1 Corinthians 3:1-15 - Workers in God's Field

Introduction

On a popular church-growth website, there is a pyramid of questions which are designed to help a church’s leadership define its “foundation,” its “direction,” and its “action.”[i] One of the questions listed is “What does success look like for the organization?”

I wonder how some of us might answer that question. How might you define “success” for FBC Diana? And what would it “look like” for us to be a successful church? Is success numerical growth? If so, it would look like a fuller auditorium. Is success a bigger budget? If so, it would look like larger offerings each Sunday. Is success a complete menu of activities for guests from every interest group? If so, then it would look like a far busier church calendar, which would need to be manned by a lot more volunteers.

If you’re like me, then you might be tempted to spend a lot more time thinking about this question, “what does success look like for FBC Diana?”. I am a goal-oriented person, and I do well when I’ve got a destination and a route in mind. But as I read through the Bible, I just don’t find this sort of goal-setting or success-targeting activity.

In fact, we’re going to see a handful of analogies in our text today that seem to work against these organization building tactics, especially when we’re talking about the success of a local church.

Today, we’re continuing our study of 1 Corinthians, and we’re picking up with chapter 3. The Apostle Paul is urging the church of Corinth to grow up, to stop being spiritually immature, and to begin this process by correcting their understanding of what the church is and what the church is meant to do.

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 3:1–15 (ESV)

1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Main Idea:

Church disunity is a result of spiritual immaturity, and spiritual growth is a collaborative effort, but God is ultimately responsible for the results.

Sermon

1. One Problem (v1-4)

So far, in our study of this letter to the church in Corinth, we’ve looked at the Apostle Paul’s opening greeting, his appeal for unity, and his urgent call for the Corinthians (1) to leave worldly wisdom behind and (2) to embrace God’s wisdom (which is revealed through the ministry of God’s word and applied through the working and power of God’s Spirit). The contrast between worldly wisdom and God’s wisdom has been the emphasis of Paul’s argument so far, because, as Paul says, in v18, “the word of the cross [which is the burning hot center of God’s wisdom] is folly [or “foolishness”] to those who are perishing [or being “lost” or “destroyed”], but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

In other words, those who rely on worldly wisdom will inevitably stand at odds with those who trust and live according to the wisdom of God, because these two ways of thinking are opposed to one another. Worldly people think Christians are foolish because worldly people think the stuff Christians treasure is foolish. The beliefs and practices of Christians are incompatible with a worldly way of thinking and living… and the reason there was so much division and disunity among the church of Corinth was because so many church members were trying to do Christianity or church according to worldly wisdom.

But this division in the church and their misplaced trust in worldly wisdom were both based on an apparent confusion over what the church is and how it grows. In short, the Corinthian church was full of immature people, and that’s why they were experiencing such disorder. They had many practical problems, but one fundamental problem; many symptoms, but one disease – spiritual immaturity.

We see it right here at the beginning of chapter 3. Paul wrote, “I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ” (v1). In the English Standard translation, Paul ends four of the first five sentences of chapter 3 with a phrase of one sort or another that points to the spiritual immaturity in Corinth. In v1, they were “infants in Christ.” In v3, they were “still of the flesh.” Again, in v3, they were “behaving only in a human way.” And in v4, they were “being merely human.”

This connects our passage today with the end of chapter 2, which we considered last Sunday. As I argued a week ago, the spiritually “mature” (Paul was talking about in v6) are those who at least have been born again (Jn. 3:3, 5), or re-created (2 Cor. 5:17; 1 Pet. 1:3), or made alive in Christ by the power of God’s Spirit (Eph. 2:1-5). But, as I also said last Sunday, there is more here than just the two categories – merely distinguishing between Christians and non-Christians.

To be spiritually alive or born again is to be a Christian, to be indwelt by God’s Spirit, and to be united with Jesus Christ. The Scripture says, “anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to [Christ]” (Rom. 8:9). And “all who are led [and “indwelt” (see v9, 11)] by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). But Paul was writing this letter to people he considered “brothers” [i.e., part of the family of God] and “in Christ” [i.e., joined to Him] (v1)! He didn’t think they were spiritually dead; Paul accused them of being spiritually childish.

