About the Church

About the Church

"Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ.  
I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.  
You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?  
For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men? 
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.  
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.  
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.  
The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.  
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building." 
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Paul here is noting the Corinthians are infants in Christ and that he taught them accordingly.
There is no use placing on young Christians deep spiritual truths at first a foundation has to be laid. It’s like trying to teach a child in elementary school advanced physics. They wont understand.
Paul point out they are arguing among themselves and this is a trait of worldliness.
They are saying one follows Paul and one follows Apollos. He points out that Paul and Apollos are only servants of God each assigned a task.
He notes that the what they do is of God but it is not them that makes a person grow in faith, only God can do that.
Paul saying very clearly,
“The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labour.  
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.”
The lesson here is also for today. Within the church today there are divisions with some saying they follow such and such an evangelist or pastor. That, that person is doing things right while others disagree saying others are right.
We should not be following an evangelist, pastor or pope. We should be following the word of God. We should be studying the scriptures to discover the truths there in.
That’s not to say we shouldn’t listen and learn from teachers, evangelist, pastors etc. We need their input into our learning process.
What I find when it comes to people listening to especially men and women in the media, is that they only listen to those who think like them. Pentecostals for example tend to only listen to Pentecostal ministers. Baptist to Baptist leaning preachers. Catholics to the Pope.
All earthly preachers are fallible no denomination or church congregation is perfect. We in order to grow need to listen to people we disagree with from time to time.
We need to question why they believe what they believe. We need to ask ourselves why they are questioning what we believe and is their a flaw in what we are teaching. If we find one as we will from time to time if we are honest, we need to correct things.
It’s all part of the growing process.
The important thing however is to remember the words of Paul that,
“...neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.  
The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labour.  
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building."
We are God’s field, God’s building not and evangelist, pastors or popes. We belong to God. It is he who makes us truly grow.
Think about it.