Pastor’s Corner: “Check Your Building Materials”
1 Corinthians 3:10-15 (NIV) – 10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
We are currently going through the process of building a home. The choice of designs and building materials are endless. Sometimes it is hard to choose what is best. Often we have to choose between the aesthetic (what looks good) and what will last. The same is certainly true with building our Spiritual house and Paul clearly addresses this in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.
What are you building with? The material choices are things of the Spirit of God, gold, silver and precious stones, or the things of the flesh: wood, hay or straw – the current philosophies of the age around us. It is one or the other. I love how the Message version of the Bible puts it: 1 Corinthians 3:9-15 (MSG) – –9-15 Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely.
If what is built is good, it will endure; it will stand the test, and we will be given a reward. What is the reward? There are a lot of guesses as to what this is because the Scriptures do not tell us flat out, but I think there are hints that indicate what it is. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he said, Are you not our crown of rejoicing? (1 Thessalonians 2:19 KJV). I think the reward is simply joy, joy over having spent your life in a way that counts.
Have you ever watched a winning team at the end of a game? Did you notice what they do? They go crazy! Grown men jump on each other’s backs; they pound one another, and hug one another, and even kiss one another. Why? They are filled with joy because the efforts they put forth produced results and it was satisfying to them. That was their reward. Did you ever watch the losing team? There is no jumping around and slapping one another on the back. Instead, there is sadness at the loss….It was all wasted effort. All of us will have some of both in our lives. There is no one who is a Christian that will not have some degree of gold, silver and precious stones because God guarantees it by having come into our lives as Christians. But there can also be a lot of wood, hay and stubble too, built upon the philosophy of the flesh instead of the Spirit.
What is your life going to count for? Every one of us is investing their life in something. You cannot live without making an investment. What is it in? Will it stand the test? In the great day when all the universe sees things the way they are, will you be filled with joy that your life was invested in what stood the test and contributed to the glory of the Lord himself? Or will there be loss that you wasted all these years making an impression on people, and it was all burned up in the fire?
I know there are people who do not like this kind of preaching. They say we ought to all preach the grace of God. But verse 15: If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames…… is the Grace of God! Scripture teaches us that we have some choice in this matter. Are our lives going to be lived on the basis of gold, silver and precious stones, growing out of that revelation of God by the Spirit, or are they going to reflect the empty, vain philosophies of the world around so that we live only for pleasure, fame and power? Paul asked this question and so should we!
In His Grace,
Pastor Hamilton