Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 3:10

According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

10. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder ] Rather, which was given to me, i.e. when he laid the foundation. St Paul now desires to identify himself with the teachers of the Corinthian Church, so far as they were really carrying on the work which he had begun. His object is to combat the individualism which had led the Corinthian Church astray. If their teachers be genuine ministers of Christ, it is but one work that they are carrying on. They are merely proceeding with the superstructure of that which the Apostle had founded. Comparison of their personal claims with those of St Paul, and still more an attitude of antagonism to him and to one another, are entirely out of place.

But let every man take heed ] A fresh subject is here introduced. We are now told of what kind the labour of a minister of Christ is to be, and what his reward. There is, there can be, but One Foundation, but there are many ways of building on that foundation.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

According to the grace of God – By the favor of God which is given to me. All that Paul had done had been by the mere favor of God. His appointment was from him; and all the skill which he had shown, and all the agency which he had employed, had been from him. The architectural figure is here continued with some striking additions and illustrations. By the grace of God here, Paul probably means his apostleship to the Gentiles, which had been conferred on him by the mere favor of God, and all the wisdom, and skill, and success which he had evinced in founding the church.

As a wise master-builder – Greek Architect. The word does not imply that Paul had any pre-eminence over his brethren, but that he had proceeded in his work as a skillful architect, who secures first a firm foundation. Every builder begins with the foundation; and Paul had proceeded in this manner in laying first a firm foundation on which the church could be reared. The word wise here means skillful or judicious; compare Mat 7:24.

I have laid the foundation – What this foundation was, he states in 1Co 3:11. The meaning here is, that the church at Corinth had been at first established by Paul; see Act 18:1, etc.

And another – Other teachers. I have communicated to the church the first elements of Christian knowledge. Others follow out this instruction, and edify the church. The discussion here undergoes a slight change. In the former part of the chapter, Christians are compared to a building; here the doctrines which are taught in the church are compared to various parts of a building. Grotius. See similar instances of translation in Matt. 13; Mark 4; John 10.

But let every man … – Every man who is a professed teacher. Let him be careful what instructions he shall give to a church that has been founded by apostolic hands, and that is established on the only true foundation. This is designed to guard against false instruction and the instructions of false teachers. People should take heed what instruction they give to a church:

1. Because of the fact that the church belongs to God, and they should be cautious what directions they give to it;
2. Because it is important that Christians should not only be on the true foundation, but that they should be fully instructed in the nature of their religion, and the church should be permitted to rise in its true beauty and loveliness;
3. Because of the evils which result from false instruction.

Even when the foundation is firm, incalculable evils will result from the lack of just and discriminating instruction. Error sanctifies no one. The effect of it even on the minds of true Christians is to mar their piety; to dim its lustre; and to darken their minds. No Christian can enjoy religion except under the full-orbed shining of the word of truth; and every man, therefore, who gives false instruction, is responsible for all the darkness he causes, and for all the lack of comfort which true Christians under his teaching may experience.

(4) Every person must give an account of the nature of his instructions; and he should therefore take heed to himself, and his doctrine 1Ti 4:16; and preach such doctrine as shall bear the test of the great Day. And from this we learn, that it is important that the church should be built on the true foundation; and that it is scarcely less important that it should be built up in the knowledge of the truth. Vast evils are constantly occurring in the church for the lack of proper instruction to young converts. Many seem to feel that provided the foundation be well laid, that is all that is needed. But the grand thing which is needed at the present time, is, that those who are converted should, as soon as possible, be instructed fully in the nature of the religion which they have embraced. What would be thought of a farmer who should plant a tree, and never water or trim it; who should plant his seed, and never cultivate the grain as it springs up; who should sow his fields, and then think that all is well, and leave it to be overrun with weeds and thorns? Piety is often stunted, its early shootings blighted, its rapid growth checked, for the lack of early culture in the church. And perhaps there is no one thing in which ministers more frequently fail than in regard to the culture which ought to be bestowed upon those who are converted – especially in early life. Our Saviours views on this were expressed in the admonition to Peter, Feed my lambs, Joh 21:15.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

1Co 3:10-15

According to the grace of God as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

All of grace

Now when we say a godly man acknowledgeth all to grace, consider–First, he doth it heartily, seriously. No fountain doth run more sweetly, fully, and purely than he doth. Oh, his heart is a happy spring from whence comes such rivers of living water! Secondly, this acknowledgment is accompanied with a renouncing all his own works. His own strength, his own duties, he doth not so much as think of them, nor mention them. Thirdly, this acknowledging it must be from an inward sense of our own sin and unworthiness, how ill we have deserved at Gods hand. No man can ever praise grace that hath not felt the sting of sin, the power of the law. Fourthly, he must wholly and solely acknowledge grace. He must not give some piece to grace and the rest to his own free-will. He must not by grace mean the outward manifestation and revelation of it, but the inward efficacy of it. Lastly, he must set up this grace of God in a Scripture way. Not to oppose godliness or holiness, or to sin more securely and boldly: this is not to acknowledge grace, but to abuse grace. In the next place consider why the godly are so sensible of Gods grace. And first, this is the final cause of all the good that God doth enable us unto. This is all He looks for. Secondly, the children of God are endowed with an ingenuous, free, and excellent spirit; therefore they cannot but confess by whom it is they have obtained grace. Thirdly, the real sting, smart, and danger they have been in makes their heart full and mouth full of the grace of God. Fourthly, they are an humble debased people in themselves. They have low thoughts of all that they do. And therefore it is that they are so precious with God. Fifthly, they must needs acknowledge grace, because they have the experience how hard it is to do anything spiritual and upon heavenly grounds. And therefore if they are ever enabled thereunto they cannot but exalt grace. Sixthly, to praise and exalt the grace of God, it is a very profitable and advantageous duty also. It is two ways profitable.

1. It procures more grace and mercies from God: He giveth grace to the humble (Jam 4:6).

2. This acknowledging of grace will enlarge a man, and make a man more willing and ready in all the ways of God. It is like oil to the wheel; it is like wings to the bird. Duties done with the spirit of praise and thanksgiving have great life and vigour in them. Now I shall add one caution: corrupt doctrines and opinions in religion may much cool this duty of giving thanks. I shall instance some. As first, the denying of original sin is a great engine against the grace of God. Secondly, the maintenance of free-will doth much detract from free grace. Thirdly, that the law is not to be preached; no, not for direction or obligation. Whereas Christ and Paul do often press this. (A. Burgess.)

A good foundation

This Paul makes the principal part of his wisdom, that he began with a good foundation. The point therefore in hand is of great consequence, both to the preacher and to the auditor, to consider what foundation his religion and godliness is fixed upon. For the opening of this, consider that divines do ordinarily make a twofold foundation. The one they call the foundation of our knowledge and faith in matters of religion; and this is the Scripture only. We can lay no other foundation for the matters of faith but the Word of God. Secondly, there is the foundation of the being, or existence of all our glory and salvation, and that is only Jesus Christ. I shall instance in four unquestionable foundations, which are the four main pillars that support our Christian building, for the necessary things of religion are these four. Either–

1. The matters to be believed.

2. The worship and necessary service of God.

3. The spiritual benefits and mercies, justification and salvation.

4. The things to be done by us in our way to salvation.

We will begin with the first, the foundation of our faith or Divine assent in matters of religion. What is that which every man must build his faith upon? And that is the Word of God. As God at first put all the light into the sun, and the stars shine by a borrowed light from it, so God hath now put all supernatural light into the Scripture, and all guides are to shine by that. Now that the written Word of God is the only foundation of our Christian faith, appeareth by these reasons–First, a Christian faith ought to be a Divine, supernatural faith, not a bare human faith. Now nothing can be the ground of a Divine faith but a Divine authority. Secondly, the Scriptures are only the foundation because they are the immediate verity or truth coming from God, who is the first essential truth. They have not only a Divine authority, but evident infallibility. Take a tree from the river side and plant it in a wilderness, what can you expect but withering? And thus it is if you take a man from the Scripture; his seeming faith, graces, godliness will all presently vanish. Thirdly, the Scriptures only are the foundation of faith because they are only immutable and unmovable. They abide always the same, they are not subject to changes, to perturbations of affections, as men are. Councils consisted of men carried by passions and- interests. Lastly, the Scripture is only to be laid for a foundation because this only is strong enough to support and bear up in sad hours of temptation and dangerous times of persecutions. Our Saviour quelled Satans temptations by arrows out of the Scripture quiver. Now for the matter of doctrine to be believed, some men lay four rotten and weak foundations; others may be reduced to this. The first is that of the papist, the authority of the Church and the Pope, being wholly ignorant themselves, but resting all on their authority. The second foundation men lay is the authority of the civil magistrate. This is a mere political faith. The third is private revelation and enthusiasms. Fourthly, another false foundation is mere human reason. (A. Burgess.)

Foundations

The foundation therefore of every good duty or work we do hath these parts. First, there is a foundation by way of a direction or rule, to which everything we do must be commensurate, and by which it must be regulated, now that is the Word of God. For Gods Word is not only a rule of faith but of manners. And as thou must be of no other religion than the Word directs to, so thou must do no other actions or live any other life than that guides thee too. A second part of that foundation we must lay for the practice of holiness is the justification and reconciliation of our persons with God through Christ. Thirdly, another foundation we must lay is to receive power and strength from Christ only, both in the beginning and progress of al1 good actions. Fourthly, the last part of this foundation is a renewed and sanctified nature. Now let us consider why we are to be careful about laying this foundation. First, because it is very dangerous, and it is very easy to miscarry in this matter, if the foundation be not well laid thou art undone for ever. In matters of mens estates, or of their bodily life, how careful are they to go upon a sure foundation. Only they wilfully venture their ruin in the matters of their soul. Thou wouldst be unwilling to live in an house whose foundation is rotten! Consider, then, am I in the right? Fear would make thee jealous and suspicious. Secondly, we mistake easily. We see the greatest part of Christians never attend to these things. And withal the difference between true and false foundations is spiritually to be discerned. Oh then say, I do the outward works of religion, I am careful to discharge them! But how easy may I build all upon a false foundation! Thirdly, therefore we must look to our foundation because of the great confusion that will be at last on those who have failed therein. Fourthly, therefore lay a good foundation, for if that be wanting, thou doest nothing but sin in all thou doest. In the third place, let us take notice what are those weak and rotten foundations that many men build upon in regard of their practice. First, a conformity to the life of others; they do as most do, they shall speed as well as they; what would ye have them to be singular, to be different from others? This is a most rotten foundation. Secondly, others build upon a partial practice of good things. The hypocritical Jews they rested upon their temple, their sacrifices, their outward worship of God; in the meanwhile their hands were full of blood, of unrighteousness and injustice. Thirdly, another rotten foundation is the mere work done. They consider no more than the external act of religion, of justice, of charity, and so they think they have obeyed the commandment. This was the Pharisees foundation. Fourthly, another rotten foundation is the goodness, yea, supposed perfection, of the work they do. (A. Burgess.)

Building on the foundation

To amplify this, consider, there may be a twofold building or addition to the Word of God, either destructive and corruptive, such as wholly overthroweth the true meaning and sense of the Holy Ghost. And this is a very dangerous sin. Or else perfective and explicative. Thus the New Testament was added to the Old as a perfective addition, not corruptive; though it could not have been added as Scripture, but that the authors thereof had a Divine infallibility. And now what the ministers of God in their ministerial labours do, it must be an addition explicative of the foundation, though it be not with Divine infallibility. Secondly, the Word of God, which containeth the foundation that the apostles have laid, may be either considered in respect of the words only, or in respect of the sense clothed with words. In the next place, let us consider why we ought so to take heed, and that is to be manifest in many respects. First, from God Himself, His glory and honour is greatly concerned herein. Secondly, on Gods part we are to take heed because He hath so severely threatened all those that add or detract to His Word. Any that shall alter these foundations or change these bounds. Secondly, on the peoples part. Therefore we ought greatly to take heed. For–

1. The Word of God in the true sense of it is the only food and nourishment of the soul.

2. If we build not on this foundation, the preaching of the Word loseth those glorious and excellent effects for which it is appointed.

3. On the peoples part we had need to take heed, because they are more prone and ready to receive any corrupt sense than the pure meaning of the Scripture.

Lastly, on the ministers part it is necessary theft he should take heed. For–

1. He hath not a magistery but a ministry committed to him.

2. He is accountable for all the sin and error people run into through his neglect.

3. He must take heed because, though a man do preach the substantials and the necessary things of salvation purely, yet if he add or mix any corrupt opinions, though of a less nature, that mans salvation is very difficult. (A. Burgess.)

The spiritual foundation

I. The foundation.

1. Is laid.

2. Is one.

3. Is sure.

II. The superstructure.

1. Is in course of erection.

2. Is variable in character.

III. The test is–

1. Certain.

2. Severe.

3. Decisive.

The foundation of faith

I. The text establishes a distinction between fundamental doctrine and that which is not fundamental. It speaks of the foundation which must be laid in all Christian teaching. It speaks also of the superstructure, which varies according to the disposition or knowledge of the individual teacher.

II. Christian teaching may legitimately be carried beyond the limits of fundamental doctrine. There have certainly been seasons in the history of the Church in which its secondary doctrines have usurped the first place. Times of re-action, in which the Christian mind was recalled to the foundation, have in some cases promoted the development of other secondary doctrines, which have overshadowed the foundation no less than those which obtained acceptance before. One phase of the Reformation was a return to the heart of Christianity from the intricate subtleties of scholasticism. Yet Calvinism in its extreme development is at least as barren, and as subversive of all place and keeping in the mutual relation of doctrines, as any part of the scholastic system. It is no wonder that men are tempted from time to time to cast aside all but the most elementary doctrinal teaching, as to content themselves with accepting the bare letter of the Bible, denouncing every inference from it as a corruption of Evangelical simplicity. Far different was the teaching of the apostle. As a wise master-builder I have laid the foundation, he does not add Let no man build thereupon; but Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. While he disparages the wisdom of this world, he congratulates his converts that they are enriched in all utterance, and in all knowledge, and declares his intention to speak the wisdom of God not indeed to the carnal babes in Christ, but among them that are perfect and able to bear the highest teaching. The Hebrew Christians also are reproved, as those of Corinth are, for their backwardness in the school of Christ (Heb 5:12-13).

III. Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1. To preach Christ is the chief office of Gods messengers. The leading events of the gospel history, the doctrine of Christs nature which is a necessary inference from and the only consistent explanation of those events, and the efficacy of His redeeming work which rests on the truth of His nature, make up one complex whole, the due and proportionate exhibition of which is preaching Christ. This is presupposed in all farther Christian teaching.

2. All more advanced teaching must rest upon this.

(1) It must not be inconsistent with it. For the superstructure may not merely overshadow, it may disturb and destroy the foundation. Doctrine which comes into collision with fundamental doctrine is a virtual denial of the foundation.

(2) It must stand in a definite relation to it and grow out of it. Thus the doctrine of the Sacraments cannot be duly taught, except as it is taught in connection with those of the Incarnation and Atonement.

IV. let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

1. There may be teaching which is not inconsistent with the leading Christian verities, and which nevertheless is false or worthless. Those who promulgate it will have to answer for it before God. The day shall declare it. Paul was thinking mainly of vain, subtle, and barren questions such as those against which he frequently warns Timothy and Titus (1Ti 1:4-7; 1Ti 4:7; 1Ti 6:3-5; 2Ti 2:16; 2Ti 2:23; 2Ti 4:4; Tit 3:9). But the words apply to every form of teaching which is in itself false and groundless, which is barren and unprofitable, and which ministers questions, rather than godly edifying.

2. If men are answerable for teaching which is not inconsistent with the foundation of the faith, how much more for that which directly or indirectly overthrows it. If vain and unprofitable religious questions cannot be raised with innocence, how can men teach heresy without guilt? If an unwise builder injures the Temple of God by unskilful workmanship, a judgment is pronounced against him: how then shall he escape, who has either never laid the foundation at all, or who (when it has been laid) has succeeded in disturbing it? (Bp. Basil Jones.)

Building the true life

I. Christ is the foundation of Christian trust and character. No other King and Saviour of men is possible to those who know and understand what He was and taught. Great teachers of religion, and great examples of conduct, have been in the world: but in comparison with Christ, they are but stars in the firmament of the worlds night, which become lost to sight when the glorious sun has risen. He stands unique and preeminent in all history, the only true Saviour of mankind. A Congregational minister once said to a Unitarian minister, Can you conceive of anything greater and higher than the life and teaching of Jesus Christ? and the Unitarian minister frankly answered, No. Then what is the difference between your conception of the character of God and the character of Christ? and he as frankly said again, That it was a very fine point. The apostle, as a wise master builder, had laid this foundation as the basis of the new life; not himself, or Apollos, or Peter. The Corinthians were to be rooted and built up in Christ, and in no other. But they were to take heed how they built themselves up on Him.

II. Two structures are possible even upon Christ. A Christian life must have Christ as the model as well as the foundation. The gold and silver, and precious stones, that constituted the glory and beauty of Christs character, must constitute the glory and beauty of theirs. But it was possible for men holding some connection with Christ to build up a pile of perishable rubbish, a hut instead of a temple. They might mingle doctrines and practices which had no necessary connection with Christ and Him crucified; and they were doing it.

1. Some men never think of building up anything, but take life just as it comes. They have no plan of life to work at. Indeed, nothing is so irksome to such men as to live by rule. They live on impulses, come from where they may, from inward passion or from outward circumstances. Dreadful, indeed, is the fate of those who have tried to make this life a holiday.

2. Others live for a purpose; but they are building only for this world, and not for eternity. Their foundation is on the very surface of things, and as the building rises it tapers off into nothingness. A man may bring to it intellect, will, energy; and all for what? Perhaps to have it said of him, That man started with half-a-crown, and he has made a fortune. But the Divine soul within him has not been built up; his nobler nature has lain despised and neglected; he has been building up his circumstances, but he has not been building up himself.

3. I once watched the building of a new church, and remember what trouble they had in getting a foundation for the tower, and how long they were in reaching down to a solid basis of stone that would bear the immense mass of weight that was to rest upon it. I remembered also when the foundation was laid, how carefully the plan of the building was studied and followed by the workmen; how every principal stone was selected and measured, and chiselled to a nicety. It was all done by faithfully working according to the plans of the architect; and when the building was complete, it was but a transcript of what had been in the architects mind before a stone had been laid. It was a parable in stone of the manner in which a human life must be built. We must get down beneath the surface and rubble of things before we can reach Christ as our foundation, as the rock upon which our eternity of life is to rest. Hearing and doing His sayings is trusting to Christ; nothing more and nothing less (Mat 7:24, &c.). He drew with a Divine hand and an unerring pencil the plan of a human life, not only by His words but by His deeds, to show what God meant in creating man. To believe in Christ is to believe that His plan is to be our plan, faithfully worked out after the living pattern He exhibited. But our mistake and disaster is, that we mix up the wood and the gold, the stubble with the silver, and the hay with the precious stones. One man has great gaps in his character because he thinks God regards faith as the transcendent virtue; and if faith meant the prompt and active loyalty of the mind to all Christs commandments, he would be right; but if faith is taken to mean an indolent confidence, such a notion will arrest the progress of the building up of the soul. Another man says that prayer is the principal thing. Now, though Christ says that we ought always to pray and not to faint, He says also that it is he who does His will who is most eminent before God. What would be otherwise gold, becomes wood or stubble when we put it out of its place, and make it a substitute for other equally essential things. The doors of a house are necessary things; but if we put them at the top instead of on the floor, they are useless and absurd. It is this jumbling of things which often makes the spiritual structure of our lives unsightly and unprogressive. We want symmetry,

III. If we could follow the Divine order in the building of the soul, how beautiful our lives would be! If the first act of the new life could be an act of faith, grandly receptive and grandly active at the same time; and if to such a faith we could add virtue or mental valour–an enterprise of soul that would launch us forth upon every difficult work with enthusiasm; and if to such valour we could join knowledge, &c., &c. (2Pe 1:5, &c.). These are the gold and silver and precious stones of the Christian life, if we could but build them into our characters with symmetry and beauty.

IV. We are like men who are building in the night, who cannot see exactly what they are doing, but every mans work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, the full daylight shall show the true value or worthlessness of that which we have been building. A great part of the building that is going on is an unconscious operation, or nearly so. That which we knowingly build into ourselves is but a small part in the structure of our lives. A habit steals upon us with furtive steps, and embraces us with arms which are as soft as velvet but as strong as chains. We forget the work that has been wrought upon us in the past, because we were never distinctly conscious of its kind and extent. And so each man is a mystery to himself, an enigma in his own eyes. He feels that there is in him such a strange mixture that he is doubtful of himself, doubtful whether the gold or the alloy is in the larger proportion. Therefore the apostle exhorts us to take heed, to be vigilant, and as far as possible to know how we are building. For the daylight will break, and this compound structure which we call ourselves shall become more clearly defined by and by. (C. Short, M. A.)

Building men

St. Paul here calls himself a builder; and nothing could be more significant of the specific end he has in view than this word. The word build means work fitted to set up, to strengthen and establish. In this sense we see it illustrated in all the business and varied occupations of human life. The apostle, in his sphere as a preacher, was as much a builder as a carpenter, or a mason; for the work of an apostle was a most assured reality. It implied all the deep intensities of a most zealous soul in order to save and to bless.

I. What is a builder? A builder is one who brings together materials and adjusts them properly, in order to secure symmetry, strength, coherence, and beauty. A wise master-builder in Gods Church seeks soul after soul; its rescue from sin; so that each godly soul may take its proper place in the spiritual temple of the Lord Jesus. This process sets before us the vocation of a spiritual builder. He has two aims before him. His work is first to get hold of souls, and then, second, to fix them, as permanent parts or members of the Church of God.

1. This getting hold of souls is a great work, and success therein in the test of a real builder for God. For so great is the subtilty of Satan, and such is the hardness of the heart of man, that to effectually resist the one and to prevail with the other is the surest proof that the preacher is sent of God. No mere human learning, sense, skilfulness, or eloquence, can make a master-builder for God. No! He must have that spiritual magnetism by which one soul, strong in the might of God, can go out to another soul, and grapple with its guilt and hate, and overcome it by the love of Christ.

2. But souls, when saved, are to be fixed into the temple of God, as permanent parts or members thereof. Thus St. Paul tells the Ephesian Christians: Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of faith; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom, adds the apostle, all the building, fitly framed together, groweth into an holy temple in the Lord. Here we have this permanent abiding of saints, their fixedness in Gods Church, graphically set forth. So much, then, with regard to the qualities of a builder.

II. Let us now consider what is the obligation of being builders of souls. Surely, it is to be this, or else to be destroyers! In the universe of God there are two great principles ever antagonistic, one to the other; that which conserves, and that which destroys. And to one of these two classes every one of us belongs. There are, indeed, differences of character and degrees of depravity. See the singular light which comes upon this point from the narrative of the rich man and Lazarus. When you examine the character of Dives you can discover nothing prodigious in immorality. But during his lifetime he was not a builder for God. Self, and not God, was the mainspring of his being. His life work was not to save and bless. Hence he was ranked with the class of destructives in time, and sent to keep company with them in eternity! It is your duty not to be destroyers, but to be builders, consciously and with purpose. Note here what God is–a Builder; ever since, as a great Architect, he laid the foundations of the universe, and built all the great fabrics of His creation: the globe, beasts, birds, fishes, and man, the crown of all! And if this is the fashion of the Omnipotent being of God, what then should men be, who are His image and likeness? Ought we not to be builders, as God is? How otherwise shall we show our similitude to Him? The new creation, in Christ Jesus, for what is it wrought in us, if not to make us co-workers with Him? Join to this the testimony of your own nature. Look into your spiritual framework, and see that in every way, the soul of man was fitted in every attribute to be a builder of souls. What is the power of thought but a power formative in all its activities? What is reason but a constructive force? What imagination but a creative faculty? Our physical members are also formed for creative action. Take the hand, and mark its wonderful adaptedness to operations creative and fashioning. It can demolish. But every one sees that that is not its special vocation. It was made to construct. Hence, naturally from the functions of the hand have sprung up the divers formative trades of men, in clay, wood, leather, stones, and metals. But the hand of man, of itself, had no skilful cunning, no ingenious art. No more than the claw of a bird, or the foot of a squirrel or a rat. But the hand is the instrument and agent of the soul. And because the soul of man is a builder, therefore it is that there are carpenters and wheelwrights, blacksmiths and machinists, ship-builders, stonemasons and architects, painters and sculptors. But what are all these functions and faculties of men, compared with the grand creative power of God? God made man in His own image. But man fell into ruin; and then God began again the refashioning of humanity out of the ruins of the Fall. And ever since He has been building up man, by all the operations of the kingdom of grace; by the workings of the Spirit. But angels, and men too, are workers together with God, to the same gracious end. Jesus died to build men. For this purpose the Holy Ghost descended on the day of Pentecost. So again, to build men, the ministry was commissioned, and the Scriptures were given. As God is a builder of souls, so are all His disciples. And although ministers are set apart to special duty in this grand work of soul-building, the laity of the Church, in a subordinate way, are likewise called the same solemn vocation.

III. And now, lastly, let us consider the classes of persons we should build up.

1. First, of course, ourselves. It is a great trust to have souls. Broken and impaired as are the spirits of men, they show, even in fragmentary powers, the skill of a Divine architect.

2. Next to ourselves, are our kinsfolk and relatives to be built up in the faith of Jesus. It is our duty to strive to build up parents and children in the most holy faith; by all the several means of training and teaching, by admonition, by prayer and spiritual example. In the family relation this is, without doubt, the most obvious of all duties to train up our children and servants. Build them! that is the word; not tear them down to ruin by indifference, by carnal indulgence, by foolish vanity!

3. But besides kinsfolk and family, there is a further outer circle of human beings separate from ourselves, for Whom it is our duty to live, and our aim to build up in the temple of the Lord. So, then, it seems quite apparent that our life-work among our fellow-men is primarily, constructive and restorative. Christ came to seek and to save the lost.

Learn:

1. Do not destroy! Keep from ruining souls for whom Christ died! Do not destroy little children! Do not ruin women! Boys and girls, baptized into Christ, do not destroy! Nay, strive to save other boys and girls. Yea, all of you, do not destroy! Do not destroy by whisky or by wine! Do not destroy by cursing, nor by oaths! Do not destroy by scoffing or by filthy speech, or carousing.

2. Build! Strive to mould, to compact and strengthen the immortal spirits around you, that they may become powerful for Christ. Endeavour to root and ground every soul you meet in the truth. Labour to build men in the knowledge and love of Christ. Make it the aim of your life to strengthen and uphold, and build immortal souls. Build men! by speech, by influence, by godly example. Use every possible instrument and agency, both small and great, at all times, and in all places, in your families, in the world, at the workshop, on the highway or in the street, to save men, and to glorify Christ. (A. Crummell.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 10. As a wise master builder] . The design or plan of the building is from God; all things must be done according to the pattern which he has exhibited; but the execution of this plan was entrusted chiefly to St. Paul; he was the wise or experienced architect which God used in order to lay the foundation; to ascertain the essential and immutable doctrines of the Gospel-those alone which came from God, and which alone he would bless to the salvation of mankind.

Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.] Let him take care that the doctrines which he preaches be answerable to those which I have preached; let him also take heed that he enjoin no other practice than that which is suitable to the doctrine, and in every sense accords with it.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

According to the grace of God which is given unto me: here signifies either the ability which God hath given Paul to preach the gospel, or the apostolical office, to which God had called him; he maketh both to proceed from God, and to be the effects of his free love and favour to him. According to this he saith: Look,

as a wise master-builder first layeth the foundation, then buildeth upon the foundation which he hath laid; so

I, being the first whom God pleased to employ in this his work at Corinth, have laid the foundation, that is, have first preached the gospel in this famous city: thus the first preaching of the gospel is called, a laying the foundation, Rom 15:20; Heb 6:1.

Another buildeth thereon; afterwards Apollos and other ministers further carried on that work of preaching the gospel amongst them.

But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon; but (saith he) whoever cometh to preach after me had need take heed what he buildeth; for, Gal 1:8, though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

10. grace . . . given unto mePaulputs this first, to guard against seeming to want humility, inpronouncing himself “a WISEmaster builder,” in the clause following [CHRYSOSTOM].The “grace” is that “given” to him in common withall Christians (1Co 3:5), onlyproportioned to the work which God had for him to do [ALFORD].

wisethat is, skilful.His skill is shown in his laying a foundation. Theunskilful builder lays none (Lu6:49). Christ is the foundation (1Co3:11).

anotherwho ever comesafter me. He does not name Apollos; for he speaks generally ofall successors, whoever they be. His warning, “Let everyman (every teacher) take heed how,” c., refers to othersuccessors rather than Apollos, who doubtless did not, as they, buildwood, hay, &c., on the foundation (compare 1Co4:15). “I have done my part, let them who follow me see (sothe Greek for ‘take heed’) to theirs” [BENGEL].

howwith what material[ALFORD]. How far wisely,and in builder-like style (1Pe4:11).

buildeth thereuponHerethe building or superstructure raised on Christthe “foundation,” laid by Paul (1Co2:2) is not, as in Eph 2:20Eph 2:21, the Christian Churchmade up of believers, the “lively stones” (1Pe2:5), but the doctrinal and practical teaching which theteachers who succeeded Paul, superadded to his first teaching; notthat they taught what was false, but their teaching was subtle andspeculative reasoning, rather than solid and simple truth.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

According to the grace of God which is given unto me,…. Lest the apostle should be thought to be too much elated with the characters he had given of himself, and other ministers, or to assume too much to himself, in what he was about to say of himself, he ascribes all the gifts he had, and the usefulness he was of, as a labourer and builder in the church of God, to rich grace; by which he was called unto, and qualified for such work: as a wise master builder. This same phrase, , “a wise master builder”, is used by the Septuagint interpreters, in Isa 3:3 by which they render , “the cunning artificer”, or the wise man of the carpenters, or artificers. The architect of all is God the Father, Son, and Spirit; God the Father is the builder of all things; Christ builds his church on himself the rock; and the saints are built up an habitation for God, through the Spirit; ministers are builders under God, instruments he makes use of, and who would labour in vain, unless the Lord build the city: such an one was the apostle, though he calls himself a master builder with respect to inferior ministers; he being in the highest office in the church, as an apostle, and not a whit behind the chief of them; and was the chief apostle of the Gentiles, and was principally concerned in preaching the Gospel to them, and in raising churches among them. The allusion is to the Jews, who use to call the Rabbins and doctors, and the disciples of the wise men, “builders”: they ask in a certain place h, ,

“who are the builders? says R. Joehanna, these are the disciples of the wise men, who employ themselves in the building of the world all their days i.”

That is, the law, as one k of their writers explains this building; hence they are sometimes called builders of the law, and which was looked upon to be an high character: it is said l of a certain person, that

“R. Zeira praised him, and called him, , “a builder of the law.””

But the apostle was a Gospel builder, a builder of Gospel churches in Gospel truths, and in faith and holiness; these were foolish builders, but he a wise one; and his wisdom lay in the knowledge of Christ, in preaching him, and in winning souls unto him; and particularly in that he took care in his ministry, to lay a good foundation:

I have laid the foundation; meaning not only that as at other places, so at Corinth, he first preached the Gospel to them, and was the first instrument of their conversion, and laying the foundation of a Gospel church state; but that in his preaching he laid Christ as the one and only foundation, for men to build their faith and hope upon, for everlasting life and happiness, mentioned in the following verse:

and another buildeth thereupon; which designs not a private Christian, who was directed in the apostle’s ministry to build his soul upon the rock of ages, Christ the sure foundation laid in Zion; though there is a truth in this, the apostle laid Christ as a foundation, and encouraged others to build their faith and hope upon him, as to eternal salvation; and many were enabled to do so, which was the happy fruit of his ministry, and what gave him pleasure; and in this sense he also himself built upon this foundation, for this cannot be said of another, to the exclusion of himself; he would never lay a foundation, and direct others to build on it, and not build upon it himself; but another minister of the Gospel is meant, as Apollos, or any other who might follow him, and be a means of carrying on the building upon the foundation he had laid; and of edifying and establishing souls upon it; and of rearing up superstructure truths, upon the foundation one:

but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon; that he builds by line, evenly, according to the analogy of faith; that he builds in proportion to the foundation; and lays such things upon it as are becoming it, and suitable to it.

h T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 114. 1. i Jarchi, Maimon. Sampson, & Bartenora in Misn. Mikvaot, c. 9. sect. 6. k Juchasin, fol. 81. 1. l T. Hieros. Gittin, fol. 48. 4.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

As a wise masterbuilder ( ). Paul does not shirk his share in the work at Corinth with all the sad outcome there. He absolves Apollos from responsibility for the divisions. He denies that he himself is to blame. In doing so he has to praise himself because the Judaizers who fomented the trouble at Corinth had directly blamed Paul. It is not always wise for a preacher to defend himself against attack, but it is sometimes necessary. Factions in the church were now a fact and Paul went to the bottom of the matter. God gave Paul the grace to do what he did. This is the only New Testament example of the old and common word , our architect. is from , to beget, and means a begetter, then a worker in wood or stone, a carpenter or mason (Matt 13:55; Mark 6:3). – is an old inseparable prefix like (archangel), (archbishop), (chiefpriest). occurs in the papyri and inscriptions in an even wider sense than our use of architect, sometimes of the chief engineers. But Paul means to claim primacy as pastor of the church in Corinth as is true of every pastor who is the architect of the whole church life and work. All the workmen (, carpenters) work under the direction of the architect (Plato, Statesman, 259). “As a wise architect I laid a foundation” ( ). Much depends on the wisdom of the architect in laying the foundation. This is the technical phrase (Luke 6:48; Luke 14:29), a cognate accusative for . The substantive is from the same root as (–). We cannot neatly reproduce the idiom in English. “I placed a placing” does only moderately well. Paul refers directly to the events described by Luke in Ac 18:1-18. The aorist is the correct text, not the perfect .

Another buildeth thereon ( ). Note the preposition with the verb each time (1Cor 3:10; 1Cor 3:11; 1Cor 3:12; 1Cor 3:14). The successor to Paul did not have to lay a new foundation, but only to go on building on that already laid. It is a pity when the new pastor has to dig up the foundation and start all over again as if an earthquake had come.

Take heed how he buildeth thereon ( ). The carpenters have need of caution how they carry out the plans of the original architect. Successive architects of great cathedrals carry on through centuries the original design. The result becomes the wonder of succeeding generations. There is no room for individual caprice in the superstructure.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Grace. The special endowment for his apostolic work. Compare Rom 1:5, grace and apostleship : Rom 12:3, 6; Eph 3:7, 8.

Wise [] . Skillful. See on Jas 3:13.

Master – builder [] . Only here in the New Testament. “The architect does not work himself, but is the ruler of workmen” (Plato, “Statesman,” 259).

Foundation. The importance which Paul attached to the foundation was figured by the care employed in laying the foundation of the great Ephesian temple. “To avoid the danger of earthquakes, its foundations were built at vast cost on artificial foundations of skin and charcoal laid over the marsh” (Farrar).

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “According to the grace of God.” (kata ten charin tou theou) Paul attributes all that he was and did to be by the grace of God, imparted to him without personal merit, 1Co 15:10.

2) “Which is given unto me.” (ten dotheisan moi) “Which (grace) is given to me.” That grace to Paul was a personal gift he often acknowledged, Eph 3:2; Eph 3:7; 2Th 1:12.

3) “As a wise masterbuilder.” (hos sophos architekton) “as a wise architect,” Paul’s labors in Corinth were with the deliberate planning for the church’s growth that a good architect would use in planning and supervising a building on which his life’s reputation would be staked. He planned well.

4) I have laid the foundation.” (themelion etheka) “I laid a foundation.” Tho this church was not perfect, Paul was not ashamed of it for he had laid it in Christ, and according to His Word and Gospel, 1Co 1:17; 1Co 1:23; 1Co 11:1-2; 1Co 15:1-4.

5) “And another buildeth thereon.” (allos) “another” of the same mind or belief (de) “moreover” (Greek epoikodomei) “builds upon (it).” Paul did not resent faithful ministers who followed him at Corinth as Apollos, Timothy, and Titus. See the principle, Joh 4:34-37.

6) “But let every man take heed.” (hekastos; de blepeto) “however let each one cautiously look over or take heed.”

7) “How he buildeth thereon.” (pos epoikodomei) “How he builds on it.” It is not enough for one to build on Jesus Christ and through His Church, he must also do God’s work in God’s way, 1Co 11:2; Act 20:28-32. No man is crowned except he strive lawfully (2Ti 2:5).

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

10. As a wise master-builder It is a most apt similitude, and accordingly it is frequently met with in the Scriptures, as we shall see ere long. Here, however, the Apostle declares his fidelity with great confidence and fearlessness, as it required to be asserted in opposition not merely to the calumnies of the wicked, but also to the pride of the Corinthians, who had already begun to despise his doctrine. The more, therefore, they lowered him, so much the higher does he raise himself up, and speaking as it were from a pulpit of vast height, he declares (171) that he had been the first master-builder of God among them in laying the foundation, and that he had with wisdom executed that department of duty, and that it remained that others should go forward in the same manner, regulating the superstructure in conformity with the rule of the foundation. Let us observe that these things are said by Paul first of all for the purpose of commending his doctrine, which he saw was despised by the Corinthians; and, secondly, for the purpose of repressing the insolence of others, who from a desire for distinction, affected a new method of teaching. These he accordingly admonishes to attempt nothing rashly in God’s building. Two things he prohibits them from doing: they must not venture to lay another foundation, and they must not raise a superstructure that will not be answerable to the foundation.

According to the grace He always takes diligent heed not to usurp to himself a single particle of the glory that belongs to God, for he refers all thing’s to God, and leaves nothing to himself, except his having been an instrument. While, however, he thus submits himself humbly to God, he indirectly reproves the arrogance of those who thought nothing of throwing the grace of God into the shade, (172) provided only they were themselves held in estimation. He hints, too, that there was nothing of the grace of the Spirit in that empty show, for which they were held in esteem, while on the other hand he clears himself from contempt, on the ground of his having been under divine influence. (173)

(171) “ I1 leur fait assavoir, et declare fort et ferme :” — “He gives them to know, and declares strongly and firmly.”

(172) “ Ne faisoyent point de conscience d’amoindrir ou offusquer la grace de Dieu;” — “Made no scruple of disparaging or obscuring the grace of God.”

(173) “ Monstrant, quant a luy qu’il a este pousse et conduit de Dieu, il se defend et maintient contre tout mepris;” — “Showing, as to himself, that he had been led on and conducted by God, he guards and defends himself against all contempt.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES

1Co. 3:10.Was given I laid, q.d. when I was at Corinth. A foundation, which I subjectively laid in my teaching at Corinth, because God had already laid the same objectively in heaven (Evans). Laid objectively for the whole Church in the Great Facts [by God], laid subjectively in the hearts of the Christians at Corinth as the firm ground of their personal hopes by Paul (Beet).

1Co. 3:11-15.See Homiletic Analysis; also Appended Note. No valid analogy to warrant the application of this to the doctrine of Purgatory. This rests upon (a) the distinction drawn between venial and mortal sins with temporal and eternal penalties attached, and (b) the doctrine of merit. The temporal penalty of sins not paid off at the date of death must be paid up in Purgatory fire. The accumulated stock of merit, of Christ and the saintsa surplus beyond their own requirementsmay be drawn upon by an indulgence, and the amount be applied to reducing the purgatorial term.

HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.1Co. 3:10-15

Work tried by Fire.

I. The imagery employed.Ancient cities, and some modern ones (e.g. St. Petersburg), not so sharply divided into rich quarters and poor quarters as often the case with us. Houses of highest and humblest much more closely associated and intermingled. Palace and hovel might literally jostle. Buildings adorned with costly marbles [=precious stones], perhaps made priceless by the lavished art of the sculptor, stood surrounded with (sometimes literal lean-to) houses of stucco, of wood, or even of clay, thatched with hay and stubble, the houses of the artisan, the poor, the slave. St. Paul sees the work of a great fire, such as that which under Nero was made the occasion of a great persecution of the Christians, or that which a century before, on the capture of Corinth itself by Memmius, had laid the city in ruin. [Not to be made too precise, but may be conceived of thus:] The fire breaks out (say) at midnight, in some obscure dwelling, and quickly reduces to a heap of ashes the frail tenement of wood, hay, stubble. It catches adjoining houses; the winds fan and spread the flames, till a whole quarter of the city is wrapped in a conflagration which seems to Paul a fit emblem of the fires of The Day of all days, Gods Day of testing and doom. In the morning little knots of curious spectators and of sufferers wander about the ruins, discussing the work of the night. The slave is looking for his house of wood, hay, stubble. It stood there where that heap of ashes lies. He stirs them with his foot, and lays bare the stone foundations still unconsumed. The fire could not touch those. And, like many more, the homeless man recounts to any sympathetic listeners how his own life and that of his family are all they could save out of the wreck and loss of all. They were awakened, perhaps, and saved at the very last moment, saved through the fire. Another little group gathers round the stronger-built and still-standing stone walls of a better class of house. Stucco, woodwork, ornament have perished; but the man who built it has his reward for the money and pains spent over his substantial walls. There is something, more or less, to begin with, in restoring his ruined house. Close by stands a temple or a palace, as if almost contemptuous of its ruined neighbours, as it stands in the isolation of its survival. It has passed through the ordeal almost unscathed. Contents uninjured; cunning works of the goldsmith; spoils of conquered nations,all untouched by the fire. Its costly marbles and statues within have not felt it. Its strong walls, besmirched with smoke indeed, have defied the flames. That builder, too, has his reward. He built with good material; it stands the fire.

