I am studying 1 Corinthians, and love how the Lord just stops me at a phrase. It’s as if He has put a glow around some of the words to give me pause, to ask questions and meditate on its meaning. The passage I was reading was 3:12-13 which says, “ Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.” In the previous verses, Paul talked about how he laid the foundation of their faith, which is Jesus Christ, and others are building upon that foundation. In these two verses, he uses the physical to describe the spiritual value.
He starts with gold which has the highest melting point, with no change to its physical properties. He follows with silver which has a decreased melting point but again, the physical properties do not change. Then the “precious stones” which may be precious building materials such as marble since Paul is using a building metaphor. Marble has an even lower melting point (still very high – over 1400 °F) but again, no change to the physical properties. The next three in the list all burn up; wood is the slowest, then hay and last straw. So while all of this in very interesting, what does it have to do with me and you?
We are each called to a work by the Lord (Ephesians 2:10), and that is what will be sorted by the fire on the Day. For me, it is an all-out effort. I want to be open to all that Holy Spirit wants me to do with others and for others. Colossians 3:23 reminds me that my service is all to the Lord. I live with the realization as 1 Corinthians 3:13 points out, that nothing will remain hidden that I’ve done. It will all come out at Judgement Day as my works are put through His fire, and that fire acts as a means of sorting by what happens to the work that I have done.
To do the work that the Lord calls me to is the deepest joy I have ever experienced, but it comes with the deepest responsibility to stay guided by and listening to Holy Spirit, to use what the Lord has given me well, to not squander it on lesser things that will burn up all too easily. 1 Corinthians 3:14-15 follow with, “If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”
Oh Lord, continue to guide all that I do, to help me to stay open to all that you ask of me, to surrender my good ideas for your best idea, so that when I walk through the fire on the Day, there would be work that survives the fire, that I would hear “Well done, good and faithful servant!”
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