Man a Worker with God
Bishop Janes. 1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are laborers together with God: you are God's husbandry, you are God's building. God a labourer, a labourer with men, God a labourer with men for men, are the facts stated in this passage. I. GOD WORKS ALONE. We are not wont to consider God in His wonderful activities, but more accustomed to think of Him as having created the universe, and complacently beholding its wondrous workings and results. Nevertheless, the God referred to in this passage is not only glorious in holiness, but also a God doing wonders. This activity of the Infinite One is involved in — 1. The doctrine of providence. The preservation of the action, harmony, and stability of nature requires His constant oversight and direction and application of nature and of its laws. This is also true of all the beings which God had created. Every one of them lives in Him. The seraph before His throne, and the men upon His footstool, are each of them the objects of His ceaseless care. So is every sun and star as well as every plant and flower. How wondrous, how inconceivably glorious must be the activity of the Divine mind! 2. The doctrine of the final judgment. We shall be summoned to the Divine presence, the Omnipotent Judge, who has known our motives and all the circumstances under which we have acted, and we shall receive from Him, from His personal knowledge, the decisions of that day. How wonderful must be the presence, and perception, and memory of this Infinite God, who is thus our judge! 3. The reception of worship. How necessary, in order that God may properly regard our approaches to Him and our devotion, that He should understand everything that affects thought or feeling at the time that those services are rendered! And when we consider how great is the number of His worshippers, how wonderful must be the exercise of His intelligence and of His love! There are two things which render it difficult for us to rightly appreciate these activities. (1) The one is that God is invisible. (2) The other is that in most of His works God operates independently of rational agencies.(a) In making the universe He employed no agents. On the contrary, He spake and it was done.(b) In the conservation of the universe none of the beings that occupy it have an agency in holding it in its orbit.(c) In legislating for mankind He has no legislative assembly. The laws by which we are governed emanate from His mind, are promulgated by His authority, and He will execute His own sentence. II. NEVERTHELESS, THERE IS ONE OF THE DIVINE ENTERPRISES IN WHICH GOD IS PLEASED TO ASSOCIATE MEN, and that is the work of human salvation. 1. But there are several departments of it in which God acts alone. (1) This was true in devising this scheme of mercy; there were no consultations. (2) And in making the atonement that was necessary to accomplish this purpose God acted by Himself. He so loved the world, &c. Jesus Christ alone is the Redeemer and Saviour of the children of men. (3) It is equally true that in the transformation of the human soul it is a Divine work; it is the work of the Holy Spirit. 2. Still there are .departments in this enterprise in which God has been pleased to employ men. (1) He did this in inaugurating Christianity in the earth. By prophets and priests He prepared the world for the reception of the coming Messiah. (2) And then when the fulness of time was come the shepherds of Bethlehem listened to the announcement of the fact from the heavenly host; wise men from the East came to witness His incarnation. (3) Disciples were with Him during His ministry, and just before His ascension they received from Him His great commission. And on the day of Pentecost they received the power to go forth and preach the gospel which had been committed to them. You will see in every step of its introduction and inauguration it became needful that human instrumentality should be employed. (4) And now that it is inaugurated God requires His people to promulgate it. He has made it the business of the Church to give these Holy Scriptures to all men, and in this there is a very large service to be rendered. When in every community upon the earth there shall be a Christian, a Christian pastor, and Christian disciples, it will be their duty to employ every possible influence and agency to prevail upon men to heed the call of Divine mercy. By our Christian character, our constant watchfulness, and every influence that God gives us, we are to beseech men to be reconciled to God. III. PRACTICAL LESSONS. If our views of this subject are correct, we may infer — 1. The greatness of the work of human salvation. It is the only enterprise in which God is engaged in which He has taken into the fellowship of labour with Him either angels or men. 2. The dignity of activity in the cause and for the sake of Christ. We are not acting upon physical, material things; we are not seeking to promote mainly temporal interests or present happiness merely. We are seeking to recover lost spirits, redeemed by Christ, for whose restoration there is provision made by the power of the Spirit. 3. The certainty of success in these spiritual enterprises. If we were to do this work in our own wisdom and strength we might well hesitate and fear as to the result, but if we are labouring with God who can doubt the success? (Bishop Janes.) Parallel Verses KJV: For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. WEB: For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's farming, God's building.