Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 3:9

For we are laborers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, [ye are] God’s building.

9. For we are labourers together with God ] The Apostle now gives the argument another turn. From man’s point of view the preachers of the Gospel are mere instruments in God’s hands. Not so from God’s. He regards them as responsible beings, responsible to Him for the work they do. But the results are still God’s and God’s alone. The ministers of Christ may be fellow-labourers with God, but the husbandry, the building, are God’s, and not theirs.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For we are labourers together with God – Theou gar esmen sunergoi. We are Gods co-workers. A similar expression occurs in 2Co 6:1, We then as workers together with him, etc. This passage is capable of two significations: first, as in our translation, that they were co-workers with God; engaged with him in his work, that he and they cooperated in the production of the effect; or that it was a joint-work; as we speak of a partnercy, or of joint-effort among people. So many interpreters have understood this. If this is the sense of the passage, then it means that as a farmer may be said to be a co-worker with God when he plants and tills his field, or does that without which God would not work in that case, or without which a harvest would not be produced, so the Christian minister cooperates with God in producing the same result. He is engaged in performing that which is indispensable to the end; and God also, by His Spirit, cooperates with the same design. If this is the idea, it gives a special sacredness to the work of the ministry, and indeed to the work of the farmer and the vinedresser. There is no higher honor than for a man to be engaged in doing the same things which God does, and participating with him in accomplishing his glorious plans. But doubts have been suggested in regard to this interpretation:

(1) The Greek does not of necessity imply this. It is literally, not we are his co-partners, but we are his fellow-laborers, that is, fellow-laborers in his employ, under his direction – as we say of servants of the same rank they are fellow-laborers of the same master, not meaning that the master was engaged in working with them, but that they were fellow-laborers one with another in his employment.

(2) There is no expression that is parallel to this. There is none that speaks of Gods operating jointly with his creatures in producing the same result. They may be engaged in regard to the same end; but the sphere of Gods operations and of their operations is distinct. God does one thing; and they do another, though they may contribute to the same result. The sphere of Gods operations in the growth of a tree is totally distinct from that of the man who plants it. The man who planted it has no agency in causing the juices to circulate; in expanding the bud or the leaf; that is, in the proper work of God – In 3Jo 1:8, Christians are indeed said to he fellow-helpers to the truth sunergoi te aletheia; that is, they operate with the truth, and contribute by their labors and influence to that effect. In Mark also Mar 16:20, it is said that the apostles went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them ( tou kuriou sunergointos), where the phrase means that the Lord cooperated with them by miracles, etc. The Lord, by his own proper energy, and in his own sphere, contributed to the success of the work in which they were engaged.

(3) The main design and scope of this whole passage is to show that God is all – that the apostles are nothing; to represent the apostles not as joint-workers with God, but as working by themselves, and God as alone giving efficiency to all that was done. The idea is, that of depressing or humbling the apostles, and of exalting God; and this idea would not be consistent with the interpretation that they were joint-laborers with him. While, therefore, the Greek would hear the interpretation conveyed in our translation, the sense may perhaps be, that the apostles were joint-laborers with each other in Gods service; that they were united in their work, and that God was all in all; that they were like servants employed in the service of a master, without saying that the master participated with them in their work. This idea is conveyed in the translation of Doddridge, we are the fellow-laborers of God. So Rosenmuller, Calvin, however, Grotius, Whitby, and Bloomfield, coincide with our version in the interpretation. The Syriac renders it We work with God. The Vulgate, We are the aids of God.

Ye are Gods husbandry – ( georgion); margin, tillage. This word occurs no where else in the New Testament. It properly denotes a tilled or cultivated field; and the idea is, that the church at Corinth was the field on which God had bestowed the labor of tillage, or culture, to produce fruit. The word is used by the Septuagint in Gen 26:14, as the translation of ^abudaah; For he had possession of flocks, etc.; in Jer 51:23, as the translation of tsemed a yoke; and in Pro 24:30; Pro 31:16, as the translation of saadeh, a field; I went by the field of the slothful, etc. The sense here is, that all their culture was of God; that as a church they were under his care; and that all that had been produced in them was to be traced to his cultivation.

Gods building – This is another metaphor. The object of Paul was to show that all that had been done for them had been really accomplished by God. For this purpose he first says that they were Gods cultivated field; then he changes the figure; draws his illustration from architecture, and says, that they had been built by him as an architect rears a house. It does not rear itself; but it is reared by another. So he says of the Corinthians, Ye are the building which God erects. The same figure is used in 2Co 6:16, and Eph 2:21; see also Heb 3:6; 1Pe 2:5. The idea is, that God is the supreme agent in the founding and establishing of the church, in all its gifts and graces.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

1Co 3:9

For we are labourers together with God.

Labourers together with God

I. The immediate application of the text.

1. Believers though they were, Paul could not address the Corinthians as spiritual persons, for they moved in the lower, earthly region of mans nature, where strife and division have place, and into which it was impossible to introduce exalted subjects.

2. He then proceeds to show on what a mistake this party feeling proceeded. The different teachers were but humble instruments in the hand of one and the same God, who commissioned each with spiritual gifts, and who alone prospered their work. Paul might have taken a different course. He might have urged on his own party to more determined action. But, instead of that, he deprecated the existence of any parties, and bade all rise into that higher region in which they would discern that different spiritual teachers were working together with one God, and for the same spiritual results.

3. Oh, that these words had been heeded by the Church since! They would have rendered impossible most of the divisions which have been, and are still, its weakness and its curse. All of us labourers together with God! No thought could be more exalted. Well might anybody who felt it protest against what else might be deemed the honour of leading a party.

II. The wider application. For is it not profoundly true that, since we ale Divinely made, and since we live in a Divine world, all the work we any of us do here is for Divine purposes, and by Divine energy, and so is a labouring together with God?

1. It may be said: On this view all other things work for God. True; for fire and hail, snow and vapour, stormy wind, fulfil His Word. It would be a healthy Christian thing to see Gods ministers in all the forces of nature, whether silent, like those at work in an opening flower and decaying leaf, or imposing, like those revealed in earthquakes and volcanoes. It is a deeply Christian and a deeply scientific thought, too, to see God at work in these law-abiding and universal changes; and unchristian and unscientific is the too common thought that, in general, things go on of themselves, hut that sometimes, in answer to prayer, God steps in to interfere with them and work special providences. That idea sets God apart from His universe, supposes it can go on without Him, and sees His presence only in irregularities. The other belief supposes God at work always and everywhere, and recognises His intelligence as displayed in the glorious order of His works. The unconscious energies of nature, then, are working together with God. The universe is Gods husbandry and Gods building.

2. But, if so, the same may be said, with much higher emphasis, of men. On what a far higher level of being do they live and work, possessed of spiritual faculties resembling those of their Maker, and entrusted by Him with a certain independence in little spheres of activity! So that they can delightfully feel that they are co-operating with Him, or idly neglect to do so, or wilfully oppose His will. The region in which we can help or hinder Gods plans is a narrow one indeed; but, to have such a power at all, how wonderful and great! There is work for us to do–no grand, famous work, but sacred daily duty. (T. M. Herbert, M. A.)

Labourers together with God

I. In spiritual husbandry. Now it is the province of the husbandman to plant and to water, but neither dexterity in planting can ensure the striking of the root, nor diligence in watering command the ripening of the fruit. In the spiritual husbandry of the Church all is Gods; the field–the world; the plants–men; the instruments wherewith the clods are broken–the appointed ordinances Of grace; the plan for the direct combination of labour–His Word; the water–the purifying influence of His Spirit; the sunbeams–the quickening and cheering manifestations of His love. As in nature the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth, and hath long patience, until he receive the early and latter rain, relying implicitly on the Divine pledge, so the faithful minister of Christ pursues his spiritual husbandry in patience and in faith.

II. In spiritual building. Here, too, the labour is of man, but the power of God. In the spiritual temple of the Church the foundation is of Gods laying, the material of Gods preparing, the plan of Gods contriving, the proportions of Gods adjusting; and if ministers of Christ may be said, in the gathering or the raising, in the cementing or compacting, in the edifying or carrying up, m the roofing or covering in, to build up lively stones into a spiritual temple, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, yet the quickening, pervading power of God is continually recognised throughout. For what could impart life to the stone except a miracle of grace? Conclusion: From this, then, it will follow that while, with St. Paul, we exalt the office of the Christian ministry, at the same time, with St. Paul, we abase the individuals who exercise it. Let them be, like Apollos, mighty in the Scriptures; let them be, like St. Paul, mightier still in signs and wonders, &c., yet, like Paul and Apollos, in themselves they are nothing. (T. Dale, M. A.)

Working together with God

We are delighted with the sweet invitation, Come unto Me, all ye that labour, &c. We sometimes forget that the same Saviour invites us also to labour. Go, work in My vineyard.

I. Work–

1. Strengthens faith (Joh 7:17). Christian experience fortifies against infidelity. The man of scientific ability cannot convince me, against my years of experience, that water is unwholesome, or that its Creator is a blunderer.

2. Strengthens spiritual life. The little child craves activity quite as much as food. Such a child may be never so well fed, and clothed, and sheltered, yet, if it have not opportunity to exercise, it will be a dwarf. So work is a means of spiritual development and growth to every child of God.

3. Purifies the life. Society is kept pure by activity, just as the ocean and atmosphere are kept pure by the winds and waves. The Church in which all minds and hands are busy planning and executing will not have time to criticise, complain, or gossip.

4. Employment and enjoyment go hand in hand. The working Church is the happy Church, and the happy Church helps to keep members from backsliding.

II. Together. We may say this is the difficult problem. There are so many wills and tastes–so great difference in culture and habit–that working together is almost impracticable.

1. And yet when we look at the Christian at the time of surrender, it will not seem so difficult. Every true convert begins the service of the Lord with the question, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? and this becomes the first, middle, and ending question of the converted mans life. He becomes a member of the body of which Jesus Christ is head. As the members of a human body are controlled by the will–the head–so must be also the members of Christs body. No jealousies between such members. No complaining one of another, but each bearing the burden assigned.

2. And then nothing will help to unite workers so much as a high appreciation of the work to be done. One soul is worth more than all the world beside, and millions perish daily for lack of the bread of life.

3. In view of the fact that Jesus prayed that His disciples might be one.

III. With God. No man has a right to engage in a work in which he cannot ask Gods presence and blessing. Much more must we realise Gods presence and blessing in the advancement of His kingdom. We may be sure that God will not allow the Sons mission to fail. Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. (R. Moffett.)

Gods co-labourers

I. The basis of this co-operation is the high and holy relation between the Christian heart and God. The Christian is united to Him as a child is to a parent, more by affection than by mere external ties. He is united to God, likewise, by a fervent sympathy with the Divine character. Gods holiness is exceedingly attractive to him. Besides, a Christian has truly and persistently submitted his will to Gods will, feeling that the Divine will includes all that is wisest, purest, noblest. A Christian, furthermore, holds his soul and his thoughts in daily communion with God, so that affections are interchanged with Him.

II. Its nature. The Christian accepts–

1. The Divine idea of his own development of character, and labours to produce in himself those things which God seeks.

2. The Divine order in this world, and endeavours to secure among men that intelligence and goodness for which God endlessly works, and causes nature to work.

3. All his powers and affections in stewardship, and undertakes to use himself for Gods work, His personal influence, his property, his children, his friends–all these he throws in, as it were, to the common stock, and administers them for God, and not for himself.

4. The duty to love all that which God loves, to promote all that God is seeking to promote, to hate what God hates, and to destroy it if he can.

III. Practical lessons.

1. This view consoles in our conscious weakness. There is no man that, when he looks upon the courses of God in the world; the results that he is to achieve in himself; to seek among his fellows, that does not often come to a consciousness that he is weakness itself. Sometimes it makes one feel utterly worthless, discourages endeavour, and leads one to desire to fly away and be at rest, because they think it will make no difference whether they live or die. What is a drop of water of itself? What is weaker? But when God has marshalled the sum of the weakness of myriad drops together, they lift the mightiest ship as if it were but a feather, and play with the winds as if they were mere instruments of sport. And yet that very drop is there, and has its part and lot in the might of the whole vast; unbounded sea.

2. He who unites himself to any great truth which God has established may be sure that he will go forth from conquering to conquer; not by reason of any might or skill in himself, but because he is a labourer together with God. The man that adopts any Divinely appointed truth, no matter what the world thinks of it, rides in Gods chariot, and has God for his charioteer. He always wins who sides with God. On the other hand, no man in this world is safe or victorious unless he feels that he is going with, and not against God.

3. No life can be barren or insignificant that is a part of Gods life. A woman that seemed to be endowed with everything calculated to fit one for the most eminent service, was called, in Gods providence, to marry a man that was not her equal. She was placed in an obscure position. While she might have been listening to the chime of the spheres she was occupied with rocking the cradle, darning, sewing, washing, and cooking. And sometimes, perhaps, she thought to herself, Woe is me! To what end am I living? Her child developed under her care, and learned to call her mother; and then she thought God spoke, so sweet was its voice to her, and in that child she expected to reap her reward for all that she had done and suffered. But just as he was touching manhood, in a moment the wave closed over him, the labour of her life was ended, and, stranded on the shores of despair, she cried out, Why was I born? and to what end have I lived? A hundred had marked her fidelity, and she had been schoolmaster to every one of them. A hundred had witnessed her patience, and all the sermons they had ever heard had not preached such a lesson to them as her silent example. Multitudes that had learned of her, in turn became teachers of others. Her influence spread wider than what she dreamed. It was not until she had gone up to the end of life in obscurity, and God had caused the light of eternity to shine on her work, that she understood how glorious little things might be. The good deeds of this life are dewdrops, innumerable, lying unseen among men; but when God shall pour the revealing light of the other world upon them, how it will kindle them and make them sparkle! Imagine how Solomons temple was built. In the forest of old Lebanon many and many a day-labourer worked in obscurity, and wondering of what consequence all his work could be. In another place were workers in metal. Some did one thing and some another, but none knew the plan of the temple, none knew what they wrought till on a certain day, when they all trooped to Jerusalem. Then they stood entranced, and wondered that out of things so insignificant in the mountains there should come such glory in Jerusalem. God had sent some to the cedar forest, some to the stone quarry, some to the dark and dank places of this world; but He is collecting materials which will glow with untold splendour in the temple that He is building for the New Jerusalem. (H. W. Beecher.)

Man a worker with God

God a labourer, a labourer with men, God a labourer with men for men, are the facts stated in this passage.

I. God works alone. We are not wont to consider God in His wonderful activities, but more accustomed to think of Him as having created the universe, and complacently beholding its wondrous workings and results. Nevertheless, the God referred to in this passage is not only glorious in holiness, but also a God doing wonders. This activity of the Infinite One is involved in–

1. The doctrine of providence. The preservation of the action, harmony, and stability of nature requires His constant oversight and direction and application of nature and of its laws. This is also true of all the beings which God had created. Every one of them lives in Him. The seraph before His throne, and the men upon His footstool, are each of them the objects of His ceaseless care. So is every sun and star as well as every plant and flower. How wondrous, how inconceivably glorious must be the activity of the Divine mind!

2. The doctrine of the final judgment. We shall be summoned to the Divine presence, the Omnipotent Judge, who has known our motives and all the circumstances under which we have acted, and we shall receive from Him, from His personal knowledge, the decisions of that day. How wonderful must be the presence, and perception, and memory of this Infinite God, who is thus our judge!

3. The reception of worship. How necessary, in order that God may properly regard our approaches to Him and our devotion, that He should understand everything that affects thought or feeling at the time that those services are rendered! And when we consider how great is the number of His worshippers, how wonderful must be the exercise of His intelligence and of His love! There are two things which render it difficult for us to rightly appreciate these activities.

(1) The one is that God is invisible.

(2) The other is that in most of His works God operates independently of rational agencies.

(a) In making the universe He employed no agents. On the contrary, He spake and it was done.

(b) In the conservation of the universe none of the beings that occupy it have an agency in holding it in its orbit.

(c) In legislating for mankind He has no legislative assembly. The laws by which we are governed emanate from His mind, are promulgated by His authority, and He will execute His own sentence.

II. Nevertheless, there is one of the Divine enterprises in which God is pleased to associate men, and that is the work of human salvation.

1. But there are several departments of it in which God acts alone.

(1) This was true in devising this scheme of mercy; there were no consultations.

(2) And in making the atonement that was necessary to accomplish this purpose God acted by Himself. He so loved the world, &c. Jesus Christ alone is the Redeemer and Saviour of the children of men.

(3) It is equally true that in the transformation of the human soul it is a Divine work; it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

2. Still there are departments in this enterprise in which God has been pleased to employ men.

(1) He did this in inaugurating Christianity in the earth. By prophets and priests He prepared the world for the reception of the coming Messiah.

(2) And then when the fulness of time was come the shepherds of Bethlehem listened to the announcement of the fact from the heavenly host; wise men from the East came to witness His incarnation.

(3) Disciples were with Him during His ministry, and just before His ascension they received from Him His great commission. And on the day of Pentecost they received the power to go forth and preach the gospel which had been committed to them. You will see in every step of its introduction and inauguration it became needful that human instrumentality should be employed.

(4) And now that it is inaugurated God requires His people to promulgate it. He has made it the business of the Church to give these Holy Scriptures to all men, and in this there is a very large service to be rendered. When in every community upon the earth there shall be a Christian, a Christian pastor, and Christian disciples, it will be their duty to employ every possible influence and agency to prevail upon men to heed the call of Divine mercy. By our Christian character, our constant watchfulness, and every influence that God gives us, we are to beseech men to be reconciled to God.

III. Practical lessons. If our views of this subject are correct, we may infer–

1. The greatness of the work of human salvation. It is the only enterprise in which God is engaged in which He has taken into the fellowship of labour with Him either angels or men.

2. The dignity of activity in the cause and for the sake of Christ. We are not acting upon physical, material things; we are not seeking to promote mainly temporal interests or present happiness merely. We are seeking to recover lost spirits, redeemed by Christ, for whose restoration there is provision made by the power of the Spirit.

3. The certainty of success in these spiritual enterprises. If we were to do this work in our own wisdom and strength we might well hesitate and fear as to the result, but if we are labouring with God who can doubt the success? (Bishop Janes.)

The work of man and the work of God

I. We are Gods fellow-labourers.

1. Men rush into the ministry or into similar positions without a doubt about their ability. But if they pondered the words, We are Gods fellow-workmen, they might see some reason to question their fitness. Every workman has two things which must not be wanting in Gods fellow-workman.

(1) An object. This in our case is the final happiness and perfection of each in heaven, and the attraction of each toward that Person who can bring him there. How ought we to ask ourselves whether this is substantially our object!

(2) A method. Every artisan not only knows what the particular result he designs is, but he knows also the process by which he must arrive at it. Now we who undertake to teach others ought to be quite sure that the gospel is true in its two great parts, the offer of forgiveness of sins through Christ, and the offer of the Holy Spirits presence to transform, direct, and sustain: these things we ought to have experience of in ourselves, and so be able to declare, as of our own knowledge, that those who listen to us may attain the great object if they will only use the proper means.

2. It is in carrying on this work in this way that we are Gods fellow-workmen. God has the same object that we have, and God is co-operating with us in our endeavours after it.

II. Ye are Gods husbandry, with regard to the state of your hearts and characters at any particular time.

1. By nature the soil is cold and hard, shallow and barren. It bears some things which look good and beautiful, waiting, as it were, for the Holy Spirit to turn them from natural gifts into spiritual graces; but not yet receiving, because we prefer having them as they are, and shrink back from prayer, which is the connecting link between the soul and God. Now, when we see how slow we all are to take this little step in earnest, we feel that nothing can give us any hope at all but the assurance that God is here engaged, and that He can work with us, preparing the stony ground to receive the good seed of His Word, that it may take deep root and spring up into an abundant harvest.

