BUILDING STANDARDS – 1 Corinthians 3:10-17

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 29, 2018 under 2018 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday message; July 29, 2018 from 1 Corinthians 3:10-17

Theme: We must be careful to build-up our Christian lives as those who will give an account before God for our workmanship.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

Periodically, our church undergoes an inspection—one conducted by the local fire bureau.

Personally, I have been grateful that such inspections are required. Our building is a precious asset; and I want it to be safe and useful for many years to come. And so, the leadership team and I are careful to follow the established standards for fire safety. I am pleased to say that, throughout the years, we have passed inspection almost every time—with only a few changes required now and then.

But I’ll admit that whenever we get word that an inspection is coming, I run quickly through our facilities to check things out. The awareness that a fire inspector is scheduled to come usually motivates me to tighten things up—making sure things are as they should be and getting things ready for “inspection”.

If you are in any line of work at all in which you construct an end-product or maintain something that already exists, then the word “inspection” may cause either confidence or panic. It all depends on how thoroughly you followed the standards beforehand. This is probably more true, in our day, in the construction business than in any other. And in that particular field of work, it really pays to know—well in advance—what the standards of inspection will be; so that you can build in such a way as to ‘pass inspection’.

Well; I wonder if the apostle Paul was a big fan of the building industry. He was, after all, a tent-maker; so he probably appreciated good construction. As we come to 1 Corinthians 3:10-17, we find that he uses the metaphor of a ‘building’ to describe the believer’s work of building-up his or her Christian life.

And the apostle lets us know, well in advance, that there will be an inspection.

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Now; Paul had been writing in 1 Corinthians about a problem that was plaguing the church in Corinth. The believers there had been dividing themselves from one another by inordinately aligning themselves under certain teachers and preachers and evangelists. Some where saying, “I am of Paul.” Others were saying, “I am of Peter.” Still others were saying, “I am of Apollos.” And as a result, the church fellowship was being fragmented; and the witness of the church was being harmed.

As we saw in our last time in 1 Corinthians, Paul dealt with this problem by showing the Corinthian believers how improper it was for them to divide their leadership up in this way. He used the metaphor of a ‘farm-field’ to teach this to them. In 1 Corinthians 3:5-9, he wrote;

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field … (1 Corinthians 3:5-9a)

The assembly of Corinthian believers was the farm-field of the Lord Jesus; and their leaders were simply the ‘farm-hands’. It was utterly inappropriate for these believers to divide themselves up under the Lord’s servants—under His ‘farm-hands’. It turned them away from Jesus as their central focus.

But then, at the end of verse 9, Paul shifted metaphors. He said, “you are God’s building” (v. 9b); and then, using the metaphor of a building, he went on—in our passage this morning—to tell them;

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are (vv. 10-17).

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We have been studying this particular theme in 1 Corinthians—this problem of the division in the Corinthian congregation—for a long time now. Paul had given a lot of attention in his letter to this problem. And I’d like to take a moment to explain why I believe this was so.

This divisiveness among the Corinthian believers was causing them to over-emphasize human leaders. They were doing this in a way that exalted this world’s standards of ‘human wisdom’. And as a result, they were removing their focus from where it should be—and that is, on the centrality of the Person of Jesus Christ; who is for us ‘true wisdom’ from God. It’s always a dangerous thing to get our focus off our Lord. It’s something that the enemy of our souls seeks to get us to do; and all so that our witness for Jesus in this world would be weakened or destroyed. I believe that that’s why Paul gave so much attention to this problem early on in his letter. It involved something that is crucial and basic to our ability to be what God wants us to be in this world.

And what’s more—and very much related to our specific passage this morning—we need to remember that there is a review coming. There is an inspection scheduled. Not only will we be examined as to whether or not Jesus Christ has occupied the chief place in our hearts; but we will also be examined as to whether or not we faithfully built-up our Christian lives upon Him as we should.

In this morning’s passage, we are being given the ‘building standards’ by which our faithful stewardship of what God has given us will be measured and evaluated. And the great lesson of this passage is that we must be careful to build-up our Christian lives as those who will give an account before God for our workmanship.

* * * * * * * * * *

Look with me, then, at verse 10; and notice the great truth that Paul affirms to us about our Christian lives—and that is that …

1. THE FOUNDATION IS LAID AND READY FOR BUILDING.

He writes; “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it” (v. 10a). The word that Paul uses in the original language—the one that is translated “master builder”—is one that you would probably recognize immediately: architektōn (which basically means “chief carpenter”).

By the grace of God, Paul was given the awesome role of being the human instrument by which God’s grace through Jesus Christ was conveyed to the Gentile world. Every properly built and structurally sound building needs a good foundation; and as a divinely-appointed ‘architect’, that’s what Paul gave to the church in preaching the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a wise master builder—a wise ‘chief carpenter’—the apostle laid down a good foundation for the Christian life. He stressed this to the Corinthians back in the first couple of verses of Chapter 2;

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).

