1 Corinthians 3:10-15 (NIV)
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.
Paul switches analogies here, moving from an agricultural one to an architectural one. In it, the teachers and leaders shift from being sowers and waterers to being builders.
When Paul was in Corinth, he began to construct the edifice known as the Church, built not of brick or stone, but of human beings, saints who have been saved by faith in Jesus and washed clean of every stain by His blood. But Paul had been away for several years, and in the meantime, others had taken on the project.
Paul had laid the foundation of the Church as an expert builder. He had laid it solid and strong, and oriented to be aligned perfectly with God’s Kingdom. That foundation is Jesus, and the true Church can have no other and still be the Church. And in the Church, as in material buildings, the foundation determines what can be built on top of it.
Some people were trying to build the Church as if its foundation was a mere human being, like Paul, or Apollos, or Peter. But that was the wrong foundation, and the structure built on it would ultimately come crashing down.
Others accepted the correct foundation, but we’re trying to build an inferior structure on it, a structure of legalism, rulemaking and rule keeping, and human philosophy – a structure that Paul described as being made of wood, hay, and straw, perishable materials that would not last. The foundation of Jesus was designed to support a magnificent and durable structure composed of purity, holiness, freedom from sin, and the power and presence of the Holy Spirit- a structure that Paul describes as being made of gold, silver, and costly stones.
As James points out in 3:1, teachers, those building the structure of the church will be judged more stringently, because what they teach can help people find true salvation, or can actually blind eyes, distort minds, and lock people out of the kingdom, while they believe that they are safely inside. Paul reinforces this understanding in the context of the church as a spiritual building.
At the judgment, each teacher’s and leader’s work will be judged by the holy fire of God. If he has built up the people, not only on the true foundation of Jesus, but with the good materials that the foundation deserves, solid teaching that is true to the word, leading people into the presence and power of the Holy Spirit so that they can be made pure and genuinely holy, and helping them to grow not in man-made doctrines, but in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, then their work will stand the test. The people will be saved, and the teacher or leader will receive their reward: eternal life in God’s presence.
If, however, he has been building with inferior materials, poor and unscriptural teachings centered in legalism and on the shifting ideas of people, cults of personality, sectarianism which divides instead of uniting, and self-righteousness based on human effort which cannot make holy, then their work will fail and be destroyed. The people will be lost, having no real faith, or misplaced faith in the leader instead of in Jesus. Even though he himself might pass through the flame if he has faith in Jesus, he will see all that he has worked for completely lost.
This is a strict call to those who have been teaching in Corinth to stop and check themselves. Were they building on the right foundation, the one which Paul had carefully laid out the start: Jesus? Or had they built a different foundation, a human-based one that would lead people astray and cause them to be lost? Was their teaching pure and holy, based on the clear teachings of God’s word and the words of Jesus? Or had they devolved into teaching mere human philosophy, legalism, or naturalism?
Obviously, Paul’s call here, if they were building on the right foundation with good materials, was to keep going and redouble their efforts. But if they found themselves off the right path, building on the wrong foundation, or building with inferior teachings, they must stop, repent, and get onto the right path.
Father, it is easy to forget that when we preach, when we teach, when we lead, we are affecting the eternal destiny of those who follow us and our teaching. And we forget that we will be accountable before You for what we teach, and for how that affects the destiny of those who listen. In our busyness, it is easy to grab some curriculum, give it a quick once over on Saturday night or Sunday morning, and then fill the class time with lightly warmed-over ideas that we have not thoroughly vetted against the clear teaching of Your word. We don’t believe that if our teachings are wrong, the people who are listening can be lost. But clearly, according to Paul, they can, hence our greater accountability before You. Help us, Lord, all of us who are called to be teachers, preachers, and leaders, to pour our whole heart and life into doing that correctly, building on the sure foundation of Jesus, and ensuring that everything we teach is of the highest quality, perfectly in line with Your word in every way. Amen.