If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light (1 Corinthians 3:12-13).
Simple question today, Beloved.
I know what your life is built on,
but
what is your life built of?
Hmm…maybe not so simple after all.
Happy pondering, Beloved.
By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:10-11).
I have built exactly one building in my lifetime.
It was a shed.
Maybe 75 square feet.
I had lots of help.
So, as a construction expert, I can say with perfect confidence that the foundation is a crucial aspect to the project. It provides the stability needed to keep the entire building intact. In fact, the structural integrity of the entire building is dependent upon a firm foundation.
If you want a solid shed, you build on a concrete slab.
If you want a solid life…
Well, you know.
What Paul said.
Happy Thursday, Beloved.
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building (1 Corinthians 3:9).
When we left our intrepid hero Paul, he was chastising the folks of Corinth for choosing apostle teams–”Team Paul,” “Team Apollos”–that sort of thing. Paul was pointing out that the apostles were just the workers, like farmers who work the land. God is the one who makes things grow.
You and I, Beloved? Well, I guess that makes us dirt.
But in a good way.
You have great value in the eyes of God. Not because of what you do, but because of what he can do through you.
Hear that again.
Not because of what you do, but because of what he can do through you. Farmland doesn’t have to do anything. It just has to be what it is and let the farmer do his work. Sun, rain, plow, harrow and pruning shears all play their part. Then, in time, the land will produce fruit.
So don’t fret, Beloved. The fruit will come. Just keep being good dirt.
Happy Wednesday.
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe–as the Lord assigned each to his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor (1 Corinthians 3:5-8).
When Paul says he’s nothing, what does that make me?
Ya, you betcha.
Here’s a thing: I know that Paul is reminding the folks in Corinth not to focus on a man, but to focus on God. We’ve seen him do this before, and it’s an important message.
But there’s more here.
Paul is also telling us that we are not responsible for the results of our work. You may plant or water or whatever, but you can’t make it grow.
Because you’re not supposed to.
It’s not your gig.
It’s his.
Frankly, when you worry and stress and obsess and try to control every outcome, you are playing God…and I love you, but you know you’re not very good at that.
Are you?
Beloved, do the job God has placed before you, and do it to the best of your ability.
Then rest.
It’s OK.
I don’t know about you, but I find that freeing.
So be free, Beloved.
Happy Tuesday
You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? (1 Corinthians 3:3)
Mere men?
That sounds like an insult.
Because…yeah, it is.
But I thought being a man was awesome! I mean…we’re men!
MEN!!
Isn’t that what we were supposed to be shooting for? Not boyhood, not adolescence, but full-scale manliosity? What could be higher than Man?
OK, ladies…I hear you…
Beloved, we are called to be more than men.
Or women, for that matter.
We are called to be sons and daughters of the living God.
It’s a high calling. It requires putting our human desires and pride and self interest and competitive natures aside and working for something bigger, something more glorious.
Something God.
Whaddaya say, Beloved? Are you ready to step up, step out, step beyond yourself?
Well then…let’s go.
Happy Monday, Beloved.
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly–mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready (1 Corinthians 3:1-2).
Ouch.
I would hate to get a message like that from Paul the Apostle.
And you know, that’s probably the exact message I would get. I read this passage, and I get the twinge in my gut that says, “This is for you, Bub.”
I rarely call myself “Bub,” but when I do I mean business.
Some days I feel like I have made so little progress in my walk with Christ. I still struggle with the same doubts, the same fears, the same sins that I struggled with years ago. I’m still slurping when I ought to be chewing.
And I figure that God must be angry with me, because I’m angry with me.
And yet (don’t you just love the “And yet” part?)
And yet, Paul doesn’t seem angry here.
He seems honest, maybe exasperated. He sounds a little like I do when I explain to my students, for the 1500th time, that the words there, they’re, and their are not interchangeable.
Above all, he is patient.
As is the God he serves.
Beloved, I encourage you to grow up. Steak tastes better than milk, and God has called you to run your race, not drag your feet.
And yet…there is grace.
He is patient.
Your Father is not beating you up over your failures.
So why are you?
Happy Friday, Beloved.
The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:15-16).
I am not subject to any man’s judgment!