II. Pauls use of the imagery.

1. In the course of a somewhat lengthy stay in the city, Paul had founded the Church of Corinth. No man could pretend to dispute or share with him the honour of being the master-builder, the first to preach Christ in the city. Some little time after his departure, he sent over from Ephesus his friend Apollos to carry on the work. Apollos, an Alexandrian Jew, worked in perfect harmony of heart and aim after Paul; but perhaps felt himself more free than Paul had done to use the Alexandrian rhetoric and human learning in setting forth the Gospel. Every Greek was a born politician, or at least a born party man; the Corinthian Church early showed the effects of this partisan spirit within its membership. Parties sprang up with mens names for their badges. [Little schisms Paul calls them, dissidences within the body, not yet grown to separations from it.] Whether we have the exact names 1Co. 4:6 perhaps makes a little doubtful, nor is it clear that Pauls list is exhaustive. Yet the characteristics and tendencies of the parties may be easily gathered.

2. There was an Apollos party. They liked such rhetoric as Apollos gave them, and chose to think their intelligence flattered by what of philosophy he may have employed in the shaping of the truth. Their danger was perhaps (e.g. in 1 Corinthians 15) to exalt reason at the expense of faith; we may not unreasonably think that in trying to be philosophical Christians they were denying or refining away the facts and doctrines of the Gospel, frittering away their power, or rejecting them as contrary to reason. It might not to be an unwarrantable borrowing of a modern name to call them the rationalising party at Corinth.

3. There was a Cephas party, belonging to that wing of the Christian Church who had been Jews, and whom at this period of Pauls life we everywhere find dogging his footsteps, denying his Apostolic standing, often defaming his character. These at Corinth glorified Peter,no, Cephas. Call him by his honest Hebrew name! Old school men, who could not so rapidly or readily unlearn as Paul had done the habits and training and teaching of years; who mistrusted him as sadly radical; who, though Christians, sought to enforce upon the Gentiles the worn-out ritual of Moses law and the now meaningless circumcision. Old style, conservative men, with a leaning to ceremonialism. The ritual party.
4. No, said another party. We stand by Paul. He will have none of your Law for Christians. We will have none of it. He is a liberty man. We are liberty men too. Only, where he meant the formal law of Moses, they meant the very principle of law itself. When he taught liberty, they interpreted licence, and some lived licentiousness. The Christian Church from the beginning has always had some too liberal in thought and in practice.
5. Yet one party more. They owned no human teacher, indeed. They had climbed to a sublime, serene height far above where their poor, misguided brethren were rallying round, and fighting over, this man or that, Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas. Possibly hyper-conservatives, fresh from the Lords brother, James, in Jerusalem; at all events, they said, We are of Christ! A beautiful party-cry; very attractive to the unwary and simple-hearted. But when it means Christ as we understand Him it is not quite so beautiful.
6. So, then, to the Church at Corinth had happened on a small scale what has been happening in the Church of Christ ever since. These were all Christians as yet. The differences between them and their heathen or Jewish neighbours were far greater than those which distinguished them from each other. All acknowledged one Divine Head, and had some great doctrines connected with Him as a bond of union. But some of them were building up the Church [and Christian lives] with doctrine and practice which Paul regarded as wood, hay, stubble; useless at best, and sure to perish in The Day, when Gods judgment should try every mans work, of what sort it is. Some there were, he knew, who happily were building after his own heart and judgment, gold, silver, precious stone. Great should be their reward! Some also there were whose work gave him only mingled satisfaction. Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour, partly according to how much he has done, but still more according to what kind of work he has done. Of those for whom he feared that they should find the labour of their life wasted, yet he hoped they should at least save themselves, if even like men snatched out of the flames which left them nothing but their foundation and their lives. [The opening words of the paragraph suggest:] Woe to any builders whose work should really be a disturbing of the very Foundation itself, other than which none may lay a basis for faith, or life, or hope.

7. These Church parties at Corinth were our modern Churches and sects in miniature. The causes at work at Corinth have never ceased to work wherever we have Christian men, until we have a Christianity not even outwardly at one. Yet we need to give Pauls recognition that they are nearer to each other than to the world outside. Their unity is a more striking and deep thing than their diversities. They are one Church still. The broadest and deepest diversities at Corinth were still within the Church, insomuch as they were only surface cleavages; they did not run down into the foundation. That was one. Men weep because there is not external unity of all the Churches in one communion. As well weep that the sapling, which a thousand years ago was one simple undivided stem, has branched out into the oak with its hundred arms, many of them really big trees themselves. The branching is an inevitable consequence of life. And the tree is one at stock and root. Minds will always differ in cast and capacity. Training is of endless diversity. Race will make a difference. No one man ever sees the whole round of a truth; hardly any one Church or age does; no two ever see the same phase of presentation of it. There will always be men liable to pay too great honour to Reason; always some too ready to insist upon and overvalue Ceremonial. Reasons convincing to one do not appeal to another. An order of service not to the taste of one suits another and helps him. And so on, in endless diversity. What then? Recognise the fact that the diversity is a necessity. It has often become an evil; it need not be, and will not be, when men become broad as Paul, and recognise other patterns of doctrine and life and church order as all fairly to be included in the One Church. 8. It were a good thing for some to be as narrow as Paul about the One Foundation. It is unreal liberality to attempt to include within the Christian Church both those whose Christ is God-man, the Fathers equal and mans fellow, Messiah of the Jews, Mediator for the Race, and, on the other side, those whose Jesus is at the highest a creature whom His Creator could annihilate, and who was perhaps a mere man, who might or even did make mistakes, a man not superior to Paul, and to whom Christianity owes not more than it does to Paul. Their status and acceptance before God depend on other considerations, but they are not on the Foundation in Pauls sense. The lesson of the paragraph is not indifference to what a man believes, or what his neighbour believes, or how he works or worships. Each should be honest and earnest in accepting and living and defending that special aspect or portion of The Truth, which he or his Church sees. Experience shows that, as a rule, they do most for the broad work of Christ who work with a fixed creed and with a definite Church attachment. Each should give and claim equal recognition. The paragraph teaches charity, since experience also teaches that perfectly honest church-and creed-builders have built in what others saw clearly was wood, hay, stubble, and have rejected what some saw was precious stone, if not gold or silver, of system and doctrine. Probably no uninspired teacher ever built upon the One Foundation nothing but what would endure the fire.

III. A personal application of the words lies not far from this.

1. If a man is to be saved in The Day of Gods judgment, Christ must be the foundation of his life. Saved and perishing (2Co. 2:15) mingle together it the closest intercourse of life, with closest similarity of outward course and bearing. Indeed, sometimes the balance of amiability or of strict probity seems to be on the side of the perishing. What is there to make Pauls classification so sharply definite?

2. Dig down to the foundations of the two lives.In the man really being saved this is the starting-point: Time was when he felt himself a sinner, guilty before God, and his heart full of sin. He cast himself on Gods mercy in Christ; he was forgiven; ever since, the Spirit has dwelt in him, doing something towards cleansing the heart, and putting there a new motive for all he does and feelslove to God who gave him Christ. If not, he is not a Christian. Others are perishing, because, go back far as we will, dig down deeply as we may, we cannot find that. There never was the fundamental experience of sin and of faith in Christ as the spiritual man understands them. Reform may only be throwing the arch of a culvert over the sin of the past and the sin of the heart; the man covered up his past and began to build the new life over it. But there, lowest of all, are the past and the sin, not Christ and His atonement. The other foundation and beginning of all life-building is Rock! [Turning over a new leaf is a good thing if it do not mean simply fastening down the old, without having first the record blotted out.] The superstructure of Eddystone Lighthouse was good enough when it was removed a few years ago; but the sea was undermining the foundation. A good superstructure upon a good foundation: lesson the first.

3. Then build something upon the foundation.See in the suburbs of growing towns unfinished property. Walls of a certain height, but left unfinished; perhaps hardly more than the foundations got in when the money failed. Ground lies waste; weeds grow, rubbish accumulates, till it becomes difficult to see without some search whether there are any foundations at all. Like some lives. The true foundation was made right some years ago, but scarcely anything has been put upon it since. The accumulations of a worldly life have gathered, until an observerand perhaps the man himselfhardly knows whether the foundations are still there. Rear a Christian character; build a superstructure of work for Christ. No better evidence that the foundation is there, and is sound, than the growing, fair superstructure. Build something. Some builders never get very far. What they build is goodstone, if not gold or silver, but it never amounts to much. A days unfaithfulness pulls down a weeks building. Sinning and repenting. Ever learning, never coming to the knowledge of the truth.

4. Build something every day.How did Michael Angelo accomplish so much? Nulla dies sine linea! he replied. No day without something which will endure the testing fire: this will be the secret of some very unobtrusive, little-noticed lives which by-and-by are crowned with large reward when the reward is according to the workin amount as well as quality (cf. supra).

5. Test all employments by this.Will they stand the fire? Do they now help towards an abiding, thorough Christian character? Or are the things I have done to-day mere wood, hay, stubble, sure to perish?

6. Build something to-day; at least, find the foundation to-day.If to lay the one and only foundation [so far as we can be said to lay it at all] were the last act of a wasted life, the builder should escape saved as by fire. But it would be a very unworthy use to make of Christ and His salvation. To-day.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Appleburys Comments

The Church is the Temple of God (1017)

Text

1Co. 3:10-17. According to the grace of God which was given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. 11 For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; 13 each mans work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each mans work of what sort it is. 14 If any mans work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any mans work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire. 16 Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye.

Commentary

According to the grace of God.Paul looked upon his ministry as favor God had extended to him. His attitude was one of humility. His example would have helped the church to see the error of dividing the body of Christ through exalting one leader above another.

a wise masterbuilder.Paul had spoken of himself in relation to the church as a minister (deacon) of Christ. In 1Co. 4:15, he refers to himself as a teacher and father. The figure of masterbuilder fits this context since the church is presented as a temple. But he is a wise masterbuilder. As the apostle of Christ, he spoke the revealed wisdom of God rather than the wisdom of men. The foundation of the temple of God could not be laid in any other way, for it was God who was building the church through His workers.

I laid a foundation.The Corinthians are reminded that the foundation of their Christian life was laid by one who knew how to lay a proper foundation, Their spiritual immaturity could not be blamed on the foundation or the one who laid it. Paul laid the foundation by preaching Christ and Him crucified (1Co. 2:2); by showing that it was necessary to believe the word of the cross in order to be saved (1Co. 1:21); by instructing the believer to be baptized, not in his but in the name of Christ (1Co. 1:14; 1Co. 10:1-2; 1Co. 12:13).

another buildeth thereon.This is a reference to Apollos and other faithful teachers like him who instructed the new converts at Corinth. It has nothing to do with false teachers or to building on a false foundation.

let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon.It was just as important for the builder of the superstructure to exercise every care in his work as it was for the one who laid the foundation. The foundation that Paul laid was the true foundation. That, however, did not guarantee the success of the building that was to be erected upon it. Consequently, the apostle warns other faithful teachers to take heed as to kind of building materials (disciples) they use.

foundation . . . is Jesus Christ.The temple of God can have only one foundation, Jesus Christ. The rock upon which Jesus said He would build His church is the truth that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peters own statement should be considered when interpreting what Jesus said to him (Mat. 16:18). He speaks of the Lord as a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God, elect, precious (1Pe. 2:4-8). See also Isa. 28:16 and Psa. 118:22 from which Peter quotes. In the light of these remarks, it is difficult to see how Peter could be considered as the foundation of the church. The reference to the foundation of the apostles and prophets in Eph. 2:20 is to the foundation which they laid by preaching the Word.

gold, silver, costly stones; wood, hay, stubble.These are the two classes of building materials. One is fireproof, the other will burn; one is costly, the other is relatively inexpensive. The point of the apostles concern, however, is their ability to withstand fire. These building materials represent two classes of disciples a teacher may have. Some are like fireproof materials for they will withstand the fiery trials through which they are to pass. Others are like wood that can be destroyed by fire. They will not stand the trials that come upon them to prove them (1Pe. 4:12-13).

the day will declare it.Of course, each one will face the Day of Judgment and give account of the deeds done in the body (2Co. 5:10). But in all probability, the day to which Paul is referring is the Christian life with its fiery trials. In Pauls time, many were called upon to give their lives for their faith in Christ. Some were burned at the stake; some were tortured to death; some fought with wild beasts in the arena to the amusement of heartless spectators. The ancient martyrs, of course, were not the only ones to face persecution for the sake of Christ. The test that comes to most Christians today is the test, not of dying, but of living for Christ. We are reminded of the trials of Israel in the wilderness that caused many of them to fail to enter the Promised Land (1Co. 10:5-10). For a list of the sufferings of Paul, see 2Co. 11:24-28 and 1Co. 4:9-13.

the fire will prove each mans work.The trials of the Christian life will demonstrate what sort the teachers disciples are. Will they be destroyed like wood, hay and stubble, or will they withstand the fiery trials like gold, silver and costly stones? This was the problem at Corinth. The foundation had been laid by Paul. Apollos and others like him had continued to instruct the new converts. But they had not grown to maturity; they were filled with jealousy and strife; they were a disappointment to their teachers; they were not standing the test.

if any mans work shall abide.The task of the faithful teacher is not completely discouraging. Apollos and others like him could look with confidence to the faithful endurance of trials by some of those who had been instructed in the gospel by them.

