, that will result in humility and boasting in the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:31) and not in man (1:29)?
Let’s begin at the beginning of the paragraph in 1 Corinthians 3:5 and walk straight through these five verses commenting on each of the statements as they come.
Table-Waiters
Verse 5: “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed . . .”
In other words, readjust the way you think about your favorite teacher. What are they? Servants. The word is table-waiters. In the analogy they’re not honored guests. They’re not at the head of the table, they’re not the owner of the house. They’re not the makers of the food. They are the table-waiters. “Hello, my name is John, I’ll be serving you tonight. Would you like to start with something to drink?” So adjust your thinking, and be careful not put Paul and Apollos (or John and Jason) in the wrong place.
Through Whom
Again verse 5: they are “servants through whom you believed.” Through whom. That means, the power that brought you to faith did not and does not reside in them. It flows through them. We may certainly be thankful for the copper pipes in our house, but what gives us life and refreshment is the water that comes out of the spigot. The waiter may be courteous and winsome, or crabby and inattentive, but if the food gives life and joy, that ultimately, is what counts. Paul and Apollos are not saviors. They are not the gospel. They are not the Holy Spirit. They are not the source of power. The are not God. They are table-waiters. And the faith that happens when the food of God’s word is served, happens through them, like a canal, not from them like a spring. So don’t think of them as originators. They don’t originate. They deliver. They serve.
God Assigns the Response
Verse 5 again: Paul and Apollos are “servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned or gave to each.” In other words, even if you detect a difference in who responds in faith when Paul or Apollos speaks, remember: The Lord assigns those differences. The Lord gives faith to whom he will when Paul or Apollos speaks. If you think that the differences in responsiveness to the one or the other is ultimately owing to them, you do not yet understand how faith arises. Yes, you came to faith through Paul or through Apollos. But God gave that faith. God assigned that response. Don’t think Paul or Apollos was the decisive cause of your faith. They weren’t. The diversity of responses are decisively God’s doing.
Verse 6: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” This makes the same point with different words. God is decisive not man. He is going to say this again even more emphatically. But here notice that he does acknowledge the reality and the significance of planting and watering. And keep in mind verse 5: What comes through planting and watering is faith. “Servants through whom you believed.” The effect of planting is faith. The effect of watering is faith. But the decisive cause of faith — the life and growth of the plants — is not planting and watering. But God.
The emphasis falls on God not man. It’s texts like these and hundreds of others that make us want to be a God-centered church. We want to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things. Things like planting and watering. Things like how you think about pastoral leaders. How you think about the fruit of their lives. God is supreme in the ministry of the church. God is supreme in the planting and watering. God is supreme in causing faith and giving the growth.
They Are Nothing
Verse 7: “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” This is amazing. Paul and Apollos are not anything. They are nothing. It’s amazing because Paul mentions Epaphroditus in Philippians 1:29 and says, “Honor such men.” And he tells the Thessalonians “Esteem [your leaders] very highly in love because of their work” (1 Thess. 5:13).
So the nothingness of Paul and Apollos, or John and Jason, is not a nothingness that makes them less honorable. In fact, they are the more honorable as they decrease and God increases. Honor in the church is bestowed in direct proportion to a person’s God-exaltation and self-humbling. What Paul means is not that he and Apollos have no honorable role to play, but that compared to God’s role in the church, it is as nothing. God is shining so brightly, you can’t see the candle of our significance.
A Means of Oneness
Verse 8: “He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.” “He who plants and he who waters are one.” One in purpose — to build people’s faith and to make much of God. One in dependence — on the one spring of life flowing through both. One in love — for the people of Corinth. One in message — to preach Christ crucified. So they are one, don’t make them a means of division. Make them a means of oneness.
God Knows, We Don't
And then Paul says at the end of verse 8: “. . . and each will receive his wages according to his labor.” You are noticing differences between Paul and Apollos. You see differences in the way they work. And you think you can put an appropriate value on each of these differences. And then you speak about these differences and you boast in them.
Listen, Paul says, each will stand before his own master for his rewards and that’s not you. God knows their work. And God will reward it perfectly in accord with what he knows, not with what you say. In fact, he knows things you don’t about their work and their motives. Look at verse 13: “Each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire.” You think you know their work. You don’t. God knows it. The Day — the day of judgment — will disclose it. Till they pray for them, because they will give an account for your souls and for their labor and their motives that you cannot see. God will give them their wages — their rewards — not you. Be careful how you boast and how you criticize.
You Are God's
Finally, verse 9: “For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” “We are God’s fellow workers.” What does that mean? The original wording and the context suggest it means Apollos and I are fellow workers with each other who belong to God. Not that we are fellow workers with God as a third worker. This is another statement of God’s supremacy — his authority, his rule. These fellow workers belong to God.
And what about you? The church? “You are God’s field, God’s building.” You too belong to God. You don’t belong to Paul. You don’t belong to Apollos. Bethlehem does not belong to John Piper and will not belong to Jason Meyer. She belongs to God. You are God’s field. You are God’s building. God is giving the growth in his own field. God is building the church as his own temple. You do not belong to your leaders. And you do not belong to yourselves. You belong to God because you belong to Christ.
And what is the breathtaking implication of belonging to God? Let’s conclude our exposition by looking at the answer in 1 Corinthians 3:21–23,
So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
Therefore, Bethlehem, let him who boasts boast in the Lord, not in men. Not in John. Not in Jason.
...
No comments:
Post a Comment