The Waiters and the Rock Stars 1st Corinthians 3:5-8
We live in a day when Christian ministers can be treated as rock stars. We are most certainly not rock stars. Paul explains this point to the Corinthian church and to us in today’s text. The division between the followers of Paul and the followers of Apollos that we mentioned in a previous post revealed that some in Corinth esteemed one minister more worthy of following than the other. We continue this practice today when we create cults of personality around certain Christian leaders and see them, and even our church, as superior to others.
Paul first asked us the obvious questions in verse 5. Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? This is a question we could ask about any minister we know, and the answer would be the same. They are only servants completing the work God has given them.
The word servant in the Bible has become code for big shot. When someone in the church is referred to as a servant we just naturally think of a pastor or preacher or someone else in church authority. When was the last time you heard someone described as a “servant of the Church” and you imagined someone mopping a floor or taking out the garbage? To get the cotemporary idea of how Paul is referring to Apollos and himself we need a different word.
Waiter gives us a better idea of what Paul wants us to understand. Someone who is under authority to serve others. We don’t think of waiters as big shots. Just as a waiter is assigned a group of tables by their boss, Paul and Apollos were assigned to serve the Corinthians by their boss who is God. Any other view of what a minister is distorts our view of ministers, a minister’s view of themselves and the relationship between the two.
Paul then explains that it doesn’t matter who is assigned to provide what nourishment because it is God who makes us grow. Seeing a minister as superior to another minister because of what they do or how they do it is a symptom of a deeper problem. That problem, according to Paul back in verse 4, is a worldly nature.
There are no superstars in God’s kingdom except for Christ Jesus. In verse 8 Paul tells us that we are all working toward the same purpose under the same leadership. Individual achievement and recognition while we are still laboring in the world is meaningless. It is not our fellow servants or people who receive our service that decide who we are in God’s kingdom. It is God Himself who will decide who the rock stars are not us. And it is God who will give us all the appropriate recognition and reward when we see His face in glory.