God Gives The Increase

In writing to the Church in Corinth, Paul had to deal with basic fundamental problems. There was among that congregation issues around ENVY, STRIFE, AND DIVISIONS. These people were wrong in thought, word, and deed.

Envying refers to the state of their souls; they had inward grudges and disaffection towards each other.

Strife or ’contention’ refers to their words; they were continually disputing and contending whose grouping was the best, each endeavouring to prove that he and his group were right

Divisions refers to their conduct; as they could not agree, they contended till they separated from each other, and thus rent the Church of Christ

Thus the envying and grudging led to strife and evil speaking, and this led to divisions. This means, they were acting just as the people of the world, and have no more of the spirit of religion than the people of the world, whom they were expected to win for Christ

There were four main parties in Corinth [1 Corinthians 1:12]

· PAULIANS - followers of Paul, because he founded the Church [Acts 18:1-7] and because he was a special apostle to the Gentiles [Romans 11:13]

· APOLLONIANS - followers of Apollos because of his eloquence [Acts 18:24 - 19:1]

· CEPHIANS - followers of Peter, because he was the apostle of the Jews [Galatians 2:7-10]

· CHRISTIANS - followers of Christ, because they would have nothing to do with parties that followed men

Divisions may occur in the nation, Church, business, society, families, and any other relationships. There may be also sub-sets within the Church where such divisions may also be articulated. Matters of doctrine, tribe, creed, race, colour, language, status, position, wealth, personality, etc. may destructively also rear their ugly heads in any human endeavour

Paul traced the root cause of these divisions to immaturity associated with babies. We identify two basic characteristics of babies:

· Dull of hearing [Hebrews 5:11]

· Unskillful in the word [Hebrews 5:13]

As babies, they had a life in Christ but it was weak. From the low state of their minds in religious knowledge, they were incapable of comprehending the higher truths of the Gospel. Even as babies,1 Peter 2:2 exhorts us thus: "As new born babies, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby". We can only grow into maturity in our Christian life when we leave pettiness behind us

The Apostle Paul exposes to them the unwholesomeness of their conduct in pretending to judge him and Apollos while at the same time they failed to understand the need for each one of them to work for God and God alone

Paul also described the Christians in Corinth as carnal or fleshly because they contended, argued, and fought for their teachers who were only workers for God, to whom alone they must give account in the day of judgement. The flesh includes all feelings that aim not at the glory of God, and the good of our neighbour, but at gratifying self

In addressing the Church in Corinth, Paul examined two basic issues in the text that I have chosen today: "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase" [1 Corinthians 3:6]. He examined the human factor and the God factor

The human factor centered on the planting by Paul and the watering by Apollos. Although they each performed different functions, the two apostles received the same doctrine, preached the same doctrine, and laboured to promote the glory of God in the salvation of souls. They were intimately one in spirit, design, and operation

Moreover, the gifts and powers used were from God; both were useful. They were also co-labourers with God - one for one purpose, the other for another purpose - and worked in harmony with one another and complimented each other in the vineyard of God

Additionally, each was rewarded according to his labour. Everybody will be rewarded one way or the other, whether good or bad. It means that no one will do the work for the other. There is a direct correlation between work and wages; hard work goes with good remuneration

The harvest is according to what you sow - in general parlance, we say that you reap what you sow. When you put more money into your savings account with the bank, you get relatively proportional increase in the account by way of interest. If you invest more by way of buying shares in a company, you get higher dividends when profits are made and dividends declared. Whatever is fed into the computer reproduces its kind - garbage in, garbage out [GIGO]

For the human factor in life, there are planters and waterers. The planters braze the trail in the society. They are the visionaries who have foresight and are ahead of their generation. These are people who are mostly misunderstood and hardly have any friends. Whatever they do is not appreciated by the larger society because they look beyond the present. "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry" (Habakkuk 2:3)