When Paul first began his ministry of preaching and discipling among the people of Corinth, he “fed [them] with milk” and “not solid food,” because they “were not ready for it” (v2). Paul’s doctrine and teaching were bottom-shelf, simple, and immediately applicable. Non-Christians and new Christians (then and now) don’t need to start with the speculative content of the Bible or the nuanced applications of theological insight. They need to know that God is the creator and judge, that Jesus is the exclusive and divine Savior, that turning from sin and trusting in Jesus are two sides of the same coin, and that following Jesus is a lifelong commitment and a profoundly satisfying joy.

But at some point, new or baby Christians are supposed to grow up… each at their own pace and each with their own personality… but Christians are not supposed to be “infants in Christ” their whole lives (v1). Paul was not happy about the spiritual immaturity in Corinth, nor was he praising them for “still” being “of the flesh” (v3). Rather, he was saying that thereason there was “jealousy and strife” and “divisions” (KJV) and “quarreling” (NIV) among them was because they were “of the flesh” (v3) or “behaving [as] humans” (v3, 4).

Friends, when local churches start to look and sound dysfunctional and factious, there might be all sorts of detailed reasons for it. But the fundamental reason why churches experience disunity and strife and in-fighting is because of spiritual immaturity. When any local church has non-Christians (or spiritually dead people) on the membership roster… or when any local church has immature Christians in places of church leadership… the health and unity (and even the existence) of the church threatened. The building might stand, and there might still be activities and services and people, but if a church isn’t made up of Christians who’re growing and helping others to grow, then extinction is just a matter of time.

This is just one of the many reasons why we must all (every member of FBC Diana) we must all be striving for spiritual growth and maturity. We must expect to grow ourselves; we must apply ourselves to the work that produces growth; and we must help one another toward that same goal. The Scripture says, “this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3). If you’re a Christian, you can know that God’s will for you is growth in holiness and spiritual maturity.

The excellent news is that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). But our passage also makes it clear that there is work for us to do in this effort as well.

2. Four Analogies

One of the first things we all have to do when we want to understand the meaning of a passage of Scripture is to decide what kind of text it is. Is it poetry? Is it narrative (or a story)? Is it apocalyptic(like the prophecies in the books of Daniel or Ezekiel or the book of Revelation)? Or is it something else? Our text is a letter (or the fancy word is epistle). And Paul’s NT letters are especially didactic or instructive – they are logically connected arguments that are meant to teach.

Paul is a wonderful teacher (he calls himself “a skilled master builder” in v10), and one of Paul’s frequently used teaching tools is analogy or allegory. Sometimes his analogies are OT stories and characters (like Sarah and Hagar in Gal. 4), and sometimes his analogies are everyday experiences or concepts.

In our passage, I count 4 of these analogies. The first one is what we’ve already been talking about, comparing spiritual birth and growth to the natural kind. Just like babies are born, they grow to be toddlers and children and teens, and at some point, they become adults on their own… so too, Christians experience various stages – spiritual rebirth, growth, and maturity.

In v5-9 Paul uses the analogy of husbandry or farming. He talks of “planting” and “watering” and “growing” (v6). The church in Corinth is like a “field” (v9); the “workers” (v9) or “servants” (v5) are those who teach and lead [i.e., “Apollos” and “Paul” (v5)]; and God is the one who makes it all “grow” (v7).

Starting at the end of v9, Paul introduces a third analogy by calling the church in Corinth “God’s building,” and this analogy carries all the way through the end of our passage (and even into the next section). In this analogy the teachers and leaders of the church are “builders” (v10) and “workers” (v13-15), who “build upon” (v10) the “foundation” (v11) which “is Jesus Christ” (v11) and which was “laid” (v10) by Paul and the other Apostles (cf. Eph. 2:17-22, 4:11-16).

Since the building analogy runs into our next section (v16-23), we’ll pick up on that more in another sermon. But we still need to note one more analogy: the kind of material used by those who “work” (v13) or “build” (v12). You can see it there in v12-15. Paul says that other “builders” (v12) will come after him and add to the “building” (v9) which stands on top of the “foundation” (v12). As we’ve already noted, the “building” in Paul’s analogy here is the church. He says, in v9, “we [i.e., specifically “Apollos” and “Paul” (v5-6)] are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” So, the church (i.e., believers) is the building.

And those who “build” or “work” on God’s building, Paul says, might do so with various kinds of material. See it there in v12. Some with “gold” and “silver” and “precious stones,” but others with “wood” and “hay” and “straw” (v12). And the faithful worker “will receive a reward” on the last day (v14).

