the stubble) he shall suffer loss." He will not receive his reward. He is not going to get as high a grade, if you will, and will not receive the same degree of praise from Christ as the individual who has helped others build wisely. But Paul says, "He himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." That is, the poorer teacher will be purified. He will see exactly where he stands. Christ will judge him and he will know exactly where he stands. But as a believer, he will still enjoy the promises of eternal life. The clever outlines and intriguing lines of thought that have im pressed the Corinthian Christians will be consumed. Their ineffec tive, would-be leaders will be seen as poor builders. Sentimental po etry, impressive but hollow phrases that have been polished to dis play a speaker's ability rather than God's message will be gone. The question will simply be, "has there been progress?" "How have the individuals who have been under the watch-care of this teacher or this pastor or this Sunday school teacher progressed? Do they love Christ and His word more? Do they love His people more? Have they been wisely demonstrating that love?" This is what will be taking place in that judgment. Today we have seen that the true teacher has an obligation to pre sent Jesus Christ as the only foun dation. There is no room for divi sion here. We have also noted that the wise teacher builds a solid structure as God would have him build, and that he is subject to God's — not man's — judgment in the method of his building God's temple. If you own your own home, you
are probably interested in keeping it in good shape. If you are having trouble with the electrical wiring, you may not only be inconveni enced but you could run the risk of a serious fire. To get maximum enjoyment and a minimum of trouble from any building you need to understand the building, its potential prob lems and how to guard against these problems as you use it to its maximum. In I Corinthians 3:16-23, Paul takes his analogy of the body of Christ as a building and discusses it in similar manner. If we follow his words, we could have less heartache and more joy in living the Christian life. The focus has shifted. When Paul first presented the illustration of the building he talked about how it was formed. He discussed the part teachers and leaders played and how they were clearly sub servient to God, who in Christ was the foundation and, as judge, eval uator of all who assisted in the growth, or building the Christian life. Now Paul asks the Christians themselves to consider their lives as the building of God. Paul begins by helping them un derstand the nature of the build ing. I Corinthians 3:16 reads, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Now what is the nature of this building? First, it is the temple of God. Paul is not talking about the individual as the temple of the Holy Spirit. The grammatical con struction makes that clear. Here he Page 39
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