God Gives The Increase

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.  So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

I Corinthians 3:6-7

Christ said, ‘I will build My church.’ His church is His redeemed people of all the ages. It is not an organization, institution, or the religious industrial complex. The church is the whole body of the redeemed. What is significant about His statement is that He says He will do the building. Christ was a carpenter by trade. From about the age of twelve, until He was thirty, He spent His days on job sites around the sea of Galilee. He was familiar with the building process and knew the value of tools. In order to build His Church, He would use people as His tools. Paul was one, as were Apollos, Peter, and others. He has had a vast array of tools that He has used throughout history. He makes His Own tools for the purpose He intends to use them. They cannot take credit for how He has made them or what use He makes of them. Thus Paul, when dealing with the sectarian problems of the Corinthians says, ‘Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?’ Our text is what follows.  Paul uses the metaphor of the agricultural worker. One plants, another waters, but it is God who causes it all to grow. Christ gets the glory for the building of His church. We tend to look at the second causes. We want to remember that they are in the hands of the First Cause. He does all things well.

Our Gracious Master and our God,
we rejoice that You are building Your Church.
We praise You that in due course of time,
You will gather all together.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning