1 Corinthians 3: Called As Servants

1 Corinthians 3: Called As Servants July 11, 2011

1 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. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?  5 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. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul addresses a key problem in Christianity–the tendency to make our faith about a leader other than Jesus. The Corinthian Christians had become divided, some following Paul, others Apollos. But Paul reminded them that faith was not about which person you follow but about the person of Christ.

Instead, even the greatest Christian leaders are merely servants. As believers, we are called to a task and seek to faithfully represent God in our role. When we see God working through us, it is not for our benefit, though we enjoy the experience, but for God’s glory.

When things go right in your spiritual life, do not look in the mirror and take credit. Look to God and give thanks, for we, as Paul, are “only servants.”

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.


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