942
THE KING’S BUSINESS
to failure and dismay at the last. We should note carefully that the foundation is not some opinion or belief about Jesus Christ, but it is Jesus Christ Himself as a person. The various kinds of super structures we can rear upon this foundation are “gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.” What is it to which Paul refers as being built upon this foundation? Pri marily people. It may be applied to other things, but this is the main thought in the context. The preacher and Christian worker is putting up a building of people on the foundation Jesus Christ. Some of those who are built into the structure are really regenerated and so are “gold, silver, prec ious stones,” but some are not regenerated and so are “wood, hay andj stubble,” and they will not stand the test when “the day shall declare” and the fire test “each man’s work of what sort it is.” Oh, how care lessly some of us are building, what poor stuff we are putting into the building! In our haste to increase numbers we are put ting in much “hay, wood and stubble.” They will not stand the test of fire and we who have built carelessly shall lose our reward. But will the careless preacher and worker be lost? No, not if he has a living faith in Jesus Christ. • In that case, no matter how poor our work, we ourselves shall be saved, if we are in Christ, but “we shall be saved” only “so as by fire.” How much that is called Christian work in this day is hay, wood and stubble, such as fairs, festivals and many of our institutional methods. And much of our choir singing and Sunday School teaching and evange listic services are hay, wood and stubble. In the coming day of testing, when God shall test every man’s work by fire that it may be revealed “of what sort it is” it will be found to have nothing lasting in it; so very likely much of which we have boasted most will be found to have had nothing in it and will go up in smoke. Let each one of us ask ourselves, What am I build ing upon Christ? Something that will stand the fire test or something that the fire will burn up. We do well to let this word sink
down deep into our heart, “the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” Thursday, October 4 . 1 Corinthians 3 : 16 , 17 . Paul says, “Ye are the temple of God.” This is true of the whole body of believers taken together (Eph. 2:19-22), and it is of this temple of God constituting the whole body of believers that Paul is speaking here. It is, however, also true of each indi vidual believer, that he is the temple of God (ch. 6:19). The church constituted of all who are believers in Christ, all those built upon him as the foundation, is a temple of God; that is, His peculiar dwell ing place. And also the body of each one of us is a temple of God. The Spirit of God dwells in the church and he also dwells in the individual believer. “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God also destroy.” Both the church and the individ ual believer is very precious in God’s sight and we need to exercise the greatest care as to what we do with the church and also as to what we do with our own bodies. The warning of the seventh verse is one of the most solemn in the whole Word of God. “The temple of God” built out of living stones, namely, those who have accepted Jesus Christ, “is holy.” We are this temple. Men build out of stone and brick and wood, buildings which they call temples of God, but they are not so in the real sense. The body of believers is today the true temple of God. Our bodies also, as we see fur ther on in this same book (ch. 6:19), are temples of God and as such are holy. The contempt that many Christians have for the body is absolutely unwarranted in the Word of God, in fact contrary to its teaching. We should take care of our bodies with the greatest care as temples of God. Friday, October 5 . 1 Corinthians 3 : 18 - 23 . Paul now puts in a warning that is of quite frequent occurrence in this Epistle and that is needed very much, and never more needed than today, “Let no man deceive himself” (ch. 6:9; 15:33;; Gal. 6:17). The biggest fool on earth is the
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker