Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 3:1-17
After referring to feeding, drinking, eating, planting, watering, and growing, Paul says in 3:9, “You are God’s farm, God’s building.” Paul could say that he planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the growth because the believers are God’s farm. Literally the Greek word rendered farm means cultivated land. The believers who have been regenerated in Christ with God’s life are God’s cultivated land, a farm in God’s new creation to grow Christ. As those who have believed in Christ and received Him, we are no longer like land that is uncultivated or wild. We are not people whom God has not touched. Rather, God has sown something into us, and we have been touched and cultivated by Him. Now we are God’s farm growing Christ.
The concept of sowing, cultivating, and growing is strongly emphasized in the Bible. The Lord Jesus Himself used the figure of a sower. In Matthew 13:3 He says, “Behold, the sower went out to sow.” We know from Matthew 13:37 that the Lord is the Sower: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.” The seed sown by Him is also Himself. It is the Lord in the Word. This seed is God Himself. The Lord Jesus came as a Sower to sow God into us. We are the earth, the ground, the cultivated land, the farm, to grow God.
In the foregoing message we pointed out that the church is a restaurant. Now we are saying that the church is a farm. There is, of course, no contradiction here, for the church has many aspects. As the place for growing produce, the church is a farm. But as a place where the produce is prepared and served as our food, the church is a restaurant.
In verse 9 Paul says that we are both God’s farm and God’s building. There seems to be no logical connection between the farm and the building. What does the farm have to do with the building? No one has ever seen a building constructed of fruit and vegetables grown on a farm. Nevertheless, the church as God’s farm produces the material for His building.
As Christians, we are growing Christ. Now we must ask ourselves whether or not we have been built. Many of us may hesitate to say that we have been truly built up to become God’s building. If the saints were asked about this, most of them may reply that they have been built to a certain extent. Actually, this is the right answer. With a spiritual building, a building in life, the true building is the growth in life. The extent to which we have been built is the extent to which we have grown.
Growing here refers to growing foodstuffs. To grow is also to increase. For example, a certain brother may have weighed only seven pounds at birth, but now he weighs one hundred seventy pounds. This is growth in the second meaning of the word. To be built up in the church is to grow in the sense of increasing with Christ to have a certain stature. The increase of Christ is our stature. To be built into the spiritual building does not first mean to be connected with others. It means to have our natural life reduced and to have Christ increased within us. The more our natural life is reduced and the more Christ increases within us, the easier it will be for us to coordinate with others. In fact, we shall be able to coordinate with anyone. However, some saints have told me that they cannot move from their locality because they have been built with certain saints in the church there. According to their concept, because they have been built together with these ones, it is not possible for them to leave that locality. This is not real building. On the contrary, it is friendship or some kind of social relationship. If you have truly been built into the church, you have been reduced, and Christ has been increased in you. Then, wherever you may be, you can be one with the saints and coordinate with them. Once you have been built into God’s spiritual building, you can never be taken out of it.
As the church, we are God’s farm and God’s building. The farm is for the building. Whatever is produced on the farm and by the farm is for the building.
A building requires a foundation. Therefore, in 3:10 and 11 Paul speaks of the foundation of God’s building: “According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid a foundation, but another builds upon it. But let each one take heed how he builds upon it. For other foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is being laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Christ, the unique foundation, has already been laid. This foundation has been established not only for the time of the apostles, but for eternity. However, during the past nineteen centuries, many Christian workers have tried to lay other foundations. Every denomination and group has its own particular foundation. Among Christians today there are thousands of foundations.
We need to understand Paul’s word about Christ as the foundation according to the context of the first three chapters of 1 Corinthians. In these chapters Paul seems to be saying, “When you Corinthians declare that you are of Apollos, Cephas, or Paul, you are laying another foundation. Whenever you say that you are of someone or something, you are laying a foundation.” Preferences and choices are actually foundations. For instance, someone may prefer immersion. This is a foundation. Someone else may like to have the Lord’s table with unleavened bread. This also is a foundation. Those who prefer immersion may not accept those who do not practice immersion. The result is division. A division is always caused by laying a foundation other than Christ Himself. We may even lay another foundation by having preferences of local churches. Someone may say that he does not like the church in his locality and wants to move elsewhere. Even this is to lay a foundation. According to our concept, we have the freedom to choose a local church which matches our preference. We may prefer a particular church because that church suits our taste. To have preferences and choices with respect to churches is to lay another foundation. This is an accurate explanation of Paul’s word in 3:10 and 11.
There is a direct connection between verses 4 and 11. This connection becomes apparent when we trace Paul’s thought backward from verse 11 to verse 4. According to verse 11, Christ is the unique foundation. The fact that this verse begins with the word “for” indicates that it is an explanation of the foregoing verse. As we trace this connection backwards, we eventually come to the matter of the planters and the waterers being one (v. 8). In verse 7 Paul says, “So that neither is the one who plants anything nor the one who waters, but the One Who makes to grow, God.” As far as the growth in life is concerned, the ministers of Christ are nothing, and God is everything. In verses 5 and 6 we see that Paul, the one who planted, and Apollos, the one who watered, are simply ministers through whom the Corinthians believed. Therefore, the Corinthians should not prefer one or the other. As Paul says in verse 4, “For whenever one says, I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are you not men?” The connection between verses 4 and 11 is this: Saying that we are of a certain person is to lay another foundation. To belong to someone other than Christ is to lay a foundation besides Christ. Those who said, “I am of Paul,” were laying Paul as a foundation, and those who declared, “I belong to Apollos,” were laying him as a foundation. In principle, the same is true of all those who prefer a certain doctrine, practice, or person. Those who are for immersion lay immersion as a foundation. This separates them from other believers and divides them from those believers.
