Chapter 1. The Porch or Entrance into the Words, Together with the Proposition
Showing the Privileges of a Believer.
(1 Cor 3:21–23) "For all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's."
Happiness is the goal and center that everyone aims at. The next thing sought after existence itself is being happy. And surely, the nearer the soul comes to God, who is the fountain of life and peace, the nearer it comes to happiness. And who is nearer to God than the believer, who is mystically one with him? He must be the happy man. If you would survey his blessed condition, look at this text, which points to it as the hand points to a dial: "For all things are yours." This text might fittingly be compared to the tree of life, which bore twelve kinds of fruit and yielded its fruit every month. Many precious clusters grow out of this text, and if skillfully cultivated, it will yield much excellent fruit.
In these words we have the inventory of a Christian: "All things are yours:" what a strange paradox, a believer can call nothing his own, and yet he can say that all things are his! I have often thought that a poor Christian living in a prison, or in some run-down cottage, is like the moneylender who, though he appears poor and can hardly find himself bread, has thousands out at interest. So it is with a child of God: "as having nothing, yet possessing all things" (2 Cor 6:10). What the philosopher once said, that only the wise man is the rich man, gives me leave to say that only the believer is the rich man. Here his estate is summed up: "all things are his."
Objection: Before I come to the words themselves, an objection must be cleared out of the way. If all things are ours, it seems there must be a shared ownership, what belongs to one man belongs to another.
Answer: The apostle is not speaking here of civil possessions. Paul was no leveler; he did not set out to abolish anyone's property. For though he says, "all things are yours;" he does not say that whatever any man has is yours.
Objection: But is it not said that they had all things in common (Acts 2:44)?
Answer: That is true. But first, this was purely voluntary; there was no command requiring it.
Objection: But someone may object that this was recorded as an example for us to imitate.
Answer:
1.) Examples in Scripture do not always carry the force of an argument. The prophet Elijah called down fire from heaven to consume the captains and their fifty men, but it does not follow that when one Christian is angry with another, he may call down fire from heaven. So the early saints, out of prudence and charity, held all things in common; it does not follow that in every age and century of the church there should be a common fund, with everyone entitled to a share.
2.) Though the disciples held all things in common, they still retained ownership of their property, as is clear from Peter's words to Ananias: "Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?" (Acts 5:4). It is true in one sense that what the early church had was not their own, whatever could be spared was given for the relief of the saints, and in this sense all things were common. But they still kept a portion of their estate in their own hands.
There is a double right to an estate: a right of ownership, and a right of charity. The right of charity belongs to the poor, but the right of ownership belongs to the owner. For instance, God made a law that a man must not put his sickle into his neighbor's grain. We read that the disciples, being hungry as they went through the fields on the Sabbath, plucked the ears of grain, there was charity. But they were not to put a sickle to the grain, there was ownership.
I mention this because there are some who, when God has set up an enclosure, would treat everything as common property. It was Satan who tore down Job's hedge. The Lord has set the eighth commandment as a fence around a person's estate, and whoever breaks through this hedge will be bitten by a serpent. Having now cleared this objection out of the way, I come to the next point.
The text falls into three parts:
1.) The inventory, "all things,"
2.) The proprietors, "all things are yours."
3.) The tenure, "Ye are Christ's." These three branches together make up one proposition.
Doctrine: All things in heaven and earth are the portion and privilege of a believer. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things." What a vast inventory! "All things:" we could have no more than all; and the apostle uses a repetition here, doubling the word, to remove all hesitation and doubt from faith.
Chapter 3. The Opening of the Charter: Things Present Are a Believer's — Section 1. Paul and Apollos Are Yours
Question: And now I come to that great question: what are the things contained in the Charter?
Answer: There are two words in the text that express it: "things present, and things to come." I begin with the first.
1. Things present are a believer's. Among these things present, three are specified in the text: Paul and Apollos, the world, and life. Here, I think, is a row of pearls. I will take up each of these in turn and show you their worth; then see how rich a believer is, who wears such a chain of pearls about him.
1. Under these words, "Paul and Apollos," all the ministers of Christ are represented, the weakest as well as the most eminent. "Paul and Apollos are yours": that is, their labors are for the edifying of the church. They are the helpers of your faith; a minister's gifts are not given for himself, they belong to the church. If the people carry a taint of error, the ministers of Christ must season them with wholesome words; that is why they are called "the salt of the earth." If any soul is fainting under the burden of sin, it is the minister's work to drop in comfort; that is why he is said to hold out the breast like a nurse. Thus Paul and Apollos are yours: all of a minister's gifts, all his graces, are not only for himself, they are the church's.
