“for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.”1 Corinthians 3:3-9
Good grief this sounds familiar, huh? Let's break it down a little and see how it manifests in us today.
We are like, SO human, right??? He's talking to the church here (Christians) and it reminds me of how we get all prideful of our pastors, churches, and specific denominations. Which I GET because I'm prone to be the chiefest of sinners in that department. It starts out as excitement for what I love but all too quickly, my human self decides to make it a pride issue.
Mere humans say things like:
"my pastor is the best and everyone should learn under him,"
and
"my church is RIGHT and the only one worth attending. If you don't attend here, you're going to hell."
and
"I'm pentecostal and speak in tongues which means that if you don't you could NEVER (hair flip) be on my spiritual level. God and I (holds up hand, crosses fingers), we're like this. Speaking in tongues is our wi-fi and that signal NEVER GOES OUT."
(not that I've ever been prideful about speaking in tongues..except...ugh, I used to be because I'm sooooo humannnnn).
Even though I'm as prone as anyone to this thinking, it makes me feel...I don't know...it's hard to put into words...
Except I wasn't because church folk aren't supposed to say that, amiright?
Mere humans: #teampaul vs. #teamapollos
Meanwhile Jesus is all, "hey, I'll just be over here teamless."
Paul is planting, Apollos watering, God giving the growth, all just doing their thing.
But flesh.
Our flesh is assigning sides where there are none. This causes division when God has assigned different passions and works for different people and churches IN ORDER for them to work TOGETHER. Ahem, that's the point. It says up there in 1 Corinthians that, "He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor." What does that tell us? That we are "one" with the very people we want to separate from in order to be right; or to receive accolades when we shouldn't want those anyway.
We need to come together as ONE body, many parts (see 1 Corinthians 12). God will reward us in heaven according to the things He told us to do that we actually did. God gives YOU the grace to accomplish what He called YOU to do.
If you have a passion to build houses,
your Creator put the ability
to accomplish that within you.
Build houses with all of your heart
as if you are building them for the Lord
who enabled you to do it.
He didn't put that natural ability in me
but He won't judge me on
my ability to build houses either.
Get it? There's a lot of freedom in that. Man didn't assign us these works; therefore, the opinion of man on how well we perform doesn't even matter. God assigned these works, so we should always work in the strength He has given us, with all of our hearts, working for the Lord and not for man (see Colossians 3:23).
Look at the following set of scriptures. Stick with me, alright? It's long, but worth it. I mean you've read this far, you can keep going!
Unity in the Body of Christ
Ephesians 4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
God has joined this whole thing together, stop trying to separate it!
"...neither he who plants
nor he who waters is anything,
but only God who gives the growth."
Let's remove ourselves from the equation because we are nothing. That sounds harsh, but God doesn't need anything.
And yet He uses our nothing.
This is an insane miracle. Math that doesn't make sense (which, let's be honest, is all math for me). Let's stop picking sides (churches, denominations) and let's believe the bible. Let our denominations and churches exist to WORK TOGETHER and let's go harvest this field y'all.
Matthew 9:36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
We don't have time to cause division when there aren't even enough people willing to harvest the land THAT IS READY. All we have to do is go, arm in arm with koinonia*, working within our own God-given passions and talents. We can celebrate one another's strengths while not diminishing our own--especially when we recognize that though they may be different, the strength comes from God anyway.
Celebrate the God of the Strength
instead of how it manifests in different people.
*Koinonia is my favorite.
Here are some phrases that try to explain what I feel is unexplainable:
How I always think of it: The underlying connection that believers in Jesus have with one another. Underlying beneath church walls, denominations, borderlines and anything that can potentially separate us. Pastor Steve says that it's the connection (in Jesus) you would have with a Christian in Uganda that you don't have with the neighbor across the street who doesn't know Jesus.
Wikipedia says that koinonia "is translated 'fellowship' twelve times, 'sharing' three times, and 'participation' and 'contribution' twice each." Also, "Communion that begins with a joining of Jesus with the community of the faithful."
"A powerful example of what koinonia should look like can be found in a study of the phrase 'one another' in the Bible. Scripture commands us to be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10), honor one another (Romans 12:10), live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16; 1 Peter 3:8), accept one another (Romans 15:7), serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13), be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32), admonish one another (Colossians 3:16), encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13), spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), offer hospitality (1 Peter 4:9), and love one another (1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11; 3:23; 4:7; 4:11-12). That is what true biblical koinonia should look like." I got that here.
Definition: "intimate spiritual communion and participative sharing in a common religious commitment and spiritual community <the koinonia of the disciples with each other and with their Lord>" I got that here.
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