The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 119

Ver. 9.-"God's husbandry." The leading truth in the context would seem to be this -that the most honoured and most successful worker in the kingdom of Christ is but ns a helpless instrument through which the living power is pleased to operate, an,l that power is in God alone. '!'he name of God, therefore, occupies the emphatic place in each clause of this verse. "Of God ye are the husbandry." This is spoken of the Corinthians, not so much as individual believers, but as an organized Christian society. ·Observe the view it gives us of- I. THE NATURE OF A CHRISTIAN CHURCH. It is God's "tilled land." Not so much the process of husbandry, but the field in which the process is wrought out, is here intended. Ev.iry organized Christian society is the sphere of a spiritual culture analogous to that which goes on in the realm of nature, in the gardens, the vineyards, and the corn-fields. 'l'wo or three distinct elements of thought are suggested. 1. The,e is the idea ef a germ of Divine life implanted in the hearts of men. The course of nature's husbandry proceeds on the law that when the seed-corn, in which the mysterious principle of vegetable life is hidden, is brought into contact with certaill <]uickening and nourishing elements of the soil, it will germinate and be producti,·e. 'l'he step of primary importance is the planting of the seed in the ground, because that establishes the necessary connection between the latent forces that combine t,, work out tlie desired result. So in the higher sphere of man's moral life. The" truth as it is in Jesus" is the productive germ, in which, beneath the husk of the literal verbal form, is hidden the very spirit and life of God. And the condition of its 1mfolding is that it should be brought into real, direct, Jiving contact with the soul (Matt. xiii. 23; Jas. i. 21; 1 Pet. i. 23). There is no uncertainty in the result when the needful conditions are supplied. 'l'he Church is God's "tilled land." "The field is the world;" but then the world has its "wayside" and its "stony and thorny places;" the "good ground" is composed of tho~e who, "in an honest and good heart," arc prepared to receive the imperishable seed of the kingdom. 2. The development of this germ by external culture. 'l'he husbandry of the earth is man's effort to supply the most favourable conditions for the working out of nature's great productive law. Churches exist to promote, as far as possible, the operation of the spiritual law. 8ocial iifo generally, with all its relations and activities, is no doubt intended by God to be l1elpful to this. We rise to the true, broad idea of religious culture only when we look on them all as auxiliaries to the great work of spiritual enlargement and enrich- ment. But the Church relationship, by nil its conditions of fellowship, worship, and work, is specially fitted to accomplish this end. Spiritual culture is the primary purpose of its existence. 'l'he ideal may not always be reached. As the earth has its frigid and temperate and torrid zones, so Christian societies differ as to the kinJliness of their soil and atmosphere for the development of the germs of spiritual life. But this is their Divine intent-that they should be nurseries of all truth and goodness. where everything that is best and noblest and loveliest in men may be fostered and hruught to perfection. 3. The production of the appropriate fruits. All labour is for the sake of the "profit" that can be got out of it. Seed-sowing, "planting and water- ing," point on to the harvest. One harvest lays the foundation for another aU<i n. greater. The "increase" is the end of all. " Herein is my l•'o.ther glorified, that ye bear much fruit" (John xv. 8). "These things [good works] are good and profitable to men" (Titus iii. !:!). Churches exist for the production of the fruits of Di vine goodness, with all the added force and fulness that social unity can give. They answer their end only so far as spiritual power goes forth from them, and they are felt to be centres and sources of blessing to the world, producing somethiug that shall make it richer and happier than it would otherwise have been, something that shall never die. II. '!'HE RELATION BETWEEN DIVINE AND HUMAN AGEN0Y IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF 'l'HE LIFE OF THE CnoRCH. "God's husbandry." Divine proprietor,liip is an important truth involved here, but Divine activity is no doubt the more prominent. 'l'he field  THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [orr. ur. 1-23.