A minister must not keep his gifts to himself; that would be "hiding his talent in a napkin." Such a man fences off what God intended to be held in common. "Paul and Apollos are yours": the ministers of Christ should be like musk among linen, casting a fragrance, or like that box of spikenard which, being broken, filled the house with its scent, so should they do by the sweetness of their lives. A minister, by sending out a sweet perfume in his doctrine and life, makes the church of God like a garden of spices.
"Paul and Apollos are yours": they are like a lamp or torch lighting souls to heaven. Chrysostom's hearers thought they would rather do without the sun in the sky than without Chrysostom in the pulpit. Paul and Apollos are springs holding the water of life; as these springs must not be poisoned, neither must they be shut up or sealed. A minister of Christ is both a granary to hold the grain and a steward to give it out; it is little better than theft to withhold the bread of life.
The lips of Apollos must be like a honeycomb, dropping in season and out of season. The graces of the Spirit are sacred flowers which, though they cannot die, are apt to wither, so Apollos must come with his watering can. It is not enough that grace be in the heart, it must be poured out through his lips. As Paul is a believer, all things are his; but as Paul is a minister, he is not his own, he belongs to the church. There are three lessons I will draw from this.
Application 1. If "Paul and Apollos are yours," then every minister of Christ is given for the edifying of the church; take heed that you do not despise the least of these, for all are for your profit. The smallest star gives light, the smallest drop moistens, the least minister is no less than an angel. Some use can be made even of the humblest of men: "there are diversities of gifts," but all are yours. The weakest minister may help to strengthen your faith. Under the law, not all the Levites sacrificed, only the priests, Aaron and his sons, but all were useful in the worship of God; those who did not sacrifice still helped to carry the ark. As in a building, some bring stones, some bring timber, some bring only nails, yet these are useful too, serving to fasten the work together.
The church of God is a spiritual building. Some ministers bring stones and are more eminent and useful; others bring timber; others still have only a nail to contribute to the work, yet all serve the good of this building. The least nail in the ministry serves to fasten souls to Christ, so let none be despised. Though not all are apostles, not all are evangelists, and not all have the same skill in their work, remember: "all are yours," all edify. Often God crowns the labors of, and sends the most fish into the net of, a minister who is less skillful but more faithful, one with less of the brain but more of the heart. An ambassador may deliver his message with a trembling lip and a stammering tongue, but he is honorable for his work's sake; he represents the person of the king.
Application 2. If "Paul and Apollos are yours," then all of Christ's ministers serve your good, they come to arrange the marriage between Christ and you. So love Paul and Apollos. All the labors of a minister, his prayers, his tears, the depth of his gifts, the outpouring of his affections, all are yours; then by the law of fairness, there must be some answering love from your hearts toward Paul and Apollos, such as are "set over you in the Lord." Show your love in these ways:
1. By honoring them. Manoah wanted to know the angel's name, so that he might honor him.
The apostle calls for exactly this: "We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and to esteem them very highly." They are co-workers with God. God and his ministers, if I may say so with reverence, carry on one and the same trade, and "they labour among you", therefore esteem them very highly. Next to sending out Christ and the Spirit, God never honored the world more than in sending out his Pauls and Apolloses. Kings may be fathers who nurse you in peace, but ministers are fathers who beget you to Christ: the earthly father conveys nature, the spiritual father conveys grace. Chrysostom wonders, then, how it comes about that ministers are not only more revered than kings and judges, but even more than our natural parents.
What, then, shall we say of those who think no more of their ministers than the Egyptians thought of shepherds? "Every shepherd was an abomination unto the Egyptians." "Know them," says the apostle, "that labour among you", but many are content only to know their humble birth: "Is not this the carpenter's son?", or to know their weaknesses, but not to know them in the apostle's sense, so as to give them double honor. Surely, if it were not for the ministry, you would not be a vineyard but a wilderness; if it were not for the ministry, you would be without the two seals of the covenant, baptism and the Lord's Supper; you would be unbelievers, for "faith cometh by hearing," and "how shall they hear without a preacher?" So honor Paul and Apollos; though their persons may be humble, their office is honorable.
