God's Fellow Workers

Text: 1 Corinthians 3:9

Series: Restoration Sermons

Date:

Speaker: Ed Rangel

Location: Waupaca Church of Christ

Bible Version: NASB 1995

Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Explain what Paul means by "God's fellow workers" — co-laborers in a divine work, not mere employees.
2. Describe why this calling carries profound dignity — and profound weight.
3. Understand the relationship between God's sovereignty and human co-labor: God has chosen to work through human agents, not despite them.
4. Identify the specific works in which Christians are God's fellow workers: evangelism, edification, and mercy.
5. Recognize that the day of accounting is coming — the quality of each worker's work will be tested (1 Cor. 3:12-15).

Thesis

Christians are God's fellow workers — not because God needs us, but because He has chosen to build His kingdom through human agents; this privilege carries both dignity and accountability, and the work is tested by fire.

Burden

"For we are God's fellow workers" (1 Cor. 3:9). Paul is describing himself and Apollos, but the statement is not limited to apostles. Every Christian who plants, waters, teaches, visits, gives, and prays is engaged in the same enterprise. The question is not whether you are in it — you are, if you belong to Christ. The question is whether you understand what you are in. You are not running an errand. You are not padding a résumé for eternity. You are co-laboring with the God who made the universe to build something that will outlast it. That is the weight of this calling.

Introduction

The context in 1 Corinthians 3 is a dispute about Christian leaders. The Corinthians were dividing themselves into camps — "I am of Paul," "I am of Apollos" (1 Cor. 1:12). Paul's correction runs through chapters 1–4, and 1 Cor. 3:9 is the pivot: you are God's field, God's building — and we (Paul, Apollos, every servant) are only God's fellow workers. No laborer is the owner. No laborer plants what he does not first receive from God. The dignity is real, but it is derived. The outline develops four dimensions of this calling: its definition, its dependence on God, its scope, and its accountability.

I. What It Means to Be God's Fellow Workers

A. The word is sunergoi — co-workers, fellow laborers.

1. Not servants who work for God at a distance, but workers who labor together with Him in a shared enterprise.
2. The same word used in Rom. 16:3 of Priscilla and Aquila ("my fellow workers in Christ Jesus"), and in Phil. 4:3 of Clement and others.
3. The title implies both participation and partnership: God is working; we are working with Him.

B. This is not a natural status — it is a bestowed one.

1. God did not need human partners. He created the universe by speaking.
2. God has chosen to work through human instruments — by design, not necessity.
3. This is the biblical pattern from the beginning: He sends Noah, Abraham, Moses, the prophets, the apostles — not because He cannot act alone, but because He has ordained this method.

C. The dignity of the calling is real but derived.

1. Paul's point in context is to deflate the party spirit around human leaders: the leader is only a fellow worker, not an owner. The Corinthians were wrong to divide over them.
2. But the calling itself is magnificent: to be included in God's work on the terms He sets is the highest possible vocation.

II. The Dependence: God Provides, We Distribute

A. The fundamental rule: "Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth" (1 Cor. 3:7).

1. The farmer does not make the crop grow. He prepares, plants, and waters — and waits on God.
2. So with the work of the kingdom: the preacher does not regenerate a soul, the teacher does not open blind eyes, the evangelist does not produce conviction. Only God gives the increase.

B. This guards against two errors.

1. Pride: if God gives the increase, no worker has grounds for boasting over another (1 Cor. 3:21-22).
2. Despair: if the growth is God's work, the faithful worker does not bear the full weight of results. Plant. Water. Trust God.

C. The co-labor is real but not symmetrical.

1. God's role: the primary, irreducible, non-negotiable source of all spiritual growth.
2. Man's role: the instrument God uses, responsible for faithfulness to the work — not for the outcome.
3. "the claim that God is dependent on man" — this needs care. God is not ontologically dependent on us. He has sovereignly chosen to do His work through us. The dependence is of His choosing, not His necessity. He holds the initiative at every step.

III. The Scope of the Work

A. Planting — evangelism and the first proclamation of the gospel.

1. "I planted, Apollos watered" (1 Cor. 3:6). Paul was the first evangelist in Corinth.
2. Every Christian who shares the gospel for the first time with another person is planting.
3. The seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11). We carry it; He makes it take root.

B. Watering — edification and the ongoing instruction of the church.

1. Apollos watered what Paul planted — and the work was essential; without water, the plant dies.
2. Teaching, preaching, discipling, mentoring — all of this is the watering that sustains the growth God gives.
3. The distinction between planting and watering guards against the error of thinking that only evangelism is "real" work — the ongoing care of the flock is equally part of God's enterprise.

C. Building — the construction of the corporate body.

1. "You are God's building" (1 Cor. 3:9). The metaphor shifts from agriculture to construction.
2. Paul laid the foundation (which is Christ — 1 Cor. 3:11), and others build on it.
3. Every act of service that strengthens the body — mercy, giving, hospitality, prayer, encouragement — is a contribution to the building that is God's dwelling place (Eph. 2:21-22).

IV. The Accountability — The Day of Testing

A. The work of every builder will be examined.

1. "Each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it" (1 Cor. 3:13).
2. The fire will test what sort of material each person's work was built from: gold, silver, precious stones — or wood, hay, stubble (1 Cor. 3:12).

B. The implications are two.

1. Gold, silver, precious stones survive: the worker receives a reward. This is not salvation by works but the assessment of faithfulness in service.
2. Wood, hay, stubble burn: the worker himself is saved, "yet so as through fire" — the work is lost, the person survives (1 Cor. 3:15). A solemn picture of a wasted calling.

C. The temple of God must not be destroyed.

1. "If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him" (1 Cor. 3:17) — the most severe warning in the passage.
2. The workers who build with divisive, self-promoting, or doctrinally corrupt material destroy rather than build.
3. The accountability is to God — not to the congregation, not to other preachers, not to tradition.

D. This is the weight of the calling: to be God's fellow workers means that the quality of the work will be measured.

Application

The work you do — or leave undone — in the body of Christ is part of the building God is constructing. That is not sentimentality; it is the plain statement of 1 Cor. 3:9-15. You do not have the option of being a fellow worker who does not work. What you build with matters. Whether you plant or water, teach or give, visit or pray, the question is: is this gold or is this stubble? The day will show it. Build accordingly.

Conclusion

Christians are God's fellow workers — called into a shared enterprise with the God who created all things and who is building a dwelling place for Himself in the church (Eph. 2:21-22). The dignity of the calling is immense. The dependence is total: He gives the increase, and no worker has ground to boast. The scope is wide: planting, watering, building are all parts of the same work. And the accountability is real: the day will test what every worker has built. Waste nothing. Boast in nothing. Work faithfully, and let God give the increase.

Invitation

If you have never entered God's field — never been planted in Christ through faith, repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38) — today is the invitation. God is building something, and there is a place in it for you. Come and be planted in Christ. If you are a Christian who has neglected the work — who has let the field go untended and the building go unbuilt — come and return to it today. Come as we sing.

Word Study

Scripture Interlock Table

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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 69. Doctrinal note: "God is dependent on us" language in Boles treated carefully — God's dependence on human co-workers is His sovereign choice and ordained method, not ontological necessity. This is stated explicitly in Section II.C to prevent a reader from drawing the wrong implication. Full accountability section (1 Cor. 3:12-15) developed — Boles's outline suggests this and it is essential for the sermon's integrity. No Calvinist implication in the treatment of God giving the increase; the "only God gives growth" point is used to guard against human boasting, not to deny human responsibility. Invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).

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