1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Being Part of the Miracles

And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building.

New Revised Standard Version

There is no church in the New Testament that had as many challenges and problems as the church in Corinth. It seems they got everything wrong! They rejected the authority of Paul and other men sent by God, and embraced false teachers with comfortable ideas. They twisted the sacrament of communion into a fancy dinner party to embarrass and discourage the poor. In this passage, they find creative ways to divide and split the church, this time based on allegiances to their favorite traveling evangelists. Poor Paul! Most of the time, he got no respect from this church -- when he did get respect, it was for the wrong reason.

Paul's specific teaching in this passage is focused on drawing believers into unity around Jesus Christ and rejecting the temptation in believers to be drawn to any human, no matter how great a teacher they were. A myriad of churches over the centuries have needed this message preached with boldness, to chastise those who would make a cult around the winning personality of one preacher.

But there are more ways that divisions can come into a church, and more ways to appropriately expand Paul's message to apply to those serving in churches. The Corinthians showed their immaturity in dividing themselves by loyalties; today, we show our spiritual immaturity in dividing ourselves also by musical preferences, by organizations within the church we support, by the service or Sunday School class we attend, by the work we perform in the church, or in many other ways. Paul is clear -- for us to allow something to separate us from other faithful Christians is a sin that weakens the church's ability to do Christ's work.

Most of the time, these divisions come from misplaced enthusiasm. What starts as an eagerness towards some part of church life becomes redirected as a resentment towards some other part of church life that appears to hinder our chosen area. Those who prefer traditional music in worship services may complain about funds spent on extensive sound and light equipment for praise music services. Those who work sound boards may become upset at "unreasonable" demands for changes from a music group or special event. Different musical groups may feel there is competition between them for which group earns the greater respect. A Sunday School class may resent that a "rival" class has a better room with more comfortable facilities. My church has four worship services in the same worship space on Sunday mornings, so very few people get to attend at the "perfect" time -- but we worship anyway!

These examples, and any others you have observed, all are rooted in a misplaced allegiance. We are God's people... who attend the 9:00 service, who are members of the Bright Light Sunday School class, who were converted to Christianity by the preaching of Apollos. But we can only have one allegiance! We must be God's, fully and completely. Everything else must be secondary to our primary allegiance, and we must be mature enough to accept and affirm those who have different preferences to ours, even when it means that things don't go as easily for us.

Paul tears at those divisions in the Corinthian church in this passage. What does it matter which evangelist they prefer? There is only one God. It is the sinful, worldly way to promote one leader and tear down a rival leader -- but when church members grow in their faith, the divisions and factions non-believing observers would expect to see are not there. Maybe the Rainbow Sunday School class does have the better room, but the love and acceptance in the Bright Light Sunday School class is a testimony that God is real and active in the lives of the members. Singers, band members, and audio technicians who all love and respect each other is a sign that God is working miracles in their lives!

As we understand this scripture passage, we can see there is a choice that anyone working in a church must make. Are we going to do our tasks in our strength, and fight against the selfishness and sinfulness that infects human activities outside the church walls? Or are we going to do our assignment by first giving ourselves wholly to God, so that the work is done in God's way and God's strength? Are we going to be a part of God's miracles, or are we going to miss that chance?