Sonshine Needed
7/7/25 Bible Thought (1 Corinthians 3)
One of the reasons that Paul authored 1 Corinthians was due to divisions in the church.
Back in the first chapter, Paul appealed for the church to be united (1 Cor. 1:10) and recounted how Chloe’s people told him that there was quarreling within the church! (1 Cor. 1:11).
What was the nature of this division? Well, the church had sectioned themselves off on the basis of their favorite ministers! One followed Paul, another Apollos, and another Cephas (Peter) (1 Cor. 1:12).
Paul revisits this topic in chapter three in order to straighten things out.
He points out when he first met them, they were of the flesh, they were infants in need of milk and not solid foot; yet, even now, they hadn’t matured and were still of the flesh! (1 Cor. 3:1-2).
The problem was, again, the church was divided regarding their preferred ministers.
To this, the apostle Paul puts things in perspective. Glory ought to never go to a man, for people are merely vessels through whom God works. Apollos, Paul, or any others are merely, “Servants through whom you believed” (1 Cor. 3:5).
Paul uses a metaphor of a field that is planted. One minister might plant gospel seeds, another might water those seeds, but the actual growth comes from God.
Anyone who’s ever planted their own garden knows this to be true.
You can till the ground, you can plant the seed, you can water the seed, you can do everything “right” and still not have any luck! What you need is beyond your control. All you can do is all you can do. The results aren’t ultimately in your hands. You need the right amount of sunshine that you simply can’t control.
So it is within the church.
Anyone involved in ministering the Word knows that there’s only so much you can do. Personally, I can try my hardest to prepare the best sermons and to present them to the best of my ability, but apart from some Sonshine, it’s nothing. We need God. We need His intervention if we are to grow as believers.
As Martin Luther once wrote, “The Word comes first, and with the Word the Spirit breathes upon my heart so that I believe.”
When we recognize that all of our best efforts still need the breath of God it will help us to not boast in ourselves or even to glory in others. If this were true in the days of the great apostles Paul and Peter at the outset of the church, then certainly it’s true today where naturally speaking no one compares to them!
Ultimately every gift that God has graced us with has been given for the service of others and the glory of God. The apostle Peter once wrote,
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet. 4:10-11).
If we could maintain this attitude of other-service and the glory of God, then certainly it would result in the betterment of the church and a unified body. Everyone in pursuit of the same thing—namely, the glory of God—certainly fixes a lot of infighting that can plague churches.
I love your writing, Josiah!