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Ministers are servants of Christ. As stewards of His truth, they dispense what they are given. What is their responsibility as they dispense truth? It is as Paul explained, "That one be found faithful." He didn't say "That one be found fruitful." Only when we stand before the Lord will we find out how faithful we've been. No one else can make the final prognosis. Instead, Paul said, "He who judges me is the Lord."
That the Lord judges one's level of faithfulness gives meaning to Paul's words one chapter earlier when he rebuked the Corinthian's partisan spirit. He reminded them that he and Apollos were both used of the Lord in starting and growing the church:
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. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. (1 Cor. 3:5-8)
Paul planted the church. Apollos ministered after Paul left. Both were used of the Lord. Our responsibility is to be faithful in whatever we're doing, and God rewards our labors. Fruitfulness is God's responsibility.
Consider the principle of sowing and reaping.
Why is it important to understand that faithfulness is the issue? As noted in a previous chapter, at times we will sow the seeds of the gospel, and someone else may reap the seeds we've sown. During His visit to Samaria, Christ said, '"One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors" (John 4:37-38). Although He was only in Samaria two days and did no miracles, Christ found a field ripe unto harvest. Apparently, the ministry of the Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist had their results. Christ assured His disciples that both the sower and the reaper will have their reward.
Our office received a call from a woman in Pennsylvania. She told us that a person had just dropped one of our "May I Ask You a Question?" tracts by her house. As a result of reading it, she trusted Christ. Since Evan Tell's name and phone number were on the back, she wanted to know how to get more copies. She was thrilled with what she now understood and wanted others to know. I thought, I'm certain the person who left the tract along with any others who witnessed to her don't even know what their efforts accomplished. Her receptivity indicated that months and perhaps years earlier someone had sown the seed of the gospel. Now, it had born fruit. The "end" person may not even know what his or her efforts accomplished. Everyone who had a part in her coming to Christ will be rewarded.
Christ taught that only He could bring the lost to Himself.
The responsibility of bringing the lost to Christ is on God's shoulders. It is not on the shoulders of His servants. Jesus explains in John 6:44, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day." Christ repeats that emphasis when He says, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father" (v.65). People are so ensnared in sin that unless God draws them, they're hopeless.
Why? Because they are blinded. Second Corinthians 4:4 described them as people "whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." God has to remove the veil from their eyes. Unless He does, it will never be removed. He may use a human instrument to do so, whether a preacher or someone witnessing one on one. Ultimately, though, it is Christ working. The instrument is only the means of removing the blindness; the instrument is not the power by which the blindness is removed. The power belongs to Him.
