Home For Glory

Built Together to Carry God’s Work

We’re in 1 Corinthians 3:10–16, and we’re going to read through that together.

Can I be honest? As I was preparing this message this week, I found myself thinking, “Lord, I believe we may be in danger here of preaching a message that a few people have heard before, and they may get bored hearing something they’ve already heard.” I was a little nervous about that.

But then I felt the Lord remind me that when we gather here on a Sunday, when we open the Scriptures to hear the Word and ask the Holy Spirit to minister to us and reveal what God wants to teach us, we’re not just doing that for us. Did you know that?

We’re not just here to build ourselves up, to build our own knowledge, our own understanding, and our own relationship with God. That is super important, and it is one of the things we’re here to do. But we’re also here to be built up, encouraged, taught, and empowered so that we can go into the world and take what God gives us here and carry it with us wherever we go.

So this morning, as we read through the Scripture, if you find yourself thinking, “Yeah, I’ve heard this before,” good. That’s good news, because it means the Lord intends for you to take this and bring it with you into your week.

You’re hearing for you, and you’re hearing for others.

All right, let’s go.

Building Wisely on Christ the Foundation

In 1 Corinthians 3:10–16, Paul is talking about construction—about how to build a building. It’s amazing that the principles he describes there really haven’t changed much in 2,000 years. The same key elements still determine whether a building is going to stand or fail, whether it will be good and lasting, or weak and temporary.

The first thing we see is foundations. Paul writes, “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.”

The first thing that goes in when constructing a building is the foundation. It’s the thing on which everything else is built. We all know that, right? And we know that if the foundation isn’t right, then nothing else is going to go well. Without strong foundations, over time walls crack, structures shift, pressure comes, and it exposes weaknesses. Eventually bad things happen: instability, constant repair, even collapse. Storms don’t destroy buildings; weak foundations do.

So that’s the first thing: foundations.

The second thing Paul talks about is found in verse 12: “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.”

Here Paul is talking about materials—the building materials we use—and they are incredibly important. No one is putting up an office block out of paper and cardboard. There’s a reason for that. The materials determine the strength, the durability, the safety and even the value of the building.

It’s not the nice-looking bits on the surface that really matter, but the quality of the material underneath. St Paul’s Cathedral is still standing, not because of the gold leaf or the decorative finishes. Those things are beautiful, but they’re not the reason it remains. It stands because it is built out of solid materials on a firm foundation. It’s been built to last.

Two buildings can look the same from the outside, but if one is built with cheap materials and one with proper, good-quality materials, one will last and one will not.

Testing the Integrity of Our Spiritual House

Now, the third thing that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 3 is testing. He says, “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’s burned up, the builder will suffer loss.”

Buildings face forces, don’t they? They face opposition. They don’t stand in isolation or in a vacuum. They face weather. They face wind, they face rain, sometimes they face fire. Even the passing of time is a force that acts against a building, slowly deteriorating it. These external pressures reveal the integrity of a building, don’t they? They reveal how good that building actually is—not how good it claims to be by looking pretty, but what it’s actually built with. Does it stand up? Does it take the pressure that will come over time?

So Paul’s talk of buildings is fairly obvious, isn’t it? Everything we’ve read so far is fairly obvious as it pertains to buildings, even to those of us who aren’t in construction.

We’re buying a building at the moment, which is super exciting. I’m really excited about it, but I’m also nervous. I was talking to someone on the team about the potential timescales of the acquisition, and it made me really nervous. I said, “I’ll tell you, but you can’t hold us to this, all right?” He said, “Well, you know what? It could well be that, because everything’s done—we’ve got all the surveys, all the paperwork—we could get the keys this month.”

Now again, don’t hold us to that, because we’re still subject to solicitors, and they like to take their time, don’t they? It seems to take a long time to cross a “t” and dot an “i”. Anyway, when he said that, I thought, “I’m not sure I’m ready for keys. Are we ready for keys in March?” Some of you are—some of you can take the keys. Very good.

