Lesson 7 – 1 Corinthians Chapter 3:8-17
In our last message we talked about how nobody knows the mind of God except God Himself; God transcends our understanding completely.
However, God does reveal His priorities, desires, and plans to us, and the main way He accomplishes this is through His Spirit. We can also be certain that one of God’s desires for us is that we continue to develop “the mind of Christ.”
To be sure, there are no shortcuts when it comes to having the mind of Christ. It takes a lifetime of devotion to Christ, and a willingness to be a servant of all.
1 John 2:7:
“Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment – to love one another – is the same message you heard before. Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.” (NLT)
To have the mind of Christ and to be able to serve, we must put on “love.”
We also talked about Paul being the genuine article, that there was no slick talk coming from him, that when he spoke, his intention was to communicate the gospel message in the simplest way possible, so that all could understand.
Paul also had his work cut out for him, because the Corinthian believers were immature in their knowledge of the Lord, so Paul had to feed them milk, instead of the meat of God’s Word.
Lastly, we talked about planting the seed of the gospel; how it’s essential that we never stop. One plants, another waters, and God brings the growth. The reason we shouldn’t stop is because we don’t know if we’re planting seeds or watering, and we also don’t know how many times a person might need to hear the truth of God’s Word.
1 Cor. 3:8:
“Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.”
Now he who plants and he who waters are one… The good news here is, we’re all on the same team… we’re all working for the Lord. Paul needed a strategy, and by pointing out that they are one together in their planting, this would be the remedy to the divisiveness that was taking place.
There was to be no “team” Paul and “team” Apollos, only “team” Jesus. Paul and Apollos’ ministries weren’t about competing with each other, but complementing each other. All of God’s workers are to be one in Christ, and thus God gets all the glory… as it should be.
But each will receive his own reward according to his own labor…
When we’re involved in doing God’s work, we shouldn’t be concerned with what people might think about us, but we should be overly apprehensive about what God thinks about our efforts. There can be no greater joy than pleasing the Lord, that He would say to us, “Well done.”
It’s important to know that God rewards His children on the basis of labor, not success or results.
Jeremiah is a good example of this, he was one of God’s most faithful servants and dedicated prophets, yet when it came to his ministry, he didn’t see very many results. In fact, he was ridiculed, persecuted, and everywhere he went he was pretty much rejected by the people.
What truly matters in all of our service, is that God gets all the glory. One of the heroes of faith is Billy Graham. Yes, he deserves to be appreciated and receive all kinds of accolades for his accomplishments, but he was who he was because God chose to work through him. God deserves all the glory for what Billy did.
1 Cor. 3:9:
“For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.”
For we are God’s fellow workers…
We could have a “role call” here… Paul, Apollos, Peter, John, Timothy… it’s a very long list. And tonight I want to challenge you to add your name to the list, that you might be considered God’s fellow workers.
You are God’s field…
Have you ever felt like you’ve been under the plow being tilled up a bit? Don’t be surprised, you’re God’s field. The good news is that when a field gets plowed, it can mean something excellent is about to be planted.
You are God’s building… Paul has gone from agriculture to architecture in his metaphor.
We’re meeting here in the Sampson Clubhouse tonight, it is not a church… you are the church, you are God’s building.
1 Cor. 3:10:
“According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.”
“There but for the grace of God go I,” this phrase has been in use since at least the 1700s, and Paul is making mention of God’s grace here.
According to the grace of God which was given to me…
It is because of God’s grace that Paul is as he says, the wise master builder.
We are like Paul, in the sense that if we can do any work for the Lord whatsoever, it is only because of His grace. Paul was in no way bragging about himself, that’s why he was quick to mention God’s grace. The fact that Paul was a wise builder wasn’t of his own doing, but it was God working through him. Remember in verse 7, it’s God who causes the growth in us, He makes the seed grow.
Romans 15:18a [Paul was a humble servant]:
“For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me,”
Paul knew the Holy Spirit was working through him, enabling him to do great things for God and the church.
1 Cor. 15:10 [jumping ahead to chapter 15]:
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”
When I was in the Army, it was not uncommon that a higher ranking sergeant would volunteer you for some kind of duty whether you wanted to do it or not.
