Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:15 (CEB)
14 But people who are unspiritual don’t accept the things from God’s Spirit. They are foolishness to them and can’t be understood, because they can only be comprehended in a spiritual way. 15 Spiritual people comprehend everything, but they themselves aren’t understood by anyone. 16 Who has known the mind of the Lord, who will advise him?[a] But we have the mind of Christ.
3 Brothers and sisters, I couldn’t talk to you like spiritual people but like unspiritual people, like babies in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink instead of solid food, because you weren’t up to it yet. 3 Now you are still not up to it because you are still unspiritual. When jealousy and fighting exist between you, aren’t you unspiritual and living by human standards? 4 When someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and someone else says, “I belong to Apollos,” aren’t you acting like people without the Spirit? 5 After all, what is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants who helped you to believe. Each one had a role given to them by the Lord: 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow. 7 Because of this, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but the only one who is anything is God who makes it grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together, but each one will receive their own reward for their own labor. 9 We are God’s coworkers, and you are God’s field, God’s building.
10 I laid a foundation like a wise master builder according to God’s grace that was given to me, but someone else is building on top of it. Each person needs to pay attention to the way they build on it. 11 No one can lay any other foundation besides the one that is already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 So, whether someone builds on top of the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, or hay, 13 each one’s work will be clearly shown. The day will make it clear, because it will be revealed with fire—the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. 14 If anyone’s work survives, they’ll get a reward. 15 But if anyone’s work goes up in flames, they’ll lose it. However, they themselves will be saved as if they had gone through a fire.
What does this passage mean to me/us?
Contributed by George Dickenson
“We are God’s coworkers and you are God’s field, God’s building.”
Whenever we take up the mantle of a teacher, there is rarely time to rest on one’s laurels after a success. Teaching, in any capacity, is a marathon rather than a sprint and many factors add up to create even a short-term success. One hill climbed, one breakthrough, often leads to another uphill struggle. As a teacher, we may just one factor in student’s road towards success and there can be many greater factors weighing them down. As a teacher, Paul’s words to the Corinthians remind me of students that have succeeded even though the odds were stacked against them due to the people involved in their lives guiding them along the way. On the other hand, others can become lost in the details despite having those same people trying to lead them to the correct answer. Why are some of us more resilient than others?
Perhaps, like Joseph, some students have their faith to fall back on. Despite their circumstances, faith sustains them and allows them to continue to persevere. Perhaps, like the Corinthians, there have been great examples for them to look to for guidance. In times of struggle, they try to remember these beacons of light in the darkness. Perhaps you are that beacon, whether know or not, who shines on a person’s life.
Rejoice! For God has chosen you. As a believer, it is in your privilege to lead others to him through your actions, words, and deeds. While you may be just one drop of water on someone’s dry soil, just one ray of sunshine on someone’s wilting leaves, our Savior is there to take our deeds and multiply them. We must have faith that God will take our actions, our teachings, our works, and use them to help others. It should be our greatest hope that those we guide will, like the crippled man, stand up and walk one their own. All we can do is try to be the voice that whispers in someone’s ear “Get up, take your mat, and go home!”
Prayer
Lord, You are our beacon of hope. No matter how far we wander, You keep calling us back, out of the darkness, into the Light of Jesus’ grace and mercy. In Jesus Christ name I pray, AMEN.
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