2. Show your love to the ministers by pleading their cause when they are unjustly slandered and defamed. Some, as Justin Martyr observes, count it a mark of piety to defame a minister skillfully. Others, who would seem more modest, may not spread a rumor themselves, but they welcome it readily enough when it comes to them. This runs contrary to the apostolic rule: "against an elder," or minister, "receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses." Constantine greatly honored the ministry; it is said of him that he would not even read the malicious accusations brought against them, but burned them unread.
Oh, if you love Paul and Apollos, stand up in their defense; become their advocates. The Egyptians had a law that if a man found another in the hands of thieves and failed to rescue him when he could, he was condemned to die. When your ministers fall among thieves who would rob them of their good name, seek to rescue them. Too many labor to clip the credit of God's ministers, to make it weigh lighter; put some weight back into the scales yourself. Do they open their mouths to God on your behalf, and will you not open your mouths on theirs? Surely, if they labor to save your souls, you ought to labor to save their reputation.
3. Show your love to your ministers by encouraging them, and by being a shield to keep off injuries from them. If they seek your establishment in the faith, you must seek their encouragement; if they labor for your salvation, you must labor for their safety. The very name of an ambassador has always been a protection from harm. What an unnatural thing it is, that anyone should strive to bring to death those whose very calling is to bring men to life! The minister is a spiritual father; it was counted a mark of shame that "this people are as they that strive with their priest." Was there no one else to quarrel with but the priest, the very one who offered up their sacrifices for them? And what does it mean, do you think, for men to quarrel with their spiritual fathers, even those they once held in high regard, and acknowledged as the means of their conversion? Either love your spiritual fathers, or there is good reason to suspect that your new birth was never genuine.
Application 3. If "Paul and Apollos are yours," they are given to build you up in your faith; so labor to profit from the work of Paul and Apollos, I mean those who labor in the word and doctrine. Do not let them plow upon rock; answer God's purpose in sending them to you. Labor to profit: you may gain some knowledge from the word, of a kind that is merely argumentative and controversial, and still not profit from it.
Question: What is it to profit?
Answer: The apostle tells us: "when we mingle the word with faith", that is, when we so hear that we believe, and so believe that we are transformed into the image of the word: "Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." It is one thing for the truth to be delivered to us, and another thing for us to be delivered into the truth; the words are a metaphor drawn from lead or silver cast into a mold. This is what it means to profit: when our hearts are cast into the mold of the word preached. As the seed is spiritual, so the heart must be spiritual.
We should do as the bee does: having sucked sweetness from the flower, she works it within her own hive and turns it into honey. So when we have drawn out some precious truth, we should, through holy meditation, work it into the hive of our hearts, and then it will turn to honey, we will profit by it. Oh, let the labors of Paul and Apollos have their effect on us. A good hearer should labor to come away from the ministry of the word as Naaman came away from the Jordan: his leprous flesh was healed and became like a child's. So, though we came to the word proud, we should go home humble; though we came earthly-minded, we should go home heavenly-minded; our leprosy should be healed.
Ambrose observes of the woman of Samaria, who came to Jacob's well, that she came a sinner and went away a prophetess. Such a transformation the word of God should work.
Let not the ministers of Christ say on their deathbeds that the bellows are burnt out and the lead consumed, that they have spent their lungs and exhausted their strength, yet do not know whether they have accomplished anything, except perhaps to preach men into hell. This is Augustine's comment on the apostle's words, "that they may give up their accounts with joy." When, he asks, does a minister give up his account with joy, but when he has been laboring in the vineyard and sees fruit appear? Brethren, this will be his joy, and yours too, in the day of the Lord.
Oh, labor to grow. Some do not grow at all; others grow worse for hearing, "evil men shall wax worse and worse", like the fish Pliny describes that swim backward. They grow dead-hearted in religion; they grow covetous; they become apostates. It would be far easier to write a book of apostates in this age than a book of martyrs; men grow riper for hell every day. Oh, labor to thrive under the spiritual dew that falls on you. Let not the ministers of Christ be like those "which beat the air." Is it not sad when the spiritual clouds drop their rain on a barren wasteland? When the minister's tongue "is as the pen of a ready writer," and the people's hearts are like oiled paper that will take no impression?
