Mature believers please...What does this verse mean to you?

Question

1 Corinthians 3:9
For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's cultivated land, God's building.

What does it mean that we are God's cultivated land.
What does it mean that we are God's building.

Please share within the context of this chapter and even this book of the bible.
Use as many references to support your sharing:)
Ty so much
IN Christ
sandy

Vot.. Please.. NO JW doctrine.

Hgho. Can you share on how they are related. How does God's cultivated land relate to His building.

Rw.. Checkmate.. RIGHT ON! Enjoyable read. Rw... you are just too right in what you say. May more of us see this divine truth.. see the " principle of incarnation" That for God to accomplish anything on the earth he does in and through man as His representative and expression. Man is not made in God's image and likeness for NOTHING. We are here FOR God's interest purpose on the earth! Even God became a man to accomplish redemption for us. This is the principle of Incarnation.

Some food for thought as it relates to this portion. Being God's cultivated land is for the producing of something. Our heart is this good earth that God works on to produce Himself as the Gold, Silver and the Precious stones. We are not here producing ordinary things. NOt the wood grass and stubble. We produce these precious materials for the BUILDING. One of FOR the other. The cultivated land produces material for the building. I just wanted to touch this matter. Its not like God is being repetitive. THe cultivated land is for one matter and the building needs the cultivated land to produce the materials for it to be completed. We are those that are the living stones becoming the precious stones. Your consderations on this matter as well would be good:)
ty saints
in Christ
sandy

Answer 1

In 1 Corinthians 3:9, Paul describes the church as "God's building". So we are the living church, made of living, breathing stones.

Peter also described Christians as living stones - "...you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood...." and Jesus Christ is the "chief cornerstone". (1 Peter 2:5-7)

Jesus also described His body as the temple of God - "He was speaking of the temple of His body" (John 2:21). And we Christians are members of Jesus' body. (1 Corinthians 6:15) So, each of us is important, and serves a different function. We use our spiritual gifts to serve one another and build up one another. (1 Corinthians 12)

As for "God's cultivated land", it reminds me of Jesus' parable of the hidden treasure. Jesus is the man in the parable who goes and sells all he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44) Once we were like a barren field, useless and uncultivated. For some reason, God sees value in us. God paid the highest price - the death of His beloved Son - in order to redeem us. What a beautiful love story about God and us!

Now that we are bought, God goes about cultivating us, as one would cultivate a field. We are no longer wild and barren, but we are now blooming and bearing fruit. Jesus described His Father as a "vinedresser". (John 15:1) We bear fruit when we hear and receive the Word of God being preached.

In the parable of the sower, the seed being sown is the word of God, and the ground is our hearts. When we take heed what and how we hear, and do not allow the devil or cares, riches and pleasures of life to steal the word from us, we will be able to receive the word into our noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. (Luke 8:11-15)

And the word of God is our spiritual food that nourishes our heart. It's not just any kind of food that a preacher randomly picks out from the Bible, but it must be the living Bread - Jesus Himself. Only the preaching of the message of the cross, the gospel of grace of Christ - that unveils the loveliness of Jesus and the love of our heavenly Father - will be able to strengthen our faith and build up our inner man.

Hence, in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul went on to write that there is no other foundation anyone can lay except that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (verse 11) May we share the same heart desire and goal as Paul, who determined not to know anything among people, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2)

Thanks for sharing your question, and giving us the opportunity to have the Holy Spirit teach us and see more of the glory of Jesus. God bless you, sister. :)

Answer 2

It means to me that we are all fellow servants tending to His productive works. It is like saying that a seed although watered and nourished bares no crop if it is not planted and allowed to grow with God's blessing. God actually makes the crop grow. We are just the field hands tending to it.

The same is for the building. We help build it in increments - stone by stone with whatever tools we may apply. This is good but, futile if it isn't on the solid foundation which is Jesus Himself. The building must go up but, it will only stand strong if it is built upon the Right Foundation.

Answer 3

First we are God's cultivated Land , For Father God Cultivation which is his People, And Everything he created in Heaven and on Earth, Because of the Loving God He Is.
We are the Cultivation. The Potters Hand
I am Living Proof of his Cultivation You are to Beatifull


We are the Building of Father God in Heaven--
I am Living Proof of His Building

We are the Temple that carries the Truth and the Word of God in Heaven.
I am Living Proof of his Father God in Heaven Building.

Answer 4

Paul is refering to the work he and Appollos did in the city of Corinth. The people there were still immature enough to follow the men instead of Who the men taught about.
Paul was telling these people that they were the work of God.
He knew they would understand references made to farming, so this is what he used.
In verse 9 Paul was telling the church at Corinth that he and Appollos were merely the workmen doing the farming of the owner of the land. The people's hearts are the land. Paul and Appollos planted the seed of the Word of God and watered it, but the increase or growth of it belongs to God, Himself.