2. And as it is with the ground, so it is with respect to the weeds which grow so rankly. Long experience teaches us to expect them. We say to ourselves, It must go on so to the end; no care or pains of ours will ever root them up. Perhaps not: and yet it may be not only our duty to labour on as if we might succeed; but more than this; the fault may be in great part ours for not having remembered that we are Gods husbandry, and for not having prayed to God more earnestly to do for us that which for ourselves we could not do.

III. Ye are gods building.

1. This is especially true of young people. Your characters are forming now; soon they will be (what we call) formed: then habits of good or evil will have become a second nature, and change, if it come at all, will be a difficulty beyond anything that you have yet known of. Every day is adding something to the building: something of good, or something of evil, some accession of knowledge, of self-control, of practice of good and conquest of evil, or else of carelessness and indifference, of self-indulgence or vanity or forgetfulness of God.

2. Yet, blessed be God, He has not left us (strictly speaking) to build. Ye are Gods building. O how gracious an assurance; that, while that formation of character is going on, to all appearance, so easily and almost casually. Still all the time God is working, God is building; if we will only seek Him and trust Him and not thwart or counteract His work, He is carrying on, in the secret of the soul, a process of formation, and the finished thing will be His own temple, in which He will abide for ever and be satisfied with His travail! But, indeed, we must seek Him. (Dean Vaughan.)

The union of Divine and human agency in the kingdom of Christ

I. What the work includes in which God and His people are labourers together.

1. The spread of the gospel through the world.

2. The conversion of sinners.

3. The increase and prosperity of the Christian Church.

II. The spirit in which the work under consideration should be prosecuted. In the spirit of–

1. Humility.

2. Love to God.

3. Love to men.

4. Holy zeal.

5. Prayer and of faith. (S. Brawn.)

Self-creation

The Creator does a part, and the chief part, but He kindly gives us a part, as considerate parents let their children join them in their works, though they could often do it better themselves. Creation is not finished, nor ever will be, but is always proceeding. In this progressive system man can put in his hand and make or mar.

I. Look at the material creation.

1. The elements are in a rude state. The rivers run waste to the sea; the ocean rolls a vast desert of waters round the world; the forests grow and decay, and furnish nourishment for new generations of the same species; the fire is a hidden force, and the lightning plays apparently at haphazard among the clouds. But God has delegated to man, as His vicegerent on the earth, the power and skill, within certain limits, of using these unwieldly and fearful agencies, and, carrying out the plan of their creation.

2. So with the animals. They are created in kind, but the type may be improved. Man can cross and perfect their breeds. He can tame the wild, multiply their number, and, by better shelter, food, &c., develop new excellences.

3. So flowers, fruits, and vegetables all require to be improved by human skill and ingenuity. Compare the dinner of a savage under his native palm with a horticultural exhibition, and we see the endless room for man to work in, and the effects of his science and experiments.

4. The forests were given to his hands uncut, the ores buried in the earth undug and unworked, the pearls in the sea, the fire in the flint, the steam in the water, the temple and the palace in the quarry. The arts, useful and beautiful, are thus a species of creation. Man was sent, not to destroy, but to fulfil.

II. It is a great thing to learn distinctly and impressively this duty of a man to be a co-worker with God. Some nations have not learned it yet. The savage tribes still linger on the animal plane. But even the civilised nations do not yet fully comprehend that a new moral and spiritual, as well as material creation, is to be called forth by man. The conquest of matter is not enough, Christianity is to be superadded. Man has not done his work when he has built a house and woven a suit of garments. He can co-work with God in the building of his body and his mind–a Divine carpentry.

1. Physical education is a part of this sub-creation. The body is to be unfolded, invigorated, and kept as a pure temple for the soul, with nothing to do it sacrilege.

2. Guided by the rules, and animated by the spirit of Christianity, man is to be a co-worker with God in the building of his character. The Creator necessitates no holiness. Even Jesus learned obedience. The materials of this higher architecture are given in abundance. There is reason for the truth, understanding for practical affairs, conscience for the right, love for the good, hope for progress, so that our own nature is a forest, quarry, and mine, containing all the needful means for our great work. But beside these native faculties society and Christianity give us the tools to work with, the motives, books, teachers, to aid us in the sub-creation. We are called to be labourers with God, in no meagre plan and for no trivial results. The plan is Divine and the results are eternal. The problem runs somewhat in this wise: Given, passion, energy; required, a spirited character and an active life. Given, a soft infant; required, a sturdy, well-formed, intelligent, and virtuous man. Given, conscience; required, righteousness. Given, affections: required, love to all in heaven and earth. Given, instinct, reason, the gospel of Jesus; required, a new human race, a new moral and spiritual creation. The end and emphasis of all things is formation of ourselves on Gods idea of a human being. The gospel of Jesus is yet but in its infancy in this respect. It has done little compared with what it is to do. It has only begun its work in the soul and among the nations. It is slowly becoming a power in the earth. Conclusion: Let us not forget the lesson and application. This creation is a self-creation, this formation is a self-formation. God gives us means, materials, motives, guidance, and, to let nothing escape us that would be of help, He has presented the exquisite figure and spirit of a Divine Man. The danger is in turning off on some by-path of your own, instead of following the way God has marked out, in fulfilling some little, worthless, and short-lived plan of your passions or pleasures. (A. A. Livermore, D. D.)

Co-operation with God

One is something overwhelmed by the thought of the manner in which good old honest words occasionally lose their primitive meaning and become attached to some separate part of daily life, and in such a manner as to become terms rather of reproach than anything else. You talk of a labourer in ordinary conversation as a man who is doing day by day unintelligent, mechanical toil; but, after all, labour such as that is the very basis upon which the happiness of the world is built. All labour is Godlike; and the single test which you may apply to see whether labour is successful or not is the test which St. Paul applied in these words when he said, For we are labourers together with God. I want, then, to look upon the harvest as the fruition of successful labour with God. The fact that harvest comes year by year to a successful result is simply an evidence of the truthfulness of the test which St. Paul applies. Man does his work, then there comes side by side with his work the work of God. His work would altogether fail if it were not labour with God. Now let us suppose for a moment that the husbandman were to labour upon the assumption that he would work by himself and not labour with God. Suppose he said: I dont believe that the seasons will come round in their accustomed succession, and I will labour as for seasons of my own. Every intelligent man knows the result of labour such as that would be complete disaster so far as the harvest is concerned. For the only way in which the wondrous things in the world of nature are brought to their perfect beauty and fruition is because you have on the one hand the hard toil of the man, and on the other hand the hard, unceasing, unremitting toil of God. Now what is true of the harvest of the earths fruits is certainly true of every work which man undertakes in daily life. The rule of success is labour with, not labour against, God. The man who has to work can only labour successfully by working with God; and by working with God I mean working just as the husbandman works, in conscious subordination to the law of God. If a man will not obey the law of God his physical work cannot be successful as it might be successful if he worked in subordination to the will of God. If a man breaks down his physical frame by indulging in sin, that man, by disobeying the will of God, is rendering the harvest of his daily work uncertain. It is precisely similar with a man engaged in business. He who will labour with God must labour according to Gods law, and where there is that obedience to the will of God there will be ultimate success. The harvest may not come as the harvest of some of the transitory things in nature comes, very quickly, and remain only a short time, but it will be substantial and solid, and will give perfect happiness and perfect peace, because it will be success which has been honestly won, and prosperity which has been rightly gained. Such a labourer can see, even in the success of his business, his own handiwork co-operating with the handiwork of God, and in all the good fortune which has befallen him he can recognise the directing providence of his Heavenly Father. Labouring together with God, that is the grand secret of successful work. There is one other thought that I would like to leave with you from the consideration of this truth, and that is this: that just as there is labour with God, and just as the conditions of successful labour are to be with God, so after labour there comes rest, and the conditions of successful rest are also to be found in the rest with God. (J. R. Diggle, M. A.)

Workers together with God

This ninth verse is a further amplification of Pauls intent, which is to press unity against factions and divisions; and it is a declaration of his argument before, which was The planters and waterers are one, but God gives the increase. This he further illustrates in the beginning of this verse–For we are workers together with God. We are all in Gods vineyard, and labour unto Him. In what sense they are workers with God; not by immediate producing of any spiritual effects, but by the external application of the ministry to the people. As Gehazi carried his masters staff and touched the child with it, but that did no good till Elijah came himself. In the first place, consider what reasons may be for this, why God will use such workers with Him, He needeth not the parts or gifts of any. First, this is a fit and an accommodated way to our natures. When God sends men of the same mould and subject to the same affections, this may the more easily draw us. When God delivered the law Himself, it was with such terror and majesty, that they desired that God would not Himself speak any more to them, so that mere men would not be able to bear the immediate approaches of the Divine majesty to them. As the fowler catcheth many birds by one decoy a bird of the same feather, thus it becometh us to have such to bring us home unto God, that are affected with our estates, that have the same temptations in them as other men. Hence the more experience Gods ministers have of the work of grace, the temptations of Satan, the deceitfulness of sin, the more fit they are to comfort others, or to deliver them out of snares. Secondly, He may do it to oblige us and tie us to His instituted means. It is a great caveat in the Scripture, and frequently urged: No man must follow the imagination of his own heart. Now God would prevent such loose principles, and bind us up to His instituted way; He will bind us, though He is not bound. Thirdly, hereby God would exercise the humility, meekness, and obedience of men. Oh, it is a great matter for men to submit to Gods institution! Fourthly, that men might be the more inexcusable. For if thou art not now turned from thy sin, who shall plead for thee? Fifthly, God will hereby declare His power so much the more. Now to this there needs one caution to be added, viz., that this connection between the labour of the minister and Gods working is not natural, necessary, and perpetual. We may work, and yet neither the presence or power of God be therein. It is not here as in the works of nature; there God hath made a perpetual and unalterable decree. Now if you ask when may it fall out that though the ministry laboureth, yet God doth not work with it, reasons may be on Gods part, the ministers, and the peoples. First, work with God in prayer, that He would work with the ministry. Secondly, take heed of such sins as may provoke God not to he with the ministry. (A. Burgess.)

Ye are Gods husbandry, ye are Gods building.—

Gods husbandry and building

The metaphor of the field describes the raw material on which God works; that of the house describes the result of the work. The field represents the individual Christian in his secret power of life and endless growth; the house represents the Church in the unity of plan, in the beauty and strength of its structure. The metaphor of the building lends itself more easily than that of the farm to the apostles purpose in the subsequent verses, and leads naturally to the highest conception, that of Gods temple in 1Co 3:16. (Principal Edwards.)

Gods husbandry

I. The first condition of the soil–its wilderness condition–is not without growths. It is overgrown with forests, choked with underbush, and cumbered with falling and decaying materials. The sun is always hidden from its interior. It is apt to be a lair of beasts. This is certainly the state of the human soil before religious culture is applied to it. Men are in a state of wilderness in the beginning.

II. The first step of husbandry is to relieve the soil of these wild growths, and prepare it for tillage. The trees are felled and burned, so that the ground may be disencumbered and laid open to the sun. But some, for expedition, are only girdled. All connection between the sap at the roots and the top is severed by a line of sharp cuts around the trees; and so girdled, they will stand for a while, but they will never leaf again; so that, little by little, more and more ground is susceptible to the plough. The first work of religion is analogous to this. Many of the things which men practise in an unregenerate state are, by the power of Gods grace at their conversion, cut down peremptorily and taken out of the way. But there are a great many things which are only girdled, and only little by little brought to the ground.

III. When this preliminary process is complete, the pioneer farmer is ready for the next stage, which is that of seed-planting. It is not smooth sward that the plough is now to turn; but rough soil, full of the green stumps of trees but just disappeared. And, worse than this, roots are matted all over the ground; but the ground is, at any rate, open to the sun, and every year and every ploughing will rip up and throw out some of these roots. And so it is with men. Their first efforts at goodness are very crooked and shallow. When men first begin to let go the lower forms of wickedness, and to sow the higher seeds of virtue, it is often like the sudden taking away of the forest, and the laying open of the soil to the sun. The first crops are very unsatisfactory; yet these incipient mistakes must be taken, if you are going to have a good farm by and by.

IV. Having got thus far the home-lot is cleared. The stones are cleared away, the stumps rooted out, and the ground fenced round where his house is to be. Then he gives the ground a more thorough farming, and so the house-lot is got into a better condition. So men usually begin to smooth down those traits of their character which lie next to themselves, as it were, and which are in the family. Then one and another habit is attacked, and trait after trait is added. And so they enlarge, more and more, every year, their husbandry.

V. Hitherto the farmer has only sown the grains and roots absolutely needed for sustenance; but now a garden and orchard are planted. And so in spiritual life. At first it is a tough, hard fight for life. By and by times of richer gladness come–more liberty, more hope. Prayer grows out of duty into pleasure. Gods Word opens, and Christians walk amid beds of flowers. Clusters of fruit are gathered–richer experiences–the fruits of the Spirit.

VI. Eventually it is resolved upon to bring in every acre. All outlying lots are to be cleared. So, eminently, is it with advancing Christians. After a time many men experience a second conversion, as it seems to them. They are aroused to a sense of the largeness and symmetry of Christian character. And their purpose is to subdue every thought and every feeling to the will of God.

VII. The farmer, as his last step, applies to his soil, thus brought forward, the most scientific methods of ascertained husbandry. He underdrains deep the whole estate; and when all those stagnant pools and chilling springs that deluge the roots of tender-growing plants are carried away, then he subsoils. He puts down the plough as far as iron can go, and mellows the soil and the subsoil down deep in the earth. Then he begins to select better herbs than before. And just so it is with Christians. As they grow in grace, and as God, the great Husbandman, perfects the work of clearing up and bringing into a condition of complete tillage the human heart, the religious feelings grow deeper. Many of those causes which obstructed their growth are now drained and carried off from the soul. Men give themselves more thorough religious cultivation. And the later periods of Christian experience are by far the most assiduous and the most faithful Conclusions: Note–

1. Some practical lessons we may perceive from what has been said.

(1) The difference between instantaneous beginnings and gradual developments. No man ever suddenly cleared up forty acres of land. A man may and does begin suddenly, but the doing requires a long period. And so no man ever began to be a Christian without an instantaneous volition; but the mere volition is only a beginning. The evolution of Christian character is gradual.

(2) The meaning of succession in Christian experience. We know that in husbandry, until some things are done, other things cannot be reached. And so there must be an order of development in Christian life. We cannot anticipate those graces which come only after the ripening of preceding graces. Graces grow just as grains do; first the sprouting under the ground, &c.

(3) That the hardest part in both kinds of husbandry is apt to come at the beginning; but that, if well met then, it grows easier and easier every successive year. How hard was it at first to bring the soil to such a state that you dared to think plough! and how hard is it for a man at first to bring himself into such a state that he dares to think prayer! How many men who would like to be able to get their graces just as they can get an old, well-cultivated farm; but, though you can do that in natural husbandry, you cannot do it in spiritual husbandry.

2. The various kinds of spiritual husbandmen and husbandry.

(1) There are shiftless and lazy farmers who raise just enough grain to keep them through the year. That is all they ask, and therefore they have no ambition to seek for more. And how many men there are who, after having been in the Church ten or twenty years, are just about where they were when they first entered it!

(2) Scheming, changeable farmers who, instead of laying out their strength upon well-ascertained processes, are bewitched with new schemes and experiments. And there are just such spiritual farmers. One is running after new promises, another after a new faith, and another after new solutions of miracles. One has got a new doctrine, another some new idea of Church organisation, and another some new way of putting this or that religious truth. They see their old farms left untilled.

(3) Pedigree farmers, whose fruit bears the highest-sounding names, but is the poorest in the neighbourhood. Their oxen are lean, their cows are milkless, but what a line of blood they sprung from! Did you never see just such husbandmen in the Church?–men who had no greater morality, or piety, or spiritual experience, but who went back through a long pedigree.

(4) Chaff farmers. Suppose you should find a farmer who said that he was satisfied that farmers had been doing injustice to many kinds of seeds; and that he felt assured that if a man would sow cockle-seeds; and do it sincerely, God would give the increase: so He would–of cockles. Suppose a man should sow that detestable Canada thistle, and say that it was wheat. Would any amount of botanical sincerity on the part of this fool secure to him a harvest of anything better than the seed sown? Now a great many persons say, Why do you teach us such doctrines? What matter is it whether we believe in the Bible or not, so that we live about right, or that we are sincere? Is not that enough? No, it is not enough. There is the same connection between spiritual seed and the result. Sincerity is a very good thing, but it cannot make grain out of chaff; neither can it make Christian graces out of worldly affections and worldly estates.

(5) Fence farmers. What would you think of a husbandman who neglected everything because he was giving his whole time to the building of his fences? And, oh, such fences! The best and highest that could be built. Oftentimes, when he has got them all built up, he goes to work and pulls them down again. And what for? Why, just so that he can build them up again! And did you never hear of spiritual husbandmen that were for ever defining the great points of doctrine; for ever running boundaries round the kingdom of God; rebuilding the middle walls of partition, but never sowing and never reaping? There never was a fence that would keep vermin out of a mans farm, nor a fence that would keep hawks off from it. The best thing a farmer can do is to take such care of his soil as to have a harvest so rich that he will be able to spare a little to vermin and birds. The only safe way is to have so much spiritual culture in the Church that such minor troubles make little difference with its prosperity.

(6) Nimrod farmers–hunting farmers. There are in the Church heresy-hunters. They are searching for foxes, and wolves, and bears, that they suppose are lying waste Gods husbandry! They never do anything except fire at other folks. I have no doubt that Nimrod was a very good fellow in his own poor, miserable way; but a Nimrod minister is the meanest of all sorts of hunters! (H. W. Beecher.)

Gods husbandry

The harvest is passed; the corn is housed. Is the farmers labour done? No, the plough is even now at work again; the seed must soon be sown for next years crop. So continual is the round. But, as the work of husbandry goes on, is there no lesson to us in these things? Yea, all nature speaks to us if we would hear, and the words of the text call us to listen to its voice. Let these words teach you–

I. The care which God has had for you.

1. In choosing you to be part of His own field–the Church of Christ. You are plants set in the Lords garden, branches grafted into the living Vine; your heart is the soil on which God deigns to bestow culture, and from which His grace is able to bring forth fruits, meet for the paradise of God.

2. In the price He gave for this field. Ye are not your own, &c.

3. In enclosing you with the design of making you holy to Himself. Have you ever seen a piece of ground taken in from a common? While all around it is still barren and wild, is not that one spot fair and goodly to the eye? This is what God would have you be in the midst of a world that lieth in wickedness.

4. In that He is ever seeking to improve the ground of your hearts. But, as the farmer does not use the same management to all kinds of soil–the stiff, stubborn clay must not be treated like the light, dry sand-so God now tries to win us by mercies; now to frighten us by judgments. Perhaps your heart clings to the love of this world; then He shakes it loose by storms of trouble. Perhaps He sees you indulging in sinful pleasures; then He makes you taste their bitterness and gall.

5. By employing labourers in His field, for your sakes. He sends His ministers to labour among you, if, by any means, they may save your souls alive.

II. The return you ought to make to him. What is this? Surely, to take care that you do not receive the grace of God in vain. When a farmer has bestowed much care and management upon a field, does he not expect some increase? How few soils are hopelessly bad, as not to be made better by good management! The earth is no insolvent debtor; you do not put into its bank to receive nought again. Shall the very ground we tread on put us to shame? Ask, then, yourselves, are you bearing fruit to God? (E. Blencowe, M. A.)

God, a husbandman

As such–

I. He is thoroughly acquainted with the soil. He knows–

1. Its original state; the soul with all its pristine powers.

2. Its present condition; its barren and wilderness state–stony, weedy, and thorny.

3. Its tillable capabilities–what can be made of it. Some can become the majestic cedar, whilst others only the shrub.

II. He has all necessary instrumentalities. This stony, weedy ground requires certain well-contrived implements to work it into a fruitful condition. There must be the ploughshare, the pruning-hook, &c. He has them.

1. In the events of life. All the dark and painful circumstances in life are His implements to break up the fallow ground. All the pleasant and propitious are instruments for mellowing the soil.

