For an audio copy of this message, go to www.LivingWatersWeb.com and search for 2003-017.
When I was a high school student I admit I didn’t understand wood shop. I just didn’t get why it was so important to build a bird house in just the prescribed manner. I didn’t care much about building at all. I would slap stuff together that seemed to get the job done at the time. It wasn’t until much later, after I actually did work on my own home – that I learned the value of being a good builder. This became especially important when I discovered that I would still be relying on my construction projects a decade after they were completed – I am ashamed to admit – some of them didn’t last the test of time.
So today we come to the question – when it comes to construction projects in your life – what kind of a builder are you – the sloppy, finish quickly, don’t worry about the long term kind – or what I call the heroic builder?
Paul finishes Chapter 2 by saying “But we have the mind of Christ.” God has revealed to us things by His Spirit that the world doesn’t understand. But that doesn’t mean that all Christians understand those things in the same way – and not all Christians are building the same way as they serve God. That was one of the big problems in Corinth.
Remember the main themes of the book: Immaturity, carnality, and a world view that was ascetic or hedonistic – overly rule-oriented or overly sin-oriented. Immaturity is the breeding ground of it all. If you don’t grow in knowledge and faith, then you fill in the blanks – and that’s what led to the divisions that racked the church – and still do to this day. And Paul takes them to task – after showing them that they had access to the spiritual truths of God’s own Spirit – not available to the world – he slams them for taking on the world’s attitudes instead of God’s.
1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?
Being in “infant” in Christ is okay. There is so much love and sincerity about a new believer – whose sins are washed away in Jesus. I remember how excited I was as a new Christian – the excitement and zeal –its wonderful. I didn’t understand many of the deep things of God, only the basics. I drank up the “milk” of the Word – learning about Jesus, stories from other believers of the great things God had done – but I knew practically nothing about theology – the “why” behind what I had experienced.
I remember when we had kids – and first they drank just milk, then we mushed up carrots and stuff for them – it was practically pre-digested. I never thought of giving them a big juicy steak – they’d choke on it. So too with young believers – they need the simple truths of God’s love – sort of predigested.
It’s after we have been in Christ for a while that He begins showing us freedom not only from sin, but also freedom from the flesh. We discover that God is in the transformation business – the more we understand Him the more we cede our lives and our will to Him.
But we have a choice as a Christian – we can live by the Spirit – or we can continue to live in our carnal nature. It’s a fight – the Spirit against the flesh. Listen to what Paul wrote in Romans 8:5-8
5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
If we let the flesh control our thoughts, desires, and actions – then we are a carnal Christian – saved, yes, but not pleasing God. To go to the next level we need to start letting go of the flesh and start taking on solid food. Milk is only a perfect food for babies. Try just drinking milk your whole life!
What happens spiritually is that if we don’t grow then the attitudes of the flesh continue to control how we act in the church. We would really think there was something wrong if I came to church wearing a bib and babbling and playing like a baby – but that’s exactly what the Corinthian Christians were doing spiritually – acting like babies – totally selfish, demanding their way, attached to certain people exclusively.
Its this tendency that Paul focuses on in two major areas: Building Bad Buildings, and Destroying Good Buildings.
5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe-as the Lord has assigned to each his task.
We feel so much appreciation for those who brought us to Christ – and those who helped us along in our early years – but we’ve got to remember who really saved us – Jesus. Paul, Apollos, and anyone else are only servants. Recently I heard the story of a young woman rescued from her Iraqi captors by Navy S.E.A.L.S. As heroic as that action was – the soldier’s brother – also in the military – said “they were just doing their job.”
6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
I might tell you about how I love Jesus, or you might see me reading my Bible – then later someone else answers a question about who this Jesus is – and someone else might urge you to accept Jesus – we are all working, doing our jobs, but it is God who brings about the salvation, and the growth.
7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
See, one of the things that happens is we form teams. We start competing to see who gets the most converts or who has the biggest attendance or who has the fanciest building or most radio stations – or whatever. We forget that we are all on the same team – we have “one purpose”. I think it’s a great ploy of the enemy to have us focusing on each other and then we forget about our real goal of working together.
Competition leads eventually to division – which harms the ultimate work. I know Christians who are working hard – but what are they building?
10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
I guess it should be obvious that Jesus should be the foundation – but you’d be surprised how many build on other foundations and call themselves Christians – Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses – and other cults.
