“True Faith, True Reward”

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:10-23

Last week, we briefly touched on the analogy of the church as a building that is continuously under construction. Always growing, always changing, never quite finished, taking on new attributes and new forms every day.
I remember, to some degree, when my parents’ house was being built. I was only 5-6 years old, but I got to take the first shovel full of dirt from the ground, and then was assigned to sit at my grandparent’s kitchen table to watch, which, by the way, kept me out of the way of the carpenters. The process began with a great big hole in the ground, and slowly grew to be a two story Dutch colonial.
But the process didn’t end when the physical construction was complete. The "house" was ready, but it still had to become a “home”, and that required the addition of our family. And even that grew a little more after we had moved in.
The church building, the structure that we worship within today, isn’t the Body of Christ anymore than the house that I watched being built could be called a home. But each of them – the Church of Jesus Christ and the home that I grew up in - needed a solid footing and proper construction techniques if it was to become the warm, welcoming, nurturing, enduring place where our family grew.

Read 1 Corinthians 3:10-13

We need to be careful how we build. Paul gives us 2 caveats – the first is the foundation itself, and the second is how we build on that foundation.
He tells us that the only foundation worthy of the Church is Jesus Himself. Now at first glance, that may seem like a pretty basic truth, but consider the full extent of that thought. It doesn’t mean that we build on the image of Christ! It means that the Church is to be based on the life and teachings and character and heart of Jesus, not on just some esoteric thought. It doesn’t mean that the Church simply proclaims Jesus as Lord and Savior, even though that is a vital component of the Church, but that we must go far beyond that level, that we must “think” Jesus, “live” Jesus, “love” Jesus, “share” Jesus, “see” Jesus in all that we do, and others must come to “know” the complete Jesus through us. That is the foundation that Paul is talking about.
And the apostle also writes that not only is the foundation important, but the structure that is built upon that basis is also vitally important. The items that he mentions range from those that are extremely costly, to those that are about as base as you will ever find. The common aspect, though, is that all of them are of the world, and not one of them has one iota of spirituality in them. Gold and Silver and precious gems are nice to look at, but they can never keep their luster. They will soon tarnish, and not one of them will ever save a single soul. Wood, hay and straw are inexpensive and hold no pretense, but they, too, have no lasting quality, and will soon fail to support the structure. These materials may pass limited tests as specified by the world, but they can never survive the test of Judgment and they can never combine to convert the “physical house” into a “spiritual home”.

Why was Paul offering these thoughts to the church? It would appear that they were starting to interject other thought into their faith – Greek philosophy, worldly and pagan worship, legalism, and countless other unchristian ideals. He knew that they had to let go of those ideas, and get back to the truth of Jesus Christ.

Read 1 Corinthians 3:14-17

The faith that was beginning to immerge in Corinth had no Spirit. It may have been growing in numbers, but it was not growing, in any way, shape or form, in the Spirit of God. The Lord has no use whatsoever for physical dwellings. He could care less if our church building is 10 years old or 150 years old; whether it is make of exotic woods and inlaid marble, or if it is a grass shack in the middle of the jungle; whether it is an ornate cathedral or a humble 1 room cabin.
And He is equally unimpressed if the congregation numbers in the hundreds and thousands but without His Spirit being at the center of their ministry. The one thing that pleases the Lord is the quality of the heart that lives and grows within each person.
For centuries, Israel had seen, first the Tabernacle and then the Temple, as the House of God. The Spirit was contained in the Ark of the Covenant because, after all, didn’t even God need a nice place to live? Even today, we refer to our church building in the same way – God’s House, and many seem content to keep God safely warehoused there for six days until we return to worship Him on the seventh. But in Ezekiel 10:18, we read “Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim.” And in the very next chapter, we read of Ezekiel being lifted up by the Spirit and that the Spirit came upon him and spoke to him. Ezekiel was in Babylon, not Jerusalem! The Spirit of God had “left the building”, and had gone to live and work directly within humanity!

Verse 16 – “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” We are the temple of God, the house of God, the hands and voice and heart of the Spirit of God! The Glory left the temple in order to be with the people while they were in exile, or more properly, because they were in exile. They had to live in banishment for 70 years, but they would not have to endure it alone. The Lord would be with them and in them, His new temple, throughout their ordeal. And that very same Spirit lives within each of us, in good times and in bad, in our faithful moments and in our sinful days. The new temple lives, and the Sacred Glory of God lives with us.
The Glory of Christ is our foundation, and in that, our many lives become the Church.

Read 1 Corinthians 3:18-23

Remember a few weeks ago, when we were in chapter 1, with its many references to the “foolishness” that is assigned to the Church by those who are immersed in the world?
1:18 – “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing”
1:23 – “We preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks”
1:25 – “The foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”
Paul tells us that we shouldn’t reject this concept of foolishness, but instead, should claim it! We are to become a “fool” in the world so that we might then become wise in God. With that rationale, no wonder the world thinks we’re strange! It makes no sense, has no logic! But the truth of this is so simple. We are to let go of the wisdom that comes from the world – to become foolish and empty – so that the wisdom, the truth, the holiness of God might fill us. We must always remember that the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God cannot co-exist. We can use the abilities, the knowledge, that our human self has gained, but never as the means to personal greatness or perfection in this life. Homiletics comments on Matthew 5:17-20 with these words - “Being perfect is not moral perfection, but serving God wholeheartedly.”

We must use the gifts that are exhibited in our human existence to serve the Lord with all our heart and soul and strength. And this service, to be truly of His Church, must always be in the unity of Christ. Boasting is specifically called out by Paul as a divisive characteristic, that it will destroy the Church’s unity in the blink of an eye. And he continues to tell us that infighting makes no sense whatsoever, because we already have everything that we could ever want! Whether it is our favorite teachers or our favorite teaching, whether it is the things of today or those of the future, whether it is life now or life eternal – we already have everything of value! But unless we are working together in Christ, it becomes a moot point. The building that is our life can be glamorous and greatly admired by all, but without the true Foundation, it is destined for a fall and can have no lasting significance.

An observer asked [the great Presbyterian preacher] Lyman Beecher how it was that he had so many converts. Dr. Beecher answered, “I preach on Sunday and I have 400 members who preach every day, and that is the way, with the blessing of God, that we are doing so well.”
--William R. Key, The 'What Is' and 'How- To' of Evangelism, The Foundation for Evangelism Web Site, www.evangelize.org/articles/article22.htm, July 6, 1999.

Carrying the foundational message of Christ in a wholehearted manner, as the unified Body of Christ and the living temple for the Spirit of God. The promise is sure – that we are of Christ and Christ is of God. And without that assurance, without that direction, without that hope, there is no life, regardless of how wonderfully the church may appear to the world. Glory surrounds the faithful, and Christ is the Glory.
Can it possibly get any better than that?