Acts 9:15 [Jesus speaking to Ananias about Saul]:
“But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;”
Paul was God’s chosen instrument, (In other words, Paul got volunteered or drafted by God), and now Paul has grown in such a way that he is seen as God’s master builder.
Eph. 3:7-8:
“Of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,”
Paul’s mission from Jesus was to spread the gospel regardless of the consequences, and like everything he received from the Lord, it was the gift of God’s grace.
Paul laid a foundation…
What is that foundation? It is Jesus and only Jesus… we saw this at the beginning of chapter 2.
(Vs. 1-2):
“And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
Jesus is the Rock of our salvation as well as the foundation of the church… and the foundation Paul laid down was Jesus.
Matthew 7:24:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
One of the deepest building foundations in the world is below the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, CA. Completed in 2017, the 1,070-foot skyscraper with 61 stories is supported by a foundation that extends 310 feet below ground. The foundation design is especially noteworthy because it set new benchmarks in seismic safety. The foundation is the most important part of a building, because it will determine the size, shape, and strength of it.
Now this might be man’s best effort at laying a foundation, but nothing compares to Jesus as the Rock of our salvation, our solid foundation.
Psalm 95:1:
“O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.”
Jesus is indeed the Rock of our salvation, a sure and eternal refuge, the foundation on which rests the hope of heaven.
Paul the master builder laid the best foundation, and he says, and another is building on it…
This is in the present tense, meaning that there is a continual building going on, and Apollos is included in that work.
But each man must be careful how he builds on it…
Here again with the word builds, it indicates a continual action taking place, and Paul was concerned that those who would follow after him, would work as hard as he did.
It’s like the person who starts their own business from the ground up and makes it a success, then perhaps it is passed on to someone as an inheritance. The one who started the business would hate to see it fall apart after they had put so much hard work into it.
The difference here is, Paul was doing it all for God and not for himself. One thing to take note of here is, as we go through our own sanctification process, we each have our own history of building on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
When Paul says, “each man” it does refer to evangelists, pastors, and teachers who have continued to build on the foundation laid by the apostles, but the context makes it clear that a broader and more inclusive application is also in mind here. The numerous references to “each man” and “any man” (vv. 10-18) indicate that this principle applies to every believer… and you thought you were off the hook. 😊
As a believer, you are “always” an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Every one of us has a personal responsibility to represent Jesus in a righteous and truthful way. If you’re not considered to be a closet Christian, then there is an “answerability” in the way you conduct your life. Quite frankly, you would never want to be responsible for someone walking away from Christ because of something you said or did.
1 Cor. 3:11:
“For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
Bible commentary says, “The foundation is not New Testament ethics, many of which are found in other religions. Nor is it in the history, traditions, and decisions of churches and church leaders through the centuries. It is Jesus Christ and Him alone. In a sense, it’s all of Scripture, for all of Scripture is both from and about Jesus. The Old Testament predicted and prepared for His incarnation. The gospels tell of His earthly ministry, and Acts; the history of His church in its early years. The epistles are commentaries on His message and work, and the book of Revelation is the final testimony of His reigning and imminent return.”
We see in the Book of Acts, where Peter had become a “changed” man. Peter was no longer intimidated when being associated with Jesus, in fact, he would give his life for Jesus, and it would come to pass when he would do just that.
Peter, along with the other apostles, were all changed because they now had the promised Holy Spirit in them. Everywhere Peter went, he proclaimed Jesus Christ.
The Jewish leaders at that time would not accept the gospel for what it was, which was the very foundation upon which God was building His church.
The Jewish leaders were doing all they could to keep up with traditions, and to maintain the strenuous religious system, but it fell short because it didn’t have the right foundation.
With the New Covenant now in place, the Jews were standing on nothing but sinking sand, and there was no way for them to get a firm footing.
For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ…
The only way you can be saved is through Jesus Christ. Such a simple message, yet through the centuries, billions have turned their backs to this Truth that saves.
Acts 4:12 Peter valiantly proclaims to the world…
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
No man can lay a foundation…
A foundation that is anything other than Jesus Christ will count for nothing…
Gal. 1:6-9 (NLT):
“I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.”
