1 CORINTHIANS 3:9–15
For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ
(1 Cor. 3:11).
Paul gives a sober warning to ministers in this passage: “let each one take heed how he builds on it.” The apostle is talking to ministers, to those who would build on the doctrine that Paul had proclaimed in Corinth. Foundational to all other teaching is the doctrine of Christ. If a minister builds on any other foundation than God’s Word alone, or if he adds error to that foundation already established by others, he labors in vain. “No matter how laborious he may be, unless he employs the proper materials, he will lose his reward,” Hodge wrote. “Nothing but truth can be safely used in the development of Christian character, or in building up the church. To mix the wisdom of men with the wisdom of God in this work, is, as the apostle afterwards says, like using alternate layers of straw and marble in the erection of a temple. Let no man deceive himself in this matter. He will prove himself a fool, if he attempts to substitute philosophy for the Gospel in the work of saving men.”
This warning should strike deep into the heart of the evangelical community today. Throughout the world, ministers mix the doctrines of worldly philosophy, of psychology, of social theories to the foundation of Christ. They add error to the truth, mixing it so the truth is barely discernible. Such ministers as these, who fail to proclaim the pure, simple truth of Christ and Him crucified, will find their labors burned away in the day of judgment. When Paul had been in Corinth, he preached the truth, the message of Christ and His sufficient power to save the lost. The world accused him of failing to grasp the sophistication of philosophical profundities, and the church accused him of gross simplicity. But despite the accusations, Paul continued to preach the pure, simple doctrine of Christ.
He goes on to say that any teacher, any preacher, who adds worldly wisdom to the message of Christ is like the builder who constructs his home with straw and hay. Only the precious stones, the silver, the truth, will sustain the purifying fire of God’s judgment. But on that great day, while the teachers themselves might be saved, their work will be consumed, their labor will be in vain, and their own soul will enter the gates of heaven singed by the fires of God’s judgment (3:15).
CORAM DEO
Numbers 25–26
Mark 9
Take some time today to pray for the minister of your church, other ministers you know by name, for those ministering in churches in your denomination, and others throughout the world. Pray that they be kept from error and that they be convicted of ways in which they have allowed worldly thinking to infiltrate their teaching.
For further study: Isa. 28:16–22; 30:1–5; 31:1–3 • Eph. 2:19–22