God's Fellow Workers

GOD’S FELLOW WORKERS

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

The Holy Spirit is at work within God’s church to call out laborers for the Lord’s harvest.  The emphasis of the text for this evening is that all who serve their Lord are not just laborers with God, and God with them but also they are laborers with one another.

All Christians who are in service for God are God’s fellow workers.  The church has its origin and is maintained by God.  God established the church for his purpose and declared that the gates of hell would not be able to prevail against it.  Because of the purpose and plan of the church, he will make sure that it goes on and, in so doing, he will use believers as his colaborers.

The Lord, in maintaining the work of his church, requires the work of his children.  If the world is to be evangelized, it has to be done by trustworthy human workers.  The workers are God’s instruments, and each one has a specific and definite responsibility to perform.  This idea is given to us in 1 Corinthians 3:6 where Paul talks about one person planting, another watering, and another reaping the harvest.

The Lord, in evangelizing the world through the use of human instruments, supplies their needs.  Even though his human instruments plant and water, it is actually the Lord that gives the increase.  He does reward the ones that are laboring for him.  He even supplies the teamwork to get the job done.

All Christians who are in service for God have their weaknesses, and this is going to cause God’s work to be hindered.  That is not to say that weak people can’t serve, it is saying that even though all of us as Christians have weaknesses, we can still be used by God in his work.

Weak Christians have to discover their weaknesses and seek to find ways to strengthen them.  People are dominated by our lower, or sinful, nature.  We need to give God and God’s work reverence.  Because of our weaknesses and the need for the ability to work, we all need to grow.  Paul suggests ways of growth in verse 2.  Food for spiritual growth includes good reading, proper fellowship, being subjected to the right kind of influence, and prayer to God for help.

Another way to grow spiritually is to avoid envy and strife.  Each Christian needs to conduct their life as Christ would.

All Christians are to rise up and meet the task of serving God.  We are to cooperate with our spiritual leaders.  Cooperation has to be grounded in confidence in the judgment of our leaders.  To cooperate, we have to have respect for our leader’s training, decisions, and knowledge.

Christians need to cooperate with their peers.  Paul said that he planted and Apollos watered.  The Lord bestows on each the spiritual gifts needed to carry on the work of the church.  For the work to be done successfully, we each have to do our work in cooperation with others. 

Christians are to consecrate, dedicate and surrender their all to God.  These actions will offset our human weaknesses and make Christians available for God’s use.

God’s work is vast and challenging.  He has chosen you to be his partner.  Now work with him.