That means I can do what I want!!!!!
WooHoooooo!!!
No. And…no.
You know how sometimes you have to be careful when you take a verse out of context, otherwise you could destroy your life and the lives of those around you while birthing a heretical cult to wreak havoc upon the world?
This would be one of those times.
Look, you are subject to judgment. Deal with it. Swipe a police helicopter for a joy ride, and you will be judged. Load up at Costco and walk out without paying, and you will be judged. Try sneaking twelve items through the ten-items-or-less aisle, and I will judge you myself. (Though it should be “fewer,” not “less”–where’s a grammar cop when you need one?)
Paul is not talking about felonious activity.
He’s talking about your spiritual life.
How do I know? Context, Baby.
Paul has just spent the last several verses talking about the Holy Spirit and making the case that, without the Spirit, it is impossible to understand the things of God. He continues that thought here. People without Christ will not, cannot, understand your relationship with him. They will be skeptical, judgemental, even mocking.
So? Let them mock. Let them judge. Let them…skept.
Their judgment has no power over you. You are a child of the King, and you have diplomatic immunity from the judgment of the world. So hold fast to Jesus, and to the principles his Holy Spirit has taught you.
But, you know, don’t go wandering through the restaurant sampling other people’s food just “because it looks tasty.”
Happy Thursday, Beloved.
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).
How can they possibly think that?
Have you ever had that question as you read or watched someone espouse beliefs that are, well, ludicrous?
Sure you have. And you have wondered, seriously wondered, how intelligent, thoughtful, articulate people could say things that sound so…so…
silly.
You know…they’re thinking the same thing about you.
My bride tells me that, before she knew Christ, she was a supporter of “A woman’s right to choose.” It just made sense to her that a woman should be in charge of decisions regarding her own body. Those people who championed the rights of a bunch of cells, well, they were just off.
Then the Holy Spirit came and led her into Truth…and everything changed.
She was blind, but now she saw, and she wondered how she could ever have thought otherwise.
Beloved, I’m not saying we shouldn’t have conversations with the world, shouldn’t try to get them to see Truth. But we must realize that, without the Spirit, people are trapped in a worldview that will not admit God, so there are things they are simply not capable of understanding.
They’re not the enemy.
They’re the ones we’re here to rescue.
Happy Wednesday, Beloved.
This is why we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words (1 Corinthians 2:13).
You are not of this world.
I know…nothing original there. You’ve heard it before.
So hear it again.
You are not of this world.
Your wisdom is not this world’s wisdom.
Your truth is not this world’s truth.
Your strength is not this world’s strength.
Your love is not this world’s love.
Your desire is not this world’s desire.
Your treasure is not this world’s treasure.
Your glory is not this world’s glory.
Your destiny is not this world’s destiny.
You are different.
Accept it
and rejoice.
Happy Tuesday, Beloved.
We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us (1 Corinthians 2:12).
We have someone on the inside.
Jesus promised us as much. In John 16:12, he said to his disciples, “I have much more to say to you than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
God knows that his thoughts are beyond us. Even so, he wants his thoughts to be within us. He wants us to “get” as much as we possibly can, and a little bit more. So he sent his Holy Spirit to live within us. The Spirit works in two ways. He breaks God’s truth down into smaller bits–glimpses, verses, illustrations–that we can digest. That’s why you can read a verse for the umpteenth time and suddenly see something you’ve never seen before, or watch a bird feed its babies and catch a vision of God’s provision.
Thank you Holy Spirit.
He also expands us. He kinda stretches our perception so that we can comprehend–if only for a moment–more of God’s nature. I remember such a moment, eversolong ago. I was going through the routines of my day, and in the back of my mind I was thinking about Christ’s return. Suddenly, my perception shifted, and I understood, believed, knew Jesus was returning with a certainty and power that I had never before experienced. It wasn’t a vision, just one of those “Ah Ha!” moments, when, just for a heartbeat, I understood.
Thank you Holy Spirit.
It’s Monday, Beloved. A pretty ordinary day. And yet, right now, the God of the Universe is at work within you, guiding you into a truth that the world will never grasp, the truth of the very nature of who God is and how very much he loves you.
So…maybe not so ordinary after all.
Happy Monday, Beloved.