We’re buying this building at the moment, and we’ve had the building checked by surveyors. Are the foundations good? Are the building materials good? Is it strong? Will it last? Are they durable? Is it safe? We get these surveyors in to check the whole thing because we want to make sure it’s good. No one wants to live in a home that’s unsafe. No one wants to go to a church that might fall down either. When we’re thinking about building or buying a building, we need to ensure the construction is sound.

If we read on in 1 Corinthians 3 and get to verse 16, something changes, and we start to understand more clearly what Paul is talking about. In verse 16 he writes, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”

Paul reveals in this verse that everything we’ve just been talking about—foundations, materials, testing—actually, he isn’t talking about a physical building. Paul is talking about us. He’s talking about the construction of us, the construction of our lives. Everything he’s just said is about us.

And so I think we should go back and reread 1 Corinthians 3 with a fresh understanding of what Paul is actually talking about. Is that all right?

Humanity’s Separation From a Holy God

Firstly, a brief history of the proximity between God and creation. We’ve just read this verse that says that you and I, that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, temples of God. That sounds strange when you first hear it, doesn’t it? Because when you picture a temple, you think of a pointy tower, a big structure made of stone. And you think, “Well, I’m not that. I’m a person with flesh and blood.” So it can feel odd to say such a thing.

So it’s important for us to understand a bit of the history of the closeness between God and us. In the very beginning, at the beginning of time, and we can read this in Genesis chapters 1 to 3—the beginning of our relationship with God—humanity dwelt with God in the Garden of Eden. We read that we walked with God in the cool of the garden. We walked alongside Him. We were close to Him, in communion and relationship. It was so good. It was how it was designed to be. We were close and walked along with God.

But then sin crept in. We were tempted by the devil in the Garden of Eden. You know the story: there’s a serpent, there’s fruit, and from that point on, it all went downhill. Sin is simply the word we use to describe when we disobey God. It first happened in the Garden of Eden, and from that moment it created a separation between God and humanity. We were no longer able to walk alongside God in the same way.

Why? Because God is a just and holy God and cannot walk alongside an unjust and unholy people. So there was a separation.

From there, as we read through the Old Testament—which follows the story of God’s people—we see various ways in which the Lord drew nearer to His people. Firstly in the Ark of the Covenant. Think of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark—not particularly accurate, but you get the picture. God’s presence was said to dwell with His people in this structure, this box called the Ark of the Covenant, which was carried around with them.

Following that, they constructed the tabernacle, which was like a large tent. Not a little camping tent, but a big, portable sanctuary. They would set it up, then take it down when they moved on, because they were a nomadic people. The presence of God dwelt in the tabernacle.

Eventually, when they came to Jerusalem, they constructed the first temple—a permanent version of the tabernacle on the mount in Jerusalem. That became the dwelling place of God. Behind the curtain, in the Holy of Holies, was the presence of God.

But all this time there remained a separation between humanity and God. That’s the key point: there was still a distance. The presence of God was distinct, separate from the people of God. It was in a box, behind a curtain, in a tent, in a temple. There was a separation between the presence of God and the people of God. Because, as I’ve said, how can such a holy, perfect, and just God be any closer to a people who are unholy, unjust, and unrighteous?

Now, the wonderful thing is that God Himself hated this separation. Think back to the Garden of Eden, where God created everything to be perfect, where humanity walked with God in the cool of the evening. That’s how God wanted it to be. And He hated that it was no longer like that.

So He took it upon Himself to rectify the situation. This is incredible, church: God chose to do something that would deal with sin, to deal with the very thing that separates us from Him.

Building Life on Reconciliation with God

And so he took it upon himself – Jesus on the cross. Wow. He took on the price of sin and shame for all of us, for all people, for all time, forever.

And since that point, church, hallelujah, the separation, the gap between us and God, is closed. Praise be to God. The sin that was there no longer separates us. Why? Because Jesus has dealt with it. Because Jesus has dealt with sin, there is no longer any need for the gap, for the separation.

So much so that the presence of God no longer dwells in a box or in a tent or in a temple, but the Spirit of God, the presence of God, dwells inside us. Isn’t that amazing? That’s incredible. Thanks be to God.

