GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
1 CORINTHIANS 3:12-13
12 But if anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 each man’s work will be brought out into the open, 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.
The various ministers of the church build on the foundation of Christ, but Paul wants those ministers to realize that the material they choose to build with matters a great deal. Paul lists six materials, lined up in Greek without any connections or conjunctions, just one after another. There are at least three ways of looking at this list, but there will still be a question about what the list means.
1, First, we might consider each material individually.
2, Second, we might put the materials into three groups:
a, Unusual building material (gold and silver)
b, Usual building material (costly stone and wood)
c, Useless building material (hay and straw)
3, Third, we might just take them in two groups: costly things that do not burn (gold, silver, stone) and cheap things that do indeed burn (wood, hay, or straw).
The first way of grouping might lend itself to judging the members of the church: some gold, some silver, and so on. Daniel does this with kingdoms in his book (Daniel 2:37-42). But ministers (the builders in Paul’s illustration) will not be judged by the faith of their members nor the size of their congregations, but on the basis of their own faith.
The second way of grouping the materials appeals to the modern mind, especially to anyone who is or has worked in the building trades. But this loses sight of verse 13, where everything is tested by fire in the end, on the great Day of the Lord which is judgment day.
At this point, we need to re-group and reconsider the list. All six materials could be used for building. Straw and hay were used in making the temporary sukka or huts for the Feast of the Tabernacles, and compare to structures such as duck blinds or the cardboard boxes that the homeless sometimes resort to today. But who would ever build a useful home out of gold, or silver for that matter? Yet in the list these are clearly meant to be seen as the best materials.
The third suggestion for groups, non-flammable vs. flammable, seems to be the one we are meant to seriously consider in view of verse 13 and the inevitably approaching fire of judgment day. Therefore, while all are (1) building materials, (2) different in human value, (3) different in their flammable quality regarding ordinary fire, it is finally (4) their true resistance to the flames of judgment day that matters. In fact, this is the only quality that really matters at all. Therefore, the point of comparison must be to what a minister builds with, which is doctrine.
Our doctrine must be in line with the foundation, which is Christ. If anyone sets up perishable doctrines that seem like they are based on Christ but which won’t stand up on judgment day, then those are wood, hay or straw. We don’t need to spend time debating which ones are which (meaning whether wood or straw) since anything that doesn’t compare with Scripture will burn. These are the doctrines of the churches that want us to unite with non-Christians and say that they can get to heaven if their pagan worship is pure, or teach the ordination of women pastors, the acceptance of homosexuals as if Sodom and Gomorrah have no lessons to teach, and so on. But there are worse offenses in the churches, and those involve denying the deity of Christ, the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, the reduction of baptism to a mere memorial or dedication, the lie of Purgatory, the claim that ancient church councils or current spiritual leaders can say things on the same level as Scripture (or even greater than Scripture), and similar things. All of these cannot hope to stand up to the fire that our Judge will bring.
Finally, a warning about doctrine and the Holy Scriptures in general comes from Professor Koehler: It is a wrong and sinful use of the Bible when we quote Scripture to defend false doctrine and a wicked life. The devil misquoted Scripture (Matthew 4:6). To use the Bible for some superstitious purpose, to quote texts and stories of the Bible “just to be funny” and to entertain others is a gross misuse of the Word of God. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Exodus 20:7).
Teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. Watch your life and your doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers, for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of false teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 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! Preach the gospel. We know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers or baby children, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers– and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine. Encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he understands nothing at all. “Isaiah prophesied rightly about those hypocrites,” Jesus said, “as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching human ideas as if they were doctrines’” (Mark 7:6).
In the past, when people were for the most part illiterate or at least could not afford to have a Bible of their own, a minister or a monk or a priest could get away with claiming anything as the will of God, and the people would believe him if he said it often enough and loudly enough. But our blessed Christians today can open their Bibles like the noble Bereans (Acts 17:11), examining the Scriptures to see if what their pastors say is true. Don’t throw away that ability. Don’t think you are being impudent or too bold. It is good for the congregation to judge whether their pastor’s words are right or not. Not that the minister’s knees will knock when he enters the pulpit on their account or judgment, but that he will always remember to build on the foundation of Christ with teachings and doctrines that will stand up to the fire of Christ on judgment day, by building with gold, with silver, and with costly marble or other stones. The church is built on the confession that Jesus is the Christ, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 1 Corinthians 3:12-13 Sound Doctrine