1 Corinthians 3:5-9
5-9 Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God’s field in which we are working.
Paul compares the various preachers that the people of Corinth follow as being like servants working in a field, each with his own task and perhaps talent. The team gets the task done but it is God who gives the growth, who does the “magic.” So let us think about the story of Jonah we are following. Jonah hears the message from God to go to Nineveh. He runs the wrong direction but even in his rebellion he must testify to the sailors on the ship that his rebellion has brought about the storm. There is a God who has not let go of him. They all pray to that God, throw Jonah overboard, God saves Jonah and the sailors and God gets the glory. Jonah repents and goes to Nineveh. For three days he walks across the city crying, “Repent, in 40 days God will destroy you!” Contrary to Jonah’s desire the people of Nineveh “listen” and “repent.” God again gets the glory. Jonah did his part. The sailors did their part. The king and people do their part but who gets the glory – God. We are the fields in which God is working and he deserves the glory.
Paul asks a good question. What makes’s the jobs we do worth doing? Let’s make it personal. What makes the jobs you do worth doing? His answer is the privilege of serving God. What is your answer? Turn that truth into a prayer.
On the Way to Wonder 