Oh, improve in grace: if you have a barren piece of ground, you do everything you can to improve it, will you not improve a barren heart? It is a great commendation and honor to the ministry when people thrive under it: "need we, as some others, epistles of commendation?" Paul counted the Corinthians his glory and his crown; though other ministers needed letters of commendation, he needed none, for when men heard of the faith of the Corinthians, wrought in them by Paul's preaching, this was certificate enough that God had blessed his labors. They themselves were walking certificates, his letters of testimony. This was high praise indeed.
What an honor it is to a minister when it can be said of him, as it once was said of Octavius when he came to Rome, that he found the walls of brick but left them walls of marble! So when a minister comes among a people, he finds hearts of stone but leaves hearts of flesh. On the other hand, it is a dishonor to a minister when his people are like Laban's lambs, or Pharaoh's lean cattle. There are certain diseases called the reproach of physicians, and there are certain people who might be called the reproach of ministers.
What greater dishonor to a minister than to have it said of him: he has lived so many years in a parish, and he found them an ignorant people, and they are so still; he found them a dull, slothful people, as if they went to church the way some go to the apothecary's shop, to get a remedy to make them sleep, and they are so still; he found them a profane people, and they are so still. Surely there is some fault somewhere, or God is not going forth with his labors; such a people are not a minister's crown, but his heartbreak.
Beloved, when God's stars shine in the firmament of the church, will you still walk in the dark? When they are "nigh unto death" for the work of Christ, will you remain as near to hell as ever? When these golden bells of Aaron sound, will they not find an answering chime in you for Christ? I urge you: "let your profiting appear unto all." God sends Paul and Apollos as blessings to a people, to be helpers of your faith; if they toil all night and catch nothing, it may be feared that Satan caught the fish before they ever reached the net.
The next thing is: the world is yours, both its lawful use and its special use.
1. The lawful use of the world is yours. The gospel somewhat enlarges our charter. We are not bound up in all things as the Jews were; there were several kinds of meat forbidden to them, they could eat only of those beasts that chewed the cud and parted the hoof. They could not eat the swine, because though it parted the hoof, it did not chew the cud; nor the hare, because though it chewed the cud, it did not part the hoof, it was unclean. But to Christians living under the gospel, there is no such prohibition. "The world is yours", the lawful use of it is yours; every creature, "being sanctified by the word and prayer," is good, and we may eat, asking no question for conscience's sake.
The world is a garden; God has given us leave to pick any flower in it. It is a paradise; we may eat of any tree that grows in it but the forbidden one, which is sin. Yet even in lawful things, beware of excess, we are most prone to offend in what is lawful. The world is yours to trade in; only let those who buy "be as if they bought not." Take care that you do not drive such a trade in the world that you come to break in your trading for heaven.
2. The special use of the world is yours.
1.) The world was made for your sake. God raised this great structure chiefly for a believer. The saints are "God's jewels." The world is the shrine, or cabinet, where God locks up these jewels for a time. The world is yours; it was made for you. Creation is only a theater on which to act the great work of redemption. The world is the field, the saints are the corn, the ordinances are the showers, the mercies of God are the sunshine that ripens this corn, death is the sickle that cuts it down, and the angels are the harvesters who carry it into the barn. The world is yours; God would never have made this field, were it not for the corn growing in it. What use, then, is there for the wicked? They are like a hedge to keep the corn from foreign invasion, though often a thorn hedge.
Question: But a child of God often has the smallest share in the world, how then is the world his?
Answer: If you are a believer, whatever little you have, even if it is only a handful of the world, it is blessed to you. If there is any consecrated ground in the world, it is a believer's. The world is yours; Esau had the venison, but Jacob got the blessing, a little, blessed, is sweet. A little of the world with a great deal of peace is better than the "revenues of unrighteousness." Every mercy a child of God has swims to him through Christ's blood, and this seasoning makes it taste all the sweeter. Whatever he tastes is seasoned with God's love; he has not only corn but money in the mouth of the sack, not only the mercy but the blessing. So the world is a believer's.
An unbeliever who "has the world at will" still does not have the world, for he does not taste its true quintessence. "Thorns and thistles doth the ground bring forth to him." He feeds on the fruit of the curse: "I will curse your blessings"; he eats "with bitter herbs." So properly speaking, the world is a believer's. He alone holds it by a scripture-tenure, and the little he has turns to cream; every mercy is a gift sent him from heaven.
