" Workers together with Him." I COR. 6:1

From Paul's many allusions to the Christian ministry it is evident that he regards it as of all occupations the most exalted. He may speak of himself as "less than the least of all saints", "the least of the apostles'' and "not meet to be called an apostle", but, invariably, he magnifies his office. The Christian minister, he declares, is an ambassador for Christ, a plenipotentiary of heaven, engaged in the service of the kingdom which lies nearest the King's heart, the salvation of men. He had not been a follower of Christ during our Lord's earthly ministry, and consequently was not a member of the little group to whom Jesus gave the great commission, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. But he had received his marching orders from Christ as directly as they had. On the Damascus Road the life-transforming encounter had taken place, and the former persecutor had gladly fallen in with his new Master's purpose for him, to bear his name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. All the shining gifts, all the burning zeal, all the surging energy that had formerly marked the fanatical persecutor were now transferred and consecrated to the service of Christ. And the late-comer to the goodly company of the Apostles was just as keenly aware as any of his brethren were of the accompanying presence, in all his service, of the Master Who in the great commission had said, "And lo I am with you alway". The erstwhile persecutor was now a "worker together with Him''.

Let us note from these words:

(I) The position occupied

"Workers together with Him." For He was no idle Master. It was as a worker that the Son of God Himself appeared among men, and in this, as in every other aspect of His character, He is the perfect example. His devotion was absolute. "My meat," He said, "is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work". And again, "I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work". The work was arduous. "If Adam has not sinned," says Matthew Henry, "he had not sweated." It was hard work winning his daily bread from the ground that was under a curse because of his sin; but if the sweat of his brow was the measure of his toil who can estimate the travail that is marked in the sweat of the Second Adam which, in Gethsemane, was as great drops of blood falling to the ground? Surely this supreme example of self-sacrificing service rebukes our self-regarding slackness.

Lord, when I am weary with toiling,

And burdensome seem Thy commands,

If my load should lead to complaining,

Lord, show me Thy hands--

Thy nail-pierced hands, Thy cross-torn hands,

My Saviour, show me Thy hands.

Christ, if my footsteps should falter

And I be prepared for retreat.

If desert or thorn cause lamenting,

Lord, show me Thy feet--

Thy bleeding feet, Thy nail-scarred feet,

My Saviour show me Thy feet.

O God, dare I show Thee

My hands and my feet?

It was as a worker rejoicing at the completion of His work that He cried from the Cross; "It is finished". It was an echo of what He had previously said in His High Priestly prayer, "I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do". "Only once," writes F. W. Boreham, "in the world's history did a finishing touch bring a work to absolute perfection; and on that day of days a single flaw would have shattered the hope of the ages.

We sometimes hear it said as preachers press upon their hearers their obligation to serve the Lord, "God has no hands to work with but our hands. He has no lips to proclaim His message but our lips. He has no feet to carry the good news to other lands but our feet." But, however good the intention that lies behind the words, they simply are not true; and they limit the Holy One of Israel. The fiat of Eternal Sovereignty alone was enough to bring all things into being in the creation of the universe; and in the execution of the work of Redemption it was a solitary figure that trod the wine-press. He did it alone, and of the people there was none with Him.

And yet it pleased Him in extending His kingdom in the world to call His redeemed to become "workers together with Him". He knew the joy and satisfaction of a congenial task, and He desired His people to share it with Him. The call of the Gospel thus combines emancipation and consecration. It promises rest, not in indolence but in service. If it removes one yoke it imposes another. The slaves of sin become servants of righteousness. Constraint is indeed. exercised in the recruitment, but it is the conscription of love. For it is in the immediate context of the words we are considering that Paul tells how he came into the service of Christ. "For the love of Christ constraineth us," he writes, "because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again."

It was a constraint joyfully yielded to. It was the surrender of the now liberated will and the conquered heart. It issued from a true knowledge of God in Christ, and an experience of His saving grace. "Who art Thou, Lord?" the humbled persecutor had cried when he came under the arrest of love. And when the desired identification was made the surrender followed; "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do'" Under a sense of undischargeable obligation he gave himself without reserve to the service of his new Master.

Make me a captive Lord, and then I shall be free;

Force me to render up my sword and I shall conqueror be.

My will is not my own till Thou hast made it Thine.

If it would reach the monarch's throne, it must its crown resign.

"Workers together with Him"; what surprising choices the Lord often makes in calling men into His service. And all the more surprising because they are not made under the pressures of need. When our nation was building up its armed forces at the beginning of the Second World War many who in normal times would have been judged substandard for national service were called to the help of the Crown in a time of peril and unpreparedness. The situation of extreme urgency which had so suddenly arisen required that all available manpower should be mustered. Normal standards must be lowered, at least until the war-machine was fully operative.

