A Call To The Remnant

1Co 3:5  Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos?

Who indeed? We humans love to deify men. We love to lift them up and glorify them. Christians in particular love to do this. It is really an abomination to God and shall not be overlooked. Diotrephes is the logical conclusion of the lifting up of men which is why the apostle Paul tackles this issue head on. If we elevate men, men will love it. If we desire to follow men, and we so often do, the very same men will love it. They will, of course, for decorum’s sake, deny any of this. Even as men lift them aloft above their heads, they will feign giving Jesus the glory, but their actions and the actions they allow in others denies this. Paul smashes into this head on in his typical style and no holds barred words. “Neither he who plants is anything, not he who waters, but God who gives the increase,” is everything. We are nothing without God, even that which we have was given to us. What then can we glory in, other than Christ? How could we ever let stand for one minute anyone who would try and raise us up? God forbid.

He who plants and he who waters are one. One Body. One work here on earth. Nothing rises above the spiritual parapet save Jesus Christ. If you look up and see a man, God help that men. If you look up and try to raise up that man to anything other than what He is in Christ, part of the Body, one in nature, then God help you. All of it robs from God who gives the increase. All of it robs from Christ who is preeminent. Its all robbery, its all theft, its all religion. Diotrephes loved the preeminence and allowed himself to be raised up and encouraged others to raise him up. Men like this make themselves indispensable . This means they steer the sheep towards reliance upon them and not the great Shepherd. Do you know anyone like this? Unless we are forever pointing men towards the Word of God and the risen Christ then we are of the priesthood of Diotrephes. Carnal in nature, carnal in spirit and if it remains so, then lost forever. Jesus Christ first, Jesus last and Jesus forever. The old enemy has caught more men in this trap then any other. More seductive than women, more seductive than money, the greatest seducer of all, power and the desire for it and the lust of it, in all its many manifestations.

My uncle was a dispatch rider in the WW2. He was a private. It was a dangerous mission so the High Command were never going to waste men of higher rank in delivering messages. In the scale of things, in the order of importance, the rider was the least important. You could always replace the rider, but motorbikes were hard to come by. What was important was the message. The one giving it and the one receiving it. It is so in the Kingdom. The one delivering it is can be readily replaced. We brothers and sisters should remember that lest we think too much of ourselves. We are simply one. The message is all important. And whether we ride the bike or maintain the bike then that is all well and good, but the message Giver and the recipient of the message is of vital importance. The message is preeminent and Jesus is the message. Jesus is the author, and by His Blood He came to deliver this message Himself. What general or high ranking officials would ever lower themselves by delivering the message themselves? Yet, the greatest communication ever delivered to men had to be delivered by the greatest one that existed, the One who ever existed, God’s only Begotten Son. Remember this with all of your hearts brothers and sisters, some of us plant, some of us water, but God……but God….but God always has and always will, give the increase by the power of the Holy Spirit.