Gods Word is complete in matters pertaining to life and godliness (2Pe. 1:3). It tells how to become a Christian and how to live the Christian life. It furnishes the Christian with the whole armor of God that he may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil (Eph. 6:11). It equips him with the shield of faith with which he is able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one (Eph. 6:16). Paul warns against overconfidence, but he also shows that the way of escape has been provided that the man of faith may be able to endure the trials of the Christian life (1Co. 10:12-13). Peter points out the course to follow to make sure of entering the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2Pe. 1:5-11).

he shall receive a reward.The reward that the faithful teacher receives is the joy of knowing that he has been faithful to the Lord and the joy of seeing those whom he has instructed serving Christ, remaining true to Him through the trials of life (Php. 4:1).

if any mans work shall be burned.Even faithful teachers cannot be sure that those whom they instruct will withstand the fiery trials. Jesus faced this in His ministry. Judas betrayed Him; Peter denied Him. At one time, the crowds who had been fed on the loaves and fishes deserted Him to such an extent that He said to the apostles who remained with Him, You wouldnt go away also, would you? (Joh. 6:66-69) Paul wrote with an evident note of sadness of Demas who had forsaken him because he loved this present age (2Ti. 4:10). The writer of Hebrews warns of the peril of those who were once enlightened and then fell away (Heb. 6:4-8).

he shall suffer loss.The teacher should do everything possible to help those whom he instructs to stand the trials of the Christian life. Nothing short of declaring the whole counsel of God will accomplish this (Act. 20:27).

Perhaps teachers should ask themselves if they are like the father Jesus mentioned who, when his son asked for bread, gave him a stone (Mat. 7:9-10). But the teacher will suffer loss if the pupils fail. That loss may be the grief over the unfaithful one as opposed to the joy over those who remain true; it may be the loss of time and effort that could have been spent on others who might have responded more favorably. It is a hard thing for a teacher to know when to apply the rule Jesus gave when He said, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs; neither cast your pearls before swine, lest haply they trample them under foot and turn and rend you (Mat. 7:6).

be himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire.The teachers own his own faithfulness to Christ. He too faces trials and hardships, dissalvation does not depend on the faithfulness of his disciples, but on couragements and heartaches. Thus he is to be saved as through fire just as anyone else.

ye are a temple of God.All that the apostle had said about builders, foundations, and buildings is suddenly focused on the Corinthians themselves. Dont you know that you are Gods temple? Evidently they were not aware of it. The church to them was more like an ordinary political assembly. They had failed to see that it was the assembly of those who had been called out of the world of sinners by the preaching of the gospel to enjoy the rights and privileges of free citizens of the kingdom of heaven. How could they have missed this when they had been taught the revealed wisdom of God by His inspired apostle? But they did.

This rebuke is probably the strongest blow the apostle strikes against the sin of division. What an awful thing that they should desecrate the spiritual temple of God! The desecration of the Jews temple by Antiochus Epiphanes is one of the outstanding atrocities visited upon ancient Israel. See 1Ma. 1:1-64. This pagan ruler dared to change the laws of God pertaining to worship and sacrifice. It was especially insulting to the Jews and to their God for him to order them to use swines flesh in their sacrifices. The cleansing and rededication of the temple following this incident was commemorated by the Jews in the feast of dedication (Joh. 10:22).

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus went to Jerusalem for the passover feast. There He found that men had turned the sacred area of the temple into a place of merchandise (Joh. 2:13-16). He cleansed the temple and reminded the people that they were not to make His Fathers house a house of merchandise. But in three short years it had again been put to the same use. Jesus cleansed the temple again and said to the money-changers, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer (Mat. 21:12-12).

Wicked as all these sinful deeds were, they did not compare with the sin of division that was destroying Gods temple, the church. The solution to the problem of division in Corinth begins with the correct view of the church as Gods temple. Paul speaks of it as the temple where the Spirit of God dwells. To profane this temple is to deserve the destruction that will surely come to the guilty ones.

the Spirit of God dwells in you.It will help us to understand this expression if we look at the camp of Israel with the tabernacle in its midst. The tabernacle was called the tent of meeting because God met His people there, and through His appointed servant, Moses, He spoke to them, giving direction for conduct that would let the nations about them know that He was the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel. The ark of the covenant which was kept in the holy of holies further emphasizes the presence of God in the midst of His people. Within the ark, among other things, the tables of the law were kept. Through the law Israel was taught that they should love God with all the heart, soul, and mind, and that they should also love their neighbors as themselves (Mat. 22:37-40).

When Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem that took the place of the tabernacle, he made it a thing of splendor, fitting, within the limits of human endeavor, as a house of God. But long after that, Stephen said, Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in houses made with hands for heaven is His throne and the earth His footstool (Act. 7:48-49).

The church that honors God by exalting Christ; that obeys His Word rather than the doctrines of men; that is transformed by the renewing of the mind so that the members approve the will of God, the thing that is good, complete, and acceptable to Him (Rom. 12:1-2) can truly say that God is in its midst. See comment on 1Co. 6:19-20 where the body of the believer is called the temple of the Holy Spirit.

If any man destroyeth the temple of God.In a sense, the church cannot be destroyed because it is divine. Paul said he made havoc of the church, that is, he was attempting to do so by persecuting the church (Gal. 1:13). But it is true that the effectiveness of the church can be destroyed by the sin of division. The sin of division dishonors Christ, the head of the church; it dims the glory of the church, the bride of Christ; it tends to neutralize the message of the church, the gospel of Christ; it weakens the believers who are members of the body of Christ.

him shall God destroy.For the fate of the Israelites who displeased God, see 1Co. 10:5-10. For the fate of those who trample under foot the Son of God, see Heb. 10:28-31. For the punishment of the sin of Nadab and Abihu, see Lev. 10:1-3. For the punishment of Uzzah who acted with every good intention when he touched the ark in violation of Gods law, see 2Sa. 6:6-7. For the story of Uzziah the presumptuous king who undertook to perform the task of the priest contrary to Gods law and was punished by being stricken with leprosy unto the day of his death, see 2Ch. 26:16-21.

Paul declares that God will destroy those who attempt to destroy His temple, the church. This should make the promoters of division stop and think. God has never permitted man to desecrate holy things and go unpunished.

such are ye.What an exalted view of the church this isye are the temple of God! But how could the apostle refer to people who were so far from the ideal of Christ as the temple of God? Perhaps it was to remind them of what God intended them to be, that is, new creatures washed in the blood of Christ (1Co. 6:11). Perhaps it also expressed the hope of the apostle that they would respond to the instruction for overcoming their spiritual immaturity.

As to a practical application of this important point, think of the church today with its many divisions often warring against each other rather than carrying on the good fight of the faith (1Ti. 6:12). But concerned men are doing much to lead the church toward the goal for which Christ prayed when all who believe on Him through the word of the apostles may be one (Joh. 17:21). Men who have caught the vision of the church as the temple of God are pleading for the restoration of the church that is described in the New Testament in its doctrine, its ordinances, and in its life. A return to the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ (2Co. 11:3) would present the church, even today, as the glorious church Christ intended it to be.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(10) According to the grace of God.The Apostle being about to speak of himself as a wise masterbuilder, takes care by commencing his statement with these words to show that he is not indulging in self-laudation, but merely pointing out what God had given him the grace to do. (See Rom. 1:5; Rom. 12:3.)

Wisei.e., skilful or judicious.

Another buildeth thereon.The sequence of the work here is the same as in the planting and watering of the previous illustration. The use of the indefinite word another avoids what might be considered the invidiously frequent repetition of the name of Apollos, and also indicates that there were others also who came after Paul, as is evident from 1Co. 4:15. (See Rom. 15:20.)

But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.Better, But let each one see in what manner he buildeth thereon. The argument in this and the following verse is that there can be only one foundation in the spiritual buildingnamely, the personal Jesus Christ. That foundation the Apostle has laid. None can alter it or add to it as a foundation; but there may be an immense variety in the materials with which those who come after the laying of the foundation may build up the superstructure. Therefore their own work and how they build (i.e., with what materials), and not the one foundation once for all and unalterably laid, should be the subject of their thought and care.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

10. Wise master-builder At the proper time Paul does not hesitate to style himself a sophos a wise.

I laid another Nor does he at all abdicate his prerogative as founder.

But From this point commences a solemn caution to ministers, even who build on Christ as their foundation, what structure of doctrine, or morals, or churchdom they build thereon. The fire of the judgment day will test whether its materials be combustible. If so, the building will be burned up; yet the builder, as having built on Christ, will escape, like a householder, through the conflagration of his home, losing all else, but saving his life. All this, and what follows to 1Co 4:6, Paul figuratively speaks as in the persons of himself and Apollos, 1Co 3:4-8; but it is equally applicable to all other preachers and to all ministers in all ages.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘According to the grace (of God) which was given to me, I laid a foundation like a wise master-builder, and another builds on it. But let each man be very careful how he builds on it.’

Following up the illustration Paul sees himself as the wise master-builder. This is a reminder of the high position God has given him. He is not inferior to these other preachers some of whom make so much of themselves. The master builder was in overall control with many builders under him. By ‘wise’ he probably means expert and efficient while also having in mind his previous references to God’s wisdom. He ensures that he builds as a good master builder and builds in accordance with God’s true wisdom. Along with his helpers, for as a master builder he has others working with him, he has laid a sound foundation, and he intends to use sound materials. Then others (in this case including Apollos by name) build on it. Each is hopefully doing the work of God, and each has one purpose in mind, to work with the others in making the building the best that it can be for God. Thus the picture in context is of spiritual teaching which will strengthen and establish the church of God, commencing with vital first principles as a foundation (the preaching of the cross, and the crucified One – 1Co 1:17-18; 1Co 2:2) and going on with further spiritual teaching, but not being too taken up with secondary matters. They are to plan their activity with greatest care under the guidance of God.

‘According to the grace of God which was given to me.’ Paul reminds them of his special calling, while recognising that it was all of God. He had been especially chosen as the master builder, and God had uniquely called him so that even the twelve Apostles had acknowledged his equality with them in taking the Gospel to the Gentiles (Gal 2:8-9; Rom 11:13). He was not arrogant at the thought of being a preacher, and especially of being a church founder, he was humbled by the thought. He recognises what a great privilege it was. And he recognises that he did not deserve it. In fact the opposite (1Co 15:9). It was all of the unmerited favour of God freely bestowed on him, and what had been accomplished was also all His doing.

And not only so, he also recognises his continued dependence on that grace, that unmerited favour of God for he knows that he can do nothing without it (if only the others would do the same).

‘The grace (of God).’ P46 omits ‘of God’, and so does Clement when citing it. For when Paul speaks of God’s grace, His undeserved active favour, towards individuals he does not usually include the genitive (Rom 12:3; Gal 2:9). But the idea is always implicit.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

1Co 3:10 . The former of these images ( .) has been the underlying thought in what has hitherto been said (1Co 3:6-8 ); the second and new figure ( .) is now retained in what follows up to 1Co 3:15 , the course of thought being this, that Paul, first of all, states the difference between his own work and that of others at this building, and then passes on to the responsibility which he who would build after him takes upon himself.

The is not the apostolic office , with which Paul was graced (Rom 12:3 ; Rom 15:15 ; Gal 1:15 , al [499] ), for it was not exclusively an apostle who was required for the founder of a church (Rome, Colossae), but the special endowment of grace , which he had received from God to fit him for his calling; and he was conscious in himself that he was qualified and destined just for the right laying of the foundation , Rom 15:20 .

The significant weight of the words . is to express humility in making the utterance which follows. Comp Chrysostom and Theophylact.

.] proceeding as such an one would, going to work in this capacity. To it belongs the right laying of the foundation in strict accordance with the design of the building, the reverse of which would be the part of an unskilful architect. Without a foundation no man builds; without a proper foundation no , i.e. no one who understands the art (Exo 35:10 ). Comp Plato, Phil. p. 17 C, de virt. p. 376 A; Pind. Pyth. iii. 115, v. 115; Soph. Ant. 362. But Paul by the grace of God was a .

What he understands by such a foundation, he himself tells us in 1Co 3:11 , namely, Jesus Christ , without whom (both in an objective sense: without whose appearing and work, and in a subjective : without appropriating whom in conscious faith; see 1Co 3:11 ) a Christian society could not come into existence at all. This foundation Paul had laid , inasmuch as he had made Christ to be possessed by the conscious faith of the Corinthian church . Comp on Eph 2:20 .

] The masculine (see 1Co 3:11 ; hence wrongly held by Ewald to be neuter here), attributed by the old grammarians to the (see Wetstein on 1Co 3:11 ), is commonly found only in the plural, and that as early as Thuc. i. 93. 1. In the singular, 2Ti 2:19 ; Rev 21:19 ; Machon in Athen. viii. p. 346 A ; 3 Esdr. 6:20.

.] By this is meant not merely Apollos, but any later teacher of the Corinthians whatever (comp ): “Not my task, however, but that of another, is the building up, the carrying on the building .”

] i.e. here: with what materials . [504] See 1Co 3:12-13 . Without figurative language: “ Let each take heed what sort of doctrine (as regards substance and form) he applies, in order to advance and develope more fully the church, founded upon Jesus Christ, in its saving knowledge and frame of life .” See on 1Co 3:12 . The figure is not changed , as has been often thought (“Ante fideles dixerat aedificium Dei, nunc aedificium vocat ea, quae in ecclesia Christiana a doctoribus docentur,” Grotius; comp Rosenmller); but the is, as before, the church , which, being founded upon Christ (see above), is further built up, i.e. developed in the Christian faith and life (which may take place in a right or a wrong way, see 1Co 3:12-13 ), by the teachings of the later teachers. In like manner is a house built up by the different building-materials upon the foundation laid for it.

