Having the Right Perspective: The Church and Church Leaders PT 2
Last week I began the service by asking a couple of questions. I will begin this morning by asking these same questions. What is the church? What is the relationship between the church and church leaders? I ask these questions because in chapter three Paul focuses his attention squarely on the church leaders and their relationship to the church body. Last Sunday we partially answered these questions. The Church is God’s possession and he makes it grow so we must wholly cast ourselves upon him for spiritual and numerical growth and church leaders are servants, not masters. By the time we are done with chapter three, four truths will stand out. First, church leaders are mere servants. Second, it is God’s church. He built it, He sustains it, He is passionate about it and will protect it from evil. Third, because God is passionate about his church, he holds its leaders accountable for how they build it. Fourth, church leaders should be passionate about God’s church as God is passionate about His church.
This morning we will continue to answer these two questions by exploring 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.
In our passage for this morning (vv.10-15) Paul shifts analogies from agriculture/farming to architecture or a construction site. However, while Paul has switched analogies, both analogies are similar. In both the agricultural and architectural analogies, God is the supreme force, the supreme power behind it all. In vv. 5-9 it is God who owns the farm, who employs the farmhands, who gives the increase, it is God who makes the crops to grow. IN vv. 10-15 God is the supreme architect who owns the building, who judges the quality of the work of each builder. He is the supreme architect, owner, and inspector of the church. Therefore, the general point of this architectural analogy, especially the first part of it, is exactly the same as that of the agricultural analogy. We will understand it better if we remember what a slow process building a great edifice was before the days of power equipment. Cathedrals in Europe often took four or five centuries to complete, sometimes longer. In Paul’s day, a temple, a much more modest edifice than a medieval cathedral, sometimes took decades. So one builder may lay the foundation; others would complete various phases of the building project and then would move on, retire, or die, while still others would take their places. The lesson is clear from this passage. Paul laid the foundation, and others have built on his work. It is the project as a whole that is important, and, implicitly, it is foolish to focus all praise on just one of the builders who has contributed to the project. The builders themselves, after all, have a shared common vision, a common purpose. With all the similarities between these two analogies there is one sharp difference. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 serves as a warning. God will hold the builders accountable. One cannot just build on the church willy-nilly and get away with it. God sees it and will judge accordingly. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 also serves as an encouragement. IF you build wisely, you will be properly rewarded.
“Paul shifts the image to that of a building in which God now becomes the one who lets out a contract for a construction project and serves as the building inspector. God inspects to see that it was built correctly, according to specifications, and without fraud and will disburse due rewards and fines. IN this image, Paul shifts roles from a farmhand to the head contractor. This second example allows him to introduce another consideration about leaders. The competence of each servant in carrying out the tasks may vary, and God will reward and punish the difference in quality. That appraisal waits God’s final judgment since God alone can properly assess the work. The ultimate evaluations of leaders belong to God, not to those they lead” (Garland, 114).
Now before we totally engage in the text and mine truths out of it for us. I need to mention right at the outset one thing this passage does not teach. As was true of 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 and 3:1-4, this passage has been the victim of not a few drive-by misinterpretations. Context determines the meaning and we must derive our application and truth out of the text and its context. Otherwise we could make it say whatever we want to make it say. But we are not here this morning to hear what we think it says, we are here to hear God speak to us and he will not do that if we mishandle his text.
There has been a tendency to take this passage and make it apply individually to believers and exhort us as individual believers to make sure we build our lives in concordance with our foundation Jesus Christ. This is true as far as it goes, but this passage is not speaking to singular, individual believers. That is not its focus. It does not say, “you Christian build your life on the foundation of Jesus Christ.” The passage says the church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ so the emphasis is on corporate, shared, group, community church life. The passage takes aim at the church as a whole and all believers within that specific church. It is not unlike Ephesians 2:19-22 that says, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple to the Lord. And in him you are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit.”
So whatever application we are going to take away from this it needs to be in the parameters of the church, not your own individual life. That is a significant distinction. We need to get out of this American way of thinking that is so individually oriented. Church life is communal. Everyone builds on the church’s foundation, some more than others, but everyone in the church of Christ builds on the foundation, Jesus Christ, and all are just as important. We depend upon each other and need each other to be fully engaged with all of our talents, resources and strengths to build and to do so wisely. So this passage takes aim directly at spiritual leaders such as myself and the deacons and those who are actively teaching. But it also takes aim indirectly at all of us because we are all, like it or not, realize it or not, engaged in Kingdom work. To each of us it is a warning and an encouragement. It is a warning because all of you with all of your works will be exposed and tested in relation to how you built the church. It is an encouragement because if we build wisely, we will be rewarded.
So let us unpack these verses and stop here and there to make points of application.
I am what I am by the grace of God (v.10)
In verses 10-11 Paul gives two truths about his life. First, he acknowledges he is what he is by the grace of God. Second, he says because of the grace of God I am an expert builder.
One has to admire Paul’s constant acknowledging that he is what he is only because of God’s grace. This refers to his salvation. Why was Paul saved from his sins? Why was Paul delivered from the wrath of God to perfect peace in the Lord? Was it because he gave a lot of time to the church? Was it because he gave a lot of money to the church? Was it because he was so zealous in his pursuit of God? Was it because he was just so good looking or because he was just so great a speaker or because he was just so smart that God just absolutely needed him? The Scripture answers these questions with a resounding, “NO.” Paul was saved from the wrath of God because of the grace of God. Paul did not deserve his blessed salvation. He was a persecutor of the church! He went out of his way to make life hard, difficult, and miserable for believers in Jesus. Yet God in his immeasurable, wondrous grace chose to make him a recipient of Divine Favor, to redeem him from his guilt before God and to cleanse him from all sinfulness. What a wondrous thing! I hope and pray you do not take this for granted. You and I are so undeserving of such wondrous grace! I hope a day does not go by where you do not thank God for his grace in your life, that he has made you a new creation in Christ! If you have not done so yet today, do it right now! Perhaps this morning you do not know what this wondrous grace is. You have not experienced its life changing power. You can. You can experience God’s grace in your life and salvation from your wretched, stony, sinful heart if you but cast yourself at Jesus feet and ask for his forgiveness and cling to his righteousness. If you but confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that he and he alone is your Savior from your sins. Then you will know such grace. I beseech you, I urge you, I implore you to do so right now where you sit if you have not done so. Ask for God’s grace in your life. Ask him to cleanse you from sin. You cannot save yourself. Only God can save you. He must crash into your life, awaken you from your death in sins so cry to Jesus and ask him to save you!
Nowhere did Paul state this more clearly, boldly, and beautifully than Ephesians 2:4-10: “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Or again in 1 Corinthians 15:9, 10, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.. So first this phrase refers to Paul’s salvation.
Secondly, because of the grace of God Paul is an expert builder. This phrase refers to one of Paul’s spiritual gifts or grace gifts given to him by God. Specifically, here it would refer especially to his apostolic task of founding churches. God has given him the task to plant new churches and God has given him the talents, gifts, strengths, energy to do so. He says, “by the grace of God given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder…” Because of the grace of God given him, Paul is an expert builder. These words “expert builder” are translated variously, “skilled master builder” (ESV), “wise master builder” (KJV). This is a fascinating statement by Paul and the only time in the entire NT where we find this word. What is fascinating about this word in the Greek, arcitectwn, (the same word from which we get architect) is it refers not simply to a “carpenter,” but to the one who serves as both architect and chief engineer - Hence the rendering “master-builder” in many modern translations. Paul likens himself to a skilled master builder, one who brings all his experience and knowledge to the work and assigns tasks to individual workmen.
One commentator notes that the term appears in temple inscriptions to refer to the supervisor of the day-to-day work of subcontractors. One ancient contract, which may be regarded as typical, outlines the responsibilities of the contractor: he shall work continually, hire enough skilled craftsmen, and is warned, along with any who take part in the work, against dealing fraudently. He is also warned about damage to the existing temple or damage to materials and is required to repair anything that is destroyed. Payments and fines are clearly spelled out, and the work must be demonstrated to be worthy.
Paul as this wise master builder, laid the foundation of the new church in Corinth. He is its founder, implied in the idea of the one who planted (3:6). As such it is important to remember that this does not give him some special privilege. It is but by God’s grace. He is just doing God’s assigned task.