2. In the revelations of truth. There is law and love, Sinai and Calvary.

III. He possesses the proper seed. His Word is seed in many respects.

1. Vitality. Every seed has life in it. His Word is spirit and life.

2. Completeness. The seed is complete in itself. Nothing can be taken from it, nothing can be added to it, any alteration injures it.

3. Prolificness. One seed in course of time may cover a continent and feed nations. The word of God is wonderfully fruitful.

IV. He commands the culturing elements. The best agriculturists who understand the soil possess the best implements and the best seed, are thwarted in their efforts, because the elements are not propitious. God has command over the elements. The heat, the cold, the dew, the shower, the sunshine, and the air, are all at His disposal. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Gods husbandry

The Scripture doth delight to compare the Church to many similitudes, all which show the tender respects it stands in towards God. Sometimes to a wife, sometimes to a body, sometimes to the branches of a vine; at other times to a garden, to a vineyard, and here to a field, and a house. We will first handle these two similitudes jointly, and then severally. Jointly, in that they are Gods husbandry and house. It implieth these things–First, the power and goodness of God in making them so. A building is not of itself; everybody that seeth a house, presently concludes the house did not make itself; so if you see a field well husbanded, we all know of itself the earth would not do, but rather its curse is to bring forth briers and thorns. So when you see a people leaving their sins, walking according to the rules revealed in Scripture, you must necessarily conclude, this men have not of themselves, they cannot have this by flesh and blood. Hence, God, speaking of the Church of Israel, said: He planted a vine (Jer 2:21). Secondly, it doth imply dominion and absolute sovereignty over us. Even as the master that buildeth the house appointeth what customs and orders shall be in the house, the husbandman appointeth what seed he pleaseth for the ground. This point is of great consideration, for how durst men in all ages have brought in such superstition, such heresy, such tyranny in the Church of God, if they had remembered there is but one master in the house of God–one lawgiver. All officers are but servants, and not masters. Thirdly, it denoteth propriety and interest that God hath a right to us, that we are His, and not our own. The house is the owners, he hath the propriety of it; so that by this means they who are, indeed, of this building, of this field, they are more happy than all others in the world, for God is in covenant with them. To them only God is their God, and they His people. Fourthly, it supposeth care, love, and protection. Propriety causeth care and love among men. What cares a man for another mans field, another mans corn, but he looketh to his own? He weedeth that, he fenceth that, he keepeth that from all violence. It makes for Gods praise, that thy heart be a room swept and kept clear for Him to lodge in. Oh, urge this in prayer! O Lord, am I not Thy husbandry? Is not my soul Thy building? Why, then, lieth it thus ruinous? Why is it neglected by Thee? It is not only my comfort, my happiness, but Thy glory and honour is interested in this. Come we in the next place to consider the several similitudes, and–First, ye are Gods husbandry. Take notice that He doth not here speak of the invisible and mystical Church of Christ, but as they were a visible Church at Corinth. This relation of being Gods husbandry implieth something on His part, and many things on ours. On His part: First, that He finds all people of themselves like a barren wilderness and fruitless desert. The curse upon the ground is fulfilled in them–to bring forth nothing but briers and thorns. All the things of grace and godliness are not only above our natures, but contrary to them. Secondly, it supposeth that grace and godliness is wholly planted by God in their souls, for this floweth from the other. Seeing we are such a barren wilderness, what fruit can ever be expected from us? Thirdly, this supposeth that God likewise giveth all the seasons and opportunities of growth and fruitfulness. As the gardener, He looketh to His times when He must water the plants, lest they die. The season of the year helpeth to grow, as well as the nature of the soil. Oh, then, know that as the natural seasons and times are of His appointment, so much more the gracious ones. On our parts, who are the field to be tilled, there are these things: First, a willingness to have the Word of God prepare and wound our souls; even tearing our hearts to pieces, that so the Word as seed may fructify. This is what the Scripture calls, Ploughing up the fallow ground (Jer 4:3). Oh, expect not healing and peace and comfort, till you have been thus disquieted! Do not then quarrel at the Word of God, but rather bless Him for the power of it, when it changeth the whole face of a congregation. Secondly, this implieth that you should answer the satisfaction of that husbandman whose husbandry you are. Who will bear that ground which, after much labour and cost, brings forth no fruit at all? Thirdly, it supposeth a careful improvement of all those means which God useth for our spiritual good. If we be Gods husbandry, we are patiently to receive and fruitfully to improve whatsoever may make for our fruitfulness. Now the means are of two sorts, either essential, and entire and perfect, such as the hearing of the Word, praying, godly communion; or, accidental and occasional, such as afflictions, troubles, and persecutions. They need a winter as well as a summer. Lastly, consider how near such a people are to utter ruin; while you are but near it, there is some hope of escaping, if you seek out; who after all Gods husbandry, are the same ignorant and profane people still. Thy soul is Gods field. Oh, what fruit, what reformation shouldst thou show forth? Thus, not only the Sabbath day, but every day may be a Sabbath day; every field thou goest into; every goodly crop thou seest on the ground, it may teach and preach unto thee. (A. Burgess.)

Gods building

is Divine–

I. In its plan.

II. In its structure.

1. Christ, the foundation.

2. Living stones, the superstructure.

III. In its workmanship. Each stone by God is–

1. Polished.

2. Adjusted.

3. Cemented.

IV. In its purpose.

1. For His glory.

2. For the inhabitation of His Spirit. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Gods building

There have been many splendid structures which, in their day, have been the wonder and admiration of the world, but this infinitely transcends them all. The colossal palaces and hanging gardens reared by Nebuchadnezzar must have presented a gorgeous spectacle; while the fame of Solomons temple has filled the earth in every age. But what is all this material splendour, which has long since passed away, to this temple whose stones are immortal spirits–whose foundation is the rock of ages-whose walls no revolutions can ever shake–whose fair proportions shall be fully developed, amid the ruin of all the mightiest and loveliest works of human ingenuity and power–whose top-stone shall be brought forth with shoutings when the heavens shall have passed away. In surveying this building, note–

I. The foundation. This is the most important part; if this be defective, all the cost and labour of the superstructure will be in vain. But the foundation upon which this edifice is built is such as an Omnipotent hand alone could lay, and for which no other can be substituted. Christ is the foundation of the Christian Church, as He is–

1. The source of her being. The Church could have no existence but for Him. The spiritual stones that constitute the edifice are sinners ransomed by His blood, and renewed by His Spirit. Were it possible for the connection between the stones and the foundation to be dissolved, the whole edifice would become a heap of ruins.

2. The author of her creed. In regard to her doctrines she rests on no human authority, but takes them as they flow pure from Christ and His inspired apostles.

3. The founder of her discipline. His laws are few, and the principles on which they rest are equity and love. One is your Master, &c. A new commandment give I unto you, &c.

4. The guarantee of her stability and perpetuity. Upon this rock will I build My Church, &c. These were His words–this was His pledge; and all power is given unto Him in heaven and in earth, in this capacity, and for this very purpose.

II. The materials.

1. Immortal spirits, redeemed and regenerated men, lively stones, or what Paul denominates gold, silver, precious stones; the accredited and the durable materials which ministers are the instruments of placing in the Church. But in the visible Church there are materials of another kind–mere professors, hypocrites, formalists, the wood, hay, stubble; but they form no part of the true Church, but shall ultimately be removed from the edifice.

2. Whence are the materials taken? See these living stones, as in successive courses they rise to constitute and adorn the edifice. They are of various colours–from the white of Europe to the jet of Africa; every rank–from the monarch to the labourer. They shall come from the east and from the west, &c. They shall come from the eastern Brahmins–from the western savages–from the Southern Isles–from the northern Esquimaux; they shall come from the patriarchal and the prophetic ages–from the Jewish and the Christian dispensations. David, with the harp, shall be there; and Isaiah, with his evangelic songs; and Ezekiel, with his prophetic visions; mingling with the malefactor from the cross, and the poor beggar from the rich mans gate. They shall come from every denomination: the Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, &c,; all forgetting, or lamenting, that they should ever have been otherwise than one.

III. The instrumentality and agency. The instrumentality is human; the agency Divine. Yet the instrumentality is of Divine appointment; and, for the most part, inseparably connected with the agency. Though it is God who giveth the increase, yet Paul musk plant and Apollos water. Ministers are not architects, but simply workmen, employed under the guidance of the Divine architect. Nor can any one stone boast against another in respect of the rock whence it was hewn, the hole of the pit whence it was digged, for all alike are hewn out of the quarry of a common depravity. However much as they may vary in other respects, all are on a level here–alike dead in trespasses and sins; whilst it is God who has quickened them together with Christ, &c. I know that it is not with us to limit the Holy One of Israel, nor to say by what avenues He shall or shall not obtain access to the human heart. It may be affliction, &c.; but the ministry of the gospel is the main and ordinary instrumentality. Was it not by this that Peter pricked to the heart three thousand; that Luther shook the throne of papal tyranny; that Whitefield and Wesley aroused the slumbering Churches of Great Britain and America. What is it that has caused the Rose of Sharon to bloom amid the snows of Greenland? What is it that has gathered the savages of Kaffraria and New Zealand around the Cross? It is the preaching of the gospel in its simplicity and purity–and nothing less–that God will own and honour for this great and glorious purpose; Christ, in the sufficiency of His atonement; in the prevalence of His intercession, &c. (T. Raffles, D. D.)

Gods building

I. God is our builder. If we climb some high hill near the sea on a fine day, we behold on one side hills and valleys; and on the other the tremendous ocean stretching to the horizon. Then we feel that our Father is a grand God to make such things. There are great buildings which men have erected, but there is no building which is so great as the splendid planet on which we live. But far more wonderful than the world is the body of man; but a grinder thing still is the soul, which God created to dwell in. It appears as if He had given to the soul of man a portion of His own almighty power. Does not the Scripture say, Ye fight against God? We have power to say No to the Almighty! But there is something far grinder and more precious still–it is the new spirit which is breathed in every man who believes in Christ. This is Godlike.

II. God has furnished a plan for the building–the life of Christ. It is the best life and nobody can improve on it. The Lord does not mean us to copy His style of garment, or to eat the same sort of food, or to be put to death on a cross. We are to copy His character.

III. God has also given a foundation for the building. Christ Jesus. Then, we are to believe His words and to build our actions thereon. Jesus is our foundation for the knowledge–

1. That God loves us as our Father. We are to live from day to day feeling certain of that.

2. That Christ lays down His life for us. So we are to rest upon Him for forgiveness.

3. That in Him are all things necessary for our peace. Build on Him, then, for all circumstances of trouble. (W. Birch.)

The Church Gods building

I. The apostles description of the church. Ye are Gods building. This building–

1. Has a proprietor. God is the proprietor of the site (the world), of the foundation (Christ), of the materials (sinners), of the builders (ministers), of its privileges here, and its ultimate glory in heaven.

2. Has an architect. Infinite wisdom and power. Before this building was commenced there was intention; it is the result of design.

3. Has a good foundation. Christ, called a stone, to convey the idea of stability and durability; and a tried stone, to indicate that it is completely adapted to answer the purpose for which it is laid; a sure foundation, because no attacks of its enemies, no revolutions of time, no concussions of earth will ever shake or destroy it.

4. Has a grand superstructure. It is composed of materials properly fitted, to occupy a place in the building (1Pe 2:5). The stones once had no connection with the building, deeply imbedded in natures quarry of guilt; but by the hammer of Gods Word and the energy of the Spirit, they have been detached from the rock, brought from darkness to light, &c. By regeneration, by sanctification, they are fitted for a position in the temple.

5. Has workmen–ministers, all Christian workers, missionaries.

6. Has perfect beauty (Psa 48:1-14.; Son 6:4). See the polished stones, bearing the inscription of Holiness to the Lord. See their love, union, benevolence. They are adorned with the righteousness of Christ, and bear the image of God.

II. The special design of the erection.

1. Magnificent. It is a habitation for God. What a glorious inhabitant! God is known in her palaces for a refuge. Behold the heaven of heavens, &c.

2. Gracious (Isa 66:1). The Lord loveth the gates of Zion.

III. The blessedness of being a part of his building.

1. It is honourable. It is the most glorious building that ever was erected. It is to be allied to the glorious Proprietor Himself.

2. It is advantageous. The state of a person is decided; he has realised the Divine power by which he has been fitted into the temple of God. This produces peace, contentment, joy, hope. He has an interest in all the promises and privileges of this house, and is a participant of all its provisions.

3. It is a state of safety. The Proprietor will never suffer this building to be destroyed. He ever watches over and defends it; He is a wall of fire round about it, angels minister to it, all the attributes of God are pledged for its security. (Homilist.)

The Church Gods building

The metaphor describes the work of God as being not the gathering together of certain devout souls wishing to abstract themselves from the corruptions of the heathen around them, and to shape their own lives after a nobler mode. Such persons might have dwelt in Corinth, exciting no remark, creating no enmity; the worst that could have befallen them would have been an idle scoff as enthusiastic strivers after an ideal of unattainable perfection. But by representing the Christian body as a Divinely erected building, he paints at one stroke a picture of tangible social system rising in the midst of the old heathen world like a new sanctuary in the centre of one of its temple-crowned cities, with the Christian community growing up in Corinth, with its groups of little children and its elder men, its ministry and ordinances of worship, its examples of whole households like that of St. Stephanas, enrolled by baptism among its members. This was not a philosophical school created by Pauline teaching, but an all-comprehensive, all-embracing structure, reared by a Divine hand, the abode of supernatural powers and operations, a structure which invited into it through its ever open gates all of every race, and age, and class, the Jew and the Greek, the vast slave population of the old world, as well as its most privileged citizens; and this in order, having gathered them within its walls, to weld them together into a new social system by bonds and principles which soon would supersede existing ties. Nor is this all. A building implies not a sudden emanation of opinion, but a construction of progressive stages, each based upon that which lies below; from the foundation which the earth hides, to the pinnacle which loses itself in the blue air. And so St. Paul speaks of their being being built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, coupling together the living and the dead as a substructure of the Church of his day. Yes, even that Church of the first-born, in all the fresh light of its new faith, was to regard itself not as a creature of its own age, although Christ had Himself walked the earth in that age; but it was to know that its foundations went back into the depths of eternity, that its creed, short as it was, Christ, and Him crucified, gathered up into itself all the past revealings of God. Their legend, St. Paul would tell them, was no system of faith and morals lying on the surface of a single generation; it penetrated into the very secret of them all. The facts were the outcome of Gods determinate counsel working gradually century after century up to its accomplishment from the birth of time. Its precepts of love and holiness were not arbitrary precepts, but derived from the very being of God; thus the corner-stone of the building had been laid before the elder angels began to be. And as God does not create each human being separately, but carries forward His original work continuously, making of one blood all nations of men, so with the work of salvation, the Lord does not simply join to Himself those that are being saved, but He adds them to the Church, and that by the instrumentality of those who were Christians before them. Thus, you see, every generation of the baptized is bound together by a spiritual consanguinity with the generations which precede it. The creeds which we inherit from ages, the prayers whose solemn tones are prolonged among us from the remotest times, like the long-drawn note of solemn music through a cathedral; the influence of saints and doctors and confessors, indestructible as that influence is, whether men like it or not; all this is but the outward expression of that essential continuity which, through the one baptism and the one Bread of Life, Jesus Christ, has secured to the fellowship of His disciples. (Bp. Woodford.)

The spiritual temple

I. Its foundation. A wise builder is always most attentive to this, because the stability of the structure can only be secured by that of the foundation (Mat 7:24). We are thus prepared to find the Church of Christ represented as built upon a rock, i.e., Christ. In His complex nature He becomes, by His obedience and death, the ground on which guilty men are brought to stand and live again in the favour of the Almighty (Act 4:11-12).

II. The edifice.

1. The Church of Christ is an edifice composed of rational and immortal beings, brought out of a fallen state, to stand in an intimate relation to Him, and to God through Him. They are all united to Him in their hearts by faith, and meet together in that union. This Church hath both an outward form, and an inward grace. The visible Church is composed of all in every place, who make an open profession of faith in Christ. But many of these make this profession in the absence of any Divine principle of faith in their hearts. These are only nominally of the temple of God. They live upon a name. Thou hast a name, that thou livest, but art dead. The profession of the rest, however, is that which results from the principle within: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, &c. These are the true and real temple, builded together for a habitation of God, through the Spirit. As the practised eye of the jeweller discerns the real gem from the artificial resemblance, and uses means to make the difference manifest, that the precious may be separated from the vile, so does Christ distinguish those in His Church who are really partakers of like precious faith, from those who have the appearance of it only.

2. Such is the analogy to be traced between the spiritual temple of God upon earth, and a material sacred edifice. As far, however, as heavenly things exceed earthly ones, they are incapable of being fully represented by such, e.g.

(1) No stone moves itself to the foundation. It is taken from the quarry and carried to it to be placed upon it, without the possibility of its own concurrence. But here there is a principle of spiritual life, in consequence of which the individual goes to Christ to be redeemed unto God by Him and made to live in His sight. Unto you that believe, Christ is precious; to whom, coming, as unto a living stone, ye also, &c.

(2) Every stone in this Divine fabric is immediately united to the Foundation, and all of them that are equally near to it. This cannot be the case with a material building. But the souls of all believers in Christ are equally intimately united to Him by their own personal faith.

(a) The faith of the parent cannot save the child, nor that of the husband the wife.

(b) Neither have we any saving connection with Christ by an outward union to His Church and participation of its ordinances. Being in the Lord is a constant phrase of the New Testament in describing a state of salvation.

(3) Every portion of spiritual building makes increase of itself and the whole by the addition of other parts. This is out of question with respect to any erection of man. (J. Leifchild, D. D.)

Character built bit by bit

Remember that the building of a noble and Godlike and God-pleasing character can be erected on the foundation of faith only by constant effort. Growth is not the whole explanation of the process by which a man becomes what God would have him to be. Struggle has to be included as well as growth, and neither growth nor struggle exhaust the New Testament metaphors for progress. This other one of my text is of constant recurrence. It takes the metaphor of a building to suggest the slow, continuous, bit-by-bit effort. You do not rear the fabric of a noble character all at a moment. No man reaches the extremity, either of goodness or baseness, by a leap; you must be content with bit-by-bit work. The Christian character is like a mosaic formed of tiny squares in all but infinite numbers, each one of them separately set and bedded in its place. You have to build by a plan; you have to see to it that each day has its task, each day its growth. You have to be content with one brick at a time. It is a lifelong task, till the whole be finished. And not until we pass from earth to heaven does our building work cease. Continuous effort is the condition of progress. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Soul masonry

I. A good plan.

1. What is a good plan?

(1) A plan adapted to its purpose. If the edifice is intended for study, worship, business, recreation, or residence, the plan, to be good, must be fitted for its purpose.

(2) A plan aesthetically pleasing. Nature provides for the aesthetic instinct in boundless varieties of forms and hues. A plan that does not embrace all those lines, and curves, and proportions, and blended shades, that charm the aesthetic instinct, cannot be considered truly good.

2. What is the plan on which moral masonry should proceed? The character of Christ. This ideal has the two grand attributes of architectural excellence, fitness, and beauty. All history shows that such an ideal is to be found nowhere else. Men, alas, are everywhere building character on other plans: some by the plan of sensual pleasure, others by the plan of commercial greed, others by the plan of worldly vanity and ambition. But they are all unsuitable and unlovely. In them the soul is neither happy nor beautiful.

II. Good materials. However fitted and beautiful the plan, if the materials are poor, the stones crumbling, the tiles leaking, the timber rotten, the edifice will be anything but perfect. What are the materials with which we are to build up a good character? They are actions. If these are corrupt, the materials are bad; but if good, then the character is all right. Good actions are actions that spring from a supreme sympathy with the supremely good. Such actions are the gold and the silver and the precious stones that will bear the fires at the last day.

III. A good foundation. What is the good foundation of a character? Not conventional mortality, not religious observances, not orthodox creeds; but Christ and Him only. See in Mat 7:1-29., the destinies of the wise man who built his house on a rock, and the foolish man who built on the sand. The one endured through the storm, but the other was swept away in utter ruin. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Gods building

Now this comparison of building supposeth these things–First, that a people of themselves are nothing but so much rubbish, and that it is God who makes them this glorious building. That as you see the temple was built by excellent art. The trees in the forest and the stones in the quarry could never have prepared themselves, nor put themselves into so goodly a structure. So it is here. Men by their own power, their own ability and strength, could never become a fit habitation for the Lord to rest in. Secondly, it implieth that the matter of this building should be sound, precious, and substantial. Oh that you would think of this, what ye ought to be! Holiness to the Lord should be writ on your hands, foreheads, and whole conversation. Thirdly, it implies the gracious presence and power of God among His people. A house is the place where a man continually resides; and this is one great reason why God useth this metaphor to show with what rest and delight He will take up His habitation in His Church. Fourthly, this house or building doth imply God to be the Master therein, that He only may prescribe the laws and orders, what shall be done, and what not; He appoints every one his work and his labour. Fifthly, here is this further in this building. It is not an ordinary building, but a sacred and holy one. Therefore they are called the temple of the living God. Now then, what an astonishing consideration is this? Sixthly, it being a house, all within are servants, and so they are to do their Masters work, to live to Him. Whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God (1Co 10:31). Thus this health, this wealth, these parts, this time is none of mine; I must improve it for my Master. Seventhly, it supposeth order and government. The Church of God is a house; now that hath domestical laws. Paul did rejoice to see the Churchs order, and her faith (Col 2:5). Eighthly, unity, love, and concord among those that are in the same house. Oh, let this shame all animosities and quarrellings! Are we not of the same house? (A. Burgess.)

The church a building

1. It is a spiritual building. What our Lord Jesus say of His kingdom is true of His building, that it is not of this world–in it, but not of it (Joh 15:19). It is a building of souls.

2. It is a spacious building of vast extent. I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, &c. (Rev 7:9).

3. It is a high building. Though part of it be here below, yet the top of it is as high as heaven. There it is that the glorious angels are, and the spirits of just men made perfect; all of this building.

4. It is a holy building (Eph 2:21). Holiness to the Lord is written upon the front of this building.

5. It is a living building. No other is so. The same who are quickened are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Eph 2:1; Eph 2:20).

6. It is a light building. This is one thing that makes a building pleasant, and comfortable–many and large windows. All the world besides is in darkness; it is the Church only that hath the true light.

7. It is a secure, a safe, building. The Church of God is such a building as the ark was (1Pe 3:20-21).

8. It is a spreading, growing building. (Philip Henry.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 9. For we are labourers together with God] We do nothing of ourselves, nor in reference to ourselves; we labour together in that work which God has given us to do, expect all our success from him, and refer the whole to his glory. It would perhaps be more correct to translate , we are fellow labourers of God; for, as the preposition may express the joint labour of the teachers one with another, and not with God, I had rather, with Bishop Pearce, translate as above: i.e. we labour together in the work of God. Far from being divided among ourselves, we jointly labour, as oxen in the same yoke, to promote the honour of our Master.

Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.] . The word , which we translate husbandry, signifies properly an arable field; so Pr 24:30: I went by the FIELD, , of the slothful; and Pr 31:16: The wise woman considereth a FIELD, , and buyeth it. It would be more literal to translate it, Ye are God’s farm: in Greek answers to sadeh in Hebrew, which signifies properly a sown field.

Ye are God’s building.-Ye are not only the field which God cultivates, but ye are the house which God builds, and in which he intends to dwell. As no man in viewing a fine building extols the quarryman that dug up the stones, the hewer that cut and squared them, the mason that placed them in the wall, the woodman that hewed down the timber, the carpenter that squared and jointed it, c., but the architect who planned it, and under whose direction the whole work was accomplished so no man should consider Paul, or Apollos, or Kephas, any thing, but as persons employed by the great Architect to form a building which is to become a habitation of himself through the Spirit, and the design of which is entirely his own.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Though compared with God we are nothing, yet our station is no mean station; God works as the principal efficient Cause, we work with God as his instruments; God worketh one way, by his secret influence upon the heart, we another way, by publication of the gospel in peoples ears, but the scope and end of the work is the same. The Lord is said to work with his ministers, Mar 16:20, and they are here said to work with him. Hence he proveth what he had before said, that they should be rewarded; God will not suffer those who work with him to be without their reward: as also that they were one, for they are all labourers together with God. Yet do not think yourselves our husbandry, for you are

Gods husbandry: thus Gods people, Isa 61:3, are called the planting of the Lord.

Gods building: thus the church is called the house of God, 1Ti 3:15. Still the apostle minds them, that they were Gods, not their ministers; it was God to whom they were beholden for their conversion, for their edification, &c.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

9. Translate, as the Greekcollocation of words, and the emphasis on “God” thricerepeated, requires, “For (in proof that “each shall receivereward according to his own labor,” namely, from God) it is ofGod that we are the fellow workers (laboring with, but under,and belonging to Him as His servants, 2Co 5:20;2Co 6:1; compare Ac15:4; see on 1Th 3:2) of Godthat ye are the field (or tillage), of God that ye are the building”[ALFORD]. “Building”is a new image introduced here, as suited better than that ofhusbandry, to set forth the different kinds of teaching and theirresults, which he is now about to discuss. “To edify” or”build up” the Church of Christ is similarly used (Eph 2:21;Eph 2:22; Eph 4:29).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For we are labourers together with God,…. The ministers of the Gospel are labourers in the Lord’s vineyard, and not loiterers; their work is a laborious work, both to body and mind; which lies in close study and meditation, in diligent reading and constant prayer, in frequent ministration of the word, and administration of ordinances; besides reproofs, admonitions, and exhortations, counsels, and instructions, which are often necessary: it is a work, which no man is sufficient for of himself; what requires diligence, industry, and faithfulness; is honourable, and, when rightly performed, deserves respect: nor do they labour alone, but with God; not as co-ordinate, but as subordinate workers; for though they labour in planting and watering, yet they bear no part with him in giving the increase; he is the husbandman, the chief master builder, they are labourers under him; however, he works with them; hence their labours are not in vain, and they have great encouragement to go on in their work; and they are God’s labourers with one another, which is a sense of the phrase not to be overlooked. The apostle often, in his epistles, speaks of his fellow workmen, and fellow labourers, who wrought together with him under God:

ye are God’s husbandry; or tillage; he is the proprietor of the field, the occupier of it, the husbandman who breaks up the fallow ground of the hearts of his people; he casts in the seed of grace, he makes the ground good, and causes it to bring forth fruit; the churches of Christ are his property, land of his fertilizing, and all the fruit belongs unto him; they are gardens of his planting, and vineyards of his watering, and which he keeps night and day, lest any hurt:

ye are God’s building; as the former metaphor is taken from agriculture, this is from architecture: believers in a church state are God’s house, in which he dwells, and which he himself has built; he has laid the foundation, which is Jesus Christ; he makes his people lively stones, and lays them on it; he raises up the superstructure, and will complete the building, and ought to bear all the glory, and in all which he makes use of his ministers as instruments.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

God’s fellow-workers ( ). This old word (co-workers of God) has a new dignity here. God is the major partner in the enterprise of each life, but he lets us work with him. Witness the mother and God with the baby as the product.

God’s husbandry ( ). God’s tilled land (, ). The farmer works with God in God’s field. Without the sun, the rains, the seasons the farmer is helpless.

God’s building ( ). God is the Great Architect. We work under him and carry out the plans of the Architect. It is building (, house, , to build). Let us never forget that God sees and cares what we do in the part of the building where we work for him.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

God ‘s. In this and the two following clauses, God is emphatic. “It is of God that ye are the fellow – workers.”

Husbandry [] . Rev., in margin, tilled land. Only here in the New Testament. Bengel says : “Embracing field, garden, and vineyard.” Building [] . Paul ‘s metaphors are drawn from the works and customs of men rather than from the works of nature. “In his epistles,” says Archdeacon Farrar, “we only breathe the air of cities and synagogues.” The abundance of architectural metaphors is not strange in view of the magnificent temples and public buildings which he was continually seeing at Antioch, Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus. His frequent use of to build and building in a moral and spiritual sense is noteworthy. In this sense the two words oijkodomew and oijkodomh occur twenty – six times in the New Testament, and in all but two cases in Paul ‘s writings. 84 Peter uses build in a similar sense; 1Pe 2:5. See edify, edification, build, Act 9:31; Rom 14:20; 1Co 8:1; 1Co 8:10, where emboldened is literally built up, and is used ironically. Also Rom 14:19; Rom 14:2; 1Co 14:3; Eph 2:21, etc. It is worth noting that in the Epistle to the Hebrews, while the same metaphor occurs, different words are used. Thus in ch. 3 3, 4, built, builded, represent kataskeuazw to prepare. In ch. 11 10, tecnithv artificer, and dhmiourgov, lit., a workman for the public : A. V., builder and maker. This fact has a bearing on the authorship of the epistle. In earlier English, edify was used for build in the literal sense. Thus Piers Ploughman : “I shal overturne this temple and a – down throwe it, and in thre daies after edifie it newe.” See on Act 20:32. In the double metaphor of the field and the building, the former furnishes the mould of Paul ‘s thought in vers. 6 – 9, and the latter in vers. 10 – 17. Edwards remarks that the field describes the raw material on which God works, the house the result of the work.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

HOW TO BUILD FOR REWARDS

1) “For we are labourers together with God.” (Greek theou gar esmen sunergoi) “For we are fellow or together-workers of God.” The ministry and the members of each congregation form God’s custodial ministry of the Word and worship in this age.

2) “Ye are God’s husbandry.” (theou georgion) “of God” (ye are) “a husbandry or tillage.” The church of Jesus Christ, each congregation, is God’s husbandry in that community, to do His work, to bear fruit for Him.

3) “Ye are God’s building.” (Greek theou oikodome este) “Ye are God’s house or domed up building.” This refers to the church at Corinth, as God’s dwelling place in Spiritual power, from which His work is to be done, 1Ti 3:15; Mar 13:34-37. Whether servant, layman, or porter each shall give account to the Lord at His return.

New Testament Terms that always refer to

The Church

To build for the greatest degree of honor and glory to God and rewards for believers one must labor in and through the covenant fellowship of the Lord’s church, Eph 3:21. The New Testament Church is referred to as:

a) The Church (institutionally), Act 20:28; Eph 5:23-25.

b) The Bride of Christ, Joh 3:27-30; 2Co 11:2; Rev 19:7-9.

c) The house of God, Mar 13:34-37; 1Ti 3:15; 1Pe 2:5.

d) The Temple of God, 1Co 3:15-16; 2Co 6:16.

e) The Kingdom of heaven, Mat 13:1-58; Mat 16:18-19; Mat 25:1; Mat 25:14.

f) The body of Christ, Eph 1:22-23; 1Co 12:12-13.

The New Testament knows nothing of a universal, mystical, invisible, church body made up of all believers. All believers constitute the family of God, but not the New Testament church which He has called from among the Gentiles for His name’s sake.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

9. For we are fellow-laborers with God. Here is the best argument. It is the Lord’s work that we are employed in, and it is to him that we have devoted our labors: hence, as he is faithful and just, he will not disappoint us of our reward. That man, accordingly, is mistaken who looks to men, or depends merely on their remuneration. Here we have an admirable commendation of the ministry — that while God could accomplish the work entirely himself, he calls us, puny mortals, (165) to be as it were his coadjutors, and makes use of us as instruments. As to the perversion of this statement by the Papists, for supporting their system of free-will, it is beyond measure silly, for Paul shows here, not what men can effect by their natural powers, but what the Lord accomplishes through means of them by his grace. As to the exposition given by some — that Paul, being God’s workman, was a fellow-workman with his colleagues, that is, with the other teachers — it appears to me harsh and forced, and there is nothing whatever in the case that shuts us up to have recourse to that refinement. For it corresponds admirably with the Apostle’s design to understand him to mean, that, while it is peculiarly the work of God to build his temple, or cultivate his vineyard, he calls forth ministers to be fellow-laborers, by means of whom He alone works; but, at the same time, in such a way, that they in their turn labor in common with him. As to the reward of works, consult my Institutes (166)

God’s husbandry, God’s building. These expressions may be explained in two ways. They may be taken actively in this sense: “You have been planted in the Lord’s field by the labor of men in such a way, that our heavenly Father himself is the true Husbandman, and the Author of this plantation. You have been built up by men in such a way, that he himself is the true Master-builder. (167) Or, it may be taken in a passive sense, thus: “In laboring to till you, and to sow the word of God among you and water it, we have not done this on our own account, or with a view to advantage to accrue to us, but have devoted our service to the Lord. In our endeavors to build you up, we have not been influenced by a view to our own advantage, but with a view to your being God’s planting and building. This latter interpretation I rather prefer, for I am of opinion, that Paul meant here to express the idea, that true ministers labor not for themselves, but for the Lord. Hence it follows, that the Corinthians were greatly to blame in devoting themselves to men, (168) while of right they belonged exclusively to God. And, in the first place, he calls them his husbandry, following out the metaphor previously taken up, and then afterwards, with the view of introducing himself to a larger discussion, he makes use of another metaphor, derived from architecture. (169)

(165) “ Poures vers de terre;” — “Mere worms of the dust.”

(166) The subject of Rewards is largely treated of in the Institutes, volume 2. The reader will find the expression “laborers together with God” commented upon in the Institutes, volume 1. — Ed.

(167) “ Et conducteur de l’oeuvre;” — “And conductor of the work.”

(168) “ De se rendre suiets aux hommes, et attacher la leurs affections;” — “In making themselves subject to men, and placing their affections there.”

(169) “ De la massonerie, ou charpenterie;” — “From masonry, or carpentry.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(9) Thrice in this verse the Apostle repeats the name of God with emphasis, to explain and to impress the assertion of the previous verse, that men are to recognise the unity, and God alone the diversity, in the ministerial work and office. We are GODS fellow-labourers; you are GODS fieldGODS house. The image is thus suddenly altered from agriculture to architecture, as the latter can be more amplified, and will better illustrate the great variety of work of which the Apostle proceeds subsequently to speak. This sudden change of metaphor is a characteristic of St. Pauls style; a similar instance is to be found in 2Co. 10:4-8, where the illustration given from architecture is used instead of the military metaphor which is employed in the earlier verses of that passage. See also 1Co. 9:7, and Eph. 3:17, and Col. 2:6-7, where there is the introduction of three distinct images in rapid succession in so many sentences. It has been suggested that possibly the use of the word field, in the Greek Georgion, was the cause of the Christian name George becoming so popular in the Church.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

9. Labourers with God Literally, For we are God’s fellow-labourers; God’s farm, God’s building are ye The distinction already existing between ministers and people is very marked through this and the next chapter, as begun in this verse. It is by no means correct to say that in the Church of the New Testament this division had not commenced. The figure of a building here commenced is continued to 1Co 3:17.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The laborers and the foundation:

v. 9. For we are laborers together with God; ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

v. 10. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds thereon. But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon.

v. 11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

The apostle now employs a different figure in order to bring out another thought closely connected with his present discourse. The members of the congregation sin against their teachers as well as against God if they make their estimate of them according to the show of outward talent and ability. For the teachers are God’s fellow-workmen; they are employed in the task given them by the Lord to build His spiritual temple; and they are fellows in this work, not rivals; they are pulling together for the same end. Note that the service of the ministry is called work, that it requires labor, if it is to be performed correctly. On the other hand, the hearers, the members of the congregation, are God’s field of tillage, a field sown with the seed of the Word of God through the labor of these ministers. And in order to stress the idea of the spiritual communion which obtains among the believers, and of the mutual adaptation of all the parts, Paul calls them God’s building, a temple of the Lord, in which the Triune Godhead intends to dwell.

The apostle now brings out the individual responsibility: According to the grace of God which is given me, as a wise master builder, as a chief engineer that knows his business, I have laid a foundation, but another builds on it. Note that the grace of God is placed into the foreground; Paul intimates that without it the work could neither have been attempted nor carried to the present state. The grace of God is the real motive force in the work of the Church at all times. And Paul knows that by this grace his work was done wisely; he had laid a foundation. Paul was not the possessor of only a single gift of grace, by which he would have been able to serve in only one single capacity in the Church, as exhorter or as pastor only, but he had been endowed with such talents as to make him a directive agent: he had great executive ability, he was a forceful preacher, he possessed great tact in approaching difficult cases, he could adapt himself to a great variety of conditions with great readiness. That was the reason why the grace of the Lord had selected him to found so many of the first congregations, as that of Corinth. On his foundation, the basis which he had laid, another would erect the building. That was the inevitable result in Corinth and elsewhere. Until the end of time the Christian ministers, by the preaching of the Gospel, are building up the temple of God on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And the warning of Paul is always timely: But let each one take heed how he builds upon it, how he attempts to construct the temple of the Lord. A mere zeal for the Lord, a mere avidity for work, is not sufficient to determine the method of the ministry of Christ. The minor workman must follow the directions of the master builder, the lines plainly laid down, and he must use fit material. If the teaching of any Christian preacher does not agree with the doctrine of Jesus Christ and the apostles, especially if it leads to justification by works and thus, under the name of faith, makes false Christians and work-saints, as Luther writes, then the methods must be condemned absolutely. For, as the apostle solemnly declares: Other foundation can no man lay except that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ, v. 11. If men, teachers, arise inside or outside of the Church, claiming that they have a new way of salvation, a different way to heaven than Christ, who alone is the Way, then they are base deceivers, attempting to lay another foundation in opposition to the one and only existing one, which is Jesus Christ. This foundation was laid by God from eternity, when He destined His Son to be the corner-stone and foundation of the great Church, the spiritual temple dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and this foundation will remain as the only foundation, in spite of all the efforts of the enemies to overthrow it. As Luther says: “I have experienced and noted in all histories of all Christendom that all those that correctly had and held the chief article of Jesus Christ, remained well and secure in the true Christian faith. And though they may have erred and sinned otherwise, yet they were finally preserved. For he who herein stands correct and firm that Jesus Christ is true God and man, who died for us and rose again, for him all the other articles will fall in line and stand firmly by his side, so altogether sure it is what St. Paul says, Christ is the chief good, basis, foundation, and all in one.”

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

1Co 3:9. For we are labourers together with God For we are the fellow-labourers of God. Doddridge.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

Ver. 9. For we are labourers, &c. ] Let ministers hence learn their, 1. Dignity; 2. Duty. Fructus honos oneris, Fructus honoris onus. Who would not work hard with such sweet company?

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

9. ] Proof of the last assertion, and introduction of Him , from Whom each . The stress thrice on : shall receive , &c., for it is of GOD that we are the fellow-workers (in subordination to Him , as is of course implied: but to render it ‘fellow-workers with one another , under God,’ as Estius prefers, and Olsh., al., maintain, is contrary to usage: see reff.; and not at all required, see 2Co 5:20 ; 2Co 6:1 ), of GOD that ye are the tillage, of GOD that ye are the building . This last new similitude is introduced on account of what he has presently to say of the different kinds of teaching, which will be more clearly set forth by this, than by the other figure.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Co 3:9 . sums up in two words, and grounds upon a broad principle ( ), what 1Co 3:6 ff. have set out in detail: “we are God’s fellow-workmen” employed upon His field, His building; and “we are God’s fellow -workmen” labouring jointly at the same task. The – of takes up the of 1Co 3:8 ; the context ( cf. 1Co 12:6 ) forbids our referring it to the dependent gen [520] ( cf. also 2Co 1:24 ; 2Co 6:1 , Phi 3:17 , 3Jn 1:8 ), as though P. meant “fellow-workers with God ”: “the work (Arbeit) of the would be improperly conceived as a Mit-arbeit in relation to God; moreover the metaphors which follow exclude the thought of such a fellow-working” (Hn [521] ); also Bg [522] , “operarii Dei, et co-operarii invicem”.

[520] genitive case.

[521] C. F. G. Heinrici’s Erklrung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer’s krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[522] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

As in regard to the labourers, so with the objects of their toil, God is all and in all: , , “God’s tilth ( arvum, land for tillage , Ed [523] ), God’s building you are”. For God as , cf. Joh 15:1 ; as , Heb 3:4 ; Heb 11:10 . “Of the two images, . implies the organic growth of the Church, . the mutual adaptation of its parts” (Lt [524] ); the one looks backward to 1Co 3:6 ff., the other forward to 1Co 3:10 ff. displaces in later Gr [525] , anarthrous by correlation (see note on . ., 1Co 2:4 ): the three gens. are alike gens. of possession “God’s workmen, employed on God’s field-tillage and God’s house-building”. Realising God’s all-comprehending rights in His Church, the too human Cor [526] (1Co 3:3 f.) will come to think justly of His ministers.

[523] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2

[524] J. B. Lightfoot’s (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

[525] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.

[526] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

1 Corinthians

GOD’S FELLOW-WORKERS

1Co 3:9 .

The characteristic Greek tendency to factions was threatening to rend the Corinthian Church, and each faction was swearing by a favourite teacher. Paul and his companion, Apollos, had been taken as the figureheads of two of these parties, and so he sets himself in the context, first of all to show that neither of the two was of any real importance in regard to the Church’s life. They were like a couple of gardeners, one of whom did the planting, and the other the watering; but neither the man that put the little plant into the ground, nor the man that came after him with a watering-pot, had anything to do with originating the mystery of the life by which the plant grew. That was God’s work, and the pair that had planted and watered were nothing. So what was the use of fighting which of two nothings was the greater?

But then he bethinks himself that that is not quite all. The man that plants and the man that waters are something after all. They do not communicate life, but they do provide for its nourishment. And more than that, the two operations-that of the man with the dibble and that of the man with the watering-pot-are one in issue; and so they are partners, and in some respects may be regarded as one. Then what is the sense of pitting them against each other?

But even that is not quite all; though united in operation, they are separate in responsibility and activity, and will be separate in reward. And even that is not all; for, being nothing and yet something, being united and yet separate, they are taken into participation and co-operation with God; and as my text puts it, in what is almost a presumptuous phrase, they are ‘labourers together with Him.’ That partnership of co-operation is not merely a partnership of the two, but it is a partnership of the three-God and the two who, in some senses, are one.

Now whilst this text is primarily spoken in regard to the apostolic and evangelistic work of these early teachers, the principle which it embodies is a very wide one, and it applies in all regions of life and activity, intellectual, scholastic, philanthropic, social. Where-ever men are thinking God’s thoughts and trying to carry into effect any phase or side of God’s manifold purposes of good and blessing to the world, there it is true. We claim no special or exclusive prerogative for the Christian teacher. Every man that is trying to make men understand God’s thought, whether it is expressed in creation, or whether it is written in history, or whether it is carven in half-obliterated letters on the constitution of human nature, every man who, in any region of society or life, is seeking to effect the great designs of the universal loving Father-can take to himself, in the measure and according to the manner of his special activity, the great encouragement of my text, and feel that he, too, in his little way, is a fellow-helper to the truth and a fellow-worker with God. But then, of course, according to New Testament teaching, and according to the realities of the case, the highest form in which men thus can co-operate with God, and carry into effect His purposes is that in which men devote themselves, either directly or indirectly, to spreading throughout the whole world the name and the power of the Saviour Jesus Christ, in whom all God’s will is gathered, and through whom all God’s blessings are communicated to mankind. So the thought of my text comes appropriately when I have to bring before you the claims of our missionary operations.

Now, the first way in which I desire to look at this great idea expressed in these words, is that we find in it

I. A solemn thought.

‘Labourers together with God.’ Cannot He do it all Himself? No. God needs men to carry out His purposes. True, on the Cross, Jesus spoke the triumphant word, ‘It is finished!’ He did not thereby simply mean that He had completed all His suffering; but He meant that He had then done all which the world needed to have done in order that it should be a redeemed world. But for the distribution and application of that finished work God depends on men. You all know, in your own daily businesses, how there must be a middleman between the mill and the consumer. The question of organising a distributing agency is quite as important as any other part of the manufacturer’s business. The great reservoir is full, but there has to be a system of irrigating-channels by which the water is carried into every corner of the field that is to be watered. Christian men individually, and the Church collectively, supply-may I call it the missing link?-between a redeeming Saviour and the world which He has redeemed in act, but which is not actually redeemed, until it has received the message of the great Redemption that is wrought. The supernatural is implanted in the very heart of the mass of leaven by the Incarnation and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ; but the spreading of that supernatural revelation is left in the hands of men who work through natural processes, and who thus become labourers together with God, and enable Christ to be to single souls, in blessed reality, what He is potentially to the world, and has been ever since. He died upon the Cross. ‘It is finished.’ Yes-because it is finished, our work begins.

Let me remind you of the profound symbolism in that incident where our Lord for once appeared conspicuously, and almost ostentatiously, before Israel as its true King. He had need-as He Himself said-of the meek beast on which He rode. He cannot pass, in His coronation procession, through the world unless He has us, by whom He may be carried into every corner of the earth. So ‘the Lord has need’ of us, and we are ‘fellow-labourers with Him.’

But this same thought suggests another point. We have here a solemn call addressed to every Christian man and woman.

Do not let us run away with the idea that, because here the Apostle is speaking in regard to himself and Apollos, he is enunciating a truth which applies only to Apostles and evangelists. It is true of all Christians. My knowledge of and faith in Jesus Christ as my own personal Saviour impose upon me the obligation, in so far as my opportunities and capacities extend, thus to co-operate with Him in spreading His great Name. Every Christian man, just because he is a Christian, is invested with the power-and power to its last particle is duty-and is, therefore, burdened with the honourable obligation to work for God. There is such a thing as ‘coming to the help of the Lord,’ though that phrase seems to reverse altogether the true relation. It is the duty of every Christian, partly because of loyalty to Jesus, and partly because of the responsibility which the very constitution of society lays upon every one of us, to diffuse what he possesses, and to be a distributing agent for the life that he himself enjoys. Brethren! there is no possibility of Christian men or women being fully faithful to the Saviour, unless they recognise that the duty of being a fellow-labourer with God inevitably follows on being a possessor of Christ’s salvation; and that no Apostle, no official, no minister, no missionary, has any more necessity laid upon him to preach the Gospel, nor pulls down any heavier woe on himself if he is unfaithful, than has and does each one of Christ’s servants.

So ‘we are fellow-labourers with God.’ Alas! alas! how poorly the average Christian realises-I do not say discharges, but realises-that obligation! Brethren, I do not wish to find fault, but I do beseech you to ask yourselves whether, if you are Christians, you are doing anything the least like what my text contemplates as the duty of all Christians.

May I say a word or two with regard to another aspect of this solemn call? Does not the thought of working along with God prescribe for us the sort of work that we ought to do? We ought to work in God’s fashion, and if we wish to know what God’s fashion is, we have but to look at Jesus Christ. We ought to work in Jesus Christ’s fashion. We all know what that involved of self-sacrifice, of pain, of weariness, of utter self-oblivious devotion, of gentleness, of tenderness, of infinite pity, of love running over. ‘The master’s eye makes a good servant.’ The Master’s hand working along with the servant ought to make the servant work after the Master’s fashion. ‘As My Father hath sent Me, so send I you.’ If we felt that side by side with us, like two sailors hauling on one rope, ‘the Servant of the Lord’ was toiling, do you not think it would burn up all our selfishness, and light up all our indifference, and make us spend ourselves in His service? A fellow-labourer with God will surely never be lazy and selfish. Thus my text has in it, to begin with, a solemn call.

It suggests

II. A signal honour.

Suppose a great painter, a Raphael or a Turner, taking a little boy that cleaned his brushes, and saying to him, ‘Come into my studio, and I will let you do a bit of work upon my picture.’ Suppose an aspirant, an apprentice in any walk of life, honoured by being permitted to work along with some one who was recognised all over the world as being at the very top of that special profession. Would it not be a feather in the boy’s cap all his life? And would he not think it the greatest honour that ever had been done him that he was allowed to co-operate, in however inferior a fashion, with such an one? Jesus Christ says to us, ‘Come and work here side by side with Me,’ But Christian men, plenty of them, answer, ‘It is a perpetual nuisance, this continual application for money! money! money! work! work! work! It is never-ending, and it is a burden!’ Yes, it is a burden, just because it is an honour. Do you know that the Hebrew word which means ‘glory’ literally means ‘weight’ ? There is a great truth in that. You cannot get true honours unless you are prepared to carry them as burdens. And the highest honour that Jesus Christ gives to men when He says to them, not only ‘Go work to-day in My vineyard,’ but ‘Come, work here side by side with Me,’ is a heavy weight which can only be lightened by a cheerful heart.

Is it not the right way to look at all the various forms of Christian activity which are made imperative upon Christian people, by their possession of Christianity as being tokens of Christ’s love to us? Do you remember that this same Apostle said, ‘Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ?’ He could speak about burdens and heavy tasks, and being ‘persecuted but not forsaken,’ almost crushed down and yet not in despair, and about the weights that came upon him daily, ‘the care of all the churches,’ but far beneath all the sense of his heavy load lay the thrill of thankful wonder that to him, of all men in the world, knowing as he did better than anybody else could do his own imperfection and insufficiency, this distinguishing honour had been bestowed, that he was made the Apostle to the Gentiles. That is the way in which the true man will always look at what the selfish man, and the half-and-half Christian, look at as being a weight and a weariness, or a disagreeable duty, which is to be done as perfunctorily as possible. One question that a great many who call themselves Christians ask is, ‘With how little service can I pass muster?’ Ah, it is because we have so little of the Spirit of Christ in us that we feel burdened by His command, ‘Go ye into all the world,’ as being so heavy; and that so many of us-I leave you to judge if you are in the class-so many of us make it criminally light if we do not ignore it altogether. I believe that, if it were possible to conceive of the duty and privilege of spreading Christ’s name in the world being withdrawn from the Church, all His real servants would soon be yearning to have it back again. It is a token of His love; it is a source of infinite blessings to ourselves; ‘if the house be not worthy, your peace shall return to you again.’

And now, lastly, we have suggested by this text

III. A strong encouragement.

‘Fellow-labourers with God’-then, God is a Fellow-labourer with us. The co-operation works both ways, and no man who is seeking to spread that great salvation, to distribute that great wealth, to irrigate some little corner of the field by some little channel that he has dug, needs to feel that he is labouring alone. If I am working with God, God is working with me. Do you remember that most striking picture which is drawn in the verses appended to Mark’s Gospel, which tells how the universe seemed parted into two halves, and up above in the serene the Lord ‘sat on the right hand of God,’ while below, in the murky and obscure, ‘they went everywhere preaching the Word.’ The separation seems complete, but the two halves are brought together by the next word-’The Lord also,’ sitting up yonder, ‘working with them’ the wandering preachers down here, ‘confirming the words with signs following.’ Ascended on high, entered into His rest, having finished His work, He yet is working with us, if we are labourers together with God. If we turn to the last book of Scripture, which draws back the curtain from the invisible world which is all filled with the glorified Christ, and shows its relations to the earthly militant church, we read no longer of a Christ enthroned in apparent ease, but of a Christ walking amidst the candlesticks, and of a Lamb standing in the midst of the Throne, and opening the seals, launching forth into the world the sequences of the world’s history, and of the Word of God charging His enemies on His white horse, and behind Him the armies of God following. The workers who labour with God have the ascended Christ labouring with them.

But if God works with us, success is sure. Then comes the old question that Gideon asked with bitterness of heart, when he was threshing out his handful of wheat in a corner to avoid the oppressors, ‘If the Lord be with us, wherefore is all this come upon us? Will any one say that the progress of the Gospel in the world has been at the rate which its early believers expected, or at the rate which its own powers warranted them to expect? Certainly not. And so it comes to this, that whilst every true labourer has God working with him, and therefore success is certain, the planter and the waterer can delay the growth of the plant by their unfaithfulness, by not expecting success, by not so working as to make it likely, or by neutralising their evangelistic efforts by their worldly lives. When Jesus Christ was on earth, it is recorded, ‘He could there do no mighty works because of their unbelief, save that He laid His hands on a few sick folk and healed them.’ A faithless Church, a worldly Church, a lazy Church, an unspiritual Church, an un-Christlike Church-which, to a large extent, is the designation of the so-called Church of to day-can clog His chariot-wheels, can thwart the work, can hamper the Divine Worker. If the Christians of Manchester were revived, they could win Manchester for Jesus. If the Christians of England lived their Christianity, they could make England what it never has been but in name-a Christian country. If the Church universal were revived, it could win the world. If the single labourer, or the community of such, is labouring ‘in the Lord,’ their labour will not be in vain; and if they thus plant and water, God will give the increase.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

we. i.e. Paul and Sosthenes. See 1Co 1:1.

labourers together with God = God’s fellow-workers. The word “God” is in the genitive of possession (App-17), as in the two other clauses of the verse. It is the Figure of speech Anaphora (App-6), and the verse should read: “God’s fellow-workers we are: God’s husbandry, God’s building, ye are. “Ministers are co-workers with one another, not with God, as though He were one of them. Were it so, “God” would be in the dative case.

labourers together with. Greek. sunergos. Occurs thirteen times. Three times as here, used generally; in all other cases used of individuals, Timothy, Titus, Luke, &c.

husbandry = tilled field. Greek. georgion. Only here. Compare Num 24:6. Psa 80:15.

building. Greek. oikodome. Used in Mat 24:1. Mar 13:1, Mar 13:2; 2Co 5:1. Eph 2:21, of an edifice. Elsewhere twelve times of the act of building, and translated “edifying”, in a metaphorical sense.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

9.] Proof of the last assertion, and introduction of Him, from Whom each . The stress thrice on :-shall receive, &c.,-for it is of GOD that we are the fellow-workers (in subordination to Him, as is of course implied: but to render it fellow-workers with one another, under God, as Estius prefers, and Olsh., al., maintain, is contrary to usage: see reff.;-and not at all required, see 2Co 5:20; 2Co 6:1), of GOD that ye are the tillage, of GOD that ye are the building. This last new similitude is introduced on account of what he has presently to say of the different kinds of teaching, which will be more clearly set forth by this, than by the other figure.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 3:9. , of God) This word is solemnly repeated immediately after,[26] and is emphatically put at the beginning thrice; as in 1Co 3:10, grace; and in 1Co 3:11, foundation.-, labourers together with) We are Gods labourers, and in turn labourers together with Him.-, husbandry) This constitutes the sum of what goes before; , a word of wide and comprehensive meaning, comprising the field, the garden, and the vineyard.-, building) This constitutes the sum of what follows.

[26] By the figure anaphora, i.e., the frequent repetition of words in the beginnings of Sections, or in adorning and amplifying weighty arguments.-Append.-T.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 3:9

1Co 3:9

For we are Gods fellow-workers:-The apostles and faithful teachers are Gods fellow workers, working together with him, doing and teaching what he directs.

ye are Gods husbandry,-The church is Gods husbandry, is the field planted with the seed God gave, and is cultivated and nourished by Gods servants. [This metaphor is frequently used in the Scripture which shows that it plainly rests upon a far-reaching harmony of things natural and spiritual. (See Isa 5:1-7; Mat 13:3-30; Luk 13:6-9; Joh 15:1-6). All agriculture is man working together with God. For every pious farmer feels that his harvest is a result and reward proportionate to his own toil and skill, and yet altogether Gods gift to him. Just so, the servant of the Lord places the word of God in its appropriate soil, the human heart, and from the word, in virtue of its life-giving power, there springs up a fruitful plant of an obedient believer and a devoted Christian life.]

Gods building.-The church is the temple of God, builded of living stones. (1Pe 2:5). Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. God is fitting the stones and placing them into the building through his workmen. God builds the house, and through the Spirit dwells in it. As we give honor, not to the workmen who execute, but to him who planned and provided for the building, so the honor for this spiritual house belongs to God.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Lecture 9

The Testing Of The Believers Works

1Co 3:9-23

For we are labourers together with God: ye are Gods husbandry, ye are Gods building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every mans work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is. If any mans work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any mans work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christs; and Christ is Gods. (vv. 9-23)

We have noticed how the apostle warns the people of God against putting His servants in a place that should belong only to the blessed Lord. Every minister is simply what that name implies, a servant, and the danger is that the servant will be exalted and the Master lost sight of, or the servant be so censored and blamed that the message will be refused and the Master dishonored. The servants in themselves are nothing but channels through whom God speaks to His people. The important thing is the message they bring. And so Paul speaks of himself and his fellow servants in this way: We are labourers together with God.

The wonderful thing is that God could do all His work without us. It is not necessary that He should take up any of us and use us to spread His gospel. He could write it in letters of fire upon the heavens, He could send angels of glory to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, even as of old they came to proclaim the birth of Christ and to direct the shepherds to Bethlehems manger. But He has chosen to give to us the privilege of making known the riches of His g holy privilege, and yet a very responsible one. It should lead every servant of Christ to ask himself, Am I really in touch with God, am I seeking my own interests, can it be that I am actuated by selfish motives, by vain glory, simply trying to attract attention to myself and my ministry instead of taking a place like that of John the Baptist of old who pointed the people away from himself to Christ saying, He must increase, but I must decrease (Joh 3:30)? This was the attitude of Paul and this will be the attitude of every true minister of God. We are labourers together with God. They are not left to work in their own strength, but are to give out their message in dependence upon the indwelling Holy Spirit. That is the difference between preaching and worldly oratory. An orator may take a passage from the Bible and read it in a most thrilling way, but that would not be preaching, because he would not be doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit. A poor uneducated man may stand up and preach the gospel in halting English, and yet in such divine power that men would break before it and be led to confess their sins and trust the Savior. That is what He means when he says, The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God (1Co 1:18). Gods servants would preach better if you prayed for them more; there would be more response to the preaching if they were more upheld in the secret closet by the people of God. How the apostle felt his dependence on the prayers of Gods people! You find him pleading with the saints to remember him in prayer that he might preach as he ought to preach. That is the petition that we bring to you, and we plead with you for Christs sake and for the sake of dying men, bear up the ministry before God, take it daily to God in prayer that those who preach the Word may give it out in the demonstration of the Spirit and in power. We are labourers together with God, and it is only as God works in and through us that anything is accomplished.

Then he turns to the servants as a whole and likens them to a field and a building. First we read, Ye are Gods husbandry-or Gods tilled field. You remember how the Lord Jesus Christ used that figure. The sower sows the Word and when the Word is sown and people believe it, He likens them to wheat in a field. That is a beautiful picture of His people, Gods tilled field. One lovely thing about a field of wheat is that the heads are rising up toward the sun and they are very much on a level. We are all members one of another; one is not to tower above the other, but together we are to bring forth fruit to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second, Ye are Gods building. The building is really the temple referred to in verse 16, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Of old when Solomon built the temple, he built it upon the solid rock of Mount Moriah. That was an oval-shaped hill and so it was necessary to make a level foundation. Vast stones were brought from the quarries below and thus made a great platform upon which the building stood, and so the apostle says, Ye are Gods building, Gods temple. That is, the church of God collectively is the temple of God. He is not speaking of the individual now. In the sixth chapter and the nineteenth verse he says, What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? That is another thing. In that sense you are a temple of God apart from every other believer, but here he is speaking of the assembly of God who as a whole constitute the temple of God, The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth (1Ti 3:15).

According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder [or as a wise architect], I have laid the foundation. Just as that foundation had to be laid before the temple was erected, so Paul came to Corinth and there laid the foundation by preaching the Word, and was used to bring the first members into the church of God in that locality. Very few of us can do foundation work like that in these days. Our missionaries have that privilege, they do not have to build upon another mans foundation, but with most of us the foundation has been laid, and so in the same way the foundation of the church in Corinth was laid when Paul first went there to labor. Now he says, That foundation does not need to be laid again. Others build upon it-but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. In other words, they must preach the truth of God in the power of the Holy Spirit and not allow unscriptural and worldly and carnal things to come in to mar the work that the Spirit of God is doing.

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. That word precious should be costly, like the great and costly stones built into the temple of old. It is not the thought of diamonds and rubies, but great costly stones, built into the spiritual temple of the Lord. If unconverted, worldly, careless people are brought in, all these hurt and hinder the work of Christ; and so if you apply this to every individual believer, though primarily it has to do with building up the church through the servants of God, the same principle abides. You rest on the one foundation, Christ, and you are building a life, a character, that must stand the test of that coming day. How are you building and what are you building? You may build with gold which speaks of divine righteousness, silver which speaks of redemption, costly stones speaking of that which will abide the day of testing. Or, on the other hand, you may build with wood, hay, or stubble-wood, which may be fashioned to be very beautiful and has a certain value attached to it, but which will not stand the fire; hay, which is of less value than the wood and yet also has a certain measure of worth because containing nourishment; stubble, that which is utterly worthless, that which should have no place whatever in the thoughts of the people of God. How are you building?

God has undertaken for us so marvelously. We have often wondered what we were going to do, how we were ever going to get through, and yet God has brought us through, and we have found that a great deal we worried about we had better left with Him. Someone has said, I have had a great many troubles in my life, but most of them never happened. God has been so gracious. Is this not a good time to look back and take stock? How have we been building? Everything that has been to the glory of God will be looked upon in that day as the gold that has His approval. Everything in our life that has been the result of our recognition of redemption, if we have acted as men and women redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, will shine out as silver in that day. Everything that has been in accor- dance with the Word and has sprung from that renewed nature which we have through grace, will be as costly stones built into this edifice of our life. How have you been building? Do you see a great many things that give you pause? Do you say, There has been so much selfishness, so much carnality, so much downright bad temper, so much just of the flesh and so much that was un-Christlike? Then, dear believer, go to God and judge all these things in His presence, and they will be burned up now and you wont have to face them later. If you do not judge them now, you will have to face them at the judgment seat of Christ. If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged (1Co 11:31). We are called to confess all these things that the Spirit shows us are just of the flesh.

A great deal that is called Christian work may be only the energy of the flesh. It is not done for the glory of God at all. What motives actuate us? How do we feel if others are preferred before us? This is a good way to test ourselves as to whether what we are doing is for the Lord. Only that which is done for Christ will be rewarded in that day. Notice, it is He Himself who will point out the differences.

Every mans work shall be made manifest. This is at the judgment seat of Christ, not at the judgment of the Great White Throne. Believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ at the Lords coming. For the day [that is, the day of Christ] shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire-the purging, testing fire of divine approval, discernment, righteousness; for He is going to judge everything by His standards, not by ours. And the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is. I beg of you, consider that little word, sort. Of what sort it is. Not how much it is. There may be much that amounts to very little in that day, but of what sort it is. It is the character of our work that counts, the motives that lie behind our service. The secrets of the heart are to be made manifest. God will test everything in the light of His own truth. It is a great comfort sometimes when you cannot do all you would like to do to know that if it is of the right character, you will be rewarded just the same.

That is so lovely in connection with that dear woman who anointed the feet of the Lord. When others objected, Jesus said, She hath done what she could. Is that what the Lord will be able to say of you in that day?-He hath done what he could-she hath done what she could. And then, I do like that word that the Lord spake to David. Solomon tells how David wanted to build a temple to the Lord, but God did not allow him to do so, but the Lord said, Thou didst well that it was in thine heart (1Ki 8:18). Possibly there is a sister who wanted to be a foreign missionary, but she lost her health and was not able to do so. She has been perhaps a semi-invalid at home for years, but has been able to write kind and helpful letters to those in distress. She gave of her slender means to others to take the gospel to the ends of the world, yet she says, I feel as though my life has amounted to so little; I wanted to be a missionary, and instead of that I have lived this humdrum existence. Do not be discouraged; if done for Christ, He will say, She hath done what she could. Thou didst well that it was in thine heart. Perhaps there is a brother who as a young man thought, How I would like to go into the ministry, how I would love to devote my life to proclaiming the gospel. But that necessitated study, years of preparation, and during those years when he would like to have gone to school perhaps he had a dear aged mother depending upon him, or a sick father, and he had to be the wage earner of the family. And so he has toiled on, labored on, helping to keep these dear ones, and many a time he has said, Well, I have missed it; my life has not been the kind I wanted it to be; I wanted to be a minister of the gospel and here I have had to live in this matter-of-fact kind of way, handling butter and eggs, working in an office, or something like that. My dear brother, the Lord has taken note of all that self-denying care you have given that dear father or mother. He is not going to lose sight of any of it, and in that coming day He will say, Thou didst well that it was in thine heart, and will give you the same kind of a reward as you would have earned if you could have gone out and preached the gospel. It is the heart God looks at-of what sort it is. God grant that our work may be of the right sort.

If any mans work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. This is in addition to salvation. We are saved by grace, but this is for faithful service. After we have been saved, there is superabounding grace for, of course, the reward too is of grace, for we could not have earned anything but by divine power. He enables us and then rewards us. But, on the other hand, If any mans work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. What does that mean? Will I not feel unhappy even in heaven if I suffer loss in that day? You see, I will come before the Lord and He will go over my life from the day His grace saved me. It will pass like a panorama before me, and for everything that was the outworking of His Holy Spirit, for everything that was in accordance with His Word, He will give a reward. He will gather that which was for His glory together, and will say, I am going to reward you for that. But He will bring everything to light which was of self, contrary to the Spirit of Christ, and say, All that is just so much lost time. If you had devoted all that time to My glory, I could have rewarded you, but I cannot reward you for that which did not please Me. But I tell you what I am going to do with it, I am going to burn it up, and you will never hear of it again for all eternity. There will be nothing left but that which was to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Suppose that in that day I have really nothing to glorify Him, I have trusted Him as my Savior but my life seemingly amounted to nothing. If any mans work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. You may have a beautiful home, you may have spent a long time in building it, but one day it takes fire, and you are wakened in the middle of the night to find the flames roaring through the halls. You leap out of the window and are saved, but the house is burned up. That is the way it will be for many a believer; the life will go for nothing, the life and testimony will be wasted, there will be no reward, but the individual believer will be saved yet so as by fire. Look at Lot. He spent years in Sodom building up a great reputation, he became a judge, but he had no business being there. We read: That righteous manin seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds (2Pe 2:8), but Abrahams soul was not daily thus distressed. Why? Because he was not there at all, he was separated from it all. Finally God destroyed Sodom with fire and saved Lot. Saved yet so as by fire. Everything he had lived for was burned up. Believer, what a solemn thing if that should be true of you or of me, when the blessed Lord takes account of our service.

The apostle goes to the farthest extreme here, but in the next chapter he shows that there will be no believer of whom that is actually true. Chapter 4 verse 5 reads: Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. He will find something in every believers life that He can reward, some little act of unselfishness, some trembling testimony for Himself, everything that was of the Spirit will be rewarded in that day. But he puts it in the third chapter in the strongest way that we may distinguish between salvation, which is of grace alone, and reward which is for service.

In the last part of the chapter he refers to another class. He has been speaking of members of the church of God, in the temple of God, some who build gold, silver, precious stones, and some who build wood, hay, and stubble. Now he speaks of a third class in verse 16, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? And then in verse 17, If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Of whom is he speaking now? If any man defile the temple of God-those who are the enemies of Gods truth, those who try to destroy His church, seek to ruin the work of the Lord, men from the outside who creep in. I tremble when I think of what it will mean for men who today profess to be servants of Christ and ministers of God but despise this Book and deny every fundamental truth of Holy Scripture, and yet for filthy lucres sake get into pulpits of orthodox churches, and instead of building gold, silver, or precious stones are only building wood, hay, and stubble, and they are destroying, as much as in them is, the temple of God. God says, I will destroy them; they will have to account to Me by-and-by. I dwell upon this because some have misunderstood this passage and think of the temple as the temple of the human body; they have thought it might mean if somebody fell into some kind of habit that defiled the body it would mean that God would destroy him. If you allow yourself to indulge in any habit that injures this body, you will have to have answer for that, but here He is talking about the temple that is being built upon the one foundation, the church of the living God.

Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. The wisdom of this world, not the knowledge of this world. Knowledge is perfectly right and proper; gain all you can; but the wisdom, that is, the philosophy, the reasoning of this world, is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. Men may think they are very wise but God is ahead of them, and therefore because He has made foolish all the wisdom of this world, how absurd it is for Christians to glory in that which is just of man. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours. Let me give you a title to a fortune. You are rich beyond your wildest dreams. Note carefully this closing passage.

Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, the ministers of Christ, or the world. Is the world mine? Yes, because, The earth is the LORDS, and the fulness thereof (Psa 24:1). This is my Fathers world. I can say, Thank God, it all belongs to me, and I am going to reign over it someday. Or life-yes, life is mine in which to glorify God. Or death-death is the servant to usher me into the presence of the Lord. Or things present-they are all mine, the trials, the difficulties, the perplexities as well as the happy things. Or things to come. What riches are soon to be revealed! All are yours; and ye are Christs; and Christ is Gods. What a wonderful culmination to this chapter that emphasizes our responsibility!

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Gods Fellow-workers

We are Gods fellow-workers.1Co 3:9.

1. The characteristic Greek tendency to factions was threatening to rend the Corinthian Church, and each faction was swearing by a favourite teacher. St. Paul uses the words of the text to emphasize the truth that in the process of teaching and saving men Gods work links itself with mans, and Gods work is so much mightier and more wonderful than mans that it is idle to weigh the work of one human labourer against that of another, after the fashion of these Corinthian sectaries. We might just as well pick out tiny shells in the cement binding the stones of a minster and divide ourselves into factions to champion the architectural honour due to the several tenants of each particular primeval shell, or select striking portions of oak carving and divide ourselves into factions to champion the artistic possibilities of the several acorns that evolved such magnificent material. A rational being has not time to think of these infinitesimal questions. He wishes to save up his tribute of honour for the genius who planned arch and spire, and dreamt out flowered screen and stall, and guided the whole to its many-sided perfection. Gods true labourers will be rewarded, not by the reckless praise and short-sighted judgments of men, but by Him who counts them allies, and in the strength of whose gift all right work must be done.

2. Startled by the boldness of the expression of the text, as if it verged on profanity, interpreters have been found to give it a different meaningfellow-labourers under God, fellow-workers in Gods field. But this is not justified by the language used. The meaning of St. Pauls words is We are at work with God Himself. And to the bold idea of joint labour with God there is added the idea of dependence. We are Gods day-labourers, working with Him. It is His to pay the workmen, and to value their labour. For is it not His Church, His field, His house? It is to a Divine possession that the workers put their hand. What gravity attaches to such labour! To cultivate a field the harvest of which is Gods! To build the house which God Himself is to inhabit! God alone can estimate such labour, and He will not fail to do so. These are the ideas in the Apostles mind when he says: We are Gods fellow-workers.

3. The principle embodied is a very wide one, and it applies in all regions of life and activity, intellectual, scholastic, philanthropic, social. Wherever men are thinking Gods thoughts and trying to carry into effect any phase or side of Gods manifold purposes of good and blessing to the world, there it is true. Every man who is trying to make men understand Gods thought, whether it is expressed in creation, or whether it is written in history, or whether it is graven in half-obliterated letters on the constitution of human nature,every man who, in any region of society or life, is seeking to effect the great designs of the universal loving Fathercan take to himself, in the measure and according to the manner of his special activity, the great encouragement of the text, and feel that he, too, is a fellow-helper to the truth and a fellow-worker with God.

The apse of Amiens is the first virgin perfect workParthenon also in that senseof Gothic Architecture. Who built it, shall we ask? God, and Manis the first and most true answer. The stars in their courses built it, and the nations. Greek Athena labours hereand Roman Father Jove, and Guardian Mars. The Gaul labours here, and the Frank: knightly Normanmighty Ostrogothand wasted anchorite of Idumea. The actual Man who built it scarcely cared to tell you he did so; nor do the historians brag of him. Any quantity of heraldries of knaves and fainants you may find in what they call their history: but this is probably the first time you ever read the name of Robert of Luzarches. I say he scarcely caredwe are not sure that he cared at all. He signed his name nowhere that I can hear of. You may perhaps find some recent initials cut by English remarkable visitors, desirous of immortality, here and there about the edifice, but Robert the builderor at least the Master of building, cut his on no stone of it.1 [Note: Ruskin, The Bible of Amiens (Works, xxxiii. 131).]

I

We are Fellow-workers with One Another

The men who had ministered at Corinth, and around whose names factions were forming, differed in their gifts. St. Paul was the wisest master-builder who dealt with massive fundamentals. The elaboration of his artistic successors would not have counted for much without Pauline teaching for corner and foundation-stone. Some people would have liked to see more paint, gilding, embellishment on his granite. The task of Apollos was chiefly one of garniture, useful and fitted to attract, but vain without the bulwark of well-tested logic behind and beneath it. Gifts are diverse no less than the crowns which shall recompense the faithful use of gifts, but the work is one.

Convenience, that admirable branch system from the main line of self-interest, makes us all fellow-helpers in spite of adverse resolutions. It is probable that no speculative or theological hatred would be ultimately strong enough to resist the persuasive power of convenience: that a latitudinarian baker, whose bread was honourably free from alum, would command the custom of any dyspeptic Puseyite; that an Arminian with the toothache would prefer a skilful Calvinistic dentist to a bungler stanch against the doctrines of Election and Final Perseverance, who would be likely to break the tooth in his head; and that a Plymouth Brother, who had a well-furnished grocery shop in a favourable vicinage, would occasionally have the pleasure of furnishing sugar or vinegar to orthodox families that found themselves unexpectedly out of these indispensable commodities.2 [Note: George Eliot, Janets Repentance.]

There was a story that when the Anglo-Catholic Library was being discussed, Mr. Keble said to Dr. Moberly, Well, you shall undertake the Anglo part and I the Catholic, and we will fight over the hyphen.3 [Note: C. A. E. Moberly, Dulce Domum, 82.]

(1) In the building of Solomons Temple there were counted out by the king seventy thousand men for the sole purpose of bearing burdens. No doubt this grew irksome to these men, and they would many a time wish for some other work on the structure, and perhaps envy the men who were skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in purple, in blue, and in crimson. But without them the Temple could never have been built. Their work was absolutely essential. And so it seems that in the building of the spiritual temple, many have been counted out by the king just to bear burdens. Tedious and wearisome as their lots are, yet nothing they do that makes for spiritual growth, purity of life, or cleanness of soul, can fail to subserve Gods great purpose of erecting a world-wide spiritual temple upon this sin-stained world.

There was a sharp discussion the other day in a gentlemans kitchen. One speaker said to another, I am ashamed of you; we ought not to be in the same house together; you are common and vulgar-looking, besides being scratched and chipped all over. Look at me; there is not a flaw upon all my surface; my beauty is admired; my place in the house is a place of honour. The other speaker was not boisterous, there was no resentment in the tone of the reply: It is true that you are beautiful, and that I am very common, but that is not the only difference between us. See how you are cared for; you are protected by a glass shade; you are dusted with a brush made of the softest feathers; everybody in approaching you is warned of your delicacy. It is very different with me; whenever water is wanted I am taken to the well; when servants are done with me they almost fling me down; I am used for all kinds of work; and there never was a scullery-maid in the house who did not think herself good enough to speak of me with contempt. It is so with men. Some of us live under glass shades; others of us are as vessels in common wear; but we could not change places; each must do his proper work, and each will have his appropriate reward.1 [Note: J. Parker.]

Is it the work that makes life great and true?

Or the true soul that, working as it can,

Does faithfully the task it has to do,

And keepeth faith alike with God and man?

Ah! well; the work is something; the same gold

Or brass is fashioned now into a coin,

Now into fairest chalice that shall hold

To panting lips the sacramental wine:

Here the same marble forms a cattle-trough

For brutes by the wayside to quench their thirst,

And there a god emerges from the rough

Unshapely blockyet they were twins at first.

One pool of metal in the melting pot

A sordid, or a sacred thought inspires;

And of twin marbles from the quarry brought

One serves the earth, one glows with altar-fires.

Theres something in high purpose of the soul

To do the highest service to its kind;

Theres something in the art that can unroll

Secrets of beauty shaping in the mind.

Yet he who takes the lower room, and tries

To make his cattle-trough with honest heart,

And could not frame the god with gleaming eyes,

As nobly plays the more ignoble part.

And maybe, as the higher light breaks in

And shows the meaner task he has to do,

He is the greater that he strives to win

Only the praise of being just and true.

For who can do no thing of sovran worth

Which men shall praise, a higher task may find,

Plodding his dull round on the common earth,

But conquering envies rising in the mind.

And God works in the little as the great

A perfect work, and glorious over all

Or in the stars that choir with joy elate,

Or in the lichen spreading on the wall.1 [Note: Walter C. Smith, Work and Spirit.]

(2) Besides seventy thousand men to bear burdens for the Temple, there were told off eighty thousand men to hew stone and wood in the mountains. These men had a task both laborious and uninviting. Although the Temple!, could never have been built without them, yet the pleasure was denied them of seeing, while they worked, the great and glorious edifice arise on Mount Moriah. And so, to-day, the Lord has His hewers of wood and stone in the mountains. To them is given hard and unresponsive tasks. They labour all the day, and catch no glimpse of the House that is being built for Jehovah, helped by their labour. But still, without them, the House could never have been built.

The close sympathy between the Scotch people and the Scotch gentry in most of the national struggles has been one great cause of that admirable firmness of national character which learnt at last to dispense with leadership. In Ireland, in spite of adverse circumstances, this attachment between land-lord and tenant in many particular instances was undoubtedly formed, but in general there could be no real confidence between the classes. When the people awoke to political life, they found their natural leaders their antagonists; they were compelled to look for other chiefs, and they often found them in men who were inferior in culture, in position, and in character, who sought their suffrages for private ends, and who won them by fulsome flattery, false rhetoric, and exaggerated opinions.1 [Note: W. E. H. Lecky, A History of Ireland, i. 280.]

From Bellinzona (after a day or twos excursion to Locarno) Ruskin drove to the head of the lake, and took the steamer for Baveno and the Isola Bella. Writing thence to his father (July 8), Ruskin mentions a political observation which made a great impression on him, for he used it more than once as an illustration in his economic writings:

No pity nor respect can be felt for these people, who have sunk and remain sunk, merely by idleness and wantonness in the midst of all blessings and advantages: who cannot so much as bank outor ina mountain stream, because, as one of their priests told me the other day, every man always acts for himself: they will never act together and do anything at common expense for the common good; but every man tries to embank his own land and throw the stream upon his neighbours; and so the stream masters them all and sweeps its way down all the valley in victory. This I heard from the curate of a mountain chapel at Bellinzona, when I went every evening to draw his garden.2 [Note: E. T. Cook, The Life of Ruskin, i. 517.]

(3) There were men skilful to work in gold and silver, brass, iron, stone, linen, purple, and crimson, and to grave all manner of gravings and devise all manner of devices. These were the outstanding men of genius, of whom only a few were needed.

To Sir Christopher Wren belongs the undying honour of having designed the great cathedral of St. Paul, with its world-famous dome, in London. But Sir Christopher Wren could never in a million years have built the dome alone. He was dependent upon the humblest labourers who toiled upon the hidden base, or reared the turrets of the mighty structure, as they were dependent upon him. In so far as they used to the uttermost their talents and opportunities, to them is due a full share of the glory.1 [Note: C. B. Keenleyside.]

One day at Perth Bishop Wilkinson (late of Truro) noticed a thin-faced boy looking as if he wanted to speak to him, and he went up to him, asking if the boy wished to speak to him. No, sir, said the boy, only I sing in the same choir as you are in. The Bishops friends laughed at the boys idea of his association with the Bishop in the Church, but the boy was not laughed at by the Bishop.2 [Note: Life of Bishop Wilkinson, ii. 288.]

