1 Corinthians 3:9-10

Scripture: 1 Cor. 3:9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

1 Cor. 3:10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

Teaching: Following his point that God gives rewards according to how He judges the labor of His servant (1 Cor. 3:8), Paul gives insight into the criteria God uses to judge our work. First, Paul asserts that we are God’s fellow workers – we work alongside the Lord, by the power of His Spirit, to accomplish works. Like construction workers coming together to build “God’s building” (i.e. the Church, Body of Christ), we labor together. But what work is being considered here? Only work that builds God’s building, i.e. the Church. While we are called to work diligently at all we do, we are not rewarded by God for being great at our day-to-day jobs. Diligent work can create opportunities to minister or witness to our co-workers or generate income with which we can fund ministry; but that work in and of itself is not what Paul is talking about here. Paul is talking about Kingdom-building work.

That Kingdom-building work, we see in verse 10, is a grace from the Lord. We are all given different spiritual gifts and called to different Kingdom-building work – not everyone will be a Paul, a Billy Graham, or a Martin Luther. It is not God’s intention that be the case. So, the measure of one’s work is not the quantity or the overall impact, but rather our faithfulness to the calling. Did we follow the Lord and by His Spirit rise to the occasion He graced us with? Or did we shrink back from it? Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we all must appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” What we’re learning here is that in God’s economy, the worldly perception of one’s ministry (i.e. it’s scale, impact, visibility, etc.) is not the measure used for reward; it is one’s faithfulness to what the Lord Himself has given one to do to build His Kingdom. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Takeaway: How does one shrink back from their calling? Consider Jonah, who refused his calling to Ninevah and instead ran in the opposite direction to Tarshish. Is that who we want to be in Christ? Or do we desire to go where He sends us, showing up and trusting the Spirit to move by our obedience to the Lord? Remember Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; he was fearful and trembling when he came to Corinth, but he was following the Lord’s calling. He was there not to make himself seem impressive or have some perfectly calibrated message – he was there to simply be a conduit through which the Spirit would work, “so that [their] faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” It is a daunting task to follow the Lord to where He calls because it is faith in action. We do not shrink from our day-to-day work because we understand it; we can see it and have reasonable expectations we will complete it because we know what we are doing. But obeying a calling from the Lord is different in that it is a matter of faith in the Lord rather than knowledge of self. Hebrews says, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1) Acting in faith is taking unknown steps after a known God. These steps are a grace to us because they allow us to know God more fully, trust Him more deeply, and earn reward in eternity with Him. Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 3:9-10 that what the Lord calls us to is not the measure of reward, but rather our faithfulness to the calling. Today, consider when the last time you stepped out in faith was. What did you learn of the Lord in it? How was your faith strengthened by how the Lord showed up in your obedience to His call?