The Only Foundation (v. 11)
The foundation he laid as the master builder was Jesus Christ (v. 11). He did not simply provide them with the “rudiments of doctrine.” The foundation is the gospel, and its footings are anchored firmly in the message of Christ crucified. Paul came preaching, living, breathing Jesus Christ and labored in Corinth for 18 months laying the foundation Jesus Christ. Paul tells us himself what he preached while in Corinth in several verses. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:17, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Again he says in 1:23, “but we preach Christ crucified…” and again in 2:2, “for I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Paul was consumed, driven to establish the right and proper foundation. He went way out of his way to make sure when he ministered to them they heard and saw Jesus Christ, not Paul. The Corinthians heard the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ: the coming in the flesh of the Son of God; the suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ; and the reality of forgiveness and restoration for everyone who accepts Christ in true faith. He was resolute and refused to change the foundation because biblically speaking, to lay any foundation other than Jesus Christ is to lay no foundation. There is only one foundation.
Paul makes this clear when he says in verse 11, “for no one can lay any foundation than the one already laid.” No worker in the service of the Lord can teach and preach with impunity a gospel that is contrary to Christ’s gospel. No one can lay down another foundation to replace the one God himself has put in place, or he will utterly fail. No theologian can change the gospel without incurring God’s wrath. There is only one foundation, Jesus Christ.
Be Stubbornly Christ Centered
So many today say, “Stop talking about that Jesus and that cross stuff. Get over it already. What’s the big deal.” So many today say, “Believe whatever you want to believe. I follow Allah, I follow Buddha, I follow Joe Smith, I follow Jesus. All roads lead to the same place.” But to do so and to say so is an impossibility. He is our foundation. He defines what we are. No one can lay another foundation. Galatians 1:6-9 says, “6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” He is the way, the truth, the life. He is the vine, we are the branches. Apart from him we can and are nothing. Stop talking about Jesus?! An impossibility.
Now I know this will sound painfully obvious, so painfully obvious that it almost seems pejorative to mention it, but so many go wrong here that I must say it! The church’s one foundation is not Peter. The Church’s one foundation is not our church fathers. The church’s one foundation is not Paul, nor is it Mary. The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord. All other ground is sinking sand. The church is built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ and as such is unshakeable and unmovable. He purchased her with his blood, he loved her and gave himself up for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. Christ is coming again to bring her home with him and to live and reign forever in heaven and earth. Paul did not do that, neither did Peter or any other church father. They are builders. They are not the foundation. Some in Corinth were talking as though Paul himself or Apollos or Peter or whoever was the foundation-stone of their church life and many today are guilty of treating popular church leaders as the foundation (well so and so said it, it must be true…): but no human being can sustain the life of any church or any Christian. Pastors and preachers move on and die: only a church built on Jesus Christ survives. What is crucial for laying the foundation is not the preacher, since there are other preachers, but the one who is preached.
We need more people like Paul today who in the face of persecution, suffering, pain, discomfort, even death refused to stop preaching Christ and resolved to magnify him in everything. More people that are willing to risk their life, their money, their popularity, their reputation, their comforts, their sofa’s, their TV’s, their cars, their homes, their sports, their everything for the sake of Jesus Christ. More people like Paul who will sacrifice everything to do one thing, preach Jesus Christ. IN a world of pluralism, believe what you want to believe, easy believism, love yourself to help yourself theology, where truth is no longer absolute but relative to ones culture, opinion, and understanding we need men and women, old and young alike, around the world to rise up, stand up on the foundation of Jesus Christ, resolute and determined and unbending to preach Christ and him crucified. Be stubbornly Christ centered. Don’t try and live with one foot on the foundation and another in the world’s wisdom and philosophy. You cannot please both. Be stubbornly Christ centered. Resolved to follow, preach, live Christ to the death. He is the one foundation. Show me a church that is composed of believers like that and Oh what a glorious sight it would be.
Be careful how you build (v. 10-13)
Having established the fact that Paul laid the foundation by the grace of God given him and that the foundation he laid was none other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul now moves from the foundation to the superstructure. It says in v. 10, “I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds” and it says in v. 12, “If any man builds on this foundation.” After all, a foundation alone without any further construction is pointless. One must “build up” the church, to add, as it were, flooring, walls, and a roof. But that person must be careful how he builds upon it. Paul does not say this like it is a bad thing. It is expected and indeed a good thing, but again the one who builds must be careful. You cannot just build on the foundation carelessly. So Paul warns the builders in two ways. First, the materials used must correspond to the foundation laid and second, each one’s work will be revealed by the Day and will be tested by the fire on the Day of Judgment.
