- farming analogy here.
God’s Part:
- two verbs in this passage that say what God does.
1. God is the One who provides the opportunity.
- v. 5b - “even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.”
2. God is the One who brings the growth.
- vv. 6, 7.
- Matthew 16:18.
Our Part:
1. I am a farmhand.
- v. 5a - “minister” equals “servant.”
- not a sitter on the porch, but a laborer in the field.
- note that we are not the ones “in” whom people believe, but workers “through” whom people may believe in Jesus.
- Matthew 9:37-38 on laboring in the harvest field, but several other similar passages, too.
2. A farmhand works in the field.
- v. 6a.
- hot, sweaty, back-breaking labor.
3. A farmhand can’t guarantee a good crop.
- v. 7a.
- stay humble.
4. A farmhand can’t take care of the whole farm by himself.
- v. 8a.
- unity of the Body.
5. Each farmhand will get paid separately.
- v. 8b.
- responsibility before God.
- those who say, “Our church is really going” despite the fact that all they do is show up on Sunday morning/as though they’ll be rewarded because the church they attended did well.
