it." What day? Most Bible teachers believe this is a reference to the second coming of Christ. When Christ comes, He will evaluate the quality of Christians He finds, and if there are flaws in the life, He will judge the teacher who was re sponsible for misleading the Chris tians. Now this does not excuse the individual Christian. His eval uation is considered in II Corin thians 5:10. What kind of evaluation is this to be for the teachers? It is a very real one. Verse 13 says, “ Every man's work shall be made mani fest," that is, visible, tangible, out in the open. Then to emphasize it, Paul adds in I Corinthians 3:13, “ because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Here fire is a picture of testing, just as we have the picture of testing in I Peter 1:7, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." Fire tests and proves and all that is superfluous is done away with and only that which is true or real remains. I Corinthians 3:13 is a pic ture of real testing, where quality is sought, where true growth in the Christian life is revealed or found wanting. The wood, hay and stubble are consumed; only the solid work of maturity and abiding faith remains. And the results? What happens after the testing? The answer is in verses 14 and 15, "If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward," BUT, "If any man's work shall be burned (that is, consumed, the wood, the hay,
nest prayer. Here you are building with good materials. The poorer method is simple and quick and produces a poorer building. If you teach a Sunday school class, how well are you building the lives in your charge? Are you putting forth the effort to build well? Poor Bible teaching may appear adequate as long as the student does not have problems and as long as he does not have questions concerning his faith. But when the times of testing and trial come, that structure is going to suffer dam age. It is dangerous to build poor ly, for I Corinthians 3:13-15 reveals that the work of teachers is going to be evaluated. Notice in verse 13, “ Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Teachers are to be judged, not on the depth of their sincerity, but on how well they build. At Biola, we give our seniors a Graduate Record Examination be fore they graduate. From the re sults, each department can deter mine how well they have done in educating our students. It reveals the student's strengths and his weaknesses; but more important to us, it reveals our strengths and weaknesses as a Christian college. This is what Paul has in mind here. He is suggesting that every teacher is going to be tested to see how well he has been leading those who are in Christ. He is tested to see how well he has been helping them to build the proper super structure in Christ. Verse 13 also tells us when this evaluation will take place. It says, "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare
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