First, the materials used must correspond to the foundation laid.
Since Jesus Christ alone is the foundation, one must be careful how one builds upon it. The materials used for the superstructure, must correspond to the materials used for the foundation. One can only add what the foundation will bear and “must not exceed the limits, or introduce confusions which would change the character of the building, so as to threaten its eventual collapse” (Derrett, 133). They must use fit materials and follow the plans of the architect and the building code. Paul exhorts the builders to produce quality craftsmanship. He wants the best performance from every worker.
In verse twelve Paul lists six different materials used to build by the workers. Three are good and three are not so good. Three are imperishable and three are perishable. Three are compatible with the foundation Jesus Christ, three are not compatible. The three that are good, imperishable and compatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ are the gold, silver, and costly stones. The three that are not so good, perishable and incompatible with the gospel are wood, hay, and straw.
The problem is, as we have been discussing in the previous weeks, the structure being built on the foundation of Jesus Christ by the Corinthian leaders was bad. It was not corresponding to the foundation. They were seeking status, prestige, pomp and were guilty of raw triumphalism, I am better than you because of who I know and what I know. They consider themselves to be so wise, and great and high and lofty. What a contrast to the teaching Jesus Christ who taught the first would be last, that he dwells with the lowly and contrite of heart, that the world would hate him and all who followed him and the Corinthians are turning Christ and his workers into matters of popularity and making church leaders out to have celebrity like status! What a serious misunderstanding of the gospel, implicitly the centrality of the cross in every matter of life! They were building with “wood, hay, straw” instead of “gold, silver, precious stones.” By way of analogy, when we were trying to find a house to move into up here, we looked at several different houses. One house we looked at and liked enough to have an inspection done of the house and foundation. As it turned out the foundation on the house was fine, but the superstructure on the foundation was no good. It was rotted, had lots of moisture and mold, and needed a lot of repair work done on it. This analogy works well with what Paul is saying. Paul said I laid the foundation Jesus Christ, now you who are building on it are building with material that is no good. It is incompatible with the foundation. It rots, it stinks, it will not hold. You don’t build a foundation made of the most precious material ever and then build the superstructure with hay and straw! That is ridiculous! That will fall over and collapse from even the slightest trials. So Paul says, watch out, you are warned, build carefully and build in concord with the foundation. Nothing else will do.
Second, each one’s work will be exposed by the Day and will be tested by the fire on the Day of Judgment (v.13).
The second manner in which Paul warns the builders is that a day of judgment is coming, and it will test everyone’s building, that is, how one has built, whether of perishable or imperishable materials. Paul begins by emphasizing the element of “exposure.” As “day” brings everything “to light,” so a great Day is lying before all, when everyone’s work will be exposed and seen from the divine perspective. This great “Day” Paul makes mention of is no different from the one mentioned in 1:8, it is the Day, the OT Day of the Lord, a Day, a time of ultimate divine justice. So this day will disclose, reveal, one’s workmanship for what it really is.
But the revelation of one’s workmanship is not Paul’s real concern with this imagery, so he quickly moves to an accompanying metaphor, “fire.” When the day of the Lord comes it will come with fire. The day reveals itself in fire. As we read in 2 Thess. 1:7-8, “the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven [coming] with his mighty angels in flaming fire, and unleashing vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. According to 2 Peter 3:12, the coming day of the God will set ablaze and dissolve the heavens, and elements will melt with fire. This idea of a fiery appearance of God on the day of judgment also appears in Isa. 66:15, “for the LORD will come in fire, …and his rebuke in flames of fire. What is the purpose of such fire? This fiery day will test each one’s work. What will be tested by the fire is one’s workmanship. It will judge the workers workmanship to see whether it is has been made of “quality” material.
