For we are God's fellow-workmen; ye are God's husbandry, God's building.
Paul is writing to a church splitting into fan clubs around its teachers — some for Paul, some for Apollos. Verse 9 answers the whole quarrel with three claims of ownership. The workers belong to God. So do the field and the house they work on.
The stress in the first clause does not fall on the workers but on whose they are. One writer weighs what that one word means for the workers and for Corinthian pride:
How cheering this is to the despised but faithful, self-denying and gracious workers! How humbling to Corinthian vanity! It never took into account the one principle the Spirit gives here for the divine and lasting reward. "For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building." Whoever the servants may be, they are directly responsible to God — not, in this sense, to the church, and still less to a party. They are God's fellow workers. He gave them, they do His work, and they answer to Him in everything. In the end they must give Him an account. The emphasis rests on "God's."
Commentators differ on how to read the phrase. Some take it to mean workmen who belong to God and serve under Him. They warn against the older rendering, "labourers together with God":
We are not fellow-workers with God, but under Him. We are His fellow-workers, but in entire subjection to Him, in no way on a level with Him. The wording in the Authorised and Revised Versions of 1 Cor. 3:9 and 2 Cor. 6:1 is ambiguous and dangerous. Many have read it as putting God and His servants on the same level. Read that way, it is evil and presumptuous.
Others read it as a real partnership, and find nothing improper in it:
God's only reward is the doing of His will. The Spirit of adoption leads the feet of God's true children in the steps of Jesus, and so makes them co-workers with Him in His work. It is a wonderful thing to say, but it fits the character of our calling perfectly; for through redemption God calls us into the fellowship of His own Son.
Both pictures in the verse had two men attached to them, and each man had his own task:
Each, however, had his own distinctive work. In the field, Paul planted and Apollos followed to water the young plants. In the building, Paul was the wise architect who laid the foundation, and Apollos built on it. Their work was different, but their aim was one... So God keeps both unity and variety among His servants, and no one is to be set against another.
The two images are not repetition. One writer draws out what each picture is for, and what follows for anyone tempted to wear a party label:
They are "God's field" and "God's building". The first picture is a field, where there is fruit, or increase, for God. The second is a temple, where the Spirit of God lives and where there is light for people... The truth Paul used to meet and condemn divisions in those early days still condemns the divisions of Christendom today. If we realise that we belong to God, that we are "God's field" and "God's building", we will refuse to be called by any party name.
If the church is God's building, the next verses ask the obvious question: who builds, and with what?
Building pictures the raising up of a spiritual house for God, and Christ is its Builder... Others build too, but only as His instruments. Paul calls himself "a wise master builder", or better, "architect", because he laid the foundation of the church well, and that foundation is Christ. The workers are warned about the material they use in building a house for God. Unsuitable materials will not stand the test of fire. Then the builders suffer loss: they see their work burned up and lose their reward.
Everything in the verse is God's. So the servant's account is with Him, and both flattery and blame lose their hold:
If it is a question of tillage — it is God's field; or if it is a building, it is God's building — God's temple... This principle makes you independent of everybody. It clears you of every influence but one: "I have to do with God. I must answer to God." It makes no difference whether people praise me or criticise me.
- God's workers. The servants are not rivals or party leaders. They belong to God, He gave them, and they answer to Him.
- God's field. The saints are His field, and what He looks for from it is fruit — increase for Himself.
- God's building. The same people are His house, where His Spirit lives and light shines out for others to see.
- God's materials. Everyone who builds on the one foundation answers for what he uses. Fire will test it, and poor work loses its reward.
- God's verdict. Because all three are His, His workers wear no name but His, and no praise or blame from people needs to weigh with them.
According to the grace of God which has been given to me, as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation, but another builds upon it. But let each see how he builds upon it.
Paul pictures the church as a building. He laid its foundation, others are working on top of it, and two questions follow: what is that foundation, and what makes one worker's building stand while another's fails?
Paul could have pressed his apostolic office here. Instead he traces his work back to a gift, and one commentator sees a lost instinct in that choice.
Even the apostle loved to tie his work and his office to the grace of God rather than to bare authority. That instinct has so faded from Christendom that ministry has become a merely human thing and has even taken on a worldly character. The loss to the church is beyond words, and the dishonour to the Lord is most serious... Here we have the responsibility of the one who ministers. The apostle's place stands, but so does responsible service, and that is a serious thing.
The title he does take — older translations say "wise master builder" — is closer to our word architect:
Others are builders too, but only as instruments. Paul calls himself a "wise master builder," or better, an "architect," because he laid the foundation of the assembly well. That foundation is Christ.
Paul did not lay stone. He preached a Person, and everything built later must match Him.
Jesus Christ must be the foundation. If He is not, then what is built is not the assembly of God... The foundation is the teaching that believers have received into their hearts. When Paul first came to Corinth he preached "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." That was the foundation, and every other part of the building should take its character from it.
No later worker can lay that foundation again:
In the same way today, whoever the workmen may be, no one can lay any foundation but Jesus Christ. The Lord said, "on this rock I will build my church." For his part, the apostle Paul did this same work as a wise master builder. He laid that same foundation, so no one has the right to lay another.