If The world itself might be redeemed by hopefulness and organized co-operation. Buskin may have lacked the practical gift; but he was possessed by the vision:

(To his Mother) Verona, June 18.Yesterday, it being quite cool, I went for a walk, and as I came down from a rather quiet hillside a mile or two out of town, I passed a house where the women were at work spinning the silk off the cocoons. There was a sort of whirring sound as in an English mill; but at intervals they sang a long sweet chant, all together, lasting about two minutes, then pausing a minute, and then beginning again. It was good and tender music, and the multitude of voices prevented any sense of failure, so that it was all very lovely and sweet, and like the things that I mean to try to bring to pass.3 [Note: E. T. Cook, The Life of Ruskin, ii. 164.]

II

We are Fellow-workers for God

1. Every Christian man and woman is invested with the power, and is therefore burdened with the honourable obligation to work for God. Mans communion with his Maker is not only a fellowship of worship but also a fellowship of service.

What were Ruskins methods in his other and more general manners, when he had the single view of making himself understood and said what he desired in the best words he could find for it? What was his secret? He would have told us, I think, what he reported Turner as saying, I know of no genius but the genius of hard work. There is no writer who gives a stronger impression of ease than Cardinal Newmana great master of simple and lucid English, greater in these particular respects, if we take the whole body of their writings, than Ruskin. Yet even Newman said: I have been obliged to take great pains with everything I have written, and I often write chapters over and over again, besides innumerable corrections and interlined additions. Ruskins method was the same. The search for the right word, for the fitting sentence, was often long; and paragraphs and chapters were written over and over again before they satisfied him. And this applies equally to his most simple writing, such as is to be found, for instance, in The Elements of Drawing; and to his most elaborate passages, such as the exordiums and perorations in Modern Painters, The Seven Lamps, and The Stones of Venice. He carried on the process to the stage of proofs, revises, and re-revises. Facsimiles of pages re-written on the printed proof are included in the Library Edition, and in this connection Dr. Furnivall gave me an anecdote. To Ruskins father the publisher came one day exhibiting a thickly scored final revise and explaining that continuance in such practices would absorb all the authors profits. Dont let my son know, said the old gentleman; John must have his things as he likes them; pay him whatever would become due, apart from corrections, and send in a separate bill for them to me. Few authors, it may be feared, are blessed with so indulgent a parent.1 [Note: E. T. Cook, The Life of Ruskin, i. 358.]

Be strong!

We are not here to play, to dream, to drift.

We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.

Shun not the struggle; face it. Tis Gods gift.2 [Note: Maltbie D. Babcock.]

2. There is a sense in which every man is a worker for God. We cannot help fulfilling His purposes. All things serve Him, and He maketh even the wickedness of men work out His will.

(1) Through human agency the ancient miracle of creation is repeated. One great teaching of modern knowledge says nothing above a certain low level of excellence comes by natural law unaided by man; all best things in the world of nature are the result of his thought and toil. It is true that man can do absolutely nothing without God. He can create no new forces. All the material with which he works Nature has furnished. But what can he not do with it, and what has he done? He has modified climate, made the rivers change their course and even the ocean its shore, made forests grow and made new ground for them to grow in, made the parched ground a pool and the thirsty land springs of water. Eight hundred years ago there was no such country as the Holland of to-day; God had not made it. He made it possible, but man had to give it actual frame and form. The map of Holland is not even now what it was at the beginning of the last century; it has 120,000 more acres of land than it had then.

I was deeply impressed by what a gardener once said to me concerning his work. I feel, sir, he said, when I am growing the flowers, or rearing the vegetables, that I am having a share in creation! I thought it a very noble way of regarding his work.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]

(2) In the realm of outward nature man works for God. It is mans part in evolution that has developed the moss-rose out of the wild-briar, the fine wheat out of the wild grasses. And in the animal kingdom the same thing is seen still more strikingly. The famous breeds of horses and cattle are mans creationby development. Compare your sheep-dog or your setter with the wild canine stock. Association with man has evolved in them something almost of human intelligence and feeling. God gives man all things in the rough, as it were, and leaves him to develop them further; and without mans part faithfully performed, there could not be a loaf of bread evolved out of a wheat field, or a woollen coat out of a sheeps fleece.

Nature knew enough to make textile fibres, but never knew enough to weave a piece of cotton. It never brought out a yard of broadcloth. Nature knew how to make a worm, and the worm knew how to make a garment of death for itself, but nature never made silk. Nature made iron, but never made a toolnot one; and yet, what are the hands of man without tools? Men could not have risen above barbarism but for them.2 [Note: H. W. Beecher.]

(3) In his own training and saving, in the work of developing personal faculty and character, man is a worker with God. Mans own will and effort constitute one of the factors in his progress. You remember the little childs quaint answer to the question, Who made you? Said she, God made me so long, and I growed the rest myself. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength! The little girls answer touched the very heart of the matter. We are made, intellectually and morally, just about so long; that is not our doingit is he that hath made us and not we ourselvesbut, after all, there is a good deal that we have to grow ourselves and that we can grow ourselves.

Theodore Parker used to say that mans life was only about three parts out of the hundred freedom, the rest, necessity. That is not much to claim for free-willthe veriest necessarian might concede that much! But then, even three per cent, of moral freedom, if made the most of, and constantly turned over, may mount up gradually to a considerable increase of that stock-in-trade with which man started. That little three per cent, of free effort has brought man from skins to broadcloth; from the wigwam to the modern house; from the rough tradition chanted by the camp fire to the printed book; from the rude torch to the electric light. In religion, it has brought man from the instinct of fetish-worship to the communion of spiritual prayer; and in morality, from the measureless revenge of the savage to the measured law for a tooth only a tooth, and on to the unmeasured law of forgiveness unto seventy times seven! In a word it is that little free part of mans own, even if it be only three per cent., which, not buried in the napkin of indolence or fatalism, but put out to interest in busy striving life, has brought man from savagism up to civilization, and in which lie the possibilities of further progress stillthe potentialities of the hero, sage and saint in this world, to say nothing of the angel in the life to come.1 [Note: B. Herford.]

(4) It is through men that God helps and saves men and creates His new heavens and His new earth. Out of humanity come the Divine helpers of humanity. God in the world reconciling it to Himself means in human life God in Christ and God in men whom Christ inspires, God choosing and using men to be the instruments of His purpose, the messengers of His mercy and grace, the doers of His word. There was no want of faith, or reverence, or humility in Martin Luther, and yet he could say in his own bold, earnest way, God needs strong men; He cannot get along without them.

The highest of all privileges is to share with God the work of re-creation. There are no flowers so winsome as those you have grown in your own garden, and there is no life that gives you such joy and such delicacy of spiritual food as the life you have helped to make beautiful by your own hearts blood. When you have worked with the Lord in the creation of another mans joy, a most delicately flavoured joy visits your own heart. Let us regard every man as a possible sphere of service, and set to work to turn the untilled field into a garden.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]

Wherefore hast Thou withdrawn Thee from my sight,

O Shepherd? Yesterday in glad delight

I walked serene, rejoicing in the light.

O Shepherd, Shepherd, Shepherd, seek Thy sheep!

But yesterday my soul was all aflame

If but the faintest whisper of Thy name

Ineffable to my rapt spirit came.

O Shepherd, Shepherd, Shepherd, seek Thy sheep!

The waters that refreshed me yesterday,

The sweet green fields that cheered me on my way

Afford no comfort to my soul to-day.

O Shepherd, Shepherd, Shepherd, seek Thy sheep!

Around me the fair world is bathed in light,

All nature breathes to God her calm delight;

And I, alone, stumble in blackest night.

O Shepherd, Shepherd, Shepherd, seek Thy sheep!

Why dost Thou leave me on the mountain side

When all my soul cries out for Thee to guide,

Desiring nought in earth or heaven beside?

O Shepherd, Shepherd, Shepherd, seek Thy sheep!

Why dost Thou leave me thus? If Thou art near,

Succour me speedily. Each step I fear.

Oh let Thy voice fall on my straining ear.

O Shepherd, Shepherd, Shepherd, seek Thy sheep!

Thy voice? Nay, but across the lonely track

A faint cry from a soul in bitter lack.

Is it Thy voice?Shepherd, I turn me back

And hasten, joyful, to seek out Thy sheep.2 [Note: Margaret Blaikie, Songs by the Way, 39.]

III

We are Fellow-workers with God

We are fellow-workers, and we are fellow-workers for God. But, more than that, we are fellow-workers with God. It is Gods field we are tilling, it is Gods house we are building together, and God is with us in the work. He and we till the field and build the house together. We are Gods fellow-workers.

Gods fellow-workers! What a title! How august the dignity! What distinction it confers upon us! The conjunction is almost incredible. God the eternal, infinite. The omniscient and omnipotent! Man, crushed before the moth, chilled and smitten by the November fog! And yet these two terms, significant of frailty and almightiness, are brought into this marvellous association, and we are described as fellow-workers! We do not wonder that John Calvin, in seeking an exposition of these words, describes one side of the partnership as composed of mere worms of the dust. But a worm in conjunction with the Almighty becomes a powerful fellow-worker.

Is there anything more fragile than the incandescent mantle? You blow upon it and it falls into dust. It will not bear the rough touch even of the gentlest finger. And yet this flimsy substance can co-operate with a tremendous energy and contribute in the production of dazzling light. And here we are, mere children of the dust, frail and flimsy as this mantle. And yet, when we are in league with the Almighty, we become exceedingly serviceable, and fruitful in great things. We can be fellow-workers with God; such a dignity ought, to make us walk with sanctified erectness.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]

When a mother says to her little child who is carrying some little burden from one room to another, You are helping me, what stature it gives to the little soul, and what a sense of dignity and place in lifes affairs.

Suppose a great painter, a Raphael or a Turner, taking a little boy that cleaned his brushes, and saying to him, Come into my studio, and I will let you do a bit of work upon my picture. Suppose an aspirant, an apprentice in any walk of life, honoured by being permitted to work along with some one who was recognized all over the world as being at the very top of that special profession. Would it not be a feather in the boys cap all his life? And would he not think it the greatest honour that ever had been done him that he was allowed to co-operate, in however inferior a fashion, with such an one? Jesus Christ says to us, Come and work here side by side with Me.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]

1. As we are joint-labourers with God, we must learn the lesson of mutual dependence.

(1) We are dependent on God.We cannot do the smallest part of our work without His co-operation. Here is the secret of humility. Alike in the development of our own inner lives and in our ministry for others, we must be destitute of prosperity and progress, if it were not that God is working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. So let us bid farewell to every shred and vestige of pride. If it were not for our Divine ally, we should be shamed and driven in dishonour from the field.

When first the greatness of the scientific thought of evolution burst upon the wondering mind of our time, there was an idea that it would almost cut away the ground from under religion. Perhaps this feeling was never expressedand at the same time its shallowness exposedbetter than in the saying of Frances Power Cobbe. It is a curious thing, said Miss Cobbe, that as soon as men find out how anything is done, they should immediately rush to the conclusion that God did not do it. But that idea is pretty well past. Gods part in Evolution becomes only more evident the more the subject is examined. We cannot get that idea of evolution to work, we cannot keep it working, without recognizing, behind all things and in all things, some mighty, mysterious power and energy, which, the more we look at it, the more we have to think of it as life and will, and to call it by some name of God.2 [Note: B. Herford.]

(2) God is dependent on us.In his controversy with the late John Stuart Mill, the French philosopher Comte said, My Deity, that is, Humanity, has this advantage over yours: He needs help. The English philosopher met the charge by saying, The theists God is not omnipotent; He can be helped, great worker though He be. What Mill described as the feeling of helping God has always been cherished by the most sincere and earnest believers in the power of God over all.

Lord, when we pray, Thy kingdom come!

Then fold our hands without a care

For souls whom Thou hast died to save,

We do but mock Thee with our prayer.

Thou couldst have sent an angel band

To call Thine erring children home;

And thus through heavenly ministries

On earth Thy kingdom might have come.

But since to human hands like ours

Thou hast committed work divine,

Shall not our eager hearts make haste

To join their feeble powers with Thine?

To word and work shall not our hands

Obedient move, nor lips be dumb,

Lest through our sinful love of ease,

Thy kingdom should delay to come?

2. As we are fellow-workers with God let us work in harmony with God and by Gods method.

(1) It behoves us to work in harmony with Him. Co-operation with God is a question of knowing, of being conscious of it. It is impossible to divorce ourselves from God. In spite of us He will realize His will in us. He cannot overcome our will, but even through our opposing will He will accomplish His purpose. But we may be willing fellow-workers. It is the difference between opposition to Gods will, together with the shamefaced confession that we cannot help doing His work, and willing co-operation with His will, together with the consciousness of being recognized by Him as fellow-workers.

Says Ruskin, You will find it needful to live, if it be with success, according to Gods Law; and the first uttered article in it is, In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread. 1 [Note: E. T. Cook, The Life of Ruskin, ii. 329.]

The conduct of life becomes like the experience of the brave Nansen in his attempt to reach the Pole. Men had struggled northward through weary days from the Greenland side, only to find at the end of each days march that they had been swept farther south by a current which moved the whole pack of ice beneath their feet. Then the Norwegian explorer made himself a labourer together with God, through the Siberian approach, and gave himself to the mighty sweep of the polar current, so that the law which he had discovered bore him towards the realization of his dream. It is the same with every honest desire to do right. The current of Gods laws is under you; the movement of things is with you; you are a labourer together with God.

(2) If we are working in willing co-operation with God, we will be content to work by Gods method. And if we wish to know what Gods method is, we have but to look at Jesus Christ. Now we know that the method of God for Jesus Christ involved self-sacrifice, pain, weariness, utter self-oblivious devotion, as well as gentleness, tenderness, infinite pity, and love running over. If we felt that side by side with us, like two sailors hauling on one rope, the Servant of the Lord was toiling, would it not burn up all our selfishness, and light up all our indifference, and make us spend ourselves in His service?

Mens lives bear the aspects of deserts and wildernesses, and God wants them to be as beautiful as the Garden of Edenaye, more beautiful. The paradise of God in the book of Revelation is a far more lovely garden than the Garden of Eden; the first was the garden of innocence, the latter is the garden of holiness. Man fell from innocence; he may attain unto the garden of holiness; but the attainment is made possible by the awful happenings in the Garden of Gethsemane. Now if we are to be fellow-workers in creating the garden of holiness we too must know something of the agonies of Gethsemane. We must know the fellowship of his sufferings. We can do nothing of this high gardening except through the ministry of sacrificial blood. When we are willing to bleed, in order that other lives may be beautiful, we shall be sharing the travail of the whole creation. It is no use playing at spiritual gardening; it is a thing of agony and bloody sweat.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]

Whose is the speech

That moves the voices of this lonely beech?

Out of the long West did this wild wind come

Oh strong and silent! And the tree was dumb,

Ready and dumb until

The dumb gale struck it on the darkened hill.

Two memories,

Two powers, two promises, two silences

Closed in this cry, closed in these thousand leaves

Articulate. This sudden hour retrieves

The purpose of the past,

Separate, apartembraced, embraced at last.

Whose is the word?

Is it I that spake? Is it thou? Is it I that heard?

Thine earth was solitary; yet I found thee!

Thy sky was pathless, but I caught, I bound thee,

Thou visitant divine.

O thou my Voice, the word was thine. Was thine.1 [Note: Alice Meynell.]

3. The fact that our work is conjoined with the Divine is the root of motive. It ought ever to be an adequate inspiration to us that the work is Gods, and that He has called us into His fellowship. Is not the motive that stirs in His heart and moves His stupendous activities without ceasing sufficient for us? What is good enough to engage the majestic energies of God is surely good enough for us. Does the work that beseems His matchless sovereignty need commendation from us, or the high seal of our rank and prestige? Into the work He touches with His sceptred hand on the one side, and which we are permitted to touch with our feeble hands of flesh on the other, He reflects all the glory of His attributes.

It is said that when Phidias was preparing the figures for the Acropolis, the work was perfect even in the smallest details, although these figures were to stand upon a background so high that nobody could see them. A sculptor was working at the hair of one of them with minute fidelity, when some one said to him, What is the use of that expenditure of time and labour? Nobody will ever see your work. The workman replied, Yes, the gods will see it!

Christ, by Thine own darkened hour

Live within my heart and brain!

Let my hands not slip the rein.

Ah, how long ago it is

Since a comrade rode with me!

Now a moment let me see

Thyself, lonely in the dark,

Perfect, without wound or Mark 1 [Note: Padraic Colum.]

4. The fact that the work is Gods is our strong encouragement. He who works for the redemption of men from the deepest evil of their life will not long want the sign that God works. The sign is so universal that we have perhaps ceased to call it a sign.

A short time ago I saw a well-kept flower-garden blooming in the little angle of ground formed at the junction of two railway lines. The helpless flowers were thriving there in spite of the terrible forces that came so near them on every side. If you were to put an untaught savage inside the garden hedge and let him hear the screaming engines and see the files of carriages or the trucks laden with coal, timber, and iron converging towards this fairy oasis, he would be ready to say, These beautiful things will be torn to shreds in a moment. But behind the garden fences there are the lines of strong, faithful steel keeping each engine and carriage and truck in its appointed place, and though the air vibrates with destructive force, and pansy, primrose, and geranium live in a world of tremors, not a silken filament is snapped, and not a petal falls untimely to the earth. In the very angle of these forces the frailest life is unharmed. So with the fine spiritual husbandries that foster faith in the souls around us. The air hurtles with fierce hostilities. The mechanisms of diabolic temptation encroach on every side upon our work. Public-house, gaming-club, and ill-ordered home, threaten disasters of which we do not like to think. The air quivers with anger of demons. Yet the work is Gods, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In the very angle of these demoniac forces the work shall thrive, for the hidden lines of His protecting power are round about it.2 [Note: T. G. Selby.]

Just where you stand in the conflict,

There is your place!

Just where you think you are useless,

Hide not your face!

God placed you there for a purpose,

Whateer it be;

Think you He has chosen you for it:

Work loyally.

Gird on your armour! be faithful

At toil or rest,

Whicheer it be, never doubting

Gods way is best.

Out in the fight, or on picket,

Stand firm and true;

This is the work which your Master

Gives you to do.

5. The fact that we are linked with God in His service is our pledge of victory. If God works with us, success is sure. If God is doing this work, then Gods strength, Gods skill, Gods knowledge are employed upon it. We are no longer discouraged and enfeebled by the sense of our own incapacity, our own ignorance and inexperience, our own faint hearts and feeble hands. There is beside us an inexhaustible fountain of ability, from which we can draw. It is Gods work. Therefore it must be triumphant. There is no place for misgiving or despondency. No sense of personal frailty, no calculation of opposing odds, no menaces of approaching evil, no symptoms of immediate failurenone of these can appal us Gods work is eternal. Nothing can prevail against it. There may be temporary defeats, partial fallings back. Men may come and men may go. But what then? All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.

A noble cause cannot of itself make a man noble. We must despair of growing great, unless we can feel that we are given to the cause to work for it, and not it to work for us. In the old torch races of Pan, the rule was that each runner should hold his torch as long as it kept its light, but when he flagged he must hand it to another who stood ready girded to follow up the race. And so it must be with us. We must recognize the great end of all this panting, and running, and toiling, not that you or I should reach the goal, and be rich or honoured in mens mouths, but that the torch of truth that was put into our hands when we started should reach the people at the end all alight with truth as when we took it. Let it be our hands, if we can, that bring it there, and then the honour shall be ours; but that must not be our end, and when we see it sinking and going out, let no petty conceit or unfledged pride keep us from giving it to a fresher and stronger man, with a hearty Godspeed to run the next stage of the same great journey. Thus we win a broadness, and deepness, and fulness of character that sinks all little human ventures like the sea.1 [Note: Phillips Brooks, Life, 53.]

It is said that the engineer who planned the Brooklyn bridgeone of the most colossal triumphs of scientific skill in the worldwas a bed-ridden invalid; and that with the help of a telescope he watched the bridge grow into shape day by day from his couch of paralysis and pain. He triumphed because the great thought in a fragile frame was conjoined with all but exhaustless capital and the illimitable labour that capital could bring into the field.2 [Note: T. G. Selby.]

