Please Read 1 Corinthians 3:1-23
1 Corinthians 3:11;14-15: “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ… If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (1Cor 3:11, 14-15 NKJV)
In the midst of a severe misunderstanding Paul reminds the church at Corinth that despite any perceived difference in thought or practice between apostolic teachers the foundation of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone is common to all. Christ Himself will save His people if they only look to Him in faith, that is the foundation of Christianity shared by all who are heaven bound. This is the central theme of any true Christian teacher and yet, as Paul goes on to explain, not all who build upon that foundation build with equal skill and glory.
Some teachers are like those who build upon the foundation with gold and precious stones. They build a glorious temple to the Lord Jesus that will endure the judgment day. This is not to say that men with charisma and wit invent ‘glorious things’ to adorn the true gospel by their own strength and power, indeed just the opposite! Those faithful builders upon the foundation of salvation in Christ alone are those who do not go beyond the Word. They are those who with Paul determined to know nothing while teaching and leading “except Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” (1 Cor 2:2b). Matthew Henry describes them as “…those who receive and propagate the pure truths of the gospel, who hold nothing but the truth as it is in Jesus, and preach nothing else.” They preach and teach the Word of God, what flows from the Word of God by good and necessary consequence and make diligent effort to apply it to the lives of the flock under their care. They act not as the owner of the house, but as a faithful steward left with a charge from the owner to build according to His specifications and for His glory.