[499] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.

[504] According to de Wette, the force of the consists primarily in this, that they simply carry on the building, and do not alter the foundation (which was probably done by the opponents of the apostle). But the carrying on of the building, so far as that is concerned, is presupposed in .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

1Co 3:10-23

10. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

13. Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire: and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

14. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

15. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

17. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

18. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

20. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

21. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;

22. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

23. And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

The Fiery Test

Paul does not say that he was a wise masterbuilder, although at first reading of these words it would appear as if he made that representation of himself. Rather he says, My pattern was that of a man who builds wisely; I copied him, I followed his example, I saw how particular he was about the foundation: in that respect I thought his action worthy of repetition. “I had laid the foundation.” Let there be no mistake about this statement: Paul did nothing of the kind, in the sense which obviously attaches to these words. He himself corrects that impression, for he says, “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid.” In the prophecies of Isaiah we had a distinct declaration on the part of God himself that he, not man, laid in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, elect, precious, a sure foundation. The foundation therefore is of God’s laying, but there is a foundation upon a foundation in a sense that must be obvious to experienced men. There is the first line of doctrine, of holy teaching, of moral suggestion, and of heavenly expostulation and exhortation. Paul shows how to begin to build. Man has his foundation to lay upon the foundation that is already laid. If the human builder gets wrong in the first course which he lays, what will be the fate of the superstructure but hideousness, want of proper geometric form and relation, and ultimate down-throwing and destruction? Every man is to take heed how he builds upon the foundation. Although the foundation is of infinite importance it is not everything. The foundation is a word not complete in itself; it is a suggestive word, it has necessary consequents, and if those consequents be not followed out the foundation is misunderstood and dishonoured. If we have beginnings granted unto us the suggestion is that we must accept them as such and work upon them. When the Lord starts a man in life he gives him something to begin with, some talent, faculty, power keen insight, imagination, strong understanding, wonderful power of endurance; he does not give all these probably to any one man, but one of these or more he gives to every man to begin the world with. What is the meaning? That we are to go forth and develop what we start with. So when a foundation is supplied we are to build upon it.

We are to do more than build upon the foundation, we are to take heed how we build, how, as to material; how, as to industry; how, as to the importance we attach to the structure. We are not to go through the building as hastily as we can and fly to ignoble rest; we are to live in our work, we are to be dominated by one grand and worthy idea, we are to be known as God’s builders and God’s building. Is the exhortation addressed to ministers? Some commentators think so; I cannot wholly follow their reasoning or accept their conclusions: but those who take that view represent the ministry as a building, an organisation; the foundation is laid, and pastors put upon the foundation such material as they can lay their hands upon, gold, silver, precious stones; wood, hay, stubble; so that in some instances the Church looks noble, grand, wholly worthy within given limits of the Lord who is the foundation, the topstone, and the pinnacle of the building. In some aspects the Church looks lovely. Men gaze upon the marvellous structure, beautiful as a dream, substantial as the stars, and they say, Gold, silver, precious stones: how beautiful, how delightful, how worthy of the purpose! Standing at another point of view, men say, How poor the Church is, a miserable hut, unworthy of our age, wood, hay, stubble! Both the criticisms would be correct; neither perhaps would be complete without the other. Life itself is a mixture; every man is himself a contradiction: what wonder if the Church of God should present many and contrary aspects to anxious beholders? Why should not the exhortation apply rather to Christian men who are building themselves upon the foundation that is laid in Zion? Taking it in this way, what a practical doctrine Paul is preaching! He says, You have nothing to do with the foundation but to accept it; you must, however, begin the moment you touch the foundation to take heed how you build; it is not enough to get through your time, we are not working as hirelings, we should take some conscious pride in our work; everything we do should be the best we can do at that moment; not the best that is possible, because sometimes possibility itself is overlaid with burdens, with solicitudes, with feebleness, so that the builder is himself discontented, and scornful with his own work: but he says in his heart, Blessed one, thou knowest I would do better to-day, but I cannot; my eyes cannot see very clearly, and as for my poor old hands they tremble a good deal; I do not seem to be able to get hold of the right kind of material at all: God, pity me; I do not want to spoil this life-temple thou hast appointed me to build, but thou wilt accept whatever I do, if at the moment of doing it it is the best that is possible to me. Then what wonder if God should turn water into wine, and dust into manhood, should turn some very humble materials into gold and silver and precious stones, so that we should wonder at the building, and none be more amazed than we at the result of our daily effort? How philosophical, to use no larger or more sacred term, is the Apostle’s reasoning! He says the foundation is already laid. That is not dogmatic, in the sense of being papal, arbitrary, and overriding human choice and human judgment; it is the indication of a fact which coincides with all the other facts of life, which quadrates with the whole system of things, which is part of the complete totality of the Divine thought.

Thus in all life we find that we have nothing to do with beginnings; we start upon something that is already there. No man makes the earth which he tills; he is but a ploughman, he is not a creator; he can but tear the earth up, plough it, rip it, pierce it, open it, for the reception of seed; the earth itself is laid as a foundation by other hands. No man lights the sun; it is there already, man finds it there, leaves it there, uses it while he is here, let every man take heed how he uses it. That same sun will light a murderer to his tragedy, or a saint to his altar. Let every man take heed how he uses the beginnings with which God has enriched life. No man lays the foundation of his own reason. He cannot tell whence he has his reason, yet he knows he has it; there are moments of religious and noble pride when he boasts himself a reasoner. Did you lay the foundation of your reason? No. Is it a gift which you bestowed upon yourself? No. Did you make it as a purchase in some of the bazaars of the world, east or west? No. It was God’s gift; let every man take heed how he builds thereupon. A man may reason himself down to hell; he may turn his logic into a ladder to go down by. God meant reason to be a ladder of ascent. So then in all life we have Divine beginnings, a providence that is beforehand, an arrangement which we may accept or decline: but by the very fact of its being there it has an initial claim to our attention and consideration. Reflecting upon these things, how our function is limited and defined for us in a most wonderful way. We have to wait until we see what the child is; we know it has some gift of God in it; but we cannot begin until God begins and says to us by events and evolutions, This is the destiny of this particular child: train up the child in the way he should go, inclining a little to the east or to the west, to the north or to the south; he is poetical, or prosaical; he is mechanical, or commercial; he is a stay-at-home who will dwell in tents, or the rover is in him, and the moment he sees a mountain he will paw for it as if he had rights up there, estates to claim. Train up a child in the way he should go: take heed how you build upon the foundation which God has laid in that brain, that heart, that will. So we are not such great creators after all. We do but shuffle the pieces, we are but clever re-arrangers; all the pieces are found for us, we add nothing to God’s universe; we elicit, evoke, we educate, lead out from germs into fruitions, but all the things were there without us. If any man think himself to be wise, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. Keep within your limits. All men are strong when they keep within arm’s length; the moment they try to reach one-eighth of an inch farther than they can, they are weak; it is when the arm is well drawn in that it is strong, has the whole of its muscularity at its disposal. Keep therefore within your religious limits, your limits of reason, fact, event, and providence, and visible purpose in all things; then should ye be strong men, whilst many may flutter who cannot fly; they will be here and there and elsewhere, but they will build nothing.

How is it to be known what men are building either as pastors or as individual labourers? “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” Oh, that fiery test! We could escape other criticism; but the criticism of fire, who can run away from with success? An awful moment is it when the fire leaps upon the work to try it. How we watch, how eager we are, with what strained eyes we notice the whole operation! See, the fire will not spare; it has a power of rising, and a power of turning round every angle: see how it penetrates, scorches, tests, lingers here as if it had found a secret, darts like a bloodhound that has caught the first scent of blood: see, it will try every man’s work, of what sort it is. What miserable work some men do! How frivolous, how vain, how self-involved, how wholly foolish and despicable! A life of dreams, nightmares, speculations, that are insubstantial and wholly wanting in beneficence, either of purpose or of accomplishment. What wasted lives! How good they might have been! how helpful, how rich in sympathy, how generous in assistance of every kind! yet fools! What an impartial test this is! Fire is to try every man’s work. Fire does not distinguish between one individuality and another; fire does not say, This was built by royal hands, and that was put up by plebeian fingers, therefore I must be gracious to the one, and severe to the other. Fire is no respecter of persons. But fire cannot burn gold. There is a quality that fire can only test, not destroy, and by its very testing make as it were more precious, that is to say, give further, completer trust in its quality and worth. No good workman has ever reason to fear fire. The boy who has scamped his lesson fears the master as he hears him approach, dreads the critic as he sees him adjusting the manuscript to his eyes; the boy knows that the first look will have in it the frown of condemnation: on the other hand, where the boy has worked well he welcomes the master, he says he knows the critic’s face will be all smiles presently, because the work is honest, real, thorough, just as good work as a boy can do. We know what work we are conducting and completing in life; we need not wait for the day of fire. Some men could send themselves to their proper destiny instantaneously; they need not wrap themselves round in some garment of sleepiness or negligence, saying they will wait until the judge comes to tell them whether they are to go up or to go down; they know that in heaven they would be far from home. Let there be no delusion about this matter of judgment. The fire will be an external critic, but the first fire should be an internal flame. Every man can try his own work by fire, or he can play the fool and palter with it, simply laying a finger upon it, nor ever trusting it lest it should come down upon him; then indeed is he victimising himself; he has the fire of judgment, conscience, experience within him: let the flames leap out upon the handiwork and try it of what sort it is.

There is a word of hope even in this penetrating judgment: “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” What chance have some people to build with anything but wood, hay, and stubble? They have hardly a foothold upon the earth; no face brightens when they draw near; their very approach is considered to be an appeal for alms or help or blessing of some kind: what if they are weary, heart-sick, heart-sore, and say they would gladly be spared the toil and fruitlessness of trying to build, when they have only wood, hay, and stubble at command? But let no heart be overborne: put up what materials you have, if they are the best you have; the fire will not spare them, but you yourself as the contributor of the best you have shall be saved. Then other men who might have done better may also be saved, but it shall be quite narrowly, simply saved, salvation minus, salvation that trembles on the brink of destruction; just saved, barely saved, hardly saved, nothing left of them but the merest line and shadow of personality. Are we to be content with this kind of salvation? If it be within our power to be saved wholly, triumphantly, gloriously, it will be wickedness on our part if we be content to be just barely saved. What shall be said of him who might have been in the very centre of heaven, and yet by his want of vigour, perseverance, self-control, watchfulness in prayer, is barely inside heaven’s door?

Now the Apostle resorts to the argument with which the chapter began; now he rebukes party spirit with the same lofty reasoning and with the same spiritual penetration. He says, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” Again he swings back to a tender, gentle, sympathetic spirit. We have watched all the fluctuations of his mind and heart, we have seen how he began by noble ascription of honour and credit to the Corinthian Church, then how he prostrated himself before the Church, as if by laying himself down in the dust he could acquire some power to judge and to condemn, and then how he stood up again, and delivered his message with a firm voice, and with an unwincing expression of countenance; and now he returns and comforts the Corinthian Church and says, Some of you are as bad as you can be, some of you are drunken, some of you are incestuous, some of you are almost beasts, but ye are the temple of God. That is the mystery. It required a Paul to say so. We enhance our respectability by dwelling on the vices of others: Paul saw the ideal Church in the human actuality, and he said, Although these charges which are brought against you are solid and true, yet ye are the Temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you as in a chosen house. How full of rebuke, yet how full of encouragement! To every honest man the same message comes. Every soul is a contradiction within its own bounds. Sometimes the soul is almost in heaven; that same soul before the sun goes down shall have taken a path to hell. Which is the soul that Christ looks at? The upper one. When did Christ ever take a mean view of any man? When did not Christ see the very best aspect? When did he not amplify our little prayer, if it came from a broken heart, into a great petition and a prevalent intercession? Which of these two selves are we going to let triumph, the self that aspires, or the self that descends towards the earth; the self that is akin to angels, or the self that is overloaded and overborne with dust? Here comes in the action of will; here it is that men are tested. Given a man who in the very act of wrong does not want to do it, and that man will triumph at the last; given a man who is in Church and yet wants to be out of it, and the devil will manacle him and fetter him and cast him into outer darkness. God judges by motive, by spirit, by the uppermost desire; and, blessed be God, there are Peters who, all tears, all shame, can say, Lord, thou knowest all things how I have lied, how I have gone astray, how I have spoken the language of hell, how I have played the fool! yet thou knowest that I love thee. That man is not far from the kingdom of God.

Then, finally, the Apostle tells them they need not quarrel about Paul and Apollos, about the planter and the waterer. “For,” says he, “whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours.” He could not have ended there; that would have been less than half a Gospel; it would have been in fact so wanting in Gospel as to have encouraged infidelity and all manner of unfaithfulness. So according to his custom, to the royalty of that mind which was more in heaven than on earth, he said, “all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” So the whole structure of the thought and the action is profoundly religious. Everything goes back to God. Read the genealogies in the New Testament: “Which was the son of ” and the strain rolls on, until it culminates in the declaration, “Which was the Son of God.” The little flower belongs to the garden, the garden belongs to the earth, the earth is rooted in the sun, and the sun is rooted in God. All things ascend to the level whence they descended. This is the rhythm of the great movement. When the Mediator rises from his mediatorial seat he shall deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father, and God shall be all in all. What are we building? Every man is a builder. That cannot be avoided. What are we building? A house of God, a temple? or a house of darkness, a chamber of imagery, a pit in the earth? What are we building? A house that lifts itself towards the skies as if by right, a house conscious of its own glory and ultimate dignity, a house that already sees its own pinnacles flashing in the morning light? or a house that can only be entered at night by beasts of prey? Let every man take heed how he buildeth!

