Fields and buildings
This week is on 1 Corinthians 3:5-17:
These verses come after Paul is addressing some division that has come up in the Corinthian church. From the sounds of it, there were a series of workers, such as Paul and Apollos, who planted and served the church, not a dedicated fully-funded team from somewhere else. So, people being people, the people in the church have chosen favourites and are divided against one another over it. Today it might be people with a favourite pastor, or pope, or preacher, evangelist, prophet, etc. It could even be denominations that divide people. The point is, rather than one body, there were factions and cliques, and these were based on some misunderstandings about church and what our roles are on it.
Paul clarifies things: "[Paul] planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow." How many church growth strategies are that easy to convey, and that humble? Paul says that neither he nor Apollos count for anything, because church growth is caused by God, not the workers. That's a revolutionary statement. Nobody's going to get a book publishing deal over a statement like that, but it's the truth. It wasn't a flesh-based strategy where they built up a body in their own strength for their own glory. They did their jobs as coworkers, following the plan God had laid out as the architect.
This is important to see. Paul and Apollos are not in it for themselves. They are not making a career out of this. They are not following a psychological treatise from a business leader on how to grow an organisation and make it viral. They are two people sharing God's message with people and meeting their needs in love as best they can. There is no leaderboard listing their rank amongst church plants. Just a couple people doing what God asks and moving on. So you can understand in that context how ridiculous the Corinthian church's behaviour would seem to Paul, rallying around one or the other worker when they're supposed to be rallying around Christ himself.
Paul describes the church as God's field, or God's building. That's interesting too, because a lot of people in Paul's position would describe it as their church, or as their field or their building. But Paul says the church is God's field or building. This is important too. The church was the people, not the building, and it belongs to Christ, not the people who planted it.
When we invite someone to church, what do we invite them to see? Inviting them to a building isn't going to do anything for their faith. But if we think about ourselves (the people) as being God's building, whose foundation is Jesus Christ, we can measure our effectiveness in a much more profound way than headcount or revenue. The first question obviously is whether our foundation is Jesus Christ. Are we there for Jesus? Or for social validation? Do people know about Jesus by knowing the members of your church? In other words, is God's grace, and love, and power evident? Or are people judgemental hypocrites, indifferent and selfish, and lacking faith for miracles? How do you fix it, if it's the latter?
Paul describes himself as a skilled master-builder laying down the foundation of Jesus Christ. Everything in something that calls itself a church hinges on being anchored in Jesus. This takes time and labour, both from someone like Paul, and from someone like Apollos. Performing construction and working a field are both very time consuming labour-intensive operations one does not do alone. If the foundation is wrong, the building won't turn out right.
We have to be careful how we build, not just to ensure that what we build is built on Jesus, but to ensure that what we do is meant for eternity, not just what's happening in the world right now. In other words, if our people are not having their needs met and encountering God's kingdom through your love, having the best sound system in the best location with the best worship band and the best basketball team with the best messages preached by people who went to the best Bible schools won't be worth anything. All you're doing is distracting people with a dazzling show until they run out of time on this earth.
So many times, we're asked to invite people to church, but what are they going to see when they get there? Even the most beautiful cathedral isn't going to make someone become a Christian in a meaningful sense. The same thing with a great message or great songs. They may inspire short term decisions to hear more music like that or hear more entertaining talks on how to be better people, but a good performance is not the same as an encounter with Jesus. So how does that happen? And where do we bring people to find it?
Paul gives us a hint: "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, which is what you are." We, both as individuals and as the church, are God's temple. Church is where we are. It is us, not a physical building. You can invite someone to church by inviting them into your life so they can see how God works in it. You can invite them to meet other Christians so they can see the love you have for each other, and the grace. When Jesus called his disciples, he didn't ask them to come down to the synagogue for a presentation on the four spiritual laws. He asked them to come hang out and share his life.
As the Holy Spirit works in us and we become more Christlike, the work of holiness makes it so that people see less of us and more of God in his "temple." In the same way we can evaluate our church, we can evaluate ourselves by asking how much Jesus is demonstrated in our lives. Do we love? Do we forgive? Is our faith evident? If not, how can we know if we're building the right church? Holiness is taking these things seriously.
If someone destroys God's temple by chasing God out of it and using the "building" for something unrelated, God will fight to restore his position. This is something that was intuitive to the pagan mindset of the Corinthians, where temples were holy places for the gods they supposedly housed. Nobody would dare worship the priests in one of those temples, or turn them into theatres.
There's a danger in discarding Christ as our foundation and trying to put something else in its place. If we build on Paul or Apollos, or our ourselves, it will become a temple to something else.
What is Apollos, really? Or what is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, and each of us in the ministry the Lord gave us. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow. So neither the one who plants counts for anything, nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters work as one, but each will receive his reward according to his work. We are coworkers belonging to God. You are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master-builder I laid a foundation, but someone else builds on it. And each one must be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than what is being laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each builder’s work will be plainly seen, for the Day will make it clear, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what kind of work each has done. If what someone has built survives, he will receive a reward. If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, which is what you are.
These verses come after Paul is addressing some division that has come up in the Corinthian church. From the sounds of it, there were a series of workers, such as Paul and Apollos, who planted and served the church, not a dedicated fully-funded team from somewhere else. So, people being people, the people in the church have chosen favourites and are divided against one another over it. Today it might be people with a favourite pastor, or pope, or preacher, evangelist, prophet, etc. It could even be denominations that divide people. The point is, rather than one body, there were factions and cliques, and these were based on some misunderstandings about church and what our roles are on it.
Paul clarifies things: "[Paul] planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow." How many church growth strategies are that easy to convey, and that humble? Paul says that neither he nor Apollos count for anything, because church growth is caused by God, not the workers. That's a revolutionary statement. Nobody's going to get a book publishing deal over a statement like that, but it's the truth. It wasn't a flesh-based strategy where they built up a body in their own strength for their own glory. They did their jobs as coworkers, following the plan God had laid out as the architect.
This is important to see. Paul and Apollos are not in it for themselves. They are not making a career out of this. They are not following a psychological treatise from a business leader on how to grow an organisation and make it viral. They are two people sharing God's message with people and meeting their needs in love as best they can. There is no leaderboard listing their rank amongst church plants. Just a couple people doing what God asks and moving on. So you can understand in that context how ridiculous the Corinthian church's behaviour would seem to Paul, rallying around one or the other worker when they're supposed to be rallying around Christ himself.
Paul describes the church as God's field, or God's building. That's interesting too, because a lot of people in Paul's position would describe it as their church, or as their field or their building. But Paul says the church is God's field or building. This is important too. The church was the people, not the building, and it belongs to Christ, not the people who planted it.
When we invite someone to church, what do we invite them to see? Inviting them to a building isn't going to do anything for their faith. But if we think about ourselves (the people) as being God's building, whose foundation is Jesus Christ, we can measure our effectiveness in a much more profound way than headcount or revenue. The first question obviously is whether our foundation is Jesus Christ. Are we there for Jesus? Or for social validation? Do people know about Jesus by knowing the members of your church? In other words, is God's grace, and love, and power evident? Or are people judgemental hypocrites, indifferent and selfish, and lacking faith for miracles? How do you fix it, if it's the latter?
Paul describes himself as a skilled master-builder laying down the foundation of Jesus Christ. Everything in something that calls itself a church hinges on being anchored in Jesus. This takes time and labour, both from someone like Paul, and from someone like Apollos. Performing construction and working a field are both very time consuming labour-intensive operations one does not do alone. If the foundation is wrong, the building won't turn out right.
We have to be careful how we build, not just to ensure that what we build is built on Jesus, but to ensure that what we do is meant for eternity, not just what's happening in the world right now. In other words, if our people are not having their needs met and encountering God's kingdom through your love, having the best sound system in the best location with the best worship band and the best basketball team with the best messages preached by people who went to the best Bible schools won't be worth anything. All you're doing is distracting people with a dazzling show until they run out of time on this earth.
So many times, we're asked to invite people to church, but what are they going to see when they get there? Even the most beautiful cathedral isn't going to make someone become a Christian in a meaningful sense. The same thing with a great message or great songs. They may inspire short term decisions to hear more music like that or hear more entertaining talks on how to be better people, but a good performance is not the same as an encounter with Jesus. So how does that happen? And where do we bring people to find it?
Paul gives us a hint: "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, which is what you are." We, both as individuals and as the church, are God's temple. Church is where we are. It is us, not a physical building. You can invite someone to church by inviting them into your life so they can see how God works in it. You can invite them to meet other Christians so they can see the love you have for each other, and the grace. When Jesus called his disciples, he didn't ask them to come down to the synagogue for a presentation on the four spiritual laws. He asked them to come hang out and share his life.
As the Holy Spirit works in us and we become more Christlike, the work of holiness makes it so that people see less of us and more of God in his "temple." In the same way we can evaluate our church, we can evaluate ourselves by asking how much Jesus is demonstrated in our lives. Do we love? Do we forgive? Is our faith evident? If not, how can we know if we're building the right church? Holiness is taking these things seriously.
If someone destroys God's temple by chasing God out of it and using the "building" for something unrelated, God will fight to restore his position. This is something that was intuitive to the pagan mindset of the Corinthians, where temples were holy places for the gods they supposedly housed. Nobody would dare worship the priests in one of those temples, or turn them into theatres.
There's a danger in discarding Christ as our foundation and trying to put something else in its place. If we build on Paul or Apollos, or our ourselves, it will become a temple to something else.
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