Daily Bread

IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

God's Fellow Workers

Date: Jun. 26, 2015

Passage

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Divisions in the Church

3:1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 3:9

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

First, worldly Christians. (1-4) The Christians in Corinth were not acting as spiritual men. The evidence of this was the jealousy and quarreling among them, and this seems even to be based on who their Bible teacher was. Paul referred to them as worldly, and as mere men and even mere infants. In this case the term worldly is used to describe how they had failed to grow in their calling to live according to the way of the cross, and instead polluted their fellowship with the corrupted ways of the world.

Second, God makes things grow. (5-9) God's servants are also men. Nobody can make another person grow spiritually, or even make themselves grow. It is God alone who gives life and makes us grow. He assigns spiritual tasks to his servants and does his work through them. The spiritual man is the one who lives according to God's purpose, believing God who creates sinners to be his fellow workers, and sees the fellowship of believers as God's field, God's building.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for your mercy to make me new. Help me to live a spiritual life, as one created to be God's fellow worker.

One Word: We are God's fellow workers

We Are Your Sheep, Lord

Psalm 79:1-13

Key Verse: 79:13

But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

Today's Question

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