Prayer

Almighty God, thou livest to give. Thou givest unto all men liberally, and upbraidest not. There is no man who has not more than enough, if he reckoned it aright. Thou art not the God of rebukes, but the God of benediction; thou dost not live in judgment, but in mercy, in healing, in pity; thou dost redeem the world by the Cross of thy Son, We bless thee that Christ is the Amen of God; we rejoice in his Verily, verily. Through that roof no rain can come; into that sanctuary no ravenous beast can enter. We stand in the Yea of God. We rejoice in thy promises, which are exceeding great and precious, yet not too great to be redeemed, though too precious to be lost in any syllable. We have not, because we ask not. We might live in the rocks of heaven, we might make the whole week one calm Sabbath, and never lay down the trumpet from our lips. We bless thee, if in any degree we enjoy the sunshine of thy love: but whatever thou dost give is but an earnest; we cannot ever have more than the firstfruits: who can reap the fields of infinity? who can overtake the bounty of God? Now that we have begun to taste the sweets and hear the music of life, how wondrous it is! This is the dawn of immortality. In life is liberty, joy, music. If our life be hidden with Christ in God we cannot die, death is dead. Help us to enter into thy promises, to abide in the sanctuary of the Almighty, and to hide ourselves in the pavilion of God. Thou hast roofed in thy sanctuary that we might find in it lodgment and rest and hospitality. Deliver us from the spirit of wandering, lest we roam away and fail to find our way back again; may we follow the footprints of the shepherds, may we pitch our tents where they pitched theirs: may our adventure never become our lunacy, may we inquire for the old way, and lovingly haunt the old paths, the thoroughfares of heaven. Deliver us from instability of heart, from being here and there, from attempting to go in opposite directions at the same time; save us from the folly of speculation, whilst always keeping an open mind towards the windows of heaven. The Lord lift us up above ourselves: we are the creatures of time and space, and we are soon overborne: give us one touch of the spirit of immortality, and we shall hold earth and time and space in contempt; our light affliction will be but for a moment, if we look at the things which are not seen, the eternal things, the everlasting Yes. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

Ver. 10. As a wise master builder ] Artificers also have their wisdom, as Aristotle yieldeth. “For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him,”Isa 28:26Isa 28:26 . As he did Bezaleel and Aholiah.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

10. ] . . &c., as an expression of humility (reff.), fitly introduces the which follows. So Chrys.: . , , . Hom. viii. p. 69. The is not the peculiar grace of his apostleship for an apostle was not always required to lay the foundation, e.g. in Rome: but that given to him in common with all Christians ( 1Co 3:5 ), only in a degree proportioned to the work which God had for him to do.

, skilful , see reff., and many examples in Wetstein. The proof of this skill is given, in his laying a foundation : the unskilful master-builder lays none , see Luk 6:49 . The foundation ( 1Co 3:11 ) was and must be, JESUS CHRIST: the facts of redemption by Him (obj.), and the reception of Him and His work by faith (subj.).

The mascul. form (sc. ) is said by Thomas Mag. (in Wetst.) to belong to the the Attic form is , or, if in the plur., : , Thucyd. i. 93.

, ‘ whoever comes after me ,’ another : not only Apollos.

, pres. , as the necessary state and condition of the subsequent teacher, be he who he may. The building on, over the foundation , imports the carrying them onward in knowledge and intelligent faith.

, emphatic, = here, with what material . De Wette imagines that it also conveys a caution not to alter the foundations , and that the in 1Co 3:11 refers to this. But the identity of the foundation is surely implied in . On the , see below.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Co 3:10-17 . 10. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE HUMAN BUILDERS. After the long digression on Wisdom (1Co 1:17 to 1Co 3:2 ), occasioned by the Hellenic misconception of the Gospel underlying the Cor [527] divisions, the Ap. returned in 1Co 3:3 ff. to the divisions themselves, dealing particularly with the rent between Apollonians and Paulinists. His first business was to reduce the Church leaders to their subordinate place, as fellow-servants of the one Divine cause ( 9). They are temple-workmen not himself and Apollos alone, but all who are labouring on the foundation which he has laid down and must therefore take heed to the quality of their individual work, which will undergo a searching and fiery test.

[527] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

1Co 3:10 . . . .: while “the grace of God” has been given to all Christians, constituting them such (see 1Co 1:4 ), to the Ap. a special and singular “grace was given,” “according to” which he “laid a foundation,” whereon the Church at Cor [528] rests: see the like contrast in Eph 3:2-9 ; Eph 4:7-16 ; and for Paul’s specific gift as founder, 1Co 15:10 , 2Co 3:5 ff., Rom 1:1-5 ; Rom 15:15 ff. The office of the founder is his own, and incommunicable: “you have not many fathers” (1Co 4:15 ).

[528] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

is a correct attributive to : see ( . ), 1Co 2:6 , and note; so in the LXX, Exo 35:31 , Isa 3:3 , it characterizes the craftsman’s skill; in Arist., Eth. Nic. , is the indeed this was its primitive sense (see Ed [529] ). The Church architect ( Christ , in the first instance, Mat 16:18 ) is endowed with the , the (1Co 2:6-16 ; cf. 2Co 3:4-6 , Rom 15:16-20 ). The Gr [530] was not a designer of plans on paper; he was like the old cathedral builders, the master-mason , developing his ideas in the material. “As a wise master-builder, I laid a foundation ( ), but another builds thereupon” ( ): P. knew that by God’s grace his part was done wisely; let his successors see to theirs. Not “ the foundation” that will be defined immediately (1Co 3:11 b ): P. contrasts himself as foundation-layer with later workmen; hence the vbs. are respectively past and pr [531] The , laid out once for all by the , determines the site and ground-plan of the edifice ( cf. Eph 2:20 ). With the distributive cf. (1Co 3:11 ): if Apollos, by himself, were intended, would have to be read as impf [532] (for ., was building cf. aor [533] , 1Co 3:14 ), since he is not now at Cor [534] Many Christian teachers are busy there (1Co 4:15 ). For this indef. , cf. 1Co 12:8 ff., 1Co 15:39 ; and for , Luk 9:19 , Joh 4:37 ; Joh 14:16 ; Joh 21:18 . For the compound vb [535] , see parls.; – points to the basis , which gives the standard and measure to all subsequent work. Hence the warning, . . .: “But let each man see (to it) how he is building thereupon!” Working upon the foundation, he must follow the lines laid down; he must use fit material. Not “how he is to build ” (as in 1Co 7:32 , aor [536] sbj [537] ), but “how he is a-building ” (pr [538] ind [539] ) the work is going on. For the moods of the Indirect Question, see Wr [540] , pp. 373 ff., Bn [541] , 341 356.

[529] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2

[530] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.

[531] present tense.

[532]mpf. imperfect tense.

[533] aorist tense.

[534] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[535] verb

[536] aorist tense.

[537] subjunctive mood.

[538] present tense.

[539] indicative mood.

[540] Winer-Moulton’s Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).

[541] E. Burton’s Syntax of the Moods and Tenses in the N.T. (1894).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Co 3:10-15

10According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. 11For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

1Co 3:10 “According to the grace of God which was given to me” Paul is asserting his salvation, call, and giftedness as the Apostle to the Gentiles (cf. 1Co 15:10).

“a wise master builder” This could also mean “building supervisor.” We get the English word “architect” from this Greek word. In a sense Paul is asserting his authority as the Christ-called Apostle to the Gentiles and the first to share the gospel with these Corinthians.

“I laid a foundation” This refers to Paul’s initial preaching of the gospel at Corinth. It may be an allusion to Isa 28:16. Jesus is the foundation!

“and another is building on it” Paul started the church, but others contributed to its growth. Apollos is one example (cf. 1Co 3:5-9). However, in context this must also relate to those leaders in the church who were promoting a factious spirit. They may have been leaders of different house churches.

“each man must be careful” This is literally a Present active imperative of blep, “I see.” This is the warning that church leaders will give an account to God of their church work, as will all believers (cf. 2Co 5:10).

1Co 3:11 There are two criteria mentioned in this passage for the church.

1. the leader’s/believer’s message must be Christocentric (cf. 1Co 3:11-12 and Eph 2:20-21)

2. the leader’s/believer’s life must be Christlike (cf. 1Co 3:12-15)

1Co 3:12 “if” This is the first in a series of first class conditional sentences which are assumed to be true from the author’s perspective or for his literary purpose (cf. 1Co 3:12; 1Co 3:14-15; 1Co 3:17-18). There were (and are) fruitful and precious leaders and hurtful and destructive leaders!

“any man builds on the foundation” The major interpretive question here is which foundation is Paul speaking about: (1) the gospel, 1Co 3:11 or (2) the church at Corinth, 1Co 3:10? Is he addressing leaders or believers in general? One’s interpretation of 1Co 3:10-15 must relate to 1Co 3:16-17, which describes the church as a whole as the temple of God.

“gold, silver, precious stones” The emphasis here is on what is durable, beautiful, and costly and cannot be destroyed by fire. Precious stones may be jewels, semi-precious stones, or polished marble stones.

1Co 3:13

NASB”will become evident”

NKJV”will become manifest”

NRSV”will become visible”

TEV”will be seen”

NJB”will be shown”

This clear manifestation of believers’ or leaders’ ministry (i.e., motives, actions, purposes) is emphasized by a three-fold repetition of verbs in 1Co 3:13.

1. become evident (i.e., phain)

2. show (i.e., dlo)

3. reveal (i.e., apokalupt)

This open display and judgment of believers must relate to the judgment seat of Christ in 2Co 5:10.

“the day will show it” This refers to the OT “Day of the Lord,” which will involve both glorification and rewards for believers and judgment for unbelievers. However, even believers will also give an account before the judgment seat of Christ (cf. 2Co 5:10; Mat 12:36-37; Mat 25:31 ff; Rom 2:16; Rom 14:12; Gal 5:10; Heb 13:17).

“fire” See Special Topic following.

SPECIAL TOPIC: FIRE

“will test ” This refers to the refiner’s fire (cf. 1Co 4:5), which tests with a view toward approval (i.e., dokimaz).

SPECIAL TOPIC: GREEK TERMS FOR TESTING AND THEIR CONNOTATIONS

“the quality of each man’s work” In context this must refer to one’s church involvement. All the spiritual gifts are for the building up of the church (cf. 1Co 12:7). There is no spiritual distinction between clergy and laity, leader and follower, but there is a task distinction (cf. Num 16:3). Leaders are more accountable (cf. Jas 3:1).

1Co 3:14 “If” This is the second in a series of first class conditional sentences, assumed to be true from the perspective of the writer or for his literary purpose (cf. 1Co 3:12; 1Co 3:14-15; 1Co 3:17-18).

“he will receive a reward” This passage refers to rewards, not salvation. All of the people addressed are assumed to be believers!

The NT concept of rewards must be distinguished from salvation by merit (cf. Rom 6:23). In the OT rewards or blessings were connected to obedience (cf. Deu 11:13-32; Deu 11:27-29; Psalms 1). In a sense, that is still true. However, salvation is a gift, not a reward. The life of faith and obedience is a result of salvation, not a means to salvation. Rewards can be lost, yet salvation retained. Rewards are a recognition of the developing ministry of believers. Paul has now universalized his eschatological evaluation (cf. 1Th 2:19-20; Php 2:14-16) to include all believers. Rewards are a way of recognizing those who have ministered effectively and faithfully in the furtherance of the gospel. Rewards are God’s gifts through His empowering for His Kingdom. Yet, like all covenant relationships, believers must appropriately and continually respond (cf. 1Co 9:24-27). See SPECIAL TOPIC: DEGREES OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT s at 1Co 9:24-27.

1Co 3:15 “If any man’s work is burned up” Oh, the tragedy of a fruitless, selfish, factious Christian life-a tragedy for the person, a tragedy for the church, and a tragedy for the unsaved!

“but he himself will be saved” This shows the priority of grace even with the possibility of the loss of reward.

This concept may answer the theological dilemma of a free salvation in the grace of God, the finished work of Christ, and the wooing of the Spirit contrasted to the cost-everything mandate of the Christian life. My only fear in using this text as a key concept is how rare in Scripture the theological category of a “back-slidden,” carnal, baby Christian is used! The modern church uses this concept to explain an ineffective, apathetic, worldly church, but seldom delineates the NT mandate of spiritual growth (cf. Heb 5:11-14).

“will be saved” This is has an eschatological orientation. See Special Topic below.

SPECIAL TOPIC: SALVATION (GREEK VERB TENSES)

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

grace. App-184.

masterbuilder. Greek. architekton. Only here.

have. The texts omit.

foundation. Compare App-146.

another. App-124.

buildeth thereon. Greek. epoikodomeo. See Act 20:32.

take heed = see. App-133.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

10.] . . &c., as an expression of humility (reff.), fitly introduces the which follows. So Chrys.: . , , . Hom. viii. p. 69. The is not the peculiar grace of his apostleship-for an apostle was not always required to lay the foundation, e.g. in Rome:-but that given to him in common with all Christians (1Co 3:5), only in a degree proportioned to the work which God had for him to do.

, skilful, see reff., and many examples in Wetstein. The proof of this skill is given, in his laying a foundation: the unskilful master-builder lays none, see Luk 6:49. The foundation (1Co 3:11) was and must be, JESUS CHRIST: the facts of redemption by Him (obj.), and the reception of Him and His work by faith (subj.).

The mascul. form (sc. ) is said by Thomas Mag. (in Wetst.) to belong to the -the Attic form is , or, if in the plur., :- , Thucyd. i. 93.

, whoever comes after me,-another: not only Apollos.

, pres., as the necessary state and condition of the subsequent teacher, be he who he may. The building on, over the foundation, imports the carrying them onward in knowledge and intelligent faith.