But there was no straining of God's resources when He called men into the warfare of His Kingdom. And it was not because no others were available to Him that He gathered into His armies the foolish things of the world, the weak things of the world, the base and despised things of the world, but because the weakness of men was His chosen medium for the displaying of the perfection of His power. The treasure was committed to earthen vessels that the excellency of the power might be seen to be of God and not of men, to the end that no flesh should glory in His presence.

Yet it looked as if His cause were doomed from the outset. "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him?" scoffed the religious leaders. Under such patronage, and with such recognition His cause might indeed prosper. But ignorant and unlearned men, people of the peasant stock, fishermen of Galilee, what possible influence could they exert? By worldly standards the Pharisees were right when they measured the workers against the work. And Gamaliel was right when, having made his measurement he said, ". .. if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought". It was all a confirmation of what the Master Himself had said, ". .. without Me ye can do nothing".

But this brings us secondly to:

(2) The power promised

For who will doubt that there is an assurance of empowerment implied in this description of the Lord's servants as "workers together with Him" ? The promise is made explicit in the parting words of Christ to His disciples on the Mount of Olives. "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you''; and in that power they were to be witnesses unto Him, "both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth". But they must "tarry in Jerusalem", until they were "endued with power from on high". "Workers together with Him"--break that partnership for a moment; measure those early disciples against the tasks assigned them, and how pitifully inadequate they seem! A mere Gideon's band against a confederate army which was as grasshoppers for multitude ... and as the sand by the seaside which cannot be numbered. But at the battle-cry of that feeble army, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon", the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow in the camp of the enemy, "and all the host ran, and cried, and fled".

In the same empowering alliance the stripling David counter-challenged the champion of the Philistines "in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel" whom he had defied; and his trust was honoured with resounding victory. Samson, weak as other men, when the Lord departed from him, regained his great strength in answer to prayer and broke the power of Israel's enemy. "Workers together with God!" Moses saw how that alliance would work out in Israel's future, and with prophetic tongue exclaimed, "Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and Who is the sword of thy excellency, and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places".

And Israel's Psalmist, in later years, reviewing the long list of Israel's triumphs over the centuries, gives the glory of them all to Israel's God. "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say; if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us; then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul. ... Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

Israel's sword was indeed active in these conflicts; but "they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them".

And there we have the pattern of the Church's warfare today. It is not without significance that she is compared to an army, and that her activities in the world are compared to a warfare. She is an aggregate of individuals called and commissioned to press the claims of Christ upon a disaffected world, prosecuting the campaign in His way, waging the warfare in His strength, trusting for victory to His promise.

"If this work be of men," said Gamaliel, "it will come to nought. But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it." And that it was of God the apostles themselves were always quick to testify. "Ye men of Israel," said Peter to the people who came together to see the man who had been healed at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, "why marvel ye at this ? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers hath glorified His Son Jesus ... and His name, through faith in His name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know. .. ." And when at Lystra the people cried, "the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men" because of the miracle of healing which they witnessed there, the disciples disclaimed all credit for the wonder which had been wrought, ascribing the glory of it all to the power of God which had wrought through them. "Who is Paul" wrote this apostle to the quarrelling factions at Corinth, "and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." If in another epistle he appears to us to change his testimony, is it because we have stopped reading too soon. For if he claims, "I can do all things" this ability, he immediately adds, is "through Christ which strengtheneth me". It is thus that the "worm Jacob" is made a "new sharp threshing instrument having teeth"; and is enabled to "thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and ... make the hills as chaff".

But let us look finally at:

(3) The prospect cherished

From the nature of the partnership described in our text it is evident that failure is completely ruled out and success ensured. There are other passages of Scripture from the pen of this great Apostle which reveal the strength of his confidence that the cause to which he had consecrated his life would reach fulfilment in spite of the relentless opposition of enemies and notwithstanding the apathy and lethargy of many who profess to be its friends. "Let us not be weary in well doing:" he urges the Galatians, "for in due season we shall reap if we faint not." He exhorts the Corinthians in similar strain; "be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord". Reverses there were, but his faith remained constant. From a prison cell, knowing that he was "about to be offered" and that the "time of his departure was at hand", he expresses to his son in the faith, Timothy, his confident expectation of ultimate victory. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." There is a cynical view of faith which defines it as "believing that which you know to be untrue", but cynical definitions are notoriously untrustworthy. Faith, according to a truer definition, is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen". And Christian faith has always something trustworthy to cling to, even the sure promises of a covenant keeping God. Trials of faith there will be; times when there is no awareness of the Divine yoke-fellow's Presence; times such as the disciples passed through when they battled against contrary winds on the Sea of Galilee, "And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them". But His eye was upon them in all their toil and terror; and at the right moment He joined them saying reassuringly, "It is I; be not afraid".