Let’s consider the “work” of “planting,” “watering,” and “building” among a local church, and let’s look for ways to apply this in our own situation.

3. Many Workers (v5-15)

Remember that these analogies have all sprung up in the context of Paul’s opening rebuke and teaching for a dysfunctional church. Remember also that Paul has put his finger on their fundamental problem, which is spiritual immaturity. So, now we want to think about the way in which Paul teaches the church in Corinth to think about their mission, their leaders, and their progress.

First, what is their mission? Well, Paul was pretty disappointed that they were stuck at the stage of spiritual “infancy” (v1). It seems to me that there is an implicit warning throughout most of ch. 2 and the first several verses of ch. 3. Paul was saying that “spiritual people” (v1; 2:13) and “mature” (2:6) is what the Corinthians ought to have been, but they were “behaving” (v3) or “walking” like “mere men” (KJV). They were even acting like “natural” people (2:14) or “people of the flesh” (v1, 3), which calls into question whether or not they were truly converted (“Christians have the mind of Christ, and that ain’t you right now!”).

So, we might say that their mission was to grow or to mature spiritually. The Christians in Corinth ought to have been aiming and striving for spiritual maturity. But this is no different than what most of us already know is the basic mission of every local church. Local churches exist to “make disciples” (1) by preaching and teaching the gospel, (2) by “baptizing” those who repent and believe it, and (3) by “teaching” one another “to obey” all that Christ “has commanded” (Matt. 28:18-20). In other words, their mission and the mission of every church is to believe and follow Jesus and to help other people do the same.

Friends, there are many other good things a local church might do, but there is one thing every local church must do. We must be a congregation of disciples who make disciples. We must all be striving for spiritual growth; we must all be aiming to help one another to grow spiritually; and we must vigorously protect this essential mission from being sidelined by any number of other good things. The local church is not a food pantry, it’s not a social club, and it’s not an entertainment or consumer service provider. The local church is God’s field or God’s building, which God intends to grow according to His methods and according to His “assignment” or “provision” (v5).

If making disciples is the fundamental mission of the church, then how should that affect the way the Corinthians (and other Christians) think about those who lead and teach them? The church of Corinth was clearly thinking wrongly about their leaders. Twice now in the first few chapters of this letter, Paul has mentioned the way in which the Corinthians were dividing their church over a wrongheaded perspective of leadership (1:12; 3:5-6). And Paul is using three of the four analogies here to help them think more rightly about it.

When a group of disciples (or Christians) join with one another as a local church, they become like a “field” (v9) populated with various crops. There are “workers” (v9) or “servants” (v5) who teach and lead; and these are the ones “through whom” the church members “believe” (v5). So, Paul and Apollos, in their teaching and leading role, were like farmers tending a field.

Paul and Apollos were also like “builders” (v10). Paul was a “skilled master builder” in his unique role as an Apostle (v10), and Apollos was like another “builder” who came after Paul to add to the construction on top of the “foundation” (v10-11). But no matter who came along to join in this work of “building” up the church, they must take care to use quality materials, like “gold, silver, and precious stones,” and not the stuff that decays and fails, like “wood, hay, [and] straw” (v13).

From these analogies, then, we learn that church leaders are “servants” (v5) or “workers” (v9) or “builders” (v10) who are responsible to “plant” (v6) and “water” (v6) and “build” (v10) with the right materials and according to the instructions of the owner of the “field” or “building” (v9), since the owner Himself will distribute “wages” or “rewards” (v8) on the last “day” (v13) after all the “work” has been “revealed” for what it truly is (v13).

Friends, this flips on its head what the Corinthians apparently had been thinking about their leaders. In ch. 1, Paul reprimanded the Corinthians for thinking of their leaders like populist representatives. “Apollos speaks powerfully and cites Greek philosophers, and that’s the sort of thing I like, so he’s my guy!” “Peter has a reputation for keeping the traditional laws of Moses, and I think Christians should live more disciplined lives, so he’s my guy!” “Paul preaches the free grace of God for all sinners, and I like that emphasis, so he’s my guy!”

And, friends, if we’re honest, we can sometimes think and act just like that. We can think of the church and church leaders in terms of our tribalistic affinities or our personal preferences. In this scenario, the church members are the ones who decide what to plant, how to water, which materials, and what the field or building should look like in the end. But Paul’s analogies turn that idea around entirely.