That’s what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And here’s what it means for us: all the construction principles that Paul has talked about – foundations, materials, testing – they all apply to the construction of our lives. They apply to us as people.

So, as I say, we’ll reread the passage with that context in mind, and we’ll try to see what it means for us.

Building on the Foundation of Christ

Are you ready to go back? I need a bit more from you, church, because I’m feeling like you’re not really with me. Someone say, “I’m ready to go back.” So good.

Now, 1 Corinthians 3:10–11: “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.”

A few things here. First, notice what Paul says: “I laid a foundation as a wise builder.” Paul laid the foundation. This is really important for us to understand and acknowledge—that the laying of the foundation in our lives is an active and intentional decision that we make.

For Jesus to be the foundation of our lives, as Paul writes, is something we must decide to do. It doesn’t happen for us. It doesn’t happen in spite of us. It happens by us. It’s our decision. It’s our intention. We have a choice to make about the foundational principles, values, morality, and ideology that we build our lives on. It’s intentional.

Last week we read that we are created, called, and commissioned for the purpose of bringing glory to God. But we must understand that we can easily just ignore that. We can say, “No, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to live my life in a way that brings glory to God. I want to live my life pursuing my own ideas and my own way.” That’s easy. That’s possible. In fact, most people do that.

So it is an intentional decision for us to build a foundation that is on Christ.

Then Paul goes on and says that “someone else is building on it.” Paul laid the foundation; someone else is building on it. What’s being described here is a bit strange in our current context. It’s this idea that the building of your life is a communal endeavor.

The building of your life is a communal endeavor. This runs against modernity and individualism, but Paul is talking about iron sharpening iron. He’s talking about building one another up, encouraging one another in the faith. The life that you’re constructing is not meant to be built by you alone, but by those around you—by your brothers and sisters in Christ, alongside you on the journey.

And likewise, you are building and contributing to the building of other people’s lives. This is called discipleship: where we build one another up, where we encourage one another. The construction of our lives is not just for us as individuals, but for us as a church, as a community of believers.

Paul then says that we should “build with care.” We should build with care, because allowing people into the construction project that is our lives is a significant thing, isn’t it? That opens us up to be vulnerable. To allow people to speak into our lives, to allow people in on that project, to help build and shape us—that puts us in a vulnerable place.

So we should ensure that people are building into our lives with care. And just as we should ensure that, we must also ensure that the lives we are helping to build in Christ, on Christ, we do so with care—to build one another up, always pursuing a Christ-filled life for other people. That’s what we’re called to do.

Then Paul reveals, of course, that the foundation is Jesus Christ. The foundation is Jesus Christ. We can build our lives on all sorts of things, can’t we? As the founding principle of your life, you can choose almost anything: the pursuit of success, the pursuit of relationships, the pursuit of wealth, property, comfort, whatever it might be.

Now, these things are not bad in themselves. Comfort isn’t bad. Money’s not bad. Relationships aren’t bad. Happiness isn’t bad. None of these things are bad. They can all support parts of life, but they cannot support all of life. They can’t support the whole of your life.

Only Jesus Christ can hold the full weight of your life.

Christ as our foundation means our identity is rooted in him, our truth is defined by him, our obedience is shaped by him, and our direction is led by him. This is what it means to build our life on Christ.

Jesus himself speaks into the importance of foundation in Matthew 7: “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that

Obedience to Christ Above Culture

This is what it means to build our lives on Christ.

But Jesus actually goes even further and specifies what that foundation really is. Not only is Christ Himself our ultimate foundation, but a significant part of that foundation is specifically obedience to His Word. Putting the Word of God into practice is the solid foundation. It is the rock on which we build. It is what separates the wise from the foolish. Those are the words of Jesus, not mine.

Can I bring a moment of challenge? Because I believe we should all be challenged.

When we talk about the words of Christ, the principles of Christ, the things Jesus says, the easy ones are easy. Love your neighbour. Be a peacemaker. Build people up. We don’t really have a problem with those, do we? They’re really nice, they feel good, and they don’t particularly go against the grain of the world. They might not be especially prominent in the culture around us, but they don’t usually cause offence. They fit quite neatly.

