Build God’s Church
One of the things that we used to do as children, was to argue with other children about whose father or mother were better. Arguments like “my father can beat your father “, or “my mother can cook better than your mother”. These childish arguments sometimes led to fights and sometimes even destroyed friendships. In 1 Corinthians 3:10–23, Paul is addressing a fight that had developed within the Corinthian Church over whose ministry was better, Paul’s or Apollos’. Paul redirected the church’s focus from their petty arguments to their eternal purpose, and gave them the proper standard for evaluating ministries. I pray that none of us will allow petty divisions to make us lose focus on what is most important as Christians…. Building each other up to maintain our faith to the end! Amen
Listen to Maverick City singing “Build Your Church” https://youtu.be/wegtdmbeuh0
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. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 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. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)
Paul had to address a controversy that was brewing in the Corinthian church, namely that the church was focused and divided over the wrong thing. They had somehow gotten divided over whether they came to salvation under Paul’s ministry or Apollos’ ministry at the church. Paul begins by saying it is only by God’s grace that we are saved. The foundation for salvation is the good news of Jesus life, death and resurrection. Paul said that by God’s grace his ministry indoctrinated the Corinthian church with the proper foundation (belief in Christ for salvation), and then Apollo’s’ ministry built on that proper doctrine by preaching Christ and leading people to salvation. But the most important factor of any ministry is whether those being led under that ministry will endure the tests and trials of life to maintain their faith to the end. Wood, hay and straw represent those who will be consumed by the fire of tests and trials. Gold, silver and precious stones are those that will be refined (made pure) by the fires of trials and tests. So the true evaluation of Paul’s and Apollos’ ministries was not who the Corinthian church members liked better…. but whether the church came through the refiner’s fire (life) and kept their faith.
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
Paul in essence said that, because God’s Spirit dwells in each believer, we are each God’s temple. And it matters to God how we treat His holy temple. Paul warned the Corinthian church that God would destroy anyone who destroys His temple. Those who were creating chaos, conflict and spreading false teaching among God’s people and causing them to stray from Him (ie, destroying God’s temple) will be subject to God’s judgment for their actions.
Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future —all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. (1 Corinthians 3:18-23)
Paul cautioned the Corinthian church about regarding themselves as wise according to the world’s definition of wisdom. In God’s sight, the world’s wisdom is nothing more than foolishness. God is all knowing and the Christian’s wisdom is found only in reverence and obedience to Him. Rejection of God and disobedience to Him is foolish because it only leads to brokenness and destruction. Paul ended by reminding the Corinthian church that boasting about church leaders is not the proper focus of a Christian. That only serves to divide and drive God’s people away from Him and away from their faith. Instead, worshipping God for His grace and building up our faith in Christ to be our salvation, must be the focal point of all believers.
“I belong to so and so church and my pastor is so and so”. How many times have you heard Christians speak pridefully like that about their church and their pastor? The point of Paul’s message to the Corinthian church was that those things really don’t matter. What matters for any ministry is building up the faith of believers so that they can endure the trials of this life and endure to the end and receive their salvation. Anyone that becomes a stumbling block or destroys a believers faith will be judged harshly by God. So, there is no room for petty arguments and behaviors in God’s house or among God’s people. As believers, we are each God’s temple, so let us do the things that will edify (build up) His church and His people…. not damage or destroy them.
Blessings, Rev. Glenn