The “workers” in the “field” and the “builders” on the wall are “servants” of God in each of Paul’s analogies, and God’s “servants” are constrained and compelled to work and to build according to God’s design. And the success or failure of the work is not measured by felt needs or numerical growth, it’s measured by faithfulness, which will only become truly revealed on the last day.

The main problem in the church of Corinth was spiritual immaturity, and one major contributing factor was that they were thinking wrongly about church leaders. This is an implicit warning to those who lead local churches and an explicit instruction to church members. Those who lead should do so with care and humility, knowing that this is the Lord’s church (His field; His building) and the work of teaching and leading should be according to His instructions (i.e., His word). And those who are church members should look to their leaders (i.e., pastors/elders) as servants of God who are given to them for their spiritual growth.

4. One Growth-Giver (v7)

If there’s one verse in our passage this morning which strikes the heart of what Paul is teaching here in this portion of his letter, it’s v7. Once we’ve understood what Paul means by “planting” and “watering” and “growing” (which is what we’ve learned by looking at the full context all this time), then we can read v7 and feel the electricity of this profound statement. Let’s look at it together.

Paul says, “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (v7). What is the “growth” here? Well, it is spiritual growth or spiritual maturity. It’s the field producing fruit, or the church members growing holiness, righteousness, and godly wisdom. It’s the beautiful building, with architecture and materials that provoke awe in the eye of the beholder, or the church members displaying awe-inspiring lives of godliness and virtue and hope.

And what is the “planting” and “watering” here? Well, that’s the word-ministry of those who lead the church. Like Paul and Apollos, who taught them the Scriptures and helped them apply the truths of God’s word to every part of life, pastors in local churches give themselves to the work of word-ministry.

Paul himself had modeled in this Corinth when he first came. His teaching centered upon “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). His “speech” and his “message” (1 Cor. 2:4) were empowered by God’s “Spirit” to produce “faith” in his hearers (1 Cor. 2:5). And Paul’s ongoing word-ministry was to “speak” or “impart” the “wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 2:6-7) among those who were increasingly “mature” and able to receive and apply “spiritual truths” (1 Cor. 2:6, 13).

Friends, this is what good church leaders do; this is the work of pastoral ministry or service. Faithful pastors preach and teach the Scriptures; they aim (so far as it depends on them) for the spiritual growth of their hearers; and they pray for God to grant the growth. The Apostle Paul was a great example, and he wrote to the Colossians, “[Christ] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works in me” (Col. 1:28-29).

But the sobering and humbling and freeing reality, which v7 of our passage emphasizes, is that all of the “planting” and “watering,” all of the “working” and “building,” at the end of the day is unable to produce growth by itself. In fact, Paul says that the “planter” and the “waterer” are nothing – literally “not the planter is anything nor the waterer, but the grower is God” (NA28, author’s translation).

Matthew Henry was a Welshman who became a Puritan pastor in England in the late 1600s, and he wrote, “Even apostolic ministers are nothing of themselves, can do nothing with efficacy and success unless God give the increase… The best qualified and most faithful ministers have a just sense of their own insufficiency… Paul and Apollos are nothing at all in their own account, but God is all in all.”[ii]

Brothers and sisters, this was the main idea of our text last Sunday. Unless the Spirit of God does what only He can do, then our preaching and our teaching, our evangelism and our discipling will produce no fruit. Sinners won’t believe and Christians won’t grow unless God the Holy Spirit gives such gifts.

This is not to say that preaching and teaching and evangelism are meaningless if we don’t see results. Quite the contrary! Our passage clearly teaches us to expect a “wage” (v8) or a “reward” (v14) for the “labor” (v8) or the “work” (v14) we put in, striving for spiritual growth for ourselves and others.

This passage is especially talking about pastors doing word-ministry among the church in Corinth, but there are implications for all of us today. Every church member is commanded by Scripture to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” and to “teach and admonish one another in all wisdom” (Col. 3:16). And we will all receive a reward for the “work” that we do as we “serve the Lord” (Col. 3:24).

For the Christian, no good and faithful effort goes unrewarded. We shall certainly be rewarded in the life to come. And sometimes we will even be rewarded in this life when we get to see (to some degree or another) the fruit of our labor take shape before our eyes. But faithfulness, and not results, must always be our aim. Faithfulness (lovingly planting and watering the seed of God’s word in the soil of people’s lives), this is the sort of work that is like “gold, silver, [and] precious stones,” and this is what our Lord will “reward” on the last day.