Since the time of the apostles, many Christian leaders and teachers have laid special foundations. These foundations have been factors of division. Christians today are divided by the different kinds of foundations. Although we in the Lord’s recovery do not lay other foundations in an outward way, we may still have our preferences. For example, someone may say to himself, “I prefer a certain elder in my local church. Whenever I need to talk to an elder about a matter, I prefer to go to him. I do not like to speak to the other elders. This elder is my choice, my preference.” This is actually to say, “I am of this elder.” As we have pointed out, this is to lay a foundation other than Christ. To lay a foundation besides Christ Himself ruins the Body life and damages God’s building. In other words, this is not the building up of the church; it is the tearing down of the church.
When the Corinthians said that they were of Paul, of Apollos, or of Cephas, they were destroying the building; they were damaging the temple of God. This should be a strong warning to us not to have preferences of persons or practices or choices of place. Whenever a saint moves from one local church to another, this should be purely according to the Lord’s leading. There should be no other motive. If someone moves because the church in his locality is not according to his taste, or because a certain elder is not pleasing to him, or because he does not feel happy with certain brothers and sisters, that person is laying another foundation. This is division. It definitely is not the building. As we have seen, the true building is to become reduced in our natural life and to have Christ increased within us. If this is our situation, we shall not have any preferences. If the Lord leads us to a place which is rather difficult, we shall praise Him for those hardships, knowing that they will cause us to be reduced even more and will create more room in our being for Christ. Then we shall have real growth, and we shall be happy with the church life.
Suppose the church in your locality is a hardship to you. Furthermore, suppose the elders do not seem happy with anyone. What would you do? Would you move to a locality where, according to your impression, the church life is better? Will you want to go to a place where the elders are happy and the church does not present any hardships to you? If you make this choice apart from the Lord’s leading, you will be acting according to your preference. I hope that all the saints, young and old alike, will realize that such preferences should have no place in the Lord’s recovery.
Even to criticize the church in your locality is to lay another foundation. To criticize is to be divisive and to bring in destruction. It is to tear down the building. When some saints hear this word, they may say, “This is not fair. You don’t know how poor the church is in my locality. If you were to visit the church here, you would agree with me.” No, I would not criticize your local church. On the contrary, if I were to be in that locality, I would lovingly embrace the church there.
Suppose you live in a very large family consisting of five brothers and six sisters. Some of your brothers and sisters are wise, but others are foolish. Some are kind, but others are coarse. Will you reject the foolish ones and the coarse ones and care only for the wise ones and the nice ones? No, you must love and receive all your brothers and sisters. They all are the offspring of your parents. In the same principle, all the brothers and sisters in the church life are children of God the Father. We should not find fault with them or criticize them, for they have been born of God. We have no right to love certain ones more than others. Furthermore, we should not have any preferences or choices among them. Just as our family is uniquely one, so the church is uniquely one. Therefore, we should not seek our own preferences.
What I have been speaking in this message is according to Paul’s word in the first three chapters of 1 Corinthians. Chapter three is based upon chapters one and two. In these chapters Paul seems to be saying, “You believers at Corinth have your preferences. Some prefer me, others prefer Apollos, and still others prefer Cephas. You also have preferences regarding culture, for certain of you prefer Judaism, whereas others have a preference for Greek culture and philosophy. You have preferences in persons, matters, and things. You need to see that to have a preference is to lay a foundation. But no foundation can be laid other than the foundation which has already been laid — Jesus Christ. When I was among you, I laid the unique foundation, and this foundation is Christ Himself. I came to you with the determination not to know anything except Christ and this One crucified. Only this Christ is the foundation. The foundation cannot be Judaism, Greek philosophy, Cephas, Apollos, Paul, or any other person. Paul and Apollos are nothing; we are nobodies. Both the one who plants and the one who waters are nothing. The only One who is something is God, who gives the growth.” This is the meaning of Paul’s word concerning Christ as the unique foundation.
I hope that all the saints in the Lord’s recovery will see that we are God’s farm to grow Christ and also God’s building, His dwelling place. We need the genuine building. To have this building we must grow by having ourselves reduced and by having Christ increased within us. The result of this genuine growth and building is that we do not have preferences for any person, matter, or thing. It also means that we do not have any choice of place. We are happy simply to be members in the Lord’s Body, growing in Christ. If this is our condition, then wherever we may be, we shall coordinate with all the saints, no matter whether they are kind or coarse. The real building is to have ourselves reduced and to have Christ increased until we arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
In 3:10 Paul warns us to take heed how we build on the foundation already laid. We should not build with wood, grass, or stubble, but with gold, silver, and precious stones. These materials involve transformation. What the farm grows is of the plant life, but what is needed for the building is not plants, but minerals. Only minerals can be used for God’s building. In order to have the minerals, there must be transformation. The plant life must be transformed into minerals. Thus, in chapter three we have the concepts of the farm, the building, and transformation. In verse 17 we also have the concept of the temple of God.
As we consider all these things, we shall realize that 1 Corinthians is a precious book, a book filled with treasures. At the same time, this book deals with many complications related to the church life. Praise the Lord for what we have seen of the feeding, the drinking, the eating, the planting, the watering, and the growing! We are also thankful for what we have seen regarding the farm, the building, the foundation, transformation, and the temple of God. First Corinthians, a book of both treasures and complications, corresponds to our present condition and situation. This book is urgently needed by Christians today. All believers need to see what is revealed in this Epistle.
