Master Builders

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

MASTER BUILDERS

1 Cor 3:10-15

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his 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 man's work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

NIV

If this is not a warning about those fancy tongued preachers who use God to build an empire of fancy homes, cars, churches, and other forms of wealth, living in extravagance and excess, what is? Surely us common folks are not among the people spoken about here. Paul was speaking about the others who had visited Corinth and were out evangelizing as he was, but it seems some of them were out for their own benefit rather than for the benefit of the Kingdom of God.  Here is where we come in and can find some truth for our lives. Maybe we are not out preaching the Gospel for personal gain, adding to or changing the message of Jesus Christ, but are we living as a believer for the purpose to benefit the Kingdom of God or living to see how the Kingdom of God is benefiting us? What this means is simply from what perceptive do we approve our daily life? When we pray, do we pray for our own needs, or for the will of God to be done in our life? Sure God told us to bring all our requests to Him. Yes, Jesus said to ask anything in His name and the Father would give it to us. We can find all sorts of scriptures which tell us God will provide all sorts of things for us, but still that seems sort of a self-orientated way to live, doesn't it? Should we not be concerned about building the Kingdom of God, being a benefit to God, giving back all we are to Him? Sure, God does not need anything, He is God, but what is this reward for the quality of our work building on the foundation of Jesus Christ?  We are to be master builders, building on nothing but the foundation of Jesus Christ Crucified. Maybe all these denominational doctrines, rules and regulations, are what is spoken about here. Maybe some have indeed added to Jesus, as such building with gold, silver, stone, wood, and hay, which are all those rules and regulations. Maybe we simply need to see the truth of the Gospel message, Jesus saves. Once we were lost but now we are found. Is there anything else which needs to be said? So let us live as believers, being builders of the Kingdom of God, not using the Kingdom to build our little empires of self-centered desires. Let us be master builders.