Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
One of the most powerful ministries I have ever been involved with is Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. Each year, after storms or floods or other disasters have wreaked havoc in a community, hundreds or even thousands of ordinary church members volunteer their time and energy to perform an extraordinary ministry by helping people recover from disaster.
One of the key features of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is teamwork. Whether it be cooking thousands of meals a day or cutting and removing downed trees to providing emergency childcare, Disaster Relief is a team ministry. What one person can’t do on their own, a team of people can do quickly and efficiently.
Teamwork means cooperation, and cooperation means volunteers must possess a certain level of maturity and the willingness to humbly serve. If these characteristics are missing, then teamwork fails and then the team fails to do the work. This is the very situation that Paul addressed in our focal passage for today.
Working Together Means Growing-Up:
Everyone loves babies. They are cute and adorable and harmless . . . until they start to cry! I really believe that God perfectly designed a baby’s cry to get the attention of any adult in the vicinity. And a baby’s cry will certainly spur adults into action, mostly to respond in love to the child but also, to some extent, to silence the noise that will get on our . . . very . . . last . . . nerve.
Everyone loves babies, but everyone wants babies to grow-up also. As I often told my wife in those years we were approaching the empty-nest syndrome, we raise up our children to send them out, not to hamstring them so we can keep them at home. Babies were designed by God to grow and mature, and when that doesn’t happen something has gone wrong.
Everyone loves baby Christians, too, and we expect there to be growing pains. New Christians, like new babies often cry out when they are scared, uncomfortable, or hungry, or when they just don’t know what to do. Paul would graciously admit that is a natural stage in the life of a new Christian, but he rightfully insisted that new Christians must grow and mature. If that doesn’t happen, then something has gone wrong . . . dreadfully wrong.
Babies don’t make good teammates, not do people who are infantile in their maturity!
Some commentators have said that the institution of slavery was the original sin of both the United States and Southern Baptist Convention. It is hard to argue with that premise. Both our nation and the SBC still suffer the consequences of that sin that both have rightfully forsaken. Because of our dark history regarding slavery, we often will miss the fact that probably all the “servants” and “stewards” mentioned in the Bible were slaves or indentured servants of some kind.
Slaves, by definition, must place their masters’ concerns above their own. They must satisfy their masters’ wants and needs, and they must be good stewards of their masters’ property. Their goal is to make their masters successful, profitable, or powerful. Their concern is not their own reputations, but their masters’ reputations. This is a lesson that Paul was trying to impart to his readers.
Even though Apollos and Paul both had powerful ministries, Paul knew that they were simply servants of the Most High God. They were nothing in themselves, but their lives only had meaning in relationship to God. Like John the Baptist, their attitude was “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Paul would have approved of Harry Truman’s comment that, “It is amazing what you can accomplish of you do not care who gets the credit.” People with such attitudes make great team members.
We are servants of the Most High God! We should live so that He increases, which means we must decrease. Keeping our eyes on that goal makes us good teammates.
Amos 3:3 asks the simple question, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” It is impossible for two people to go the same way if they are not going to the same place. Sooner or later their paths will diverge. Likewise, we cannot work together unless we agree on what we are supposed to be doing.
We are supposed to tend to God’s Garden. Let’s remember together what Jesus taught us in John 15:1-8, which reads,
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
The world offers us many different goals. Among other things, it promotes fame, fortune, power, recreation, and a life of ease and consumption. God’s Kingdom, however, has a starkly different and more eternally useful purpose: tending God’s Garden.
Good teammates focus on the mission and they help each other accomplish it.
Here’s a hint: it isn’t us!
One of the major responsibilities in my current ministry is to organize meetings and ministry projects, and to plan and execute volunteer mission trips. God has given me the gifts and talents I need to make these events successful, but I often find myself fretting and worrying over them. I like to see things done well; it is one of my core values. Truth be told, however, I often take on too much responsibility for making these events a success.
What I forget is exactly what Paul was telling the church at Corinth to remember: it is our Lord who brings the harvest. Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor who empowers our pastoral care. He is the Great Physician who heals out bodies and our souls. He is the Good Shepherd who protects and guides His sheep. He is the Sower who scatters the seed, tends the field, and brings the bounty. Make no mistake, if anything good comes our of our ministry it is because our Lord made it happen!
Of course, while we should not become arrogant at any ministry success we may experience serving our God, we must also realize that God has chosen to work through His people. And, of course, He expects His people to cooperate with Him and do the work He has asked us to do. We must not sit back on our salvation and glibly assume that God will make a way somehow. God has chosen us to labor with Him in His vineyard. Does there exist a greater honor than that for a servant of the Most High God?
Good teammates are diligent and responsible, but don’t take on themselves the responsibilities God has designated as His Own.
I am a Southern Baptist, so for me, the idea of cooperation in the service of our Lord is vital.
Each Southern Baptist Church is autonomous, which means it is self-governing (ideally under the guidance and nurture of the Holy Spirit). While Southern Baptist Churches are autonomous, they should not be independent. It is inherent in the definition of Southern Baptist churches that they voluntarily cooperate to share the Gospel with a fallen world.
The need for cooperation is not just limited to cooperation between churches, but also within individual churches as well. Pastors and other church leaders cannot coerce church members to participate in worship or ministry activities. While good leadership techniques can encourage cooperation by church members, it is up to every church member play their part in the ministry of the local church.
We truly should be workers together with God!
Every blessing,
Dr. Otis Corbitt
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