That is the foundation of our faith, dear brothers and sisters; “Jesus Christ and Him crucified”. And note carefully that it’s not just “Jesus Christ”—as if Jesus is being presented to us only as a great role model to follow. Rather, it’s Jesus Christ “and Him crucified”—as our atoning sacrifice for sin. It’s the message of Jesus—the Son of God—dying on a cross, and of all that His death on the cross declares to us: that we are utterly helpless sinners who are doomed to eternal judgment unless God saves us; and that God, in love, sent His only begotten Son to take human flesh to Himself and die on the cursed cross in our place; and that He was risen from the dead to prove that the justice of God is satisfied and that sin is fully atoned for by Him; and that we are only made right with God by confessing our sins, and placing our whole trust in what Jesus has done for us on the cross to pay for those sins; and that by faith, we are ‘born-again’ through Him. That—and that alone—is the foundation of our faith.

Paul, the apostolic architect, faithfully laid down that foundation for us. As he wrote in Ephesians 2;

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:19-22).

And this, by the way, is a good time to ask: Have you made absolutely sure that your trust for salvation is in Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Is your faith built upon this one great and only true foundation?

You’re not saved by ‘going to church’. You’re not saved by ‘morality’. You’re not saved by ‘reading your Bible’. You’re not saved by ‘good religious practices’. You’re not saved by ‘turning over a new leaf’. You’re not saved just by ‘believing in God’. And you’re not even saved just by believing in Jesus. You are only saved by a personal faith in ‘Jesus Christ and Him crucified‘.

That—and that alone—is the only foundation upon which the Christian life can be and must be built.

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Now; Paul had laid down that foundation for the Corinthians. That was his proper role. And it was the proper role of others to take it from there. “I have laid the foundation,” he wrote, “and another builds on it.” But that’s when he then warns us in verse 10, “But let each one take heed how he builds on it” (v. 10b).

Who is the “another” who builds? Some have suggested that it was Apollos. After all, in the metaphor of the field, it was Paul who did the initial work of planting and Apollos who did the follow-up work of watering. But I don’t believe we are meant to understand Apollos as the builder. Paul was not writing to warn Apollos that he’d better build carefully. Rather, I believe that Paul was writing this warning to the Corinthian Christians and to their pastors and teachers—and by extension, to all believers in all churches and their pastors and teachers.

He was speaking about you and me, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. He was writing to tell us that the foundation has been laid and is now ready for building …

2. BUT WE MUST BE VERY CAREFUL HOW WE BUILD.

There is an inspection coming. Our workmanship will be evaluated. And so that you and I can be well prepared, and can build properly, and can have confidence in our Christian lives on the day of inspection, Paul then went on to give us the standards of evaluation.

Note first, then, that we must be careful to do our work properly; building upon no other foundation than Christ. In verse 11, Paul wrote, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (v. 11).

People often try, however. Many ignore the only true foundation that God gave for Paul to lay down; and they try instead to build the Christian life upon something other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Some have tried to build upon the ethical teachings of Jesus—but not upon His cross. Some have tried to build upon the religious traditions and ceremonies that have come to be associated with Jesus—but not upon either Him or His cross. Some have even tried to build upon a version of the Christian faith that is mixed with the traditions and rituals of others faiths—but not upon Him and His cross. And anything that is not built upon the only true and exclusive foundation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified—whatever else it may look like, and whatever else it may claim to be—it is most definitely not the Christian faith; and it will not pass inspection.

Paul had to deal with another group of Christians who tried to build upon another foundation. They had started off trusting in the cross of Jesus; but they were soon persuaded by false teachers into trying to earn God’s favor by their conformity to the Old Testament rituals given through Moses. Paul was very upset; and he fired off a powerful letter to them. At the beginning of his letter to the Galatians, he wrote;

I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed (Galatians 1:6-9).

“A different gospel, which is not another …” Let’s be absolutely sure, dear brothers and sisters, that we have built upon the one and only, completely exclusive, only approved ‘foundation’; and that is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Nothing else will pass inspection.

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Another required standard for building the Christian life is that we must build using materials that will pass God’s refining test. It’s not enough to simply ‘build’ on the right foundation; but to pass inspection, we must use the right building materials. In verses 12-13, Paul wrote, “Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is” (vv. 12-13).

Look carefully at that list of possible materials. They are all materials that can—and have been—used to build houses or structures. But there is a descending value in the list: gold at the top, then silver, then precious stones; and then—near the bottom, wood, then hay, then mere stubble or straw. Some materials are fit for temples. Some are appropriate for houses or storage buildings. Some of them are just barely sufficient for temporary huts. A builder can build upon any good foundation with any one of these materials. But not all materials are proper for all situations of construction; and not all of these materials will last.