Let’s be clear, every human philosophy, or made-up religion is going to crash and burn, it is doomed to fail because it has no foundation… its footing is on sinking sand. God’s kingdom is built on the blood of Christ, and every one of us who wants to live a life which is seen as pleasing to the Lord, must be carefully built on the foundation of Christ.
1 Cor 3:12:
“Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,”
We see here that there’s a truth that can’t be denied. For every believer, regardless of what their station in life might be, there’s some building going on… it’s just a fact of life. So, as long as believers are alive, they are building. What needs to be determined is what kind of building is taking place. Are we building a beautiful structure, or are we building a rusted out shack? Just as with everything in life, there is always a choice to be made.
Our building materials are: gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw.
Ever since the church began, there have been gold Christians and wood Christians. In my lifetime, I have has seen some amazing things made out of wood, but the most awe-inspiring things were made out of gold.
Looking at gold, silver, and precious stones they are high quality materials and they represent our good works and faithful service to God. On the other hand, we have wood, hay, and stubble which are inferior materials and represent those things that are done in the flesh, and they are temporary in nature.
[gold, silver, precious stones] [wood, hay, straw]
Permanent, beautiful, valuable, passing, temporary
and hard to obtain ordinary, ugly, cheap
easy to obtain
Spiritually speaking, gold signifies the greatest level of faithfulness, it indicates the most skillful and careful work done for the Lord. Wood/hay/straw on the other hand can be considered to be the opposite… it reveals the least amount of effort, and in reality, it’s just giving God the leftovers.
What all these materials “do not” represent is, wealth, talents, opportunities or even spiritual gifts.
So, what this comes down to is, how do we respond with what we have… what we do with what God has given us. We can’t bring the excuse that we didn’t have what we needed to serve the Lord, because He supplies all our needs.
Phil. 4:19:
“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Just as a reminder, we are never saved by “good works,” good works is what we do after we’re saved.
Eph. 2:10:
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
We’re not saved to exist as a lump of clay, or to become stagnate and unfruitful. We have work to do, and this work isn’t meant to satisfy ourselves, but to bring glory to God.
Col. 1:10:
“So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”
When you make the choice, (and it is a choice) to work for God, your life will be full… it will be full of peace, love, and joy. This is something the world knows nothing about.
One pastor says, “A young man once told me that he was leaving a certain ministry, and the reason he gave was: ‘I wasn’t doing what I do best. I was using my abilities but not my Spiritual gifts.’ There was nothing wrong with the work he had been doing. In fact, for another person it could be gold. But for him it was wood, hay, or straw, because he was doing what others thought he should do rather than what the Lord had particularly gifted and called him to do.”
The moral of this story is, commune with God all the time, tell Him that you love Him, and you want to serve Him with the best intentions… and He will give the path to go on.
1 Cor. 3:13:
“Each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.”
Each man’s work will become evident…
The event here being referred to is the Judgement Seat of Christ, also known as the Bema Seat Judgement for believers. Our life will be an open book before Jesus, just as it is now. There will be no hiding anything, all the things we’ve done will become evident.
When Jesus comes back, everything we’ve done while we were alive on earth will be tested before Him. All the work we did will have to go through a quality test, and the testing agent will be fire.
Zech. 13:9:
“And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
Just as fire purifies gold and silver by burning off all the dross that rises to the top, God’s testing will burn off the fleshly works we did, and He will leave that which is pure and valuable in His sight.
1 Cor. 3:14:
“If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.”
This is a pretty straight forward statement from Paul. At the end of testing, your life’s review, every good work that remains… you’ll be rewarded for it.
This isn’t much different in the way a parent rewards their child for doing some task, or perhaps getting a passing grade in school. The only difference is, these rewards are eternal and will determine your experience in heaven.
I can’t really speculate how this will play out in eternity, but I believe there will be different levels in heaven, the Bible refers to them as rewards.
1 Cor. 3:15:
“If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
When we sit around a campfire toasting smores and putting wood on the fire, then watching the flames grow higher… it’s an enjoyable experience. But when you go back to the fire pit in the morning, the only thing left are the ashes.