If they cast Paul into prison at Philippi, the result, for him, was a fuller awareness of the Master's Presence; for that, surely, must be the secret of the song at midnight which the prisoners heard issuing from the inner prison. If the situation became menacing at Corinth, it brought him that word of comfort and command, "Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city." When the tempest broke upon the ship that was bearing him to Rome, and all hope of deliverance was abandoned, it was Paul who became the rallying centre of the despairing ship's company, saying, "I exhort you to be of good cheer; for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, Whose I am and Whom I serve, saying, "Fear not, Paul: thou must be brought before Caesar; and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee .. .". If friends failed him at a critical hour in Rome, the effect was the deepening of his trust in his unfailing partner. "No man stood with me," he records, "but all men forsook me. ... Not withstanding, the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me." Scourged, beaten, stoned, imprisoned, constantly confronted by danger and the threat of a violent death, he nevertheless retains all his confidence in the righteousness and ultimate triumph of the cause to which he had dedicated his life. "Now thanks be unto God," he writes, "which always causeth us to triumph in Christ. .. ." The taste of victory was upon the very trials which led to it! "Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

Sir Robert Stopworth, who commanded one of the ships with which Nelson dispersed and defeated an enemy fleet far greater than his own, wrote at the very height of the sore struggle which preceded the victory, "We are half starved, and otherwise inconvenienced by being so long out of port. But our reward is--we are with Nelson."

To be a worker together with such a Commander was assurance and compensation enough for all the hardship involved. That Commander died in the hour of his greatest victory. He was given an honoured grave among the most famous of his countrymen; but the fame attaching to his name, despite the many memorials erected by a grateful nation to perpetuate it, was of a fading order; and little remained to the men who had served and suffered with him but their memories, their battle-scars and the pittances allowed by the nation for their sustenance in declining years.

The fellow workers of Christ fare differently. The Captain of their salvation died indeed in the hour of glorious triumph. But He rose again. He ascended to the right hand of eternal majesty, and from that seat of power He directs the warfare of His Kingdom, sending no man on a warfare at his own charges, but supplying the needs of all who rally to His standard until His sovereignty is universally acknowledged and His enemies are made His footstool. And the claim which He presents in the interests of all who are "workers together with Him" shall be fully met; "Father, I will that they also whom Thou has given Me be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given me; for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world".

To speak of our Lord's death upon the Cross--as some irreverently do-as "a splendid gamble" is really to charge Him with the imprudence of the king in His own parable who, failing to count the cost, marched with his 10,000 men against another king who completely outmatched him. Christ knew the cost of victory from all eternity and knew also that He was well able to meet it. The song of victory was composed before ever the battle was joined. More lasting His fame than that of any other victor, and more abundant the rewards of those who serve under His standard than those of the men who subject themselves to other dominions.

His name for ever shall endure,

Last like the sun it shall:

Men shall be bless'd in Him, and bless'd

All nations shall Him call.

But as "workers together with Him" let us ever bear in mind that we serve under His direction. Obedience is the condition of power, and the only power by which the Church can fulfil its purpose in the world is the power which energised her at the beginning--the power of Pentecost. She may improve her organisation, modernise her methods, increase her wealth, perfect her planning, bring to her task all that social influence and material resources can contribute but she will stand discredited and helpless in the presence of a resurgent paganism if she departs from her marching orders. For the weapons of this warfare are not carnal. The energy of the flesh cannot do the work of the Spirit. The sufficiency of the Church is not of men but of God, and the communication of that sufficiency cannot be expected where His will is resisted, His command ignored.

The miracle at Cana of Galilee was made to depend on the obedience of the servants who in a golden hour became workers together with Him. "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it" was then and is now the rule of Christian service. Reason may at times wish to sit in judgment on His ways, and even presume to amend His orders. There seemed to be little point in carrying water into a festal chamber where the company were waiting for wine. There appeared to be no purpose in casting a net on the right side of the ship after having toiled all the night long and taken nothing. To anoint the eyes of a blind man with clay and then bid him go and wash himself at the pool of Siloam might be judged a mockery of his misery. To send men into all the world with the Gospel of the Cross was to cast a stumbling block in the way of the Jew, to provoke the ridicule of the Gentile, and to invite utter failure, except for one thing; that in every case the bidding came from the Christ who in issuing it said, "All power in heaven and in earth is given unto Me ... and lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the age".

And as the workers receive their discharge it will be with His commendation, and His eternal reward; "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord". Joined with Him in service, they will also be joined with Him in glory. For if we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him. For He is faithful Who said, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne".

 

Rev GNM Collins was minister of Greenock and St Columba's. He was also Professor of Church History at the Free Church College.