The supreme test for a building in a city in Paul’s day was fire; the same is true for ministry, except that the fire is a divine fire of eschatological judgment. Its purpose in this context is not to punish, or to destroy, or to refine (don’t get me wrong, it will do that!!!), but in this context its purpose is to disclose the quality of the work of Christians. The fiery test will expose what has lasting value.
A Timeless Warning
This passage serves as a timeless warning.
This passage speaks sharply to me. As a servant leader, Paul is taking aim right at me. He has drawn back the bow and aimed right at my heart. He is saying to me, you watch out. You build carefully and wisely as a master builder. There is no place for complacency here. There is no time to be wasted. You choose your materials well. Nothing but your best will do. I will expose them and test them. Be warned.
Paul sees the day coming when the true nature of every Christian’s work in the building of the church will become manifest and be plain for all to see, because it will be revealed with fire. That fire will test what sort of work each has done, that is, its quality. It will not be a matter of how successful, or effective, or popular, or commended by men. The materials used will be exposed: will they turn out to be gold, silver and precious stones? Or will they actually be nothing but wood, hay, and straw? Will the work of Christians in Newberry prove to be what God has done by his Spirit, or what men have erected in their own resources, for their own benefit and glory? It is easy to cover up the materials of which a building is made, so that it looks sturdy as well as impressive. The day will disclose it.
Maybe you are sitting here thinking you are not responsible for the building of the church, you don’t need to concern yourself with this or be troubled over it. You are wrong. All who are believers in Christ are engaged in building up the church of Christ, whether you realize it or not, you are and you will be judged accordingly. You need to make doubly sure that the materials you are building with are worthy.
No doubt every Christian’s work is mixed in quality; no doubt we all shall have the awesome sadness of seeing much of our work burned up. This should inspire all Christians to take more thorough care how we are building.
Paul’s point is unquestionably warning. It is unfortunately possible for people to attempt to build the church out of every imaginable human system predicated on merely human wisdom, be it philosophy, “pop” psychology, managerial techniques, relations “good feelings,” or what have you. But at the final judgment, all such building (and perhaps countless other forms, where systems have become more important than the gospel itself) will be shown for what it is: something merely human, with no character of Christ or his gospel in it.
“This ought to be extremely sobering to all who are engaged in church ministry. It is possible to “build the church” with such shoddy materials that at the last day you have nothing to show for your labor. People may come, feel ‘helped,’ join in corporate worship, serve on committees, teach Sunday School classes, bring their friends, enjoy ‘fellowship,’ raise funds, participate in counseling sessions and self-help groups, but still not really know the Lord. If the church is being built with large portions of charm, personality, easy oratory, positive thinking, managerial skills, powerful and emotional experiences, and people-smarts, but without the repeated, passionate, Spirit-anointed proclamation of ‘Jesus Christ and him crucified,’ we may be winning more adherents than converts. Not for a moment am I suggesting that, say, managerial skills are unnecessary, or that basic people skills are merely optional. But the fundamental nonnegotiable, that without which the church is no longer the church, is the gospel, God’s ‘folly,’ Jesus Christ and him crucified. If we see this clearly, then many other things will fall into place. We will perceive that it is God’s revelation to us of his Son that is of paramount importance. Recognizing the need for the Spirit of God to illumine the minds of men and women who otherwise will not grasp the gospel, we will emphasize prayer. We will live and serve in the light of the final judgment, for we must give an account of our ministry. It is not that we shall refuse any practical help fom those who have something to say about technique or sociological profiles, rather, we will remain utterly committed to the centrality of the cross, not just at vague, theoretical levels, but in all our strategy and practical decisions. We will be fearful of adopting approaches that might empty the cross of Christ of its power, and the only approval we shall seek is his who tests the quality of each builder’s work on the last day” (Carson, 80, 81).
But the good news of the passage is that one does not need to build badly. That which has the character of the foundation, Jesus Christ crucified and risen, will not only survive any present hour of testing, but will enter the final judgment as a glorious church; and those responsible for such building will receive their due reward, which in itself is an expression of grace.
A Proper Reward (vv. 14-15)
Second, this passage does not teach the false doctrine of purgatory. Purgatory is a pernicious doctrine to the atonement of Jesus Christ.