, emphatic, = here, with what material. De Wette imagines that it also conveys a caution not to alter the foundations, and that the in 1Co 3:11 refers to this. But the identity of the foundation is surely implied in . On the , see below.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 3:10. , grace) By this word he takes anticipatory precaution [], not to appear arrogantly to pronounce himself wise.-, given) it was therefore a something habitual in Paul.[27]-) [wise] skilful. The knowledge of Jesus Christ makes men so.-, foundation) The foundation is the first beginning.-) another, whoever he is. He elegantly avoids mentioning the proper name. The predecessor does not see his successor, and Paul has regard to the dignity of Apollos; so immediately after, every man; for there were also others, 1Co 4:15.-, let him see [take heed]) I, says Paul, have done my part; let them see to theirs, who follow me in this work.-) how, how far wisely, how far in builder-like style.

[27] Which is the force of the article, .-ED.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 3:10

1Co 3:10

According to the grace of God which was given unto me, as a wise master-builder I laid a foundation;-According to the gifts and spiritual blessings bestowed on Paul as a wise master builder under God, he laid the foundation of the church at Corinth by preaching that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He first preached that truth in Corinth.

and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon.-He warns every one to take heed, be careful how he builds. There is danger by false teaching, or false methods, of building unworthy material upon the foundation which Paul had laid.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Build on the Sure Foundation

1Co 3:10-23

We are called upon to contribute our share to the building of saved souls which is rising through the ages, to be an habitation of God through the Spirit, Eph 2:21-22. But in addition, we must not neglect the building of our own character on the one foundation, which is Jesus Christ. God has placed Him to be the foundation of every structure which shall stand firm in all the tests of fire through which we are destined to pass. We must needs go on building day by day. Whatever we do or say is another stone or brick. It is for us to choose which heap of material we take it from; whether from that of the wood, hay, or stubble, or from that of the gold, silver, or precious stones.

All things serve the man or woman who serves Christ. The lowliest life may be a link in a chain of golden ministry which binds earth and heaven. Our Lord was constantly described in the Old Testament as the Servant of God. He said that He had come down to earth to do His Fathers will. I am among you as he that serveth. When we serve Him as He serves the great purposes of God, then everything begins to minister to us. The extremes of existence, of creation, and of duration, all serve us.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

grace

Grace (imparted). 1Co 15:10; Rom 6:1; 2Pe 3:18

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

to the: 1Co 3:5, 1Co 15:10, Rom 1:5, Rom 12:3, Rom 15:15, Eph 3:2-8, Col 1:29, 1Ti 1:11-14, 1Pe 4:11

as a: 1Ki 3:9-11, 2Ch 2:12, Dan 12:3, Mat 7:24, Mat 24:45, 2Ti 2:15

I have: 1Co 3:6, 1Co 3:11, 1Co 9:2, Zec 4:9, Rom 15:20, Eph 2:20, Rev 21:14, Rev 21:19

and another: 1Co 15:11, 1Co 15:12, Act 18:27, 2Co 10:15, 2Co 11:13-15

But let every: Ecc 12:9, Luk 11:35, Luk 21:8, Col 4:17, 1Ti 4:16, Jam 3:1,*Gr: 1Pe 4:11, 2Pe 2:1-3

Reciprocal: Exo 35:30 – See Exo 36:4 – General 1Ki 7:10 – the foundation Psa 87:1 – His Pro 12:8 – commended Ecc 2:18 – I should Son 8:9 – we will Zec 6:15 – they Mat 16:18 – upon Mat 23:34 – and wise Luk 6:48 – and laid Act 20:32 – to build 1Co 4:15 – for 2Co 3:1 – begin 2Co 3:2 – are 2Co 3:5 – but 2Co 3:6 – hath 2Co 10:14 – we stretch not 2Co 12:6 – I would 2Ti 2:19 – the foundation Heb 6:1 – laying 1Pe 4:10 – the manifold

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Verse 10. Cooperation or Joint labor under God is still the subject of Paul, and he is continuing the figure of a building for his illustration. He gives the grace of God the credit for being able to work as a wise masterbuilder. The first thing such an architect will do is to lay the foundation. Paul did this when he introduced the Gospel of Christ to the people of Corinth (Act 18:1-11). After he had done this, others came into the community and gave further teaching to the brethren, and that constituted building upon the foundation of truth that he had laid. Take heed means that any man offering further teaching should be careful that what he teaches will be in harmony with the original foundation of truth the apostle had laid.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 3:10. According to the grace of God which was given unto me, as a wise master-builder, I laid a foundationalluding to our Lords parable of the wise man who built his house upon the rock (Mat 7:24-25). But he takes care to ascribe the wisdom shown in this to the grace of God.

and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereonthat is (as will presently appear), with what materials he builds.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, 1. The character which St. Paul assumes to himself, namely, that of a master-builder, yea, of a wise master-builder.

But was it not vain-glorious in the apostle thus to describe himself? Is not Christ the great and wise master-builder of the church?

Yes, undoubtedly: but the apostles were instruments in his hand, which he honoured with success: for which reason St. Paul thus speaks.

Learn hence, That in some cases it is not vain-glory, but a necessary duty, for the ministers of Christ to magnify their work and office received from Christ.

Observe, 2. The special work performed by St. Paul, the wise master-builder: he laid the foundation; that is, he first acquainted them with the rudiments and fundamental principles of the Christian religion, which they had never heard of before.

Learn thence, That it is a special part of divine wisdom in a minister to lay at first a good foundation of scripture knowledge in the minds and understandings of his people. Unless we having a knowing people, we are not like to have a gracious people. All our sermons will be dashed to pieces upon the rock of our people’s ignorance, if they be not well catechised and instructed in the fundamentals of Christianity.

Observe, 3. How very careful our apostle is to ascribe all his strength, his assistance and success, as a master-builder, to the grace of God: According to the grace of God given to me.

Learn thence, That it is the property of every godly man, much more of every gracious minister, to attribute all that good which is either received or done by him, to the grace of God. What man ever received more grace from God, or did more service for God, than St. Paul? And so enlarged is he upon all occasions in magnifying the grace of God, that he is never satisfied in exalting of it: Not I, but the grace of God that was with me, &c.

Observe, 4. The cautionary direction by St. Paul, to all succeeding ministers of Christ, to take heed that they lay no other foundation than what was laid by him; and that they build suitably upon that foundation : Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon.

Learn hence, That the ministers of Christ are to take especial care that they preach no other doctrine than what Christ and his apostles preached, and laid as the foundation of Christianity: and that they do not build upon that foundation any doctrine which may endanger their own or their people’s salvation: I have laid the foundation, and let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

1Co 3:10-11. According to the grace of God This he premises, lest he should seem to ascribe any thing to himself; as a wise master-builder A skilful architect, directed by divine wisdom; I have laid the foundation Jesus Christ and him crucified, a foundation sufficient to support the whole fabric of Christianity, with all its blessed effects: and another buildeth thereon Succeeding teachers bestow further labour for your instruction and edification. But let every man Every minister; take heed how he buildeth thereon That all the doctrines which he teaches may be consistent with the foundation. For other foundation On which the whole church, with all its doctrines, privileges, and duties, may be built; can no man lay How much soever he may endeavour to do it; than that which is laid In the counsels of divine wisdom, in the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament, and in the preaching of Christ himself and his apostles, St. Paul in particular; which is Jesus Christ Who in his person and offices, in his love and sufferings, his humiliation and exaltation, his atoning death, his victorious resurrection, his glorious ascension, and his prevalent intercession, is the firm, immoveable rock of ages; a foundation every way sufficient to bear all the weight that God himself, or the sinner, when he believes, can lay upon him, even to support his immortal hopes. Christ, in his prophetic office, as a teacher come from God, is the foundation of all the doctrines of Christianity, and as made of God unto us wisdom, the source of our knowledge of, and faith in those doctrines: in his priestly office, atoning and interceding for us, he is the foundation of all the privileges of Christianity; and, when made of God unto us righteousness, puts us in possession of those privileges; in his kingly office he is the foundation of all the duties of Christianity, and when made of God unto us sanctification, of our power to perform those duties; for when the tree is good, the fruit is good; when we are created anew in Christ Jesus, good works are the never-failing consequence, Eph 2:10. Add to this, that as the firstborn of them that sleep, and our forerunner into glory, he is the foundation of all our hopes; and when made of God unto us complete and eternal redemption, he brings us to the enjoyment of the blessings hoped for.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Vv. 10. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon; but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon!

The apostle first looks backwards (I laid), in order to put himself out of the question; hence the asyndeton.

The grace given him is that of founding the Church among the Gentiles, particularly at Corinth, with the totality of gifts which he received for this mission, and the use of them which he has been enabled to make. The phrase, according to the grace…, softens the eulogy which he seems to award himself in speaking, as he does here, of his work at Corinth.

One might see in the words, as a wise master builder, nothing more than an idea analogous to that expressed in Mat 7:24-27. Paul would then simply mean: I did not build on ground without laying a foundation; as a good architect, I provided a foundation for the building. But the idea of prudence, or better still, of ability, contained in the term , seems rather to relate to the manner in which he laboured in laying the foundation, than to the simple act itself of laying it. He took care to avoid factitious modes of procedure, means borrowed from human eloquence and speculation; he deliberately confined himself to bearing testimony to the fact of salvation, leaving the Holy Spirit to act, and refraining from entering before the time into the domain of Christian speculation; his wisdom, as a founder, was to make no account of wisdom; comp. 1Co 2:1-5, and 1Co 3:1-4. The master builder is not only he who draws the plan of the building,in this sense the title would revert to God,but also the man who directs its execution.

The perfect , which is read in the received text, might appear preferable to the aorist of the Alexandrines; for the foundation, once laid, remains. But the aorist, which denotes the act done once for all, better contrasts Paul’s work with the subsequent labours which are still going on.

These labours are denoted by the term , building on (the foundation laid). The , another, is referred specially to Apollos. Two things should serve to set aside this idea: first, the present , builds upon; for, at the time when Paul wrote, Apollos was no longer at Corinth; then the word each which follows, and which shows that the , another, is a collective term. The word, in fact, denotes the whole body of individuals who, as prophets, teachers, or speaking in tongues, had laboured, since Paul’s departure, in developing the Church founded by him. Apollos was one of them, and he certainly belongs, in Paul’s view, to the number of those who had built with materials of good quality, 1Co 3:14; comp. 1Co 3:6-7. The end of the verse is an admonition addressed to all these workers, and prepared for by all that precedes from 1Co 3:8 b. The , how (that is to say: with what sort of materials), is the theme of the whole following development.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

According to the grace [apostleship with its attendant gifts– Rom 1:5; Gal 1:15-16; Eph 3:8] of God which was given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation [In Corinth Paul had preached Christ as the foundation of the church and of each individual Christian, and this foundation admitted no mixture of philosophy and no perversion which could produce sects (Gal 1:9). All this Paul asserts without any shadow of boasting, for the skill or wisdom by which he had done it had been imparted to him by God]; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon.

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

DIVERSITY OF REWARDS

10. According to the grace of God which was given unto me as a wise master builder I laid the foundation; and another buildeth thereon. Paul had been instrumental in founding the Corinthian church. Apollos and other God-sent laborers had followed on, lending a helping hand to rear up this stupendous superstructure on the foundation laid by the great apostle to the Gentiles.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

1Co 3:10-15. To show how humble is the position of himself and Apollos, Paul said in 1Co 3:8 that each will receive pay according to his labor. This truth he now uses as a warning to some of his readers. As a basis for the warning, he introduced in 1Co 3:9 g a second metaphor, which he now develops.

Before using words which seem to imply superiority, Paul acknowledges that whatever he has done he owes to the undeserved favour of God. This also reminds us that in laying the foundation he acted by divine authority.

Wise: in its earliest sense of skilful; see note, 1Co 2:5. The teaching of 4 makes the word very appropriate here.

I laid: parallel with I planted, 1Co 3:6. In face of some who depreciated his ability, (2Co 10:10) Paul claims to have skilfully founded the church of Corinth. Cp. 1Co 4:15.

Builds-up: carries upward the building already begun. Same word, repeated for emphasis, in 1Co 3:12; 1Co 3:14.

Another: Apollos or any other teacher. Hence the present tense, though (1Co 16:12) Apollos had left Corinth; and the words let each one see how etc. This warning, 1Co 3:10-15 develop. The different modes of continuing Paul’s work warn each one to look how he builds.

Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament

3:10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. {4} But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

(4) Now he speaks to the teachers themselves, who succeeded him in the church of Corinth, and in this regard to all that were after or will be pastors of congregations, seeing that they succeed into the labour of the apostles, who were planters and chief builders. Therefore he warns them first that they do not persuade themselves that they may build after their own fantasy, that is, that they may propound and set forth anything in the Church, either in matter, or in type of teaching, different from the apostles who were the chief builders.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Builders of God’s temple 3:10-15

"The usual explanation of this passage is that it describes the building of the Christian life. We all build on Christ, but some people use good materials while others use poor materials. The kind of material you use determines the kind of reward you will get.

"While this may be a valid application of this passage, it is not the basic interpretation. Paul is discussing the building of the local church, the temple of God." [Note: Wiersbe, 1: 579.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

In the new illustration Paul laid the foundation of the church in Corinth by founding the church, and others added the walls and continued building on that foundation. Paul’s special mission from God was to found churches (Rom 15:20). He readily acknowledged that it was only by God’s grace that he could do so as a skillful master-builder. He added a word of warning that the quality of the materials and workmanship that went into building the church are very important.

"By laying the foundation he did-Jesus Christ and him crucified-he was the truly ’wise’ master-builder in contrast to the ’wise’ in Corinth, who are building the church of totally incongenial materials and are therefore in danger of attempting to lay another foundation as well." [Note: Fee, The First . . ., p. 138.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)