Who is the Greatest Christian Leader?

I Corinthians 3:4-9

My dad started the church I am pastoring. When Dad retired, a young man accepted the pastorate, and a few people left the church on the grounds that he was too young. They were the same ones who had told Dad he was too old. When Jason left, another man came as pastor and several left because "Church just wasn't fun anymore." Jeff pastored next, and when he left, several others left immediately because Jeff would no longer be the pastor. Another man decided that a former pastor of his should take the church and proceeded to contact the man and ask him to come. The man refused saying that he did not believe God wanted him tyo leave where he was, so the man who called him left as well.

Apparently, the church at Corinth had had some similar problems from what Paul tells us. They were quibbling over who was better equipped because they had been taught by different teachers, and were separating into factions based on Paul, Apollos, and Peter(Cephas). Some had not been under any of these ministries and could only claim Christ. Notice Pauls comments.

"For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, 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. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." (I Corinthians 3:4-9)

In chapter one, Paul pointed out that Christ was the only one who was crucified for their sins. Here he shows that the others, himself included, were just messengers who brought the gospel. Each was there at different times to fulfill needs in the church at a specific point. Paul had started the work by blanting the seed. Apollos took what Paul started and moved it ahead by watering and helping it to grow. Others contributed at different points.

They were not in competition. Each one had a specific part to play and they had done that. The failure to recognize this was a result of the carnal state of the people in the church. Neither Paul, nor Apollos, nor the other teachers they had were to be set above others. Even comparing their results was carnal, since any meaningful results were God's doing, rather than the men's.

Today we see men such as Billy Graham, Jack Hyles, Oral Roberts, and others highly respected and exalted. If they are servants of God, they are still only messengers, their results are still God's doing and the credit belongs to God, not the man. Giving the credit to man, and comparing them to each other only demonstrates our own carnality. Selecting a person because they are a product of a certain man's ministry or rejecting them because they are not is definitely carnal. They are to be God's product if they are to be of benefit to the church.

Jesus did not say you would know them by their works, but by their fruits. Carnality is identified by works(actions), but spirituality by fruit(characteristics in ones life), according to Galatians 5. Failure to recognize the difference produces confusion. The disagreement, which the Corinthians probably viewed as establishing who was more spiritual, proved only that they were not. It has the same result today.