For a couple of hundred years now, Christians in the west (and especially in America) have been inclined to think of Christian conversion and spiritual growth in basically pragmatic terms: “If you do the right stuff and say the right words, then you’ll get the results you’re looking for.” But this is unbiblical, and it leads to a good deal of frustration… since most of us will definitely not get the results we want from merely doing and saying the right things.

Charles Bridges was a minister in the Church of England during most of the 1800s, and he wrote against this very idea becoming prevalent in his own day. In his famous book, called The Christian Ministry, he wrote, “In order to prevent perpetual disappointment, we must learn to extend our views. To seek for the real harvest produced by spiritual labours only in their immediate and visible results, would be not less absurd, than to take our measure of infinite space from that limited prospect which the mortal eye can reach; or to estimate the never-ending ages of eternity by the transitory moment of present time.”[iii]

Bridges said, “Ministerial success must be viewed as extending beyond present appearances. The seed may lie under the clods till we lie there, and then spring up.”[iv] “Yet,” he said, “there must be expectancy as well as patience. The warrant of success is assured… The fruit of [our] labour is not indeed always visible in its symptoms, nor immediate in its results, nor proportioned to the culture. Faith and patience will be exercised – sometimes severely so… [but] the measure and the time are with the Lord. We must let him alone with his own work. Ours is the care of service – His is the care of success.”[v]

Conclusion

Friends, our passage today has taught us that churches experience disunity and lacking health because of spiritual immaturity. Sometimes church members are acting out as infants in Christ, sometimes church leaders do not know what the Scriptures teach regarding the mission or the ministry of the church, and sometimes there’s some mixture of the two. When this happens, we must admit our immaturity and aim for growth.

And our passage also teaches us that spiritual growth is a collaborative effort. Church members benefit from the planting and watering and building efforts of those who teach and lead them, and church leaders enjoy the pleasure and privilege of laboring in God’s own field or God’s building – the church. We ought to think neither too highly of our church leaders nor too lowly of them.

In Corinth, they were placing too much weight upon church leaders, acting and talking like mere men were something more than servants of God who will themselves also be judged on the last day. James 3 even seems to indicate that their judgment will be with a “greater strictness” (James 3:1). In our day and time, many place too little weight upon church leaders, thinking of them more like politicians or businessmen or life-coaches or community organizers.

Church leaders or pastors or elders ought to be valued among the church if they labor well in preaching and teaching and leading (1 Tim. 5:17), but these men should never be treated as more than men or as some sort of banner to raise in support of your preference (“Brad is with me!” or “Barry is with me!” or worse “MacArthur is with me!” or “Sproul is with me!”).

Finally, our passage has taught us that God Himself is ultimately responsible for the growth we see in us and through us. We should strive for growth, and we should do the sorts of things necessary for growth (i.e., participate in the life and ministry of the church and apply ourselves to the spiritual disciplines), and then we should pray and trust God with the results.

Brothers and sisters, we can work hard and rest easy, because we know that Christ will build His own Church (Matt. 16:18), and we know that God will sanctify (i.e., make holy) and glorify all those He loves (Rom. 8:28-30).

May God help us to be faithful with the time and the opportunities He has given to us.

Endnotes

[i] https://theunstuckgroup.com/church-consulting [ii] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994). 2248. [iii] Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry: With An Inquiry into the Causes of Its Inefficiency (Edinburgh, UK; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976). 75. [iv] Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry: With An Inquiry into the Causes of Its Inefficiency (Edinburgh, UK; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976). 75. [v] Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry: With An Inquiry into the Causes of Its Inefficiency (Edinburgh, UK; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976). 76.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aland, Kurt, Barbara Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger, eds. Novum Testamentum Graece. 28th ed. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012.

Chrysostom, John. Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians. Edited by Philip Schaff. Logos Research Edition. Vol. 12. A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series. New York, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1889.

Ciampa, Roy E., and Brian S. Rosner. The First Letter to the Corinthians. Logos Research Edition. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. Logos Research Edition. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.

Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition). Logos Research Edition. Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Logos Research Edition. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016.

The Holy Bible: King James Version. Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009.

The Holy Bible: New International Version. Logos Research Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984.

The NET Bible First Edition. Logos Research Edition. Biblical Studies Press, 2005.

Vaughan, Curtis, and Thomas D. Lea. 1 Corinthians. Logos Research Edition. Founders Study Commentary. Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2002.