So I want to challenge us that perhaps, at times, we’re not actually obeying Christ, we’re just obeying culture.

Because the tricky ones are tricky. Maintain sexual purity – tricky. Resist lust – tricky. Bless those who curse you – tricky. Deny yourself, die to self – tricky. Don’t try to serve both God and money – tricky. The easy ones are easy; the tricky ones are tricky. That’s how it works.

And yet, these “tricky” teachings of Jesus still demand our obedience. Obedience to Christ – not just in the easy things, but in the difficult, costly things – is the foundation on which we build our lives.

Happy with that? You say that now. All right, let’s move on.

The Eternal Materials of a Faithful Life

In 1 Corinthians 3:12, after Paul talks about foundations, he goes on to say, “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.”

Just like with the construction of a building, the materials we use to build our lives matter greatly.

Who’s heard the story of the Three Little Pigs? I’m not going to base any theology on that—I was just interested! But it does give us a picture: everything we build, as it pertains to our lives, will be tested by the flame. Most of it will go up in smoke.

When we think about our money, our property, our career, our social media presence, our status, our appearance—so much of what we build is based on ego and self, on what we present to the world. It’s all temporary. It’s all temporary stuff.

The building materials that carry eternal weight are things like obedience, holiness, faithfulness, generosity. In fact, there’s a passage in 2 Peter 1 where Peter gives us an outline of construction. He says:

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.”

These are examples of the building materials we add to the construction project that is our life—materials of eternal significance, that carry eternal weight, that, when tested by the flame, don’t burn.

We can build busy lives, can’t we? We know it’s easy to build busy lives. We can build impressive-looking lives. We can build super impressive-looking lives—like the gold leaf in St Paul’s Cathedral. But unless all of that is attached to a solid construction, it will fail. It will fail.

Building Life on a Worthy Foundation

Perhaps this is a challenge for some of us this morning – and I think it should be: what are you building your life with? Not just, “What are you building it on?” but, “What are you building it with?”

What sort of things are you adding to your life? What sort of questions or pursuits do you find yourself thinking about? Is it things like, “I’d really like to look better in the mirror. I’d really like my social media posts to get more likes. I’d really like to increase my wealth portfolio. I’d really like to improve my image by getting a new car – I think that’d be good.” It’s all very nice, it’s all very flashy. It’s not that these things are bad, but they’re temporary. They’re temporary.

How about, “I’d really like to understand the Word of God better. I’d really like to know God more. I’d really like to be a more faithful child of God. I’d really like to be a more patient person. I’d really like to be someone who helps other people on their walk with Christ.” These are the things we can add to our lives that are of good substance, of good stock.

We’re all building our lives, and that’s an important thing to know. Go back to the start: there’s a decision to make, isn’t there? This is our choice. We’re all building our lives, and we get to choose the foundation and the materials. That’s good.

The Testing of Our Earthly Works

From verse 13, Paul begins to talk about testing. He says this:

“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, yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”

This is such an interesting piece of Scripture. Every life will be tested. Our lives are tested here on earth, and they will also be tested in eternity.

We all have that cultural image of the pearly gates with St Peter and his big book. Maybe that’s from The Simpsons for some of us. It probably won’t be like that, but there is a throne room, and there is judgment. Every life will be tested.

We need to know that all people are not treated the same. This is why this passage is so striking. Heaven has no “equality of outcome” program. It doesn’t. People aren’t all treated the same. People don’t all receive the same in heaven. Our experience of heaven will vary, and it is dependent on how well we live our lives on earth now. It really is.

In Matthew 6:19, Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But…”—what?—“store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” So there are treasures in heaven, and it is incumbent on us to store them up.

There’s not only a warning there to not fix our focus on earthly things; there’s also an acknowledgment that the treasure we experience in heaven is, in some sense, determined by us.

In Matthew 25, in the parable of the talents, Jesus says, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” What we receive directly correlates to what we have been faithful with. Does that make sense?

