I’m really not very much of a handyman . . . in fact I barely know what to do with a hammer . . . I have very little sense on how to construct something . . . buying from IKEA is my idea of how to build furniture . . . but I wish they’d make the instructions simpler! So reading 1Corinthians 3 this morning can kind of be intimidating . . . as I’m reminded that I’m called to be a temple builder.

Paul needed to get the Corinthians’ heads into a building program. Though it sounds like they had been saved for awhile yet, Paul says, he couldn’t address them “as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ” (1Cor. 3:1). He wanted to feed them the solid food of the deep things of God but they were still on the bottle, unable to receive the meaty stuff (3:2). The evidence of their carnality? . . . the signs that they were still babes in Christ? . . . there was “envy, strife, and divisions” among them as they argued over there own importance based on who they esteemed greater among God’s servants, Paul or Apollos. And Paul said, “Stop it. Quit bickering like babies. Grow up. We’ve just laid a foundation . . . now you need to start building on it.”

Paul wanted these believers to be temple builders . . . and they were the temples . . . “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (3:16). That was the foundation laid the moment they received Christ as Savior . . . that was the reality established upon their exercise of faith in the Son of God and confession of Him as Lord. It is the sure and true foundation established by Jesus Christ for everyone who believes . . . sealed with the Holy Spirit . . . declared “open for business” as a dwelling place of God . . . foundation in place . . . ready for building.

And so Paul says, “But let each one take heed how he builds on it” (3:10). As a believer, it’s not about whether or not I build on the foundation of my salvation . . . building’s not really an option — it’s gonna happen . . . the question is what materials am I going to use? Paul says I can build on the foundation with “gold, silver, precious stones” or with “wood, hay, straw” (3:12) . . . with stuff that lasts or stuff that burns up . . . with “grown up stuff” or with “kids stuff” . . . with meat or with milk. I can be thoughtful and purposeful about building . . . using only the best materials taken from the Word of God, fortified by the Spirit of God, and put in place by the grace of God . . . or can I take “whatever” . . . and call it the Christian life . . . take the “bare minimum” and kid myself that I’m “walking with Christ.” Either way . . . I’m building upon the foundation . . . and Paul says, “Be very careful how you build.”

There’s coming “the Day” when the “quality of the work” will be examined and tested to see if it’s “up to code” (3:13). It will be “revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it it. The “gold, silver, precious stone” will endure the fire’s testing and the result will be reward . . . the “wood, hay, straw” workmanship will be burned up and that believer will “suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” (3:14-15). Oh, the thought of Christ examining what I’ve built on the foundation of His saving work and it burning up, causes shudders to run down my back. I so want to have more to show than ashes when I stand before Christ . . . I want to have some gold, silver, and precious stones, that I might lay them down at His feet as a way of expressing my gratitude and love for the One who gave His all for me. He’s made me a temple of God . . . by His grace and for His glory I want to be as fully operational as possible when He and I meet face to face.

I’m blown away by the reminder this morning that I am a temple of God. As I consider the price paid by God’s Son to lay the foundation . . . as I think on the tools I’ve been given to build with . . . the word of God . . . the grace of God . . . the Spirit of God . . . I so want to build wisely and thoughtfully and obediently. I want to grow up . . . I want to be able to take solid food . . . I want to build with gold, sliver, and precious stone. Not that I might boast . . . but that my boast might be in the One who is worthy of building for. Father, by your grace, help me to be an effective temple builder . . . for Your glory alone, amen.