#DailyDevotion God Gives Us Growth Through The Workers He Gives Us
1 Cor. 35What is Apollos anyhow? Or what is Paul? They are servants by whose help you came to believe, and each helped only as the Lord gave him the ability. 6I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow. 7Now then, the one who plants isn’t anything, nor the one who waters, but God, who makes it grow. 8The man who plants and the one who waters are together, but each of us will get paid for his own work. 9We are God’s men, working together. You are God’s field. You are God’s building.
So the Corinthian congregation was getting involved a bit in pastor worship. Some were loyal to Apollos and some were loyal to Paul. But who are they in the Church? They are but servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are gifts from God who helped the Corinthians to believe as the Lord gave them the ability. Sometimes we make too much of our pastors. Certainly we should love them but we should make comparisons between the pastor we had and the one God has given us now. The Lord gives each one the gifts he needs to serve the people in the way they need to be served. You may think your pastor should do what your former pastor did, but you should have grown since then. There are things now the new pastor is going to teach and train you as the Lord Jesus gives it to them by the Holy Spirit.
Paul had planted the seed there in Corinth and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. If our pastors are preaching the good news, if they share the good news with people he encounters and they do not come to faith, that is on them. Similarly, when you share the good news of Jesus Christ with someone and they come to faith, it was not your great talent and ability that made it so but rather the Lord produced that good fruit of faith in them. You and your congregation may be involved in many ministries which help people. You may be hoping that those ministries will bring people into the Church and fill the pew (and the coffers). Yet it is God who makes the Church grow as he sees fit. If your ministry isn’t filling your pews, it isn’t that God isn’t pleased with what you are doing. It may be the Lord has other plans. His outcomes of the good work you are doing may not be the ones you were hoping for, yet your work of faith is accomplishing what the Lord wants.
Sometimes we like praising one person or another for the work they do in the congregation but we should make them opposed to one another. It is the same Lord and God they serve and it is his work they are doing. Each worker in the field of the Lord Jesus Christ has his duties and they attend to them. It is one work as Paul says, “The man who plants and the one who waters are together.” They are tending to the Lord’s ministry. It is not their ministry. And Paul tells us each will earn what the Lord will reward him.
As God’s field and building, let us give thanks for all those the Lord gives us to build us up and equip us for every good work. Let us praise God for each gift, i.e. worker, the Lord places in our path for the work they do. The pastor he gives you is the pastor you need for your growth in the Lord to produce fruit. This is providing of course the pastor is teaching the pure word of God. Listen to them and do what they say. It is the Lord making you grow through them.
Heavenly Father, may we only give thanks and praise about the pastors and workers you provide us so we may grow in spiritual maturity and attain those things you would have us develop and bear fruit. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.