Monday, June 8, 2015

God’s Field, God’s Building, God’s Inhabitation (1 Corinthians 3:9-23)

What’s the church? It’s God’s field and God’s building. It never meant to be physical church buildings at all, even the tabernacle in the wilderness and the Solomon’s Temple and never does and will do. It was a mere shadow of the real substance that is Christ Jesus. Church is people, men and women and boys and girls in Jesus Christ. The head of church is Jesus Christ and every member of the church is part of the body of Christ.
“And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” (Colossians 1:18)
In God’s service, all are co-workers in the one body of church, appointed to be functioning for diverse and different task including Paul and Apollos. 
“For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:9-11)
Paul adopted two symbols to expound what the church is—field and building. Field is used because it bears the fruits and expands with almost no limit. It’s called evangelizing the world by the Spirit. Building is used because it grows on the foundation of Christ. It would be most likely the end of construction of the church for it has been continually under the construction almost twenty centuries now. Who knows that one of these days God may break into time and present all the unsearchable and incomparable riches of God’s surpassing and glorious church?
All Christians are called builders for the church of Jesus Christ but each for own purpose. God gave Paul to lay a foundation as a wise builder and someone else is building on it. It does not mean that Paul was a founder of the church. He was a master builder, laying a skeleton of building for there is only one founder who is Jesus Christ the Lord. Christ is the unshakable and immovable foundation of the church. So, each one should build with care for, in fact, the time is coming for the test how each one has built on it.
“If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15)
The test will be conducted by none other than Jesus Christ the Lord through fire. The Day of the Lord will bring it to light and reveal with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives like gold, silver, and costly stones, they will receive a reward. But if it is burned up like wood, hay, and straw, they will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
What are these? These are what Paul has been talking about in this letter. When he came to Corinth he preached the gospel of Christ Jesus in weakness with great fear and trembling not because he was ashamed of the gospel but because he was a called servant and instrument to reveal the power of God, not himself. John the Baptist said so pertinently that he must be decreased but Christ must increase. “He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:30) Paul repeatedly said he did not come with eloquence, human wisdom, or wise and persuasive words.
“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” (1 Corinthians 1:17)
“And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)
So, wood, hay, and straw indicate eloquence, human wisdom and philosophy, and wise and persuasive words. These are what the world keeps on adulating and praising. It’s totally and completely the waste of life! It’s going to be all burned out. The life which relies on the flesh is not acceptable to God and cannot pass through the test of fire.
The forty years of wilderness life was an illustration of the complete and total waste of life. The people ate Manna and drank water from the Rock and had the sacrifice and the Tabernacle. Most of all, they had the scrolls, the Law of God. However, they rejected to obey God, refusing to enter the land of promise given to the father Abraham. They were afraid of the Canaanites who had already occupied the land and pitched their tents. They were the gigantic peoples. In the end, all perished in the wilderness except two men, Joshua and Caleb. No one was allowed to enter the land of milk and honey because they refused to obey God and His commandments.
And gold, silver, and stones are the attitudes in weakness and humbleness with fear and trembling, demonstrating the Spirit’s power in the midst. It’s called a Spirit-filled life. Everything is done by relying on the power of God because nothing in flesh can obey the Law of God. Total submission to the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father is possible for Christ indwells within by means of the Spirit. It’s a new life in Christ under the new terms of life, new covenant. The moment of rebirth or regeneration has happened because of the yield of total self to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and God the Father. This is the life God has made and intended to live before time began. In Christ, we no longer live but the life we live is His life. It’s the exchanged life we live now and forevermore.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
These things shall pass through the test of fire because they have done not by us but Christ who lives in us. We are God’s field and God’s building where God’s Spirit lives forever.
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
In the Upper Room Discourse our Lord Jesus told the disciples that He would come to them and make God’s home with them. “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23) We have been made as God’s habitation that is holy and sacred.
“In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:21-22)
What does it mean to destroy the temple and God will destroy that person?
Since the fall of race, we were useless, not acceptable to God. But since the regeneration in Christ Jesus, we have been made useful, acceptable to God. We have been sanctified, justified, restored, and reconciled to the Father God through the blood of Christ Jesus the Son. By God’s grace and mercy, we have joined to the body of Christ Jesus, God’s building and God’s field.
So, destroying the temple means being out of the line of God’s intended purpose as His holy temple. They’re fleshy works using wood, hay, and straw which are the sheer waste of life. When we depend on ourselves like world wisdom and philosophical eloquence we’re destroying the temple which is sacred and separated.  
God’s temple cannot be destroyed. So, destroying means putting damages or polluting the sacredness and purity of the temple. If destroyed, God will destroy the person. What is it? It is an unavoidable consequence that God cannot accept it, so it will turn out a waste. There may be fantastic ministries in appearance, but no avail to God. Soon or later all becomes nothing. Our God cannot be fooled. The world can fool the worldly people and even the elect but never God. Whatever done by flesh, human wisdom is total waste in the sight of God.
So, we no longer put our confidence on our flesh. Rather, our confidence is coming from God through Christ Jesus the Lord. Jesus Christ is our confidence forever. Christ in us that is the hope of glory!
“Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:4-6)
The Day of the Lord will reveal everything in bare. Whether we have built using gold, silver, and stones or wood, hay, and straw, God will reveal in our eyes on the Day. It is also true that the judgment of God is going on right now in our midst. The judgment of God was demonstrated in the wilderness as the people of Israel had to face barrenness, loneliness, emptiness, dryness daily until they obeyed to enter into the land of promise. It’s like a package deal that we cannot simply enjoy sin and avoid the consequence of the violation of the Law of God. What we sow, what we reap. Relied on the flesh, emptiness and barrenness are always manifested as a consequence. But relied on the indwelling Spirit, Christ Jesus, overflowing joy and life flows from within.
Therefore, Paul urges not to deceive themselves or to be deceived by the wiles of the devil.
“Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become ‘fools’ so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’; and again, ‘The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.’” (1 Corinthians 3:18-20)
The devil is lurking behind the shadow and attacking the elect ferociously and cunningly using the infamous tools of deception and violence. Do not listen to him but resist the devil and reject every kind of evil. Choose to be fools by the standards of this age but be wise in God’s sight. The standards of this age is to boost self-exhortation and self-esteem in full force. They are detestable and abominable in God’s sight (Luke 16:15).
“So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.” (1 Corinthians 3:21-23)
So then, stop boasting about human leaders—Paul, Apollos, or Peter, says Paul. Why must they stop boasting about one particular person? It’s because all things are ours including human leaders or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are ours, and we are of Christ and Christ is of God. We are the heirs of God and the heirs with Christ. We are God’s inheritance and God is our inheritance. God provides us all things in His grace and mercy. Apostle James puts it aptly.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” (James 1:5)
Paul puts it this way in the letter to the Romans. We shall appropriate our inheritance, Christ Jesus by faith in our midst.
“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:9-10)
Prayer: Father in heaven, Thank you for teaching us the truth on the church that we are God’s field and God’s building, and God’s habitation. Help us, Lord, to build on the church with care because we will be tested with the fire. May we be alert and cautious not to rely on the standards of this age but to rely on Christ Jesus who is our inheritance forever! In His name. Amen.

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