Underrowers

Did this title peak your curiousity? Never heard of an underrower? Now you're really curious? Read on...

 In 1 Corinthians 4:1, Paul refers to himself and Apollos as "mere servants of Christ." The Greek word for servant used here is "huperetes." No, I don't know how to pronounce it but broken down it looks like this:

hupo means "under" and eretes means "rower." Huperetes literally means "underrower." 

Being the "word nerd" that I am, I wanted to know where this word came from and why Paul was using it to describe himself and his colleague. Here's what I found out:

It goes back to the warships of their time and referred to the men who were in the bowels of the boat, chained to one of several benches, rowing as though their life depended on it, In fact, their lives usually did depend on it. There are a number of things to note about the position these men held.

The lowest deck of the ship was not a pleasant place to be. It was dark, dirty and hot. They couldn't see where they were going and had to completely rely on the captain for direction. They had to row together and be perfectly in sync with the other rowers or they weren't going anywhere. 

Real world application? I believe Paul had a really good reason to use this particular word to describe our job as Christians. Whether it be our family, our job and especially our church, we are called to be "underrowers." I see three definite applications for us.

1. Rowers don't build up muscle by rowing downstream.
• Having to row upstream creates the strength needed to be an effective rower. There's going to be difficult times in our lives but this is how God builds our spiritual muscles. 
2. Rowers must be in sync with each other and that takes concentrated effort. 
• The "rowing master" shouted the instructions to the "bow officer" who relayed instructions further down the ship and the "piper" kept time by playing an instrument like a flute. If any of these positions failed in their duties, the ship was going nowhere. So it is with Christians. If we fail to do our part, the Kingdom of God goes nowhere. 
3. Rowers had each other's backs.
• There were usually 3-7 men to each oar. If anyone got sick or was weaker, the others could pick up the slack and keep going. As Christians, we are to be encouragers to each other so in times of weakness, our strength can come from "rowing" together for the cause. 

Being an underrower may not be pretty or easy but God never guaranteed us pretty and easy. Like Paul and Apollos; we are to be "mere servants of Christ." Underrowers. Grab that oar and let's start rowing!