Part Of The Process

"Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase."
1 Corinthians 3:5-7 (NKJV)

Over a period of several months in Germany, I watched the process of a building being built.  First, workers came to clear the ground and to prepare for the foundation.  Then, workers arrived to set the foundation for the building, and other workers came to build the walls, the roof, and so on.  The question is, who built that building?  The answer is that every worker who was a part of the process built it.  It was not something that just one person did, there were many people involved in the process. 

The church in Corinth had a problem where some people were focused on their favorite minister, like Paul and Apollos.  Paul wrote to them about how doing this was wrong, because while he had one part to play and Apollos had another, God giving the increase was the most important thing.  Without someone planting, there is no watering, and if someone planted but no one watered, the planting would be useless.  But, without God being involved, none of it would matter; each person has a part in God's process of building the Church.

Today, we all have some people that we identify with and receive from more than others, but each one is just a part of the building process.  The same is true with every believer in the Body of Christ.  Each member of the Body is important and has a part to play in the process of building the Church.  We all need to recognize our part of the process and get involved, and we also need to remember that the most important thing is that we are a part of God's building process, not our own, and God causes it to grow and increase, not us.