But look what Paul says: “each one should be careful how he builds.” What we do in the lives of other people builds – it either builds good things or it builds bad things. When we hurt other people, cause them to sin, run them down or judge them based on carnality – or pick sides and cause division – we are building, but its not good stuff.
12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his 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 man’s work.
What happens when you apply fire to gold, silver, or stone – not much. But fire applied to wood, hay, or straw burns quick and thoroughly. There’s a day coming – the Bible refers to it as the Judgment Seat of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
This doesn’t mean that we will be condemned – but it means we will give an account for what we’ve done. Jesus will perform an audit of your life. He’ll take a look at what you built into the lives of others.
14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
The things that survive will be the things that built up others in Christ – prayers, encouragements, verses, good deeds, sacrifices – again, not to make us look good – but part of doing our job heroically for Christ.
A lot of ministries today are not using good building materials – they instead use gimmicks and worldly techniques to build buildings and empires – we should be people builders, not empire builders.
Its quite possible that some will get to the judgment seat of Christ and they’ll present this grand ministry – look what a powerful prayer warrior I was, look at the giant ministry campus I built, look at the millions of dollars given – and then they’ll watch in horror as the whole thing goes up in flames. They still have their salvation, but not much else.
So how do we avoid this? It’s the message of Corinth:
1. Make sure you are growing, personally
2. Don’t join competing teams but work together to
3. Do the work of seeing others grow in Christ
So at the end here Paul changes focus from building – how its done, for what purpose – to those that seek to demolish the church.
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
The “you”s in this verse are all plural – so Paul is referring primarily to the church, using the metaphor of the temple. Given this, verse 17 takes on a whole new meaning. Those that try to destroy the church will be “utterly condemned” or “destroyed” by God.
Interestingly, the first word “destroys” can have three meanings: "corrupt (morally)," "ruin (financially)," or "seduce (sexually)."
So think about things you’ve seen introduced into the church – moral corruption and sin, financial ruin as churches focus on money – or pry so much money from their people that it ruins them – and even seduction into spiritual adultery with other doctrines and heresies.
The end of verse 17 really could be translated: “God’s temple belongs to Him, and you individually make up that temple.”
So we need to take care in how we build the church, and that we don’t end up taking a wrecking ball to it because the consequences are pretty dire.
This ought to lead us to a different attitude about ourselves and our place in this construction project:
18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise.
There are plenty of people out there who will tell you they know how to solve your problems – go to this seminar, read this book by the latest corporate guru – grow the church by having snappy special events and gimmicks – and that the way to get ahead is to find somebody powerful and promote them over everyone else.
Paul says – if you think that’s the way God is building His church, you are wrong. We need to have a new paradigm, a new way of thinking – of sacrifice in front of self, of building others, of not getting our way.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.
Here’s another verse to tattoo on your arm – or at least underline your Bible.
As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness";
This comes from Job 5:13 – a great example of a bunch of guys who surround a person suffering and come up with the biggest bunch of hooey this side of the Jordan to explain what God is like and what He’s up to. God gave those guys a real talking to at the end of the book.
20 and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."
This comes from Psalm 94:11 – both Job and this Psalm are great supplementary reading assignments to 1 Corinthians 3.
21 So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future-all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
Paul ends by turning the Corinthian’s argument upside down – they were taking sides with a leader, belonging to that leader – but Paul says those leaders, and everything else – actually belongs to them – as you belong to Jesus Christ who belongs to the Father.
Folks, we’ve got everything we need in Christ – we don’t need to invent a bunch of stuff – but if we focus on “Christ, and Him crucified” – share the gospel, and seek to humble ourselves and build others up – God will come through big time and work through us.
Conclusion
1. What are you building on your life?
We talk about building others – but what about your job site? What are you exposed to – what’s getting glommed on to your life? If it’s stuff you know isn’t healthy then you’re building with wood, hay, and straw – kindling for later on.
Instead, are you experiencing good stuff? Of course its good to read the Bible, pray, worship, fellowship with other believers – but its also good to build into yourself the thinking and ideas of other Christians who help us draw closer to Him – C.S. Lewis, Eugene Peterson and many others.
2. What kind of construction worker are you?
It’s good to think about – are you “just putting in your time” as a Christian – or are you “trying to see what you can get out of it” as a worker? Let’s be “heroic workers” like Paul – an “expert builder” who loved to see people grow in Christ.