Paul warns that the quality of the work that makes use of these various materials will be evident on ‘the Day’—that is, the day of our Lord’s return. The apostle Peter wrote;

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up (2 Peter 3:10).

That is the day of our Lord’s righteous inspection. In much the same way that a refiner passes precious metal through fire, so our work will be passed through the fire of His righteous judgment. The foundation will never change, of course; but the work that is built on it will be tested. Anything that is built upon that foundation with shoddy materials—wood, hay, stubble—will go up in smoke. Only that which is built with quality materials—gold, silver, precious stones—will endure.

Paul elaborated on the spiritual implications of this in verses 14-15; “If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” (vv. 14-15). And this leads us to ask ourselves what it is—right now—with which we are seeking to build-up our Christian lives. Is it with the good, quality, approved material of obedience to His commandments and trust in His promises and the prayers of faith that will endure the fire of our Master’s judgment—leaving us to enter into our Lord’s eternal presence with joy because our building materials passed inspection? Or is it poor, shoddy, unapproved material of human wisdom and religious traditions and works of the flesh that will burn away—with us just barely entering heaven, but leaving us with a sense of grief and loss and eternal regret because our building materials failed to pass inspection?

Now; let’s not make any mistake about it. There is an inspection coming! Paul wrote;

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10).

And I believe that there are two ways to think of this. I certainly think of it as a pastor and teacher. I don’t want all of my years of labor to go up in smoke. I want to labor with gold, silver and precious stones. I believe that this means I must faithfully teach and rightly handle the word of God—the Bible—in my preaching and teaching ministry. Paul once told Pastor Timothy;

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

I tremble at the thought of having to give an account before my Lord for having used shoddy materials—for teaching the word of God in a poor manner, or for mixing God’s word up with the faulty wisdom of this world, or altering it to make people happy. I would have to then give an account before my Lord for having passed on inferior building materials to you! But we should also think of this warning with respect to each of our individual Christian lives. We must make absolutely sure that we are individually responsible, diligent and faithful to build-up our own individual Christian lives with the right building materials. The apostle Peter wrote, in 2 Peter 1;

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:5-11).

May we pass inspection for building on the true foundation with the right materials!

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And Paul gave us one more standard of inspection; and that is that we must be found protecting the holiness of God’s house along the way. In verses 16-17, he let us know what kind of building it is that we’re working on—and with what seriousness we should be carrying on the work. Paul wrote, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are” (vv. 16-17).

When Paul spoke here of the ‘temple’, he wasn’t speaking of the building in a general sense. He used a word in the original language that speaking of the most sacred part of that temple—the inner tabernacle—the holy place where the ark of the covenant was found. In the days when the temple in Jerusalem stood, it was the most sacred place on earth. It was where God’s presence on earth was identified. And Paul was letting us know that that’s what we now are in Jesus Christ—the very dwelling place of God on earth. How important it is, then, that we treat this building project with the utmost sense of seriousness and holiness and reverent fear.

I believe that Paul was thinking primarily of how the church was dividing itself up over its leaders. Its habit of fighting and bickering over mere human leaders on the basis of mere human standards of wisdom was an offense to the Holy Spirit who dwelt in them. And if they persisted in defiling God’s house in that way, God would eventually take action to protect the holiness of His dwelling place. But we can see this same sort of emphasis expressed in other places of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. In Chapter 6, for example, he told them;

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

Or in 2 Corinthians 6, he said to them;

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God (2 Corinthians 6:14-16a).

I believe that on the Day of inspection, the Lord Jesus will look to see, first, that we have faithfully built upon the true foundation—that is upon Himself and upon His death on the cross for us. And He will, then, also look to see that we built on that foundation with good, quality, approved materials—the ‘gold’ and ‘silver’ and ‘precious stones’ of such things as obedience to His commands, and trust in His promises, and the prayers of faith in accordance with His revealed will. But I also believe that—throughout it all—He will inspect our attitudes toward the whole work. Did we look upon ourselves as His holy dwelling place? Did we keep things out of His holy house that didn’t belong? Did we make sure that we kept from defiling His house with attitudes and actions and habits that displeased Him? Did we make sure that we didn’t build with grumbling and complaining and division and worldly attitudes?

May our Lord find, on that great Day of inspection, that we treated the building project as a holy one—and that we kept from defiling His holy dwelling place.

* * * * * * * * * * *

So; there is a day of review coming. There is an inspection scheduled. But we don’t need to fear that inspection—if we are careful to build according to the ‘building standards’ that the apostle Paul has shared with us. Now is the time to commit to these things. Now is the time to repent of our failures. Now is the time to run through, and check things, and make sure we are building as we should.

Let’s so build that, on that great day, our Master will look upon the workmanship of our individual Christian lives and say, “Well done!”

AE