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The Acts of the Apostles
the Holy Spirit. As they make known the gospel of salvation, many
will be convicted and converted by the power of God. The human
instrumentality is hid with Christ in God, and Christ appears as the
chiefest among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely.
“Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every
man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For
we are laborers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are
God’s building.”
Verses 8, 9
. In this scripture the apostle compares
the church to a cultivated field, in which the husbandmen labor, caring
for the vines of the Lord’s planting; and also to a building, which is
to grow into a holy temple for the Lord. God is the Master Worker,
and He has appointed to each man his work. All are to labor under
His supervision, letting Him work for and through His workmen. He
gives them tact and skill, and if they heed His instruction, crowns their
efforts with success.
God’s servants are to work together, blending in kindly, courteous
order, “in honor preferring one another.”
Romans 12:10
. There is
to be no unkind criticism, no pulling to pieces of another’s work;
and there are to be no separate parties. Every man to whom the
Lord has entrusted a message has his specific work. Each one has an
individuality of his own, which he is not to sink in that of any other
man. Yet each is to work in harmony with his brethren. In their service
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God’s workers are to be essentially one. No one is to set himself
up as a criterion, speaking disrespectfully of his fellow workers or
treating them as inferior. Under God each is to do his appointed work,
respected, loved, and encouraged by the other laborers. Together they
are to carry the work forward to completion.
These principles are dwelt upon at length in Paul’s first letter to
the Corinthian church. The apostle refers to “the ministers of Christ”
as “stewards of the mysteries of God,” and of their work he declares:
“It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But with me
it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s
judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by
myself; yet I am not hereby justified: but He that judgeth me is the
Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come,
who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will
make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man
have praise of God.”
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
.