There is a building Christ Himself is raising. There is also one He hands to men, and this verse deals with the second.
Paul, as a wise master builder, laid the foundation. When others build, he warns them not to build with wrong materials — wood, hay, straw — which will be destroyed. The building work was put into man's hands as a responsibility, and so it came under judgment. "On this rock I will build my church" gives me Christ's building, and that is still going on; it is not finished yet... All that is Christ's work, what men call the invisible church, and so it is. But on the other hand, "let each one take care how he builds upon it" — that is, on the foundation Paul laid. There you have man's work as a responsible instrument.
Another writer weighs the two kinds of work against each other.
The work of Christ in building His Church must be perfect... But, as this passage in 1 Corinthians teaches, He also entrusts the work of building to His servants, and He holds them responsible for the character of their work.
Paul's warning here is about the way a man builds. One writer traces that back to the foundation.
Each builder must keep the character of the foundation in mind. It should control how he builds and also what materials he uses. In verse 10 the Apostle stresses how we build; in verse 12 it is what we build. The builders' motives must fit Christ, and so must the methods and principles that guide them.
The Corinthians had strong opinions about their teachers. Those opinions had the values the wrong way round.
Builders may raise very different material on that foundation. Some of it is precious, like the great, costly stones of the temple. Some of it is worthless and vile. And here man's judgment fails. No doubt many a believer at Corinth had prized the hay and straw of human wisdom and looked down on the gold and silver of apostolic truth. So there is need of another day, and of the Lord's own discernment.
- Grace — Paul traces his whole office to a gift, not to status. Service is a responsibility, not a rank.
- Foundation — Laying it meant preaching Christ crucified. That work is done, so no one may lay another.
- Handed over — What Christ builds cannot fail. What He entrusts to servants can, and this verse deals with that work.
- Manner — Verse 10 asks how you build, verse 12 asks what. The foundation should govern your motives and your materials.
- Tested — Corinth rated human wisdom above apostolic truth. So the work waits for another day, and for the Lord's own judgment of it.
For other foundation can no man lay besides that which [is] laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Paul is writing about God's building at Corinth. The verse names its one foundation, limits what every later worker can do, and raises a hard question about anyone who builds on something else.
Paul can be called a founder of the church at Corinth. In what sense is that true?
It is only in a secondary and relative sense that the apostle can call himself a founder... God's building rests on one eternal truth: the person of Christ. He is now "declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead." That truth is essential and life-giving. Receiving it by faith sets the believer in his place as a stone of God's building.
Christ is the foundation. Writers also speak of it as the message about Him, received into the heart. So what did Paul lay at Corinth?
Jesus Christ must be the foundation, otherwise what is built is not the church of God. There are many other kinds of institutions in this world... but only what rests on the foundation of Jesus Christ is God's church. The foundation is the doctrine received into the hearts of those who have believed, and when Paul first came to Corinth he preached "Jesus Christ and him crucified." That was the foundation, and every other part of the building should take its character from it.
The words rule out every rival, Peter included. One writer tests that claim and answers it for his own soul.
As to Peter being the foundation, except as a mighty instrument in God's hands, I do not believe it for a moment, because Paul says, "no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."... I could not trust my soul to any foundation but Christ. None has died for me but He. None is the truth but He... Besides, if Peter was the foundation, how can the pope be so now? The foundation of the church cannot be laid now.
The same rule reaches into personal religion. Put anything beside Christ, and God counts it dishonour, not help.
Are you thoroughly satisfied with God's foundation? Or are you trying to add something of your own? Your own works, your prayers, your church rituals, your vows and resolutions, your religious duties? If so, if you are trying to add the smallest bit to God's Christ, you may be sure you will be put to shame. God will not allow such dishonour to be offered to His tested, chosen, precious cornerstone... He is enough for God, and He may well be enough for us.
Whatever happens to the work built above it, the base itself is not at risk, because God laid it.
That foundation must be divine, the work of God's Holy Spirit. Thank God for that. We begin with an unchangeable, eternal foundation. The work in the soul of the believer must be on the basis of the work accomplished at Calvary for God's glory and our eternal salvation. That foundation can never, thank God, be destroyed.
A safe foundation is no licence for careless work on top of it. One writer separates two buildings that share it.
The house that Christ builds in grace is permanent and eternal. What man builds in responsibility is another thing altogether. The one is unfailing, the other utterly failing, and so it will be judged... Paul laid the true foundation; no other could be laid. Other builders might build "gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw." Fire would test everything. Whether the work lasted depended on the materials. The teaching of the servants brought in souls according to its own character.
- Laid — God has already laid the foundation. Paul is a founder only in a secondary sense, and no one lays it again today.
- Christ — Paul preached Christ crucified, the Son of God declared by resurrection. Every later stone must match Him.
- Only — nothing may stand beside Christ. Not an apostle, not the pope, not your own works and religious duties.
- Safe — the foundation is divine, the work of God's Spirit, and it can never be destroyed. Everything in the believer rests on what Christ accomplished at Calvary.
- Tested — what men build on it is another matter. Teaching is the material and fire is the test. Souls take the character of the doctrine they receive.