Chuck Larsen

Paul tells us that we are all part of the same body. 1 Corinthians 12:12 says, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” Each part of the body has its own function under the headship of Christ. A body is “healthy” when each part fulfills its particular role. But the body of believers in Corinth was not healthy. A visitor to a mental hospital was astonished to note that there were only three guards watching over a hundred dangerous inmates. He asked his guide, “Don’t you fear that these people will overpower the guards and escape?” “No,” was the reply. “Lunatics never unite.” I’m sorry to say that I’ve met a lot of “lunatics” in the church. Being unable to unite in an effort with others, they focus on their own interests and lose the impact of what it’s like to work together for the accomplishment of a common goal. Not only do they miss the thrill of seeing God work through the concerted effort of the body, but they also lose the strength, support, and joys that sharing their lives with others will bring.

There is strength and safety in the plurality of effort. For safety reasons, mountain climbers rope themselves together when climbing a mountain. That way, if one climber should slip and fall, he would not fall to his death. He would be held by the others until he could regain his footing. The church ought to be like that. When one member slips and falls, the others should hold him up until he regains his footing. We are all roped together by the Holy Spirit.

Paul often refers to the church as a body. Each of us fills a different role; some are hands, some are feet, some are noses, some are eyes, and some are mouths (See 1 Corinthians 12:12-18).  In his Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Michael Green gets even more specific. He says, “In any flesh-and-bones body, there are a variety of cells. There are nerve cells, blood cells, muscle cells, and many others, each having a distinct function. The body operates smoothly, not because the cells get together and vote on what to do, but because each one does what it was designed to do. It is the function of the head to bring all these different functions together so that the body operates effectively, as each cell gives itself to the task of functioning according to its design. Certainly, the body would not operate properly if its cells chose to go their own way. Do you know what we call a rebellion of the cells of your stomach? We call it indigestion! A revolt of your brain cells is called insanity. Any time the cells in our body don’t operate properly, it means that the body is sick, that something is wrong with it. Many of the problems in the church today are a result of our forgetting that the church is a body with a head, Jesus Christ.” Tidwell concludes, “Christ, the Head of this body, gives it unity, direction, balance, and control.”^[1]

^[1] Tidwell, Charles. 1985. Church Administration: Effective Leadership for Ministry. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group.

When referring to the way he and Apollos were co-laborers for Christ, Paul resorts to an agricultural analogy. He may very well have been thinking of Jesus’ teaching regarding Himself being the vine and believers being the branches and that no branch can accomplish anything in and of itself. It must be nourished through its connection to the vine. In 1 Corinthians 3:6, Paul writes, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” Agreed, God doesn’t even need Paul or Apollos. He could do it all by Himself. I suspect He still acts in special ways in individual lives to open their hearts and minds to the gospel. One commentary says, “God is, of course, able to communicate, act, and react via extraordinary means, but far more often, he delights in ordinary, mundane means. In this, the commentators see a prime example of Paul’s words to the Corinthians, that he “planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Cor 3:6). While human beings have real responsibility, the progress and outcome of events is ultimately dependent on the Lord.”^[1] The tendency in Corinth, unfortunately, was to focus on the human contribution to the process and not the Lord’s.

I like what Ogilvie says in The Preacher’s Commentary, “They were not in competition with each other but were partners in a common venture, team members in a common task. And while their work was very important, it was subordinate to the role of God, who provided the increase.” Paul’s focus in this passage clearly infers that divisions in the church “had been caused by giving more devotion to the servants than to the Lord.” This is still a major problem in the church today. It might even be worse because of the mass media. We have TV preachers, radio preachers, and publishers promoting popular preachers. Ogilvie goes on to say, “The personality cult has been a part of our secular life in politics, business, education, and medicine. In each of these fields, strong personalities gather around themselves, disciples to their way of thinking and acting. This fact of life has affected the church and has had a divisive effect. It results in ministers, churches, and denominations competing with each other. The divided church is created by our forgetting that we are all servants and ministers of the one Lord and that both the field and the harvest are His.”

I cannot help but think also that we today are fellow workers with Apollos and Paul. Even though thousands of years have passed, the same “building” is being worked on today that they began in the first century. Christ is still the foundation, and we’re all building the superstructure. Actually, Christ is building His church; we are co-workers together with Him. This work will continue until the Lord returns. We’re not building something new or different. Paul warns the builders not to attempt to lay any other foundation than the one already laid: Christ Jesus.  We are all in this together all the way back to Paul and forward with all those who will come after us. Throughout all history, some will plant, some will fertilize, some will water, and some will harvest. But we must never forget that “it’s God who gives the increase.”

^[1] Chung-Kim, Esther, Todd R. Hains, Timothy George, Scott M. Manetsch, and Brannon Ellis, eds. 2014. Acts: New Testament. Vol. VI. Reformation Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.

In the first ten verses of 1 Corinthians Chapter 3, Paul focuses on the divisiveness of the church at Corinth and exhorts the believers to learn to work together for the accomplishment of God’s mission.  1 Corinthians 3:9 says, “For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” We are all working together in the field, but the field is God’s field, not our own. Paul wants the church to grasp the synergistic relation of the different apostolic workers. They share the burden, and Paul invites the various members of the church to join in the calling to work together for the common goal of making disciples. What matters, looking back at Jesus’ use of the vine and branches analogy, is the fruitful cultivation of the harvest. Paul wants them, as he and Apollos and Cephus have done, to set aside their individual preferences to form a more cohesive union towards the accomplishment of God’s mission.

I like what Hays says in the commentary, “It is easy to give lip service to this principle, but hard to live out its practical implications in the church.” It’s so easy for us to become embroiled in turf wars instead of working cooperatively to cultivate God’s field. When that happens, the field becomes endlessly subdivided into unproductive isolated efforts, with each part doing its own thing.  The role of individuals is not nearly as important as the participation of each part of the body. When we all focus on watching out that no one else interferes with our little patch of the field, it destroys the overall effort.  As Hays continues, he says that Paul is saying to his readers, then and now, “No, don’t you understand that the whole field belongs to God and that we are called to work together to bring in the eschatological harvest? Individual leaders are insignificant; they are just field hands.” We are all just field hands. Gibson writes, “Our labor need not be limited to just planting. We can also be watering, nurturing, and weeding. In all of this, the laborer must realize that he works in God’s field with God’s seed, which grows by God’s power. We accomplish nothing of ourselves; it is all to God’s glory and praise.” He then quotes Paul from 1 Corinthians, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”^[1] Because of our pride, we’d rather focus on our differences rather than the thing that should unite us. We find it almost impossible to set aside our particular preferences in order to work together.

While in Israel, we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  There’s probably no better example (except maybe the 1st-century church at Corinth) of the foolishness of turf wars and bitter jealousies.  The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built on one of the two suggested sights for the burial of Jesus.  Although the garden tomb seems to be the more likely place, tradition has supported the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the site. Today, this church is divided into different sections under the jurisdictions of the different Christian groups that want to claim a piece of the purportedly holy place: Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Ethiopian Orthodox, and so forth.

^[1] Gibson, Marc W. 1997. “In Labor—A Sower.” Edited by Brent Lewis. Christianity Magazine, 1997.