I cannot do it alone,

The waves run fast and high,

And the fogs close chill around,

And the light goes out in the sky;

But I know that we two

Shall win in the end

Jesus and I.

I cannot row it myself,

My boat on the raging sea;

But beside me sits Another

Who pulls or steers with me,

And I know that we two

Shall come safe into port

His child and He.

Coward and wayward and weak,

I change with the changing sky;

To-day so eager and brave,

To-morrow not caring to try;

But He never gives in,

So we two shall win

Jesus and I.

Strong and tender and true,

Crucified once for me!

He will not change, I know,

Whatever I may be!

But all He says I must do,

Ever from sin to keep free

We shall finish our course

And reach home at last

His child and He.

Gods Fellow-workers

Literature

Darlow (J. H.), The Upward Calling, 178.

Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, iii. 405.

Herford (B.), Anchors of the Soul, 77.

Hodgkin (T.), Human Progress and the Inward Light, 42.

Jackson (G.), Memoranda Paulina, 225, 230.

James (J. A.), Sermons, iii. 158.

Jones (W. B.), The Peace of God, 243.

Keenleyside (C. B.), Gods Fellow-workers, 79.

Lightfoot (J. B.), Ordination Addresses, 214.

Macgilvray (W.), The Ministry of the Word, 83.

Maclaren (A.), Expositions: 1 and 2 Corinthians, 30.

Menzies (G.), Pictorial Sermons in Industries, 48, 110.

Peabody (F. G.), Mornings in the College Chapel, ii. 140.

Percival (J.), Sermons at Rugby, 189.

Percival (J.), Some Helps for School Life, 216.

Selby (T. G.), The Lesson of a Dilemma, 365.

Smellie (A.), In the Hour of Silence, 341.

Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxvii. (1881), No. 1602.

Stalker (J.), The New Song, 38.

Vaughan (C. J.), Memorials of Harrow Sundays, 437.

Wells (J.), Bible Images, 239.

Wilson (S. L.), Helpful Words for Daily Life, 362.

British Congregationalist, Sept. 15, 1910, p. 208 (Cadman).

Christian Age, xxxiv. 258 (Diggle).

Christian World Pulpit, vi. 255 (Marling); viii. 329 (Beecher); xix. 104 (Woodford); xxix. 132 (Beecher); li. 364 (Armitage); liv. 70 (Snell); lx. 257 (Hunter).

Church of England Magazine, x. 417 (Holland).

Church of England Pulpit, xxxii. 28 (Reed).

Church Family Newspaper, Dec. 31, 1909, p. 1071 (James).

Examiner, Dec. 22, 1904, p. 600 (Jowett).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

we: 1Co 3:6, Mat 9:37, Mar 16:20, 2Co 6:1, 3Jo 1:8

ye are God’s: Psa 65:9-13, Psa 72:16, Psa 80:8-11, Isa 5:1-7, Isa 27:2, Isa 27:3, Isa 28:24-29, Isa 32:20, Isa 61:3, Isa 61:5, Isa 61:11, Jer 2:21, Mat 13:3-9, Mat 13:18-30, Mat 13:36-42, Mat 20:1-14, Mat 21:23-44, Mar 4:26-29, Joh 4:35-38, Joh 15:1-8

husbandry: or, tillage

ye are God’s building: 1Co 3:16, 1Co 6:19, Psa 118:22, Amo 9:11, Amo 9:12, Zec 6:12, Zec 6:13, Mat 16:18, Act 4:11, 2Co 6:16, Eph 2:10, Eph 2:20-22, Col 2:7, 1Ti 3:15, Heb 3:3, Heb 3:4, Heb 3:6, 1Pe 2:5

Reciprocal: Jdg 5:23 – to the help 1Sa 14:45 – he hath Psa 127:1 – build Pro 9:1 – builded Pro 24:3 – wisdom Isa 28:28 – Bread Jer 12:16 – built Luk 8:11 – The seed Act 7:25 – God Act 9:31 – were edified Act 20:32 – to build Rom 15:20 – build 1Co 1:1 – an 1Co 3:8 – he that planteth 1Co 9:10 – that ploweth 1Co 16:16 – laboureth 2Co 5:1 – a building 2Co 12:6 – I would Eph 2:21 – all Phi 2:25 – companion 1Th 5:12 – labour 1Ti 5:17 – labour 2Ti 2:20 – in a Phm 1:1 – Philemon Heb 10:21 – the house 1Pe 5:3 – as

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

SANCTIFIED FOR SERVICE

We are labourers together with God: ye are Gods husbandry, ye are Gods building.

1Co 3:9

Your soul is Gods seed-field, Gods building; we are labourers together with God. Such a description of each individual life is very significant everywhere.

I. To us who are here as teachers they are just a parable of our own life; setting forth to each of us what should be his estimate of his own work and aim and purpose, exhibiting to him his field of work with the Divine light on it, and interpreting to him his own endeavours as a fellow-labourer with God, hoping to contribute in some degree towards the filling in and completing that Divine plan, that ideal picture of the life of every one of you which is in the heavens, and which in imagination he sees as a thing some day to be realised, and the realisation of which, or its failure, may largely depend on his own share in our life and work. It is this feeling that every heart contains the germ of some perfection that makes our life so profoundly interesting, and, it may be added, our responsibilities for the cultivation or neglect of any such germ or capacity so serious and engrossing.

II. But to you, too, these apostolic suggestions about the Divine influences at work in each heart, and the value of each life in Gods sight, and the Divine voices claiming to be heard in it, should be quite as stimulative as they are to us. They have in them the germ of all striving after purity and goodness, and of all hatred of sin, and enthusiasm for the uplifting of social life. The words of St. Paul to his Corinthian converts may furnish you with new interpretations of your own daily life and duty.

(a) If they were Gods husbandry, or Gods building, are not you? If the Spirit of God dwelt in them, how does He not dwell likewise in you? striving for your growth in holiness and good purpose, and for your salvation from sin and its defilements, as he strove for theirs?

(b) And if it was good for every man in that Corinthian community to be warned how he built upon the foundation of life that had been laid in Christ; if it was good for them to be reminded that every mans work would be made manifest, and that the fire would try it, of what sort it was; it is good also for us to remember that we are living under the same law, and that we should take care lest haply we be found to be working against God.

III. That Epistle of St. Pauls was written in pain and anguish of heart.The seeds of Christian life which he had sown among them, the purifying influences of the Holy Spirit which were working among them through him and his fellow-labourers, all these ought to have produced fruits easily described, such as peace and love, and purity, and good works; but instead of these, and threatening their destruction, there had sprung up dissension and strife, party spirit, self-conceit, and gross sins which I need not name. In all this there was grief, disappointment, bitterness; for did they not prove that his work was threatened with failure? Yet in all that storm of feeling his chief exhortation is this reminder of the dignity of their calling. In the midst of all their sin and failure, though he does not spare rebuke and warning, he always aims at inspiring them by uplifting. And we know that this is the true method, because there is nothing which exercises an influence so strong to uplift and purify as the feeling of our kinship with the life above us, and that we are degrading our life when we forget this or ignore it. And herein is the value of this word of his that God is dwelling and working in us.

Bishop Percival.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. We means Paul and Apollos as laborers in God’s vineyard, according to the figure In verse 6-8. God’s building is another figure, that of a structure in which various men labor to erect it.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 3:9. Far we are Gods fellow-workers: ye are Gods husbandry, Gods building. After sinking himself, with his fellow-workers, to the level of mere servants, he now lifts them up to the dignity of co-operators with God Himselfin one field, to one end.

But the new figure of a building suggests a new set of ideas, fraught with new lessonslessons which the former figure of husbandry was not suited to express.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, 1. The honourable title put upon the ministers of God, they are labourers or workers together with God.

But in what sense are they so?

Ans. Not so by any power or their own to produce any spiritual effect, as if they without God could work faith and repentance in the hearts of sinners; but they work only by an external application of the ministry of the work, and the means of grace to the souls of men. They are under-labourers to God, and God honours them by working by them, and working with them, for the conversion of men.

Observe, 2. The honourable relation in which the church stands to God: the church and people of God are his husbandry, and his building: Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

Which phrase implies, 1. Power and goodness in making them so: a building is not of itself, nor is a field clothed with goodly corn of itself.

2. It implies dominion and absolute sovereignty: the master is the orderer of the house, and the husbandman the disposer of his ground.

3. It denotes propriety and interest, that we are not our own, but God’s. The house is the owner’s, not its own. God is theirs, and all that God has is theirs also.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

The Church is God’s Building

Then, Paul and Apollos were workers together under God. The field they worked in, which literally could be translated “tilled land,” was God’s. To further illustrate, Paul called the church God’s building ( 1Co 3:9 ). So, the glory belonged to God, as the Psalmist said, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your mercy, and because of Your truth” ( Psa 115:1 ).

Paul had used his spiritual gifts to lay the foundation God wanted laid. He warned those building on that foundation to be careful how they built upon it because it was God’s foundation ( 1Co 3:10 ). In the Galatian letter he wrote, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed” ( Gal 1:6-9 ).

Christ is the rock foundation of the church. He told his disciples he would build his church on the foundation fact that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God ( Mat 16:13-20 ). Peter told the members of the Sanhedrin, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” ( Act 4:11-12 ; Eph 2:20 ). Controversy over whether Peter is the “rock” of Mat 16:1-28 ends in Paul’s statement in ( 1Co 3:11 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Vv. 9. For we are labourers together with God; ye are God’s husbandry, God’s building. It is not without reason that in the original the word , God’s, heads the three propositions of this verse. God alone is Judge, for He is the proprietor in whose service all this work is done. It is therefore a mistake in Holsten and others to refer the for to the idea of the unity of the workers (1Co 3:8 a). It bears on what immediately precedes (1Co 3:8 b). The worker’s responsibility in this labour is presented in two aspects; and first from the standpoint of the servant’s own position: , labourers together with God. It is grammatically inexact to apply the preposition , in the word , to the community of labour existing among the workers themselves: fellow-labourers in God’s service (Bengel, Olshausen, Heinrici). This sense is connected with the false explanation which regards for as a confirmation of the unity of the workers among themselves (1Co 3:8 a). According to Greek usage, the regimen of , in the composite , is expressed by the following complement: comp. Rom 16:3, and Php 1:24, (the fellow-worker with us). The meaning therefore is: We are at work with God Himself. Some have shrunk from this bold idea of making Christ’s minister in the Church the fellow-labourer of God. And yet what else is said by 1Co 3:6? In every sermon, in every instance of religious instruction, in every pastoral visit, is not the pastor the agent by means of whom God works in souls? But, perhaps, with a complement like , of God, there must be added to the idea of joint labour that of dependence. The meaning would then be: God’s day-labourers, working with Him. Consequently it is His to pay the workmen, and to value their labour! Is it not His goods that are in question? To Him belongs the Church, His field, His house. The word is not fully rendered by the term field; this would rather be expressed by (Mat 13:24; Luk 14:18). The term embraces the idea of cultivation along with that of the field; and therefore we translate God’s husbandry. It is nearly the same with the term , which is unknown to classic Greek down to Aristotle (Edwards). It is taken here rather in the sense of a building in course of construction () than in the sense of a building finished (); for, according to the context, the workmen are still at work. It is therefore to a Divine possession that the workers put their hand! We feel that the apostle has passed to a new idea, that of the responsibility of the workers. What gravity attaches to such labour! To cultivate a field the harvest of which is God’s! To build the house which God Himself is to inhabit! God alone can estimate such labour, and He will not fail to do so. 1Co 3:10-15 describe this responsibility and the inevitable judgment which will hallow it. It is less to the Church than to preachers themselves that the immediate sequel is addressed. For several of them at Corinth were certainly not innocent of what had happened. The use of a second figure, that of building after that of a field (used in 1Co 3:6-8), is due to the feeling of the apostle that the latter does not suffice to depict what he is about to express. He needs one which lends itself better to the dramatic exposition of the two opposite results which human labour may have.

But before indicating this difference between the two kinds of building, the apostle thinks good to put his own work out of the question. For it is ended, andas the result has provedwell ended.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

For we are God’s fellow-workers: ye are God’s husbandry, God’s building [The supreme ownership of God is here emphasized, as is shown by the three possessives. Paul and Apollos were not fellow-workers with God, but fellow-workers with each other under God. The Corinthians were God’s field in which they labored, or his building which they reared; but workers, field and building all belonged to God.]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

9. For we are Gods fellow laborers. Oh! what a privilege to be participants with God in the glorious work of saving the world. Ye are Gods farm. Do not forget this. Nineteen years after I was converted to God I was all the time under the misapprehension that I was the farmer. Hence I toiled hard and incessantly, wielding the ax, mattock, spade, shovel, rake, pitchfork and plow, toiling and sweating. Terrible was my conflict with the briars, brambles, black-jack, dwarfed pine, sedge grass, dogfennel, pennyroyal, cockle-burs, Spanish needles and Canada thistles. Anon I congratulated myself upon victory, and again to my sorrow I found they had the run on me worse than ever. Nineteen years had rolled away. My eye caught this wonderful statement in the Greek Testament, Ye are Gods farm. I soliloquized, Why! I thought I was the farmer. Oh! how I have been mistaken! If I am the farm, then God is the farmer. Is He not a model in agriculture? Does He want any filth in His farm? Nay, verily, is He not omnipotent? Has He not all power in Heaven and in earth? Does He not speak of the raging sea and rolling worlds? Do not planets, comets, suns, systems, oceans and storms fear and obey His sovereign mandate? What a little thing for Him to breathe on all this crop of filth that gives me toil, sorrow, aches and pains, and bid it evanesce forever! About that time I tossed my mattock one way, my spade another, my pitchfork another, and began to leap and shout; my eyes turned heavenward, while a Niagara from the upper ocean inundated my soul, oblivion possessing me as to the enemies which all these years had infested my farm. Ere long I dropped my vision earthward. Behold I the briars, brambles, cockle-burs, Spanish needles and Canada thistles are all withered and dead, black-jack, hazel bushes and dwarfed pines, salt briars all out by the roots and sinking down in a grand bonfire. Behold! my farm was clean. Thirty years have rolled away. The devil has not failed to come back ever and anon with his bag of cockle-burs, Spanish needles and thistle seed swinging round his neck, while he goes on sowing the obnoxious filth broadcast, but the fires of the Holy Ghost, kindled when Jesus baptized my soul with the Holy Ghost and fire, still continue rolling their billows of heavenly flame on all sides. They consume all the obnoxious seeds of inbred sin the devil can possibly sow, transforming them into ashes, which fall upon my soil, adding valuable fertilization; so the devil is in fact running a manure cart much conducively to the enrichment of my soil. Is not this in harmony with Gods Word?

All things work together for good to them that love God (Rom 8:28).

Could you have all things and leave the devil out? I know not, for the devil is not only a thing, but quite a big thing. Do you not know that these terrible conflicts which we have with the strong intellect of Satan rank among the greatest means of grace this side of Heaven? Such is the wonderful redemption of Christ that everything becomes a blessing to Gods true people. Ye are Gods building. The foundation is by far the most important part of the house; yet it is not the house. You receive the foundation when you are born from above, but the superstructure of a holy experience was built on it when you were sanctified. I was converted forty- nine years ago. Then I received the foundation of the glorious Christian experience I enjoy today. Though I never actually lost my foundation, yet ever and anon it suffered great damage from pelting rains and winter freezes; meanwhile during the summer it became the rendezvous of doleful creatures. Why did I not build the house at once? My money gave out (faith failed) and the mechanics went away. During my boyhood it was a death struggle for me to hold my religion until our campmeeting came on, when I was satisfied I would get a new supply. So I made a raise of money, resumed the work, the foundation being so dilapidated that it had to be taken up and laid over. We get the walls up, it is now weather-boarded; money fails, the mechanics leave, dilapidations ensue, rain pours in, the snow accumulates. After decay has wrought sad havoc, I get into another revival, get some more money, the mechanics come back, the work is resumed, every passer-by waves his hat and say Hurrah! we will soon have a house built. Money again fails and the work is abandoned, and dilapidation ensues. As in former years passers-by groan and say, What a pity; this house is never going to be finished! It is all a failure, labor lost. Ere long I strike a bonanza, get plenty of money, rally all the mechanics; much of the work is so dilapidated that it has to be renewed. This is done, and the whole job in every ramification with life and energy is pushed right on to completion amid the joyous congratulations of the whole town shouting on all sides, Why! dont you see that house which has been on hand nineteen years is at last finished in elegant and beautiful style? You know people dont live in unfinished houses, incompetent to protect them from the storms of winter and the heat of summer. Now that the house is finished, of course it is to be inhabited. King Jesus is the Proprietor. Now He beautifies it and furnishes it ad libitum and moves in, accompanied by a joyous group of angels. Glory to God! He has come to stay! All was cheer in former years during those periods when the work was going on, i. e., those revivals when the Holy Ghost came back and resumed His work. What a pity I ever let the mechanics abandon the work and go away after they first laid the foundation! If I had furnished the money, i. e., had the faith, they would have pushed it right through to completion soon after the foundation was laid. Then King Jesus would have moved in at once and have given me a Heaven in my soul from that early day. But He will not settle down and abide in an unfinished house. He will stay so long as you use Him as a builder, pushing the work right along to completion. Are you a finished house? If so, Jesus abides in your heart and fills every chamber of your soul. If you have not the clear witness of the Spirit that Jesus is abiding within, rest assured the house is not finished. So turn it over to the Holy Ghost; let Him have the job to execute the work in His own way. Do not meddle with Him. See that your faith does not fail. He is certain to do the work according to your faith. So have faith in Him this moment and incessantly to finish the house and turn the key over to King Jesus, that He may come in and abide forever.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 9

Ye are God’s husbandry; that is, although Paul and Apollos had been employed as laborers in the field, it was upon God that they had really to depend for their spiritual life and growth.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

3:9 For we are {e} labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, [ye are] God’s building.

(e) Serving under him: now they who serve under another do nothing by their own strength, but as it is given them of grace, which grace makes them fit for that service. See 1Co 15:10, 2Co 3:6 . All the increase that comes by their labour proceeds from God in such a way that no part of the praise of it may be given to the servant.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Paul and Apollos were fellow workers for God. Elsewhere Paul spoke of believers as fellow workers with God (2Co 6:1), but that was not his point here. The Corinthians were the field in view in the preceding illustration (1Co 3:6-8). Paul now compared them to a building. He proceeded to develop this illustration in the following verses (1Co 3:10-17). This verse is transitional.

To help the Corinthians abandon the party spirit that marked their church, Paul stressed the equality of their teachers as fellow workers under God’s sovereign authority (1Co 3:5-9).

"Everything is God’s-the church, its ministry, Paul, Apollos-everything. Therefore, it is absolutely not permissible to say ’I belong to Paul,’ since the only legitimate ’slogan’ is ’we all belong to God.’" [Note: Ibid., p. 134.]

"A sermon on our text [1Co 3:1-9] would focus on the attitudes of preachers and congregations about one another as they relate to the gospel of the cross. Peruse this brief sermon sketch:

"’I belong to Paul.’ ’I belong to Apollos.’ Familiar cries in a world of hi-tech religion. See huge Sunday crowds squint under the glare of spotlights as ’their’ preachers dazzle millions of electronic viewers with wisdom and rhetorical charm. Overhear the Christian public admire TV evangelists and big-time clergy: ’Oh, I like to listen to _____.’ ’Well, he’s O.K. but I like _____ better.’ You fill in the blanks. Yes, everyone has their favorite preacher nowadays. In spite of all the notorious hucksters, ’preacher religion’ is in. The result? An increasingly fragmented church. ’I belong to Paul and you don’t.’ It is enough to make Corinth look tame by comparison." [Note: C. Thomas Rhyne, "Expository Articles: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9," Interpretation 44:2 (April 1990):177.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)