“Nor do we boast and claim credit for the work someone else has done. Instead, we hope that your faith will grow so that the boundaries of our work among you will be extended. Then we will be able to go and preach the Good News in other places far beyond you, where no one else is working. Then there will be no question of our boasting about work done in someone else’s territory.”
2 Corinthians 10:15-16 NLT
Paul established the Corinthian church during his second missionary journey, around about 50 AD, and he spent about eighteen months there establishing the church with the help of a Jewish couple, Aquila and Priscilla. He started his mission in the local synagogue, but, not getting very far, he left and went next door to the home of Titius Justus, a Gentile believer. We can read all about it in Acts 18. But in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul addressed the issue of divisions and quarrelling, “Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ”” (1 Corinthians 1:12). From this, we can assume that Paul was not the only preacher in Corinth, with Apollos and Peter making their contribution. In our verses today from his second letter, Paul was clear to point out that he was not going to take any credit “for the work someone else has done”. Instead, generously, he recognised that “the boundaries of [his] work” would be extended by different men ministering there. It is a fact of life that people will follow leaders whom they can relate to, and that is not always the same person, and the men we know about, Paul, Apollos and Peter, each had their own followings. In fact, Paul effectively told the Corinthians that it was good to have an open pulpit, because it would free him to pioneer the preaching of the Gospel in places where people had not heard about Jesus. On the one hand, Paul was very jealous of his church plant in Corinth, but on the other, he realised that he couldn’t be in all places at the same time. Paul’s basic motivation was being an Apostle to the Gentiles, which was the driving force behind his mission to preach the Gospel.
Today, we pilgrims go to churches that may or may not have an open pulpit. I have been in a church where there was only one preacher, someone who was very good, but inevitably, the delivery style and subject matter skewed the reception amongst the congregation. In another church I attended, back in the early days of my faith, the congregation was ministered to by three men: one a pastor and teacher, one a prophet, and the third an evangelist. A good mix of messages followed, and the congregation grew in a more balanced way.
In Ephesians 4:11-12, we read about the different ministry gifts present in God’s order: “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ”. We call this the “Five-fold ministry”. It is obvious, really, that if the church of which we are a member only has one of these gifts, then some aspects of spiritual teaching will be neglected. The church, which I described as having one leader, mainly heard teachings on the Christian life, with an emphasis on healing. So the other ministries were neglected. In some cases, the church leader has more than one gift and fills in some of the gaps, but, as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, the purpose of these ministries is to “equip God’s people to do His work” and “build up the church”.
I suspect Paul would have been the first person to admit that he did not hold the positions of all these ministries, and visits from Apollos and Peter would have filled in a few gaps. Titus was another gifted man who visited Corinth, as we read earlier in the second letter, and Paul was not going to claim credit for their work.
The church of Jesus Christ, in its universal sense, is not there for individuals in splendid isolation, but it is a “body” of people who are being built into a spiritual temple. 1 Peter 2:4-5, “You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honour. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God”. Paul wrote, “So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord” (Ephesians 2:19-21). Paul went further about this “body” when he wrote, “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (Ephesians 4:16). It is also a fact that Jesus is coming back a second time to meet His bride, the church. Ephesians 5:25b-27, “… Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault”.
We pilgrims are part of a much larger body of people. Some we will get on with; others we won’t. But together we make up the “body of Christ”. In this body, we are all responsible for acts of service, and with these the body grows “without a spot or wrinkle”. And it is our leaders who help us in this process by their teaching and encouragement. We must always encourage them in their ministries and help them in any way we can. As Paul said in his first letter, there will be different leaders with different gifts, but through them “[our] faith will grow”. Yes, it is possible for Christians to be individuals outside the body: in fact, there are some of our brothers and sisters who have little choice in the matter, and for them God provides a special blessing through His Spirit, but for the majority of us, we find out that we are in a body of believers, all heading in the same direction. We will all be at different stages in our journeys, but we are all looking forward to the day when we will meet the Lord Himself, glorified and home at last.
Dear Heavenly Father. You have kindly placed us in a family, made up of Your children. Please help us to build up our spiritual siblings, and support our leaders as they do the work You have asked them to do. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 