All the members of the church are plants on God’s farm. They have been planted by the ministers of Christ, God’s fellow-workers, they have been watered by other ministers, also God’s fellow-workers, and they are made to grow in life by God Himself. We become members of the church not by the way of joining a social organization, but by being planted. In verse 6 Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God made to grow.” Paul planted the believers at Corinth into the church, which is God’s farm, so that they might grow Christ.
It is a very significant matter to be a plant on God’s farm. There is no need on the farm for a teacher to instruct the plants. A plant does not need anyone to tell it what to do or how to grow. However, among Christians today a great deal of teaching is given to the plants. Actually, the believers are regarded not as plants, but as students, as learners. Before I came into the church life, I was a “student” in the Brethren assembly. Although I learned a great deal about the Bible, I was dying for the lack of life. Instead of living like a plant, I was living like a student. I am even concerned that in some local churches there is a school instead of a farm. There may be teaching, but very little watering of the plants. We all should practice the church life in the way of farming, in the way of planting, watering, cultivating, and trimming. We must learn when to water the saints, when to feed them, and when to trim them.
Planted, watered, and made to grow (v. 6) are all related to the matter of life. This indicates that the believers are God’s farm to grow Christ. As plants on God’s farm, the church, we need to grow. Without growth, we are useless. Some of the plants in my garden at home are living, but they do not grow. In like manner, there are many believers today who are alive spiritually, but they do not grow. Of course, it is better to live than to die. As long as we are alive, we have the opportunity to grow. I hope that no one in the Lord’s recovery will be content to live without growing. We all must grow to produce Christ. All the saints in the Lord’s recovery must be desperate to grow. We should pray, “Lord, grant me the growth.”
The purpose of our growth on God’s farm is to produce Christ. Just as it is the goal of a vineyard to produce grapes, it is the goal of God’s farm to produce Christ. The central point of these messages on 1 Corinthians 3 is growing to produce Christ.
As a help in growing Christ, we need to consider chapters one and two again and again. If you read and pray-read these chapters, you will be watered and nourished. The very element and substance of Christ will be imparted into your being. Then spontaneously you will grow and produce Christ. The issue of your growth will be Christ.
Paul’s intention in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2 is to present Christ as our portion, enjoyment, life, living, content, and everything. Christ should be our one choice, preference, taste, and enjoyment. We should enjoy Christ to such an extent that we do not care for culture of any kind. Instead of living culture, we live Christ. Christ becomes everything to us in our daily living—our culture, our ethics, and our morality.
When we grow properly, Christ will be produced in us. Then whatever we grow of Christ will become the materials for God’s building. The church is built only with Christ. However, the church is not built with the objective Christ, with a Christ who is in the heavens or who suddenly descends from the heavens. On the contrary, the church is built with the Christ we experience and who is even the produce grown by us. Thus, for the building of the church, we must have the Christ who is produced through our growth in life.
In the Life-study of Exodus we pointed out that the materials used for the building of the tabernacle were called heave offerings. This means that the materials created by God had to be gained, possessed, enjoyed, and treasured by God’s redeemed people. Then the people were to bring these materials and present them to God as heave offerings. Only materials gained, possessed, and offered in this way could be the proper materials for the building of the tabernacle. This signifies that we need to gain, possess, and enjoy the riches of Christ until they become our treasure. Then we need to bring what we have experienced of Christ to the church meetings and offer this Christ to the Lord as a heave offering. This Christ will then become the materials used for the building up of the church.
Because today’s Christians do not experience Christ and produce Christ, there is no building among them. Building the church is not merely a matter of preaching the gospel, saving sinners, and bringing these newly saved ones into a so-called church. This is not the building up of the church; it is the piling up of raw materials. Among most believers today the best that can be seen is such a piling up of building materials. But where is the genuine building? There is no building because there is no experience of Christ, no growing of Christ as the material for God’s building. Now that we have seen that we are God’s farm, we must grow in the divine life to produce Christ.