This is what we, as Christians, are to do. We are to plant the seed of the Word. Water the Word by helping the person understand the Word and leave the growth of it in the hands of God, as well as the glory of the growth.

Answer 5

In context God's field and God's building means the same thing. It is typical of the the scriptures to use two metephors to get a point acoss. Look at the Psalms they will say the same thing two differant ways in verse after verse.

We are God's field. Paul tells us he planted someone else watered but it is God who is in charge and just like any real plot of land it He who will determine the growth and abundance. All growth comes from God through his spirit. That is to say Billy Grahm or Chuck Swindal can not take credit for any growth in the church as a result of their preaching. They are the planters and the waterers. It is God who causes the increase. Not to say that the planters and waterers aren't neccisary but they do not cause the growth. It is the spirit of God working with the planting and watering that produces the increase.

The building of God. As is pointed out in the rest of the passage It is God's building, we can build on it but in the end unless what we build is of spiritual value and in keeping with the truth of God it will perish in the fire. It is not man who builds God's church but God himself who laid the foundation and if what you add is nonsense and untruth it will not last but when you build on the truth of God then it will endure because It is God's truth not mans. this is not to say we should not build but that we should build with the same truth from which the foundation is laid or our building will be for nothing.

Answer 6

Sandy.... in essence it is just explaining that as we work together, one may plant the seeds of faith or the Word of God and one may water with life giving water of the Spirit, another may weed out the bad seed and life threatening weeds of doubt and sin, etc.,.and God works with what we plant and water, etc.,. to grow to where it can be harvested and become a saved, and useful, beloved new member in the Body of Christ.....

Same applies to laying the foundation of faith and building upon it....building means much sanding to get the splinters and rough edges out as well as using the right tools and materials to make sure that the foundation and structure is solid and can withstand the enemy...

God nurtures what we are doing in our many ministries upon the unsaved as well as the babes of Christ, leading and guiding and seasoning till the harvest and the housewarming celebrations can occur...then, it is continued on in nurturing what is already there as well as seasoning etc so that each soul continues to be bountiful to the Lord and each member of the body of Christ. :)

Answer 7

Consider the first few verses (and even until verse 17) to get the context:

"5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building."

In God's vineyard, we (the Christians) are all fellow workers. As such no one does it to or by himself. One plant the word, the other will water, but the one who gives the increase is God. God’s working field is the heart of men. It is related to the passage found in Matthew 9:35-38:

"35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”"

God's building is another word to say "the body", the "assembly of God's people", the "kingdom". We form the building because we are the spiritual stones "coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious" (1 Pe 2:4).

Paul said in Eph 2:21-22 that the Christians have built their foundation on Christ, the prophets and the apostles "in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."

Now, in that body we have different talents and functions, but all members are important. We so use every ability to work in God's vineyard:

12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into[c] one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. (1 Cor 12:12-14; 20-22)

Answer 8

It means god wanted to build something because he was bored . And people are some of the items that create the project , just like fish in an aquarium . Some fish are passive . Some live just to fight ( like the Muslims ) .

Answer 9

Paul was speaking here to the believers in Corinth who did not appear to be maturing in the Christian faith, as indicated in vs 1
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ

Some claimed to be followers of Paul, others of Apoolos (vs 4), so Paul was reminding them that he and Apollos were merely ministers through whom they learned the truth, and were not to be put on a pedestal.

He reminds them that they must work along with God, and follow his leadings if they are to mature spiritually and grow in numbers, as vs 6 &7 say

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

The J.B. Phillips translation of vs 9 reads

In this work, we work with God, and that means that you are a field under God's cultivation, or, of you like, a house being built to his plan.

This indicates that if we work in line with the leadings of God's spirit, we will continue to be built up in our faith, but as vs16 & 17 tell us, we must be careful not to stray from the leadings of the spirit, as to do so will have disastrous consequences for us

- Don't you realise that you yourselves are the temple of God, and God's Spirit lives in you? God will destroy anyone who defiles his temple, for his temple is holy - and that is exactly what you are!

Answer 10

HE ABIDES IN US

HE LIVES IN US

as it is written

"" I will walk in them and talk in them , they will be My people and i will be thier God "

also
" But CHRIST as a son over HIS OWN House , WHOSE HOUSE ARE WE, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm into the end"

WE ARE the TEMPLE of the Holy Ghost
which is GOD
"a building not made with mans hands "


"" I AM the true vine , and my father the husbandman , Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every Branch that beareth fruit , he purgeth it , that it may bring forth more fruit, NOW ye are clean through the Word, which i have spoken unto you, Abide in me , and i in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself , except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye , except ye abide in me.
I AM the vine , ye are the branches : He that abideth in me and I in him , the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide NOT IN ME, he is cast forth as a branch , and is withered ; and men gather them,and cast Them into the fire , and they are burned.
If ye abide in me , and my WORDS abide in you , ye shall ask whay ye will , and it shall be done unto you.""

I think that pretty much sums it all up

His Cultivated ground

and His House