And then, back in our passage today in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul writes, “If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved.” What’s Paul saying there? He’s saying that some people will get to heaven by the skin of their teeth. They will still receive salvation—which is good news. Amen. We’re still saved from an eternity without God. We’re still saved from an eternity in hell, thanks be to the Lord.

But for some, it will be only just. Only just. By the skin of their teeth. That’s interesting, isn’t it? Are you sure you’re comfortable with that?

The Testing and Reward of Our Lives

There is a testing that will test the stuff of our lives, and it will determine our experience of heaven. It really will. Most of the things that the world and the culture value will be burnt up in the flames, because the Lord doesn’t care about those things. They don’t add to our lives for heaven in any eternal way.

But even before we get to heaven, the quality of the materials we use to build our lives affects our experience here on earth, doesn’t it? Our lives are tested all the time. We constantly face some degree of pressure: suffering, disappointment, temptation, loss. These things come. We face these pressures. We face these tests all the time.

That testing reveals not only the foundation on which our lives are built, but also the materials we’ve used to build with. A life built on Christ, in obedience to Him, with eternal materials, is strong. It’s a strong life, able to endure trials, opposition, hardship—these tests that come, thanks be to God.

So we all have choices to make, don’t we? I love a sermon with a challenge. And frankly, that’s most of the time when I preach, because if we just open the Scripture, read some nice words, and we don’t allow and ask the Holy Spirit to come and convict our hearts—if we walk out that door the same way we came in, without having received ministry from the Holy Spirit, without having received something that challenges us to do better—then we’ve missed something.

This Bible talks about going from one degree of glory to the next, not staying where we are, but always becoming more and more like Jesus. So if we don’t receive challenge from the Spirit, if we don’t receive challenge from the Word of God, then I believe we’re missing the point. Don’t you?

All right. So good. I’m glad you agree. We’ll see how many people come back next week.

Living as the Temple of God

We're all building our lives, and we all have choices to make. This final challenge should leave us with a level of motivation.

In verse 16, Paul writes, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” What we are building is the place where God dwells: our lives.

Here’s the challenge—this one might stick: are our lives worthy of being a dwelling place of the presence of God?

There are three answers to this.

The first is: no. No way. Not with my sin, not with my shame, not with my behaviour, not with my thoughts. No.

The second answer is this: of course. By the grace of Jesus Christ, by His cleansing power on the cross, by His grace, by His mercy, by what He has achieved for me on my behalf, I am made worthy in Christ to be a dwelling place of God.

And then the third, which is where Paul brings us, is that both are true. In my own nature, I am not worthy to be a dwelling place of the presence of God. But because of Christ, I am most worthy.

That both inspires and encourages me, but it also convicts me to try to change my nature to match His. This is the journey that we’re all on—knowing that I’ll never fully attain what it is to be fully Christlike in my own strength. But that’s okay, because Christ does it on my behalf. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.

But it shouldn’t stop me from trying. It shouldn’t stop me from storing up treasure in heaven, from building on Christ with my obedience to Christ as my foundation, and with the materials that actually count. This is the journey that we’re on, and it’s a long one, isn’t it? It’s a lifetime. And it’s the best journey we could be on: to become more and more like Christ, to experience more and more of Him.

I was thinking this week about all the stuff that’s going on in the world. The world is a messed-up place, and it seems to be becoming more and more messed up as time goes on. I think I said this last week as well: it’s not actually true to say that the world needs Jesus now more than ever. Theologically speaking, that isn’t true. The world has always needed all of Jesus, all the time. But it does seem, from our human perspective, that the world needs Jesus now more than ever.

So it makes me think. Because the world needs Jesus, it is such a good thing that you and I are temples of the presence of God. Here’s why: because the world needs Jesus, and rather than us needing to try and strong-arm people into coming to church—“Hey, you need to come to church because you’ll encounter the presence of God, it’s going to be amazing, it’s going to change your life”—rather than trying to convince people to come to a building to experience the presence of God, we carry the presence of God with us wherever we go. We take Jesus to them.

Isn’t that amazing?

But it puts something on us. It gives us a level of responsibility and honour. The question is: are you willing to accept that responsibility, to take Christ Jesus, the presence of God, with you wherever you go?