1 Corinthians 3:10-17 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. 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.Paul is upset with the Corinthian Christians for they are disputing about who they should follow in their new life IN CHRIST. As we look into this scene, this disputation between them seems rather trivial and innocuous. Why worry about their ideas about whom they should follow in their spiritual lives? However, Paul believes this disunity has deeper roots: sin. Arguing and fighting over whom they should follow in their religious walk is destructive to brotherly love. John writes that the lack of truly loving your brother or sister in Christ is an indicator of the condition of your soul. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. (1 John 2:9-11) Disunity within the Corinthian church makes Paul believe their souls are not as pure as they should be, for quarreling and fighting with their brothers and sisters is an indication of sin abiding within their lives. Later on in his second letter to the Corinthian church, he expresses his fear about their spiritual well-being. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged. (2 Corinthians 12:20-21) The Corinthians' immaturity in knowing Christ and following him in their new lives has caused them not to understand the true nature of the church of God. Peter writes that the church is a nation within the nations of the world. The Christian Corinthians should know that in this world they are to act differently: they should express a born-again life that consists of unity, love, mercy, and caring for those who are still in darkness. As the children of Israel, they were a nation within a nation, Egypt. They were held in bondage but the Egyptians could not change their nature of being Jews. Their freedom from the physical bondage of the Egyptians came after the shedding of blood. They crossed over from this dark world to freedom when the passover lamb was slain. The angel of death could not touch their lives anymore, for they had the blood of the passover lamb to protect them. In the Christian sense, death is no longer a threat to us because of the blood of Jesus. To be free IN CHRIST means that you do not act like the world anymore. Peter expresses this as our condition IN CHRIST. We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God; once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10) Through and in Christ, we have been led out of darkness, out of bondage to this world. Therefore, how should we live our lives? What is the material in our lives that lifts up Christ? The Corinthians were living their lives very carnally, still fighting and quarreling about nonessential things, putting aside brotherly love, becoming enemies of Christ by their self-interest and selfish pursuits, wanting their own way and beliefs.
Paul is telling the Corinthians to be careful how they build their lives. Disputation is not a sound way to build your lives for Christ. Disunity is not part of the life IN CHRIST, for Jesus prayed that we would be one as He and his Father are one. For the Corinthians to be in unity, their lives must be fixed on a sound foundation; of course, that foundation is Christ alone. This is what Paul taught them from the beginning and wishes passionately that they continue upon this foundation of Christ alone. They are not to divert from this foundation, seeking others to follow. 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. The freedom of God’s chosen in Egypt came through the Passover Lamb’s sacrifice. The church of Corinth's freedom from the world and its hold on them came through Jesus’s death on the cross. Consequently, why are they disputing over following someone else in constructing their new life. Why not depend on the Spirit of God to lead them, not man’s insight or knowledge. As soon as the children of Egypt experienced their freedom from the bondage of Egypt, the Spirit of God came to them. He was a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night. They made no move until the Spirit moved. He led them from one destination to another, day-by-day, week-by-week, year-by-year. When they were disobedient to the Spirit’s direction, they were disciplined. Now Paul is afraid that the Corinthians are choosing another way rather than following Christ in their lives. They are building with wood, hay or straw, none of which will endure God’s wrath on the judgment day. Jesus is worthy of the best in our lives: grace, mercy and love or the gold, silver, costly stones that are embedded in our new-creature lives. Even when Jesus was but a toddler, we see him receiving the best in the magi's lives. The magi bowed down and worshiped the Child, presenting Him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Each of these gifts was extremely valuable. Only on the name of Jesus should we build out lives, and we should give him the best in our lives. Toss away the wood, hay and straw that will not withstand the inscrutable nature of God. Instead, build with the brotherly love of all people who are known as Christ’s own. And for the world, be loving and kind towards them; show your love of God by your grace and mercy to them, for that is what Jesus did when he died for even his enemies, to rescue them from the prince of the world, the devil. As with Christ, our lives should be a gift of love to the world. We might be rejected by the world as foolish, naive, and ignorant, but we are not any of those descriptions, for we are children of the living God. We know that we are God’s creation and that God’s Spirit dwells in us. We are a sacred people, for God himself dwells with us and in us. Together we are his temple. As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5)
Today as the living body of Christ present on earth, how should we live? How do we reflect God to the world? Jesus said that He is the light of the world, and that He has come not to condemn the world, but to deliver the world out of darkness. He also said that all have sinned, all are strangers to God and worse than that, enemies of God. Jesus has told us to love his enemies, to care for them, to present the mercy of God to them by feeding them, clothing them, housing them, delivering them out of their bondage to sin. Jesus was the great healer; we too should be in the business of healing. This is what Paul is talking about when he says for us to be careful how we build on Christ. We should be using the best in us, gold, silver, costly stones. The magi gave the toddler Jesus the best they had. We too are to give Jesus the best in our lives: our time, our thoughts, our activity, our prayers. We, as the apostles, must lift up the name of Jesus. The apostles were constantly attacked by the Sanhedrin, the leaders of the Jewish society. The Sanhedrin not only were the administers of the Jewish society, they were also the spiritual leaders of the Israelites, so there was every reason for the apostles to bend to the Sanhedrin’s authority. But they said no, we are a nation within a nation; we are the chosen people of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. We will obey only the leader of this supernatural nation, headed by Jesus Christ. We will be respectful of your earthly leadership, but we will not obey your authority in the spiritual realm, only Jesus is our Lord and Savior. We are no longer under the bondage of Egypt, for we have been set free to obey the Spirit of God. Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. (Acts 5:29-32) We have a new authority and it is Christ the Lord. We have the Spirit of God as our daily leader, directing us to express the love of God to all people. We will lift the name of Jesus up in every community. We will express the Love of God to all people for He loves his creation. We no longer live by spiritual laws, but by the grace and mercy of God. God has set us free to do his will on earth. Paul was worried that the Corinthians were not truly free from their old nature, for they were quarreling and fighting over whom they should follow. He knew the old nature would corrupt their souls, so he reminds them to know Christ and him alone. The apostles gave their lives to that purpose; Jesus and him alone brings salvation to all people. Friends around this breakfast table, how are you building your lives? Is it on eat, drink and be merry or is it on the precious blood of Jesus shed for your sins? Today, renew your vows of love to the Lord and walk in his redeeming light.
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