This fire in
Discuss purgatory here
The manner in which the church walls are built up is by the preaching and teaching of God’s word, the preaching and teaching of doctrine, the preaching and teaching of Christian education. Stated in another way, the materials used to build the church are doctrine, theology, education. This is one of the primary functions of the church, Christian education. It is what the great commission is. We are to go and make disciples, teaching them all things. The church is to be the defender of truth and it must teach truth.
See DA CARson also. I want to create a problem for you. I wrestle with this often. It is not an easy thought and I want you to wrestle through it with me. It has to do with the theme of rewards. In 1 Corinthians 3:8 Paul said, “The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” IN 1 Corinthians 3:14 says, “If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.” This language teaches that appropriate pay will be given for appropriate labor. Now earlier in the message we talked about salvation as God’s gift of grace to us. We certainly don’t deserve to be cleansed of our sin and guilt before God. We were totally and thoroughly undeserving of such grace, nonetheless, God did so for those who believe. Here then is the dilemma in my mind. Scripture teaches I will receive appropriate pay for appropriate labor, how can this be reconciled with Scripture’s gospel of grace, God’s unmerited favor being lavished on the undeserving? How can grace receive pay? I am what I am because of the grace of God, I do what I do because of the grace of God, how can I receive pay for such? Do you see the dilemma? Do you see the difficulty in reconciling these two thoughts! How can grace receive pay? The answer is complex, since Paul is a complex man. But the solution is to be found in two directions. First, the reward is according to grace not according to obligation. Romans 4:4-5 bears this out. The reward is not deserved, even though it is according to works (based in part on what one has done); rather, the reward is part of the gift. A text that will help us I believe in Colossians 1:28-29, “28We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. 29To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” Paul in this verse says he labors, toils, works hard to a certain end, with all God’s energy, which so powerfully works in him. Paul labors hard and will be rewarded according to that labor but that labor is only possible by the grace of God and the power of God so in reality, the gift of reward is part of the gift of grace. So again, the reward is according to grace. Second, and very importantly, Paul stood just as firmly over against every form of libertinism and nonethical spirituality as he did against every form of legalism. Salvation is both now and not yet. What began in the present as gift is to be persevered in and thus consummated at the final glory, which is also a gift. IN other words, Paul does not support this idea of you can live willy nilly any way you want in Christ nor does he support legalism where you make a bunch of laws and rules for your life that you follow and somehow think you are better than everyone else because you do it and no one else does. So grace is both gift and responsibility. You have been given a great gift now you must live according to your gift of grace and God will reward you accordingly and that is a gift too. What a wondrous thought! You believe and that is because of God’s grace. You must persevere in this faith, that is, use the gift responsibly and that is by God’s grace. You will be rewarded according to your labor and that is God’s grace. What a wondrous, profound, complex truth in God’s Word.
The Day will expose all the workmanship and the fire will test it and God will reward it accordingly.
The two kinds of material listed in v. 12 serve as the points of reference. On the one hand, those who would build the church with “gold, silver, and precious stones” will see their work “survive” the test, and they will receive their reward. On the other hand, those who persist in building the church with “wood, hay, and straw” will see their work consumed and they themselves “will suffer loss” – although their loss, he is quick to qualify, does not refer to their salvation.
For those who build the church with imperishable materials of the gospel they will receive their “pay.” What is not known however is what the reward may be. The text only affirms the certainty of reward. It does not say what the reward is.
For those who persist in building the church with perishable materials they will suffer loss. Now I need to be clear here about this verse. What is revealed, tested, and ultimately burned up is the workmanship not the worker. The loss that is suffered by the worker is the loss of his perishable work. This is made clear by verse 15, “he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” This sentence is often seen as expressing a purifying element to judgment, and has served as the NT support for the concept of purgatory. But that is to miss Paul by a wide margin. This is a metaphor, pure and simple, probably reflecting something like Amos’s “firebrand plucked from the burning” (Amos 4:11). The implication is that the person persisting in his present course of “worldly wisdom” is in grave danger, and that he “will be pulled out of his rubble heap just in the nick of time” by the skin of his teeth.
Paul is not making a soteriological argument as he is warning his Corinthian friends. He expects these warnings to be taken seriously. Here the word of warning and the word of hope are one. He wants them to desist from their current worldly wisdom; he wants them, with him, to experience reward. But their current behavior is seriously wrong and misguided.
