August 2: A Servant’s Heart

Focal Passage: 1 Cor. 3:5-15

When I was a young teenager I went joyriding with the one guy my dad told me not to go joyriding with. Well, in Dickson, Tenn., word travels fast, and it got back to my dad who punished me in a way that, at the time, I thought could only be described as cruel and unusual. He handed me a bucket of bleach water and a single scrub brush and told me to make the sidewalk in front of our house look new again. 

It took the better part of my Saturday, but I got it done. While the punishment certainly worked — I never went joyriding with that fellow again — I also learned a deeper lesson. When you keep in mind what you’re working toward, it helps you endure the labor in front of you. Or, as Paul reminds us in this passage, servants of Christ should serve with eternity in mind.

Every pastor eventually finds comfort in the church at Corinth. Why? Because no matter how difficult ministry becomes, it probably isn’t as difficult as Corinth! One of the major problems facing this young church, and there were many, was factionalism. 

Believers were dividing themselves around their favorite leaders and personalities. The Bible doesn’t tell us how this happened, but it did. Two thousand years later, the temptation remains. As the preacher of Ecclesiastes reminds us, “there is nothing new under the sun.”

Paul responds by reminding the Corinthians that ministers are simply servants carrying out different assignments. One plants, another waters, but God alone gives the growth. The spotlight belongs to Christ, not His servants. We serve; He gives the results.

Verse 9 becomes the hinge of Paul’s argument: “You are God’s field, God’s building.” God’s work is still underway, and His servants must remain faithful to the task instead of becoming distracted by personalities, preferences, or divisions. Paul expands that picture in Ephesians 2:21, where believers are described as “the whole building, being put together, grow(ing) into a holy temple in the Lord.”

Yet Paul goes one step further in verses 10-15. One day every believer’s work will be tested. The issue is not whether we built something impressive in the eyes of others, or the ways we were distracted, but whether we built faithfully upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. That future evaluation should shape our present service.

So, what are you working toward? Perhaps an even better question is this: What is the posture of your heart as you work? Are you distracted by personalities, preferences, or something else entirely? As I scrubbed that sidewalk years ago, it would have been easy to lose sight of the task before me. But remembering the goal kept me going. Christian service is much the same. When we keep eternity before us and Christ at the center, we are freed to serve faithfully today. B&R