For the person who lived solely for themselves, and not really putting forth any effort to serve Jesus and His church, chances are, all that they did will look like ashes… having no value whatsoever.
He (or she) will suffer loss… when Jesus is distributing His rewards and He looks into your file for any rewards, it will be empty. I know the Bible says there’s no tears in heaven, but there might be some serious regrets for a life wasted and not lived for Christ… such a person might see disappointment in Jesus’ eyes.
But he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire…
Let’s go back to the campfire… while the campfire is burning, if you’re young enough and fast enough, you can jump through the flames and probably not get burned, yet the smoke from the fire might cling to your clothes.
What Paul is saying is (I’ll paraphrase), “You’ve survived the testing, and you haven’t lost your salvation, but you made it into heaven by the skin of your teeth.” I don’t think anyone would want to find themselves in that position.
I hear people say, “I’ll be happy if I’m just nothing more than a janitor in heaven.” What a foolish attitude to live by. The Bible has given us extraordinary glimpses into heaven, and also hints to what can be for all eternity. A key takeaway from this passage is, while we still have breath on this earth, we should be living for the Lord, because in the end, He wants to bestow His rewards upon us.
Hebrews 9:27:
“And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,”
There’s a judgement coming for every person, for the believer it’s the Judgement Seat of Christ, for those who don’t have Jesus, it’s the White Throne Judgement. For the believer, right now they have the opportunity to make heaven even brighter for themselves, by doing works that fall into the gold category.
Rev. 22:12:
“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”
Now, for the unbeliever, everything they do apart from Christ will make the flames of hell even hotter. Yes, I believe there are different levels in the Lake of Fire. As part of your “golden” works, keep spreading the gospel so less people go to hell.
Now we will totally switch gears here…
1 Cor. 3:16:
“Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
The Greek word Paul is using translated as “temple” is not the usual word hieron, which refers to the whole temple, but rather he’s using the word naos, which is speaking about the core of the temple, the Holy of Holies. It’s the part of the temple where the shekinah glory dwelt… the very presence of God.
Shekinah is the Hebrew word that literally means “He caused to dwell,” signifying that it was a divine visitation of the presence or dwelling of the Lord God on this earth.
Do you not know… here Paul is introducing an indisputable statement.
When Paul writes “you are” it is in the plural, so in other words he’s saying… “Don’t you know that together you are the Holy of Holies, where the glory, the weight, and reality of God are enjoyed and perceived.”
This is an awesome responsibility for the church. Together, we are the temple of God.
1 Cor. 3:17:
“If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.”
The words destroys and destroy are the same Greek word, and with it carries the meaning to shrivel or wither, also to ruin and corrupt.
I think Paul was on the lookout for those who want to do harm to the church, that there are those who want ruin believers and perhaps even corrupt them. By doing so, this will make the church weak, and I think we can all agree that the Corinthian church had become weak.
God will destroy him… it makes sense that the ones who are causing believers to “wither” on the vine so to speak, God is going to do the same thing to them.
For the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are…
We are God’s very own possession, He sees each one of His Children as holy, and being holy means that all believers are to be separated from the world and all its fleshly desires.
Eph. 1:3-4:
“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.”
We’ll close with this…
Collectively, and individually, we are God’s holy church, and God is very jealous when it comes to His church… therefore He will do anything to protect it.
A jealous God! How can a God who is holy, just, loving, gracious, merciful, and long-suffering possibly be jealous? Being jealous and being zealous are essentially the same thing in the Bible. God is zealous and eager about protecting what is precious to Him.
Not only is the church as a whole or as the local body is the dwelling place of God’s presence, but individually believers are also to consider themselves the temple of God’s Holy Spirit.
Verse 17 is about maintaining unity and not letting the church become divided over loyalties to human leadership. As believers, our job is to continue growing in Christ, and maturing in Christ, that way the church will grow in strength and character… and will be less likely to fall victim to those who are comfortable seeing the church wither.
Everyone one of us can be a master builder like Paul. Be sure that when you are laying down the foundation of Jesus Christ, you ask the “Helper” to direct you, and He will give you gold to work with.