Do you know anybody who appears to build his ministry on a worldly basis? I can think of many people who do that. They look at the task of ministering the Word within the context of a particular church, and they say, “Oh, this isn’t moving fast enough for me.” They look at the world that puts such a premium on success and growth, and they say, “Oh, we’ve got to see better and faster results than this. What can we do to get the people in?” Well, they begin to think of the world’s ways of doing it. They conclude, “Well, you know, people are interested in concerts today, and they like the sound of contemporary pop music. Let’s do that.” So they give Sunday night over to the concerts. For a while people come, but then eventually they fade away.
Then the minister says, “Well that didn’t really work. It wasn’t fast enough and didn’t last very long. Let’s do something else.” So they once again look to how the world does things, and offer another idea. “Well, let’s try this. That seems to work.” And they put on a big show, which creates a lot of energy and increases their numbers for a while. But of course that does not last either.
I have observed churches go downhill that way, even churches that have been hallmarks of godliness and pillars of theological and spiritual strength in past years. They get a new pastor in who does not have the ministerial bearing the way the men preceded him did. He does not know the Word well enough to preach it well, and he does not know theology well enough to really communicate it to his people. And so he goes after these other things. He maintains a certain level of excitement in this way; but the spiritual content and strength of the church shifts, and the godly fade away. Others come in to take their places, and then pretty soon, the minister goes too. The church brings in somebody else at a lower level, and within two or three generations of ministers the church is gone. It does not have anything anymore. The minister built, but he built with wood, hay, and stubble. And one day it is all going to burn.
That is what Paul is talking about. By way of application he is saying, “Look, if you have any responsibility as a minister, as a teacher, or as a parent, be careful to build well. Don’t build in a flashy manner. You want to build with solid material, and that takes time. Don’t build with straw. Take the time and the effort to lay down bricks and do it well. You ought to realize that you’re not building for six months, one year, two years, or even ten years. You’re building for eternity.” We need to remember that in our fast-paced world that only wants instant results. What you are trying to do is build the theology of the Word of God, the dynamic of the Gospel, into individuals who are eternal souls. That kind of growth does not happen overnight. You focus on building it right. You take your time. You teach it carefully. You share it. You lay your foundation brick by brick. And then you allow God to bring the increase in His own time. This is the way I am convinced churches have to be built. What is important is not how fast we do it, but whether we do it right. And if we do it right, God does bless it. As people are trained and grow within that context, they go out to influence people far beyond any expectation that you might have had.
As we come to the end of 1 Corinthians 3, Paul brings us back to this matter of divisions in what is really a very brilliant paragraph. Paul is saying, “Think how foolish these divisions are. First of all, they are based upon the world’s way of doing things, which is folly in the sight of God. You don’t want to be like that. God catches the wise in their craftiness. He turns the wisdom of the world to self-evident foolishness before everybody. These divisions are part of that. Instead, you want to follow after God.”
Second, he says that when you choose between one man and another man, or one thing and another thing, what you are really doing is opting for a part rather than for the whole. If Paul is a true minister of Jesus Christ, and if Apollos is a true minister of Jesus Christ, and if Peter is a true minister of Jesus Christ, and whoever else it may be that is ministering at that particular time, then they are all yours. The gifts God has given are all yours. And you are richer by having all of them and poorer by merely choosing one. And then, lest we look at that merely on the human, earthly level, he wraps it all up in the Godhead, telling them not to boast about men. Why? Because, as Paul tells us, “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death, or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.” There are no greater riches than that or no greater destiny than that. And there is no greater cure for the kind of divisions that harm our churches and discredit our ministry.
