Monday, July 22 - 1 Corinthians 3

INSTRUMENTS

⁵ What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶ I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

   St. Paul makes it quite clear that the Church of Jesus Christ is not built on the foundation of its leaders and evangelists, but on Christ alone.

   Unfortunately, it can be both the error of the clergy and the error of the laity to focus on personalities and to believe that the Church revolves around the hard work and persistence of its people.  The Corinthians were doing just that.  Some gravitated to Paul, others to Apollos, and it was causing division among them.

   While it is true that we are His instruments and that God relies on His people to carry out His work in the world, it is also true that the more we rely on ourselves and our leaders, rather than on Christ, the more we will lose focus and possibly get off-track.  That's why its important for every Christian congregation to humbly approach the cross of Jesus Christ and ask for HIS vision and HIS plans to guide our leaders and our people to the paths where they should go.

  In that spirit, I ask you to pray for Beautiful Savior -- that God might help all of us to be in step with His plans and to yield to His purposes, so His will might be done among us.