How to Church (2)
For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation withgold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 1 Corinthians 3.11-13
Building the Body
This passage is often cited as referring to the individual believer’s responsibility for growing in his or her faith. We must each be careful, the teaching goes, to build into our Christian lives only what will last, only what honors the Lord and builds us up in Him.
Now that certainly is true; it’s just not the focus of this passage. Paul’s emphasis throughout 1 Corinthians is on restoring a fragmented, squabbling, compromised community of believers to unity and wholeness in the Lord. The Corinthian churches were struggling, and Paul was trying to show them the way to restoration and wholeness. Earlier in this passage he explained how he and Apollos had each contributed to laying the foundation of the churches in Corinth, upon which foundation the Corinthians were in the process of erecting a house of cards.
Paul’s use of the term “foundation” reminds us of his teaching in Ephesians 2, where the prophets and the apostles—their teaching and example—provide the foundation for which Christ is the Cornerstone in the Temple of the Spirit, which is the Church. In 1 Corinthians 3.16 Paul says that the Corinthians corporately are the Temple of the Lord., just as he had said in Ephesians 2.19-22. So his emphasis here is on their continuing the work he and Apollos began of bringing unity and maturity to the house churches and the larger community church in Corinth (cf. Eph. 4.11-16).
And he says that “each one”—every single believer in Corinth—must “take heed how he builds on it” (v. 10). Each of us, as members of the local church, must “church” well, if you will. You don’t build beautiful temples and healthy, growing churches with wood, hay, and stubble. Even the three little pigs understood that, though two of them had to learn it the hard way.
Strong churches are built by the diligent, consistent “churching” of their members, as they church on the apostolic foundation, employing the gifts and making the most of the opportunities the Lord presents. And each member is expected to church and to church well.
OK, but…
Of course, we understand that Paul is speaking metaphorically here. The Church as John saw it in Revelation 21 was indeed made of gold, silver, and precious stones—but this is a metaphor as well, in the form of a vision. When Paul refers to such “building materials” he means for believers to invest the best of what they have—as opposed to the wood, hay, and straw of their lives—in that work which stands at the top of our Lord’s agenda, building His Church (Matt. 16.18).
Every church member has been given resources with which to church. And for each member those resources have the potential of being either gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and straw. Some day, Paul says, the resources we have invested in building the Lord’s Church will be put on display before us and the watching world. Then everyone will know what we’ve known all along, that in our churching we have either given our best or given hardly at all to the work Jesus and the apostles have called us to do.
Each of us has the same resources to bring to bear on churching. These are our time, soul, spiritual gifts, strength, and wealth. In our work of churching, we will invest each of those resources somewhere along a spectrum of value which has gold, silver, and precious stones at the high end and wood, hay, and straw at the other. At this moment in each of our lives, we are churching in our particular church somewhere along that spectrum, where our time, soul, strength, gifts, and wealth are being invested in the Lord’s work of building His Church, and we are doing so in a way that will one day bring us either honor or humiliation.
So, how’s it going?
Paul called the Corinthians to take a hard look at themselves and their claim to be members of the Body of Christ (2 Cor. 13.5). He called them “babes” in Christ, because they didn’t seem to be interested in growing. He suggested they were acting like “fools” because they were allowing their churching to fragment and were dividing rather than building the church in their city. He warned them that God was displeased with their worship, with the self-centered, disordered way the people entered into it; he rebuked them for all manner of worldly practices, unbecoming of those who were members of the Body of Christ; he scolded them for being stingy with their wealth; and he reminded them that each member is responsible to contribute whatever the Lord gives him or her to strengthen the community as a whole.
The Corinthians weren’t churching very well, and the sad state of their churches demonstrated just how much wood, hay, and straw they were piling up on the glorious foundation laid by Paul and Apollos.
And what about us? What would Paul write to us if he could see into our churching as clearly as he saw into that of the Corinthians? Perhaps we need to examine ourselves, to ascertain the quality of our churching, the needs of our church, the spiritual gifts with which we have been endowed, and the ways we might church more in line with the expectations of the apostles and the Lord.
For reflection or discussion
1. How do you decide what your role should be in building your church?
2. What can keep you from fulfilling that role?
3. How should you prepare each day for the work of churching?
Next steps—Preparation: Where do you need to improve in the work of churching? Where would you like to become more involved to help your church grow?
T. M. Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment to give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
A good supplement to this ongoing study on the Church is our free PDF book, Pray for Your Church. Download your copy from The Ailbe Bookstore by clicking here. Also, we encourage you to visit our ReThinking Church page, where you’ll see a variety of free resources to help you church.
This week: Our Read Moore podcast continues an extensive look at the Kingdom of God from our book, The Kingdom Turn. In our Crosfigell teaching letter, we are looking at the state of pastors and churches during the period of the Celtic Revival, using contemporary witnesses. And in our Scriptorium column we are studying the Gospel of Matthew. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.
And please prayerfully consider supporting The Fellowship of Ailbe with your prayers and gifts. You can contribute online, via PayPal or Anedot, or by sending a gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
