Saved But Then Burned

When I was eleven years old I had my first experience with a burn victim; my brother, who is seven years older than me.  The year was 1986.  It was a Saturday in the middle of winter.  My mother was at work, leaving my older brother, Walter, and me home alone.  I awoke that morning to the realization that the house was bitterly cold.  I immediately called my mom at work and she instructed me to check the pilot light in our gas furnace.

For anyone not familiar with this type of heating system, obviously it runs on natural gas.  However, the gas cannot ignite on its own to produce heat.  It requires a smaller pilot flame, also called a pilot light, which is designed to burn continuously, to act as an ignition source.  Because of this design, if the pilot light goes out it renders the furnace inoperable until the pilot is relit.  Thus by checking the pilot light I was able to confirm that our furnace was not working.

My mother told me to relight the pilot in order to start the furnace.  This involved removing a cover plate, lighting a match, and reaching inside the machine to ignite the small amount of gas flowing out of the pilot tube.  It is not unlike starting a gas grill which lacks an electric ignition switch.  Relighting the pilot on a gas furnace is a fairly routine procedure.  But I was young and fearful of reaching my hand inside this monstrous beast of a machine in the corner of our kitchen.  So mom told me to wake my brother up so that he could get the furnace started.

Grumbling and complaining, probably still groggy from sleep, yet complying with the request, Walter came into the kitchen with a box of matches.  He lit one and reached into the furnace.  What neither of us realized was that more gas had pumped into the enclosed space than expected.  I don’t know if this was due to a mechanical defect or simply because the flame had been out longer than we thought, thus failing to burn off the excess gas and allowing it to accumulate.  Plus, Walter’s nose was stopped up from a cold and I was too young to know any better.  Either way, when he reached into the furnace the surplus gas ignited and flashed back onto his arm, chest, and face.

I don’t remember many more details of the next several days.  But two things will always stay with me.  One is a hazy memory of Walter standing in the middle of our kitchen, hopping from one foot to another and yelling “It burns, it burns!”  The other is at the hospital.  In order to clean the affected areas, the medical personnel had Walter sit down in a tub of sterilized water.  It would have been only mildly heated to a normally comfortable temperature.  But Walter has told me that on the affected areas it felt like the water was boiling.  So my memory is of him screaming as he was lowered into the tub.

I say all of that to make a point.  And this is deep truth right here.  Immeasurable wisdom is about to drop.  Are you ready for it?  Here it is.  Fire…is hot.  Also, burns…hurt.  As I remove my tongue from my cheek, consider why I would spend so much effort to convince you of something that any first grader could tell you.  The danger of fire and burns is a reality that most of us probably learned before we could even talk.  Perhaps we placed a hand on a hot stove.  Maybe our leg inadvertently brushed up against a running motorcycle engine.  No matter the circumstances, our body immediately communicates to our brain that there is a problem, and this is a lesson we don’t easily forget.  Our sense of touch and nervous system cooperate together to make us instinctively sensitive to the danger of too much heat.

But what we must understand is that when it comes to spiritual matters we have a terrible handicap.  We begin our spiritual lives, just as we began our physical lives, as newborns.  Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in John chapter 3 of his need to be born again.  Paul, in this very letter we will be dealing with today, characterizes new Christians as infants only capable of processing milk rather than solid food.  We all, without exception, began this way.  But the problem is that we often either don’t realize it or take it seriously enough.  We tend to think of ourselves as our own masters, fully sufficient and not in need of the assistance normally associated with children.  This tendency is only exacerbated if we came to Christ as an adult.  The weight of years, the burden of worldly responsibilities, and the natural process of maturing all combine to build in us an assumption of our own ability to care for ourselves and our lack of need to depend on others.

To make matters worse, we are physically born with a complete insensitivity to sin.  In Psalm 51 David said of his own conception “I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.”  It’s not that we don’t learn the difference between right and wrong as children.  Most or all of us had parents that worked to instill these concepts within us.  But those principles are typically built upon a foundation of cultural acceptability and the rule of law in our country of birth.  The issue with sin is not the violation of man’s laws, but rather the contradiction of God’s holy character.  And it is this that we are by nature incapable of appreciating or even acknowledging.  Paul, in his letter to the church at Rome, states it very bluntly in chapter 8 and verse 7: For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

A glorious truth of Scripture is that God has set us free from this terrible condition of animosity toward Him.  He has caused us to be born again to a living hope, given newness of spiritual life, and promised an eternal inheritance that will never fade away or become corrupted.  However, God in His wisdom has designed our Christian lives such that although we have been given the power to have victory over our sin we still exist in bodies of sin and death.  These bodies, or our flesh as Scripture calls it, are our ever present enemies.  The sinful tendencies in our members wage continual war against the righteous desires in our mind.  And so, quite often we fail to recognize the danger of spiritual fires and the requisite burns that come from exposure to them.

In addition, time has a way of dulling our spiritual senses.  The days turn to weeks which turn to months and then years of our walk with the Lord.  And our tendency is to become complacent.  We become accustomed to our personal flirtation with temptation and sin.  And when we are confronted with the dangers inherent in our evil we often do not see the warning signs until it is too late and we have been singed.  We are like people with a Congenital Insensitivity to Pain.  This is a rare condition in which the patient is incapable of feeling pain.  Therefore, if they are not extremely careful they may find themselves in mortal danger from injury their body did not warn them of ahead of time.  Only in our case, it is a Congenital Insensitivity to spiritual Pain.

Into this state of affairs steps our arch enemy, Satan.  He is exceedingly skilled at convincing us there is nothing wrong with our Christian testimony, no danger to our souls around the corner, no spiritual pain being experienced, and no damage being done to our relationship with Christ.  I am quite sure that our enemy, the great deceiver and slanderer, is delighted with the state of affairs in America today where so many profess the name of Christ and believe themselves to be born again when their pattern of life indicates exactly the opposite and is in complete violation of Scripture such as 1 John 2:6, which says: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

This is exactly the situation Paul is confronting in our text today.  He was writing to the church at Corinth.  If ever there was a case of a classic problem child, the Corinthian church was it.  This was a church that Paul had personally founded.  Acts chapter 18 tells us that he first met Aquila and Priscilla, two of his lifelong friends and ministry partners, here.  He spent a year and a half personally mentoring and building up the Corinthian church.  Silas and Timothy both ministered alongside him during this time.  Paul visited the believers in Corinth at least two more times, because he references a third visit in 2 Corinthians 13:1.  In addition to all of this, the church at Corinth benefited from the teaching and ministering of another great 1^st century Christian hero; Apollos.  He spent time in Corinth after Paul had left and apparently did much to strengthen the church.  As if that was not enough, this church had two letters personally written to them from Paul, with another two referenced in the New Testament that are lost to history. 

To put it mildly, this group of Christians had an all-star cast of leaders working with them for the first several years of their existence.  Imagine if you had John Macarthur, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, David Platt, Tim Keller, and Matt Chandler all contributing personally and directly to the formation and growth of your church, sometimes as a group and sometimes individually.  You may not recognize some or all of those names.  But in the modern reformed Christian community they are some of the best and brightest minds the Lord has gifted us with.  In every way, shape, and form the church at Corinth had the best of the best of Christian doctrine and instruction.

Yet almost from the beginning, Paul experienced difficulty in Corinth.  It began with a legal assault from the unbelieving Jews in the city during his first stay.  They accused him of violating the Law of God with his teaching.  Of course the Romans had no interest in Jewish squabbles over their laws, so the case was thrown out and Paul was allowed to leave.  Yet it seems that soon after departing the city he must have begun to hear bad reports about the church he had founded.  He addresses these disturbing reports in this first letter he wrote to them.  And it is a real laundry list of problems, the likes of which most of us have probably never experienced in a church.

In chapter one Paul speaks of intra-church factionalism.  Apparently some of the people wanted to follow Paul.  Others wanted to emulate Apollos.  Still others preferred Peter’s style.  And yet a fourth group insisted on Christ alone.  Paul is scathing in his rebuke of this type of behavior.  He makes it clear that it is utterly ridiculous, because it is Christ alone we follow.  In chapter five the Apostle speaks of an incestuous relationship between a man and his father’s wife.  And if you can believe it the church was tolerating this sexual immorality!  Chapter six tells of believers actually taking each other to secular courts over disputes.  In chapter nine Paul has to defend his own Apostolic authority from the seditious insubordination of this church.  These people couldn’t even get the Lord’s supper right.  In chapter eleven Paul has to tell them, like little children, to be considerate of others and not to glut themselves on food and drink while others go without.  Apparently the Corinthians were even disorderly and chaotic in their worship.  Because in chapter fourteen Paul lays out for them the correct form of an orderly worship that glorifies God properly.

One has to wonder how this church was even still in existence.  They seem to have had extreme difficulty divorcing themselves from the pagan culture they lived in.  Corinth in the first century was a hotbed of immorality and licentiousness.  The city was famous for its temple to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love.  Her priestesses were essentially cult prostitutes.  At a certain time, each day they would go down into the city to offer their services to whoever wished to “worship” the goddess.  Corinth was also a city of great trade because it sat in a prominent position on the Isthmus of Corinth, a narrow strip of land which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the rest of the mainland of Greece.  In order to avoid traveling for 250 miles out of their way to circumnavigate the Greek mainland, ship captains would often have their vessels hauled over land on the isthmus.  Because of this the city of Corinth was usually filled with travelers itching to engage in commerce.  As you know, commerce leads to money and money often leads to an unrighteousness obsession with worldly wealth and power.

So in many ways it appears that the believers in Corinth were unwilling or unable to walk away from the world they lived in.  In the metaphor of the salt of the earth that Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 5, the Corinthians had lost both their preservative qualities as well as their ability to enhance taste.  Perhaps we come to this book with a sense of superiority.  Maybe we look at the list of terribly heinous acts this church was involved in and think to ourselves that we are better off than them because we have never had some or all of those things occur in our church.

If those types of thoughts threaten to intrude into your mind, I caution you to be wary.  Because we live in a country where nominal Christianity, or Christianity in name only, is institutionalized.  We live in a day when syncretism, or the fusion of all religions into one, is at a height not seen since the glory days of the Roman Empire.  We live in a Christian culture that seems to be incapable of divorcing itself from the opulent secular culture around it that is completely predicated upon self-gratification.  And as already stated, we live in bodies of sin and death and we face a supernatural enemy of extreme cunning and intelligence that would be all too happy to see us assume an air of haughtiness and self-righteousness just like the Pharisee in Luke chapter 18 who sanctimoniously thanked God that he was better than other men.

So as we finally come to 1^st Corinthians chapter 3, verses 10 to 15, let us not enter into our contemplation with the mistaken belief that just because this is a portion of a letter written almost 2,000 years ago to a group of people far removed from us both culturally and chronologically, that it has diminished value to our lives right now.  What Paul is going to present to us here is a message first of warning, then potentially of rebuke.  It is a warning against complacency and apathy.  And it is a stinging rebuke if those qualities are found to exist within us.  And it is just as applicable to us today as it was to the Corinthians in the 1^st century. 

Let us read the passage: According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it.  Let each one take care how he builds upon it.  For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw – each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.  If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.  If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

What we have here is one of the examples of the classic New Testament metaphor of building construction which represents the church.  Both Paul (Ephesians 2:19-20: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone) and Peter (1 Peter 2:6: For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”) capitalize on this stirring imagery that was first seen in the Isaiah 28:16 passage that Peter quotes directly.

And so here in 1 Corinthians Paul draws upon this familiar imagery.  But he goes into a level of depth with the illustration that we don’t see in the other Scriptures I mentioned.  First he describes himself as the builder who laid the foundation of the building that is the church.  The word in Greek is “architekton”.  You can hear the similarity with our modern English architect.  But the Greek word goes a bit deeper than our modern equivalent because it doesn’t just refer to the designer of a building.  It means literally the one responsible for both the planning of a construction project as well as the implementation of said project.  The superstructure will stand or fall based on the quality of the “architekton’s” work.  So Paul is describing himself as both the designer and the builder of the church at Corinth.

Lest we think Paul is boasting in himself here, we must concede that the context clearly portrays him in a different light.  He writes “according to the grace of God given to me”.  In chapter 2, verses 1-4 he describes his initial encounter with the Corinthians as being devoid of “lofty speech or wisdom”.  Rather Paul operated with demonstrations of the Holy Spirit and the power of God.  Just a few verses prior to our passage, in 5-7, he clarifies that both he and Apollos are nothing.  In chapter 15, verse 8 the Apostle is even more vivid and graphic.  He describes himself as one untimely born.  The Greek word literally means an abortion or a premature birth.  Paul’s humility, in emulation of Christ’s own, is of such an authentic nature that he considers himself a Christian who doesn’t even deserve to be alive in Christ.  He places all of the responsibility for whatever power, whatever ministry, whatever gospel, whatever wisdom, whatever skills are within him solely at the feet of God, without whom Paul knows he would be nothing.

What is particularly astonishing about this is the fact that of all people we might expect Paul to have his fair share of pride in his accomplishments.  Author of almost 25% of the New Testament.  Founder of at least 14 churches.  Mentor of innumerable disciples, both famous and unknown.  Frequent partaker in the sufferings of Christ.  Defender of Christianity before magistrates, governors, pro-consuls, kings, and even emperors.  Worker of wonders, signs, and miracles.  Who but Jesus Himself has left a legacy as storied as Paul the Apostle.  Yet he considered himself as nothing.  He considered himself an illegitimate child.  This is a level of penitence that most of us, we must admit, have never come close to.  Paul’s example here is why I exhort each one now, including myself, to cast away any semblance of pride as we consider his words.  Let us lay aside all assumptions of self-righteousness.  Let us cast our eyes inward with humility and honesty and question whether his words here to the Corinthians convict us of our own sin today.

It is exceedingly fitting and proper that we do this.  Because contextually, Paul is speaking specifically to the Corinthians about the actual church he founded in their city in Acts 18.  But timelessly, his point is directly applicable to every authentic Christian church today in 2017.  How is this so?  And why should we pay attention or be careful as to how we build the church upon the foundation of people’s efforts that have come before us? 

Taking my church, Daniels Bible Church as an example, our pastor for 40 years was a man by the name of Don Pfleger.  He worked tirelessly for decades to pour the wisdom and knowledge of Christ into people.  In doing so he left us a rich legacy of authentic biblical Christianity.  Is it because of men like Pastor Pfleger that we find correlation with what Paul is communicating to the Corinthians?  Is he our “Paul”, so to speak?  Well, it is true that the work he accomplished has left us a solid foundation to build upon.  And that is a good motivation to be sure, but it is insufficient for this text. 

You see, Paul is, in a broader sense, speaking to every Christian who has ever or will ever live.  He is not limiting his exhortation to only the Corinthian church.  He is expanding and broadening this commission to we here in 21^st century America.  In other words, Paul’s building of a foundation for the church at Corinth is literally and specifically relevant to Daniels Bible Church and every other church.  Our mandate to continue to build this church is not merely predicated upon the ministry of Don Pfleger or men like him, or even upon the history of this church from 1888 onwards.  No, our mission proceeds in an unbroken chain all the way down through the ages from the 1^st century and the Apostles themselves. 

I get this from verse 11.  Jesus Christ is the foundation of the universal Christian church.  He is whom the Apostles built their ministry upon throughout the 1^st century Mediterranean world.  Those churches they planted and disciples they mentored begat a new spiritual generation which begat another one after that.  And so on all the way down to the present day.  Thus the foundation of every church today is the same as the foundation of the church in Corinth.  Is what we do here of supreme importance?  You had better believe it is.

Not only that, but consider that simply by having 1^st and 2^nd Corinthians in our Bibles we are in a sense partners with our first century brothers and sisters with no dilution by the passage of time.  Because we have such unprecedented access to the Apostolic writings of Scripture, our foundation is literally one step removed from the original foundation.  Although 20 centuries separate us from the Corinthians, it might as well be only a single generation, due to the preservation of the teaching that was delivered directly to them by Paul.

That is why Paul stresses the need to carefully consider, or pay attention, to the work that we do to build up the body of Christ; because every single authentic Christian church is quite literally Christ’s own, regardless of where it falls in history.  And that is why we have an obligation to take our responsibilities, our fellowship, our worship, our services, our paperwork, our cleaning, our ministries with the utmost seriousness. 

Perhaps a few examples may help...

• Are you cruising Facebook in the middle of church while pretending to be using a Bible app?  Jesus taught us to cut off an offending hand or gouge out an offending eyeball.  The equivalent analogy would be to throw the phone in the trash, or at least leave it at home and bring a printed Bible to church.  Flee from the temptation, don’t flirt with it.  
• Are you skipping Sunday School or Wednesday because it just doesn’t fit into your schedule?  Re-arrange your schedule around church.  What is going to last into eternity; the mundane physical activities you pursue today or the spiritual seed you sew in ministry?  
• Do you think nothing of blowing off your responsibilities in children’s church for the sake of other interests?  Would you take the same casual attitude with your job or your biological family?  
• Do you obsess over the fact that the praise team just missed a beat on one of the songs, or a slide was slow to get onscreen, or the person in the pulpit just stumbled over his words as he reads?  I’m not talking about offering constructive criticism to help someone improve their ministry.  I’m referring to an unrighteously obsessive and critical spirit.  If that describes you then I have a question.  Are you guilty of straining out gnats and swallowing camels in the process (Matt. 23:23-24) by fixating upon minor details and missing what the Holy Spirit is trying to teach you each week?

In opposition to these examples and many others I could give, Paul teaches us to examine the work we are doing in the church.  And then he tells us why, beginning in verse 12.  He does this through metaphor.  It begins with a list of materials each of us might use to build with: gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw.  I think a question arises immediately. 

Namely, why the combination of these elements?  What has gold, silver, and gems to do with lumber, grass, and wheat?  Notice the sharp contrast between the two halves of the list.  The first three components seem to belong together.  The last three also have similarities.  But the two halves have very little in common with each other. 

Gold, silver, and gems are of course quite valuable.  They are precious to men.  And they are exceedingly rare.  Wars have been fought over them.  Thieves have plied their trade in pursuit of them.  And common people everywhere have lusted after them.  On the other hand, wood, hay, and straw are common, base, things.  What is more plentiful than trees to provide wood and grass to provide hay and straw?  Because of their abundance very little value is ascribed to them.

Beyond that, there is another manner in which these two groups are dissimilar; their durability, or more specifically, how they respond to high temperature.  Gold and silver are what is known as noble metals.  This is opposed to base metals such as copper, tin, or zinc.  Ore that is found in the earth many times has multiple metals lumped together.  Men use the process of metallurgy, specifically refining, to separate the noble from the base metals by exposing them to extreme temperatures which causes the base elements to oxidize, or react chemically, and separate from the noble elements, forming a slag or other compound.  The desired noble or precious metals, however, do not oxidize.  They remain chemically unaffected by the heat.  To be sure, they will melt given a high enough temperature.  But their chemical structure is impervious to the heat.

Gems, unlike noble metals, do react to heat.  However, the application of extreme temperatures to a precious stone merely continues the geological process that caused the creation of the stone in the first place.  As the gem is heated, various impurities within reform themselves, changing the color of the stone.  For example, a ruby is typically heated almost to its melting point, which allows the aluminum oxide in the stone to reform into a new crystal structure.  This allows the chromium in the stone to combine with different atoms, allowing for a better red hue.  And this is the point of significance for us today.  The heat treatment of a precious gem actually increases its value, rather than decreases it.  In fact, almost every stone sold in jewelry stores has been heat treated to some extent.

In sharp contrast, what happens to wood, hay, and straw when they are exposed to high temperatures?  Obviously, they ignite, burn, and are reduced until all that remains of the original material is ashes, which often are scattered and dissipate in the wind.

This is the point Paul is making with his metaphorical list of building materials.  Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw represent time, effort, ministries, disciple-making, preaching, teaching, counseling, administration, building upkeep, musical worship, and so on.  In this context, some Christians will build on the foundation of Christ that was laid by the Apostles and nurtured by countless generations of believers before them with durable, valuable, and rare materials.  Other Christians will just throw down whatever common components they can lay their hands on, with very little effort or regard for the heritage that has been handed down to them.  And in verse 13 Paul reveals what will happen to the people responsible for these various levels of effort and consideration.

He says that the quality of the work done will become obvious to everyone because fire will be applied to it so as to test the work.  I believe the metallurgical impact of fire upon Paul’s list of materials that I mentioned earlier is exactly what he had in mind.  He would have had no knowledge of germs at this point in history.  He would not have understood the cleansing power of heat as it relates to bacteria.  But the refining of metals and processing of gems as well as the building of fires with common combustible materials would have been very well known to him.  Paul was an educated man.  Metallurgical principles have been understood by humans since at least five thousand B.C.  In fact, such processes are even referenced directly in Scripture.  Genesis 4:22 tells us of: Tubal-Cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron.  So Paul would have known that fire purifies gold by causing the impure metals within it to fall away.  Peter, his associate, was well aware of this also.  In 1 Peter 1:7 he briefly references the process of gold refining as he compares and contrasts it with the faith of a Christian: so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

Let me hold that point for just a moment in order to ask a pertinent question.  Namely, who brings this fire?  Is it Satan and the evil world systems he is in control of?  Will it be the Russians, or ISIS, or the terrible liberals who will assault the structure of the church?  Well, no.  It is God Himself who causes the fire that tests the quality of our work.  Still in verse 13, we read that “the day” will show the evidence of each man’s work.  What does this refer to? 

Some of your Bible translations render the word “day” in verse 13 with a capital letter.  The reason is that some scholars agree it is probably a reference to “The Day of the Lord”.  This is a Biblical event referenced in both the Old and New Testaments.  One example is Revelation 16:14: For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.  So what exactly is this great day of the Lord?  It is the period of time, perhaps a single earth day, perhaps longer, when God will pour out His wrath over sin upon the earth.  It is a time of terrible fear and danger for those who remain opposed to God.  And it is a time of triumph and celebration for those who are aligned with Him.

Even if what Paul had in mind is merely daytime, to be contrasted with nighttime, there is still a quantifiable element of God at work in this process.  The Bible refers to God as light (e.g. 1 John 1:5) and points out that evildoers hate the light because it exposes their deeds (John 3:20).  As light only comes from day rather than night the connection is clear.

The point for us is that the day referred to by Paul is unquestionably associated with God.  He will bring it about.  He will order its coming and going.  He will select the agenda that is to be fulfilled on the day, whether it is the great Day of the Lord or simply a common day.  So, following this line of reasoning, it seems clear that Paul is referencing the future reality that God will be the One to test our work. 

Continuing the metaphor, when the fire comes the gold and silver will stand impervious to the flames.  Even if sufficient heat is applied their core structure will remain intact and available for re-formation.  The gems will actually increase in value as they stand against the inferno.  But the wood, hay, and straw will be utterly consumed in the conflagration.

Drawing his word picture to a close in verses 14 and 15, Paul gives us the ultimate impact such a day of testing will have upon those tested.  The Christian whose work remains after its trial by fire will be rewarded.  But the one whose efforts are burned away like chaff will likewise be burned.  Yet, he will still be saved from ultimate destruction.  I find this to be the particularly interesting and sobering point of this passage.  Typically, when the Bible speaks of people being burned it is in the context of judgment, damnation, and the fires of hell. 

Turning once again to Revelation, this time 14:10, and in reference to those being punished by God for their rebellion against Him, we read: he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of His anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.  An example of the Old Testament flavor of this same concept, and once again referencing the “Day of the Lord”, can be found in Malachi 4:1: “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.  The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”

So with that context in mind, what is astonishing to me about 1 Corinthians 3:15 is that Paul specifies that the people being burned will be saved.  He is very clear about this.  The word in Greek that Paul uses in this verse is the same one he wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:18: For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  Again in 1:21: For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.  Paul uses this word 28 times in his New Testament writing, and without exception, every single time, he uses the word in a spiritual context in the sense of being rescued from God’s wrath and granted eternal life.

This means that the people Paul is talking to in verse 15 are not unbelievers.  They are not the wolves among the sheep that he spoke of to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20.  They are not the antichrists who depart from the church in apostasy that John writes of in 1 John 2:18-19.  They are true believers.  They are authentic disciples of Christ.  They have been granted an imperishable and undefiled inheritance in heaven.  They will never taste death.  Yet, in spite of this glorious future, Paul says they will suffer loss and be burned.  

Why?  Because they wasted their Christian lives by building on the foundation of Christ that we have been given with common garbage instead of choice valuables.  They failed to recognize their spiritual helplessness and congenital insensitivity to spiritual pain that I discussed earlier.  Their extended time of walking with the Lord lulled them into a sense of complacency.  And they began to take their purpose in life, as a witness of Christ, for granted.

Should we take the business of the local church seriously?  You had better believe we should.  Paul is issuing here a dire warning to us to be very careful with how we conduct ourselves and how we work at building up the church.  Church must be a priority for the Christian.  It must be of great importance for you.  God has specifically designed you with certain gifts and talents.  Perhaps they lie dormant because you have never opened yourself to growth.  Or maybe what you have to offer a local church sits dusty and unused on the spiritual shelf of your soul due to long disuse and disrepair.  Nevertheless, those qualities and talents are still there.  Something is missing from your local church when you fail to show up.  And something is equally missing when you do darken the churches doors but you are not there ready to minister, but rather to consume.

As I draw this to a close, there are three groups of people I want to address.  First, to the unbeliever.  My friend, I plead with you this very hour to recognize that this message of salvation, albeit via injury due to burning, is only for those who have placed their faith and trust in Christ.  They will be saved even if they suffer the effects of fire.  But for you, there is a far worse fate in store.  The earlier passage from Revelation 14 continues in verse 11: “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”  You are, at this moment, standing upon the precipice of eternity.  You face the all-consuming wrath of the Creator of the universe, the One who shapes reality with His very thoughts.  And if you fail to turn away from your rebellion and turn to Him before you die you will face an eternity of torment the likes of which our finite minds cannot truly conceive.

Secondly, to the Christian sitting on their rear end and not pouring blood, sweat, and tears into the kingdom of God in a local church.  Perhaps you are foolish enough to think to yourself something like this.  Well, if this is the danger I have to look forward to if I put forth effort and then find out later that I didn’t do it right, then count me out.  After all, Paul is only warning people that have actually done some work, right?  Oh, foolish Christian.  First of all, if you can even seriously entertain such a notion then the Bible, not me, the unchanging word of God, calls into serious question your salvation in the first place. 

Just one chapter prior to our text for today, in 1^st Corinthians 2:14, Paul gives us a description of an unbeliever: The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.  If you are someone who claims to be a Christian, yet you are apathetic and disinterested in the work of the local church, and you can sit here reading this and not be convicted and spurred to repentance and freshly invigorated to redouble your efforts in ministry, then odds are you are not a Christian in the first place.

Not only that, but do you not realize that Paul in this passage is operating under the assumption that everyone is involved in the work.  He doesn’t bother to address what happens to those who are working because in Paul’s mind every Christian is a laborer and worker in the kingdom of God.  No matter their talents and giftedness, they have something to contribute to the church and Paul assumes they are doing it.

Finally, to the Christian working their hearts out in building up the church.  As I pointed out at the beginning of this message; fire hurts.  You will not enjoy it.  It is to be avoided at all costs.  Recognize your handicap when it comes to recognizing spiritual danger.  If you are not feeding yourself a steady diet of the word of God, if you are instead gorging on the programmed media and entertainment of a world system that hates and suppresses the truth of God, then you are guaranteed to be spectacularly oblivious to the danger that Paul is speaking of.

Furthermore, to those authentic Christians who right now are sober minded and afraid of committing the error of poor workmanship in the body of Christ.  Simply put, what do you do?  How do you ensure you are building properly with materials that will stand the test of God’s cleansing fire?  An exhaustive answer to that question is really beyond the scope of this message.  But I will offer a starting point for you.

As I sat and considered the impact of Paul’s words on my own life and efforts in building up the church, I noticed something three verses later, in 1 Corinthians 3:18-22: Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.  For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

I would suggest that the first thing we do is to guard against our own wisdom.  I cannot tell you the number of times I have shot my mouth off about something, convinced and assured of the rightness and justice of my statement, only to be convicted and driven to my knees later by the point that Paul makes here.  The wisdom of man, the pride of the creature, the arrogance of the sinner, is a surefire and guaranteed path to either outright destruction in hell or the burn ward of heaven.  Commit to yourself right now, as I am doing, that you refuse to be wise in your own eyes.  Set your will to fear God and turn away from evil.  Get on your knees, cling to the Holy Spirit, and beg for help in turning away from the corruption that contaminates these bodies of sin and death. 

And may God be praised and glorified by the work that we do using gold, silver, and precious gems.  To Him be glory and honor and power forevermore.

The Epistles of John, part 26: Priceless Gifts

“The sentence of this court is that you will be taken from here to the place from whence you came and there be kept in close confinement until your date of execution, and upon that day that you be taken to the place of execution and there hanged by the neck until you are dead.  And may God have mercy upon your soul.”

Those are the bone chilling words with which a sentence of death was handed down in the British Empire in the mid-20^th century.  It very concisely, deliberately, and with ultimate finality conveys the idea to the criminal that no further recourse is open to him.  All avenues leading to mercy from the government have been exhausted.  His guilt has been confirmed.  Tolerance for his crime is non-existent.  And now the only recourse left to him is to seek mercy from God Almighty, into whose hands the executioner will soon commit the condemned man’s spirit.

Popular culture has taken this phrase, “may God have mercy on your soul”, and used it in a callous or humorous manner.  General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. 3^rd army during World War II, famously once said “May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won’t.”  In this context the phrase is not intended to communicate any real desire for God to actually have mercy upon one’s foe.  Rather, the idea seems to be that the person uttering the phrase really doesn’t care whether God has mercy or not.  But He is the only one left who might possibly have any mercy, so you had better look to Him if you expect to find any.  There is certainly no sense of good will from God being either expected or hoped for.  It is a statement of judgment rather than tolerance, antagonism rather than charity, taking rather than giving.

For many people this is the fullest extent they will ever go to in seeking to wish anything from God upon another person.  They do not see the Lord as the giver of all good things or the source of true life.  Therefore, the statement “may God have mercy on your soul” transforms into an epithet instead of a benediction.  But as we continue our look at the Apostle John’s second epistle, we will find a radically different perspective.  We will find, in its opening verses, a steadfast yearning for blessing to flow directly from God to the recipients of the letter.  And it is nothing short of a monumental and comprehensive package of good will that dwarfs our typical modern attempts at kindness and well wishing.

Previously we considered the first phrase of John’s opening salutation: The elder to the chosen lady and her children.  We highlighted John’s humility in the way he refers to himself.  And we saw that there is strong evidence pointing to the fact that the chosen lady and her children refers to another church that John was corresponding with.  Now we will finish verse 1 and continue on into verse 2: whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth, for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever.

Now at first glance, I think John’s meaning seems clear to us.  He is simply stating that he truly and honestly loves his fellow Christians in the sister church they attend.  Not only does John love them, but anyone who knows what truth is will also love them.  He further contends that we must do this because of the truth that has been entrusted to us.  Finally, this truth, presumably in the form of the written Scriptures, having once been delivered and implanted in our minds, will never depart from us.  This is all quite apparent.  Or is it?

I don’t mean to imply that any of the preceding statements are untrue.  On the contrary, the New Testament clearly teaches everything I have just written.  John himself, in the letter we have already examined, emphatically teaches the requirement to love each other.  1^st John 4:7 states it this way: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  Likewise, he clearly links the church with truth in 2:27, as follows: As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.  Not only are those in the church to love one another, and not only have they been entrusted with an anointing of truth, but these are also inviolable and unceasing.  John summarizes all of this in 5:20: And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.  This is the true God and eternal life.

So I think it is obvious that John himself believed in these things.  And it is entirely possible that this was on his mind when he wrote verses 1 and 2 of his second letter.  But I believe there is an additional layer of meaning beneath the surface of his writing.  It is tied up in the word ‘truth’.  John uses this word three times in these verses.  He affirms that he loves his fellow Christians ‘in truth’.  He adds that everyone who ‘knows the truth’ also loves them.  And then he writes that ‘the truth’ will ‘abide in us and be with us forever’.  It is that last phrase that has captivated me.  But more on that in a moment.

The Greek word for truth is ‘aletheia’.  It refers to an accurate description of that which is real.  The dividing line between truthfulness and falsehood is in whether reality is being correctly described or defined.  As such, truth is a bit of an ephemeral philosophical concept that is at once nebulous and concrete, or simultaneously hazy and tangible.  It is a quality that is difficult to pinpoint exactly yet it defines and informs those elements of reality which are quantitatively palpable and perceptible.

All of this we know from an early age.  We may not always be able to provide a comprehensive definition of truth, but even as children we quickly ascertain the difference between truth and lie.  However, from a biblical perspective there is another aspect of truth.  It is one that powerfully bridges the gap between truth as a philosophical concept and a concrete description of reality.  Namely, it is the person of Christ.  Many of us know well the seminal passage, John 14:6, where Jesus said of Himself: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

A moment ago I said that truth as a concept is difficult to pinpoint.  It exists as a hazy philosophical construct that defies our attempts to define it.  That is only true when one’s understanding of truth is divorced or separated from the biblical record.  When the revealed word of God in the Scriptures is taken into account, truth suddenly manifests itself in a resounding and comprehensive way through the personhood of Jesus.  Jesus, being God in the flesh, is the literal and physical embodiment of truth.  Therefore, truth can be strictly defined as being exactly analogous to God; to His character, His personality, His preferences, and His thoughts.  In other words, and to put it rather bluntly, truth is what God says it is.  The scope and the shape of reality is however He desires it to be.

Now then, getting back to the phrase in verse 2 that has caught my attention.  We know that God is truth.  We also know that truth defines reality and can sometimes be used in an impersonal way.  While we may understand that God is implicitly truth, we don’t always have that squarely in the forefront of our minds when we speak of truth.  But I am of the opinion that John did in fact mean exactly that he loved his fellow Christians ‘in Christ’ and that everyone who ‘knows Christ’ also loves them.

The reason I think this is because of the word he chose to use in verse 2; ‘meno’.  It means to remain in, or to abide in.  This is a word we have seen numerous times throughout 1^st John.  In 3:9 he links ‘meno’ with being born of God as His children: No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.  There is no more intimate and conclusive and unalterable way for something to abide in something else that for a genetic blueprint of DNA from a parent to be written into the cells of a child.  It is completely immaterial whether you like or dislike your parents.  It makes no difference whether they were horrible or wonderful people.  You have their “seed” inside you regardless of your preference in the matter.

This was John’s point in his first letter.  And the import of that is capitalized upon and driven home in 2^nd John verse 2.  John has already linked knowledge with truth.  He could have let it remain at that level.  But he doesn’t do that.  He ups the ante into the stratosphere by saying that ‘the truth’ abides in us or remains with us in the same fashion that he already said God’s seed abides in His children.  There is a unity or harmony existent in the relationship between God the Father and God the Son that is mirrored in their relationship with their spiritually adopted offspring.  That is what John has in view here.

So I don’t think he is merely using truth as an abstract concept.  I think he is literally talking about Jesus in these verses.  And in that conclusion I find an incredible level of benevolence toward his audience; both directly to whatever church he was writing to at the time and indirectly to us as modern day Christians.

Think about it.  The apostle is saying that he loves this church in and through and for the sake of Christ.  Every facet of his good will toward them is bound up in the unity of his relationship with his master and creator.  John’s affection for them is not some passing flight of fancy.  It is not a light and transient emotional response.  Nor is it a selfish and warped caricature of genuine love wherein John professes love for his fellow Christians directly and solely because of the pleasure and delight he experiences from them. 

Rather, this is a sacrificial love.  It is a conscious and deliberate decision to give up one’s own prerogatives for the sake of another that is founded upon and continuously fueled by a deep and abiding feeling of good will and benevolence toward them.  How do I know John’s love is of this level of quality?  Because of the source of his love; Christ Jesus Himself.

And in that, consider that what John is really expressing in these verses is a priceless gift of inestimable worth.  Is there any better gift to deliver to someone else than a gift of genuine, biblical, Christ-centered, God-fearing, ‘agape’ love?  Implicit in the very bones of the concept of love is the idea of selfless giving.  One human being cannot give any greater gift to another human being than to give them Godly love in an attempt to emulate and pass on what one has already received from the Lord.

In fact, we can clearly see the depth of John’s love for this church that I am talking about by reading the very next verse of his letter: Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.  This is quite frankly a staggering close to John’s salutation.  The magnitude of the gift giving here is incalculable.  Let’s consider the three components of what he is offering to his loved ones: grace, mercy, and peace.

First of all, we need to clarify that all three of these are wrapped in a package of God-sourced love, as has already been identified.  And it is also important to notice who is doing the giving here.  John doesn’t write that he is going to give these gifts to the church.  Rather, the gift giver is God Himself.  John is merely wishing or conferring good things upon his audience on behalf of the Lord.

At first glance, we might suppose that this is a mark of laziness or insincerity on John’s part.  He is not even willing to give these things to the church himself.  Rather, he turns to God to do the work for him.  Isn’t that a bit like a parent handing a present to their child on Christmas morning that has been purchased and wrapped by their next door neighbor?  Well, no, it is not, for two reasons.

First, we need to recognize that this well-wishing of John’s is really an indicator of supreme love and care on His part.  The reason is that he is directing his audience toward a gift-giver of surpassing splendor and majesty.  This giver of gifts is of a far greater capacity for giving than John is.  The apostle recognizes his inferiority.  Therefore, it is actually a greater gift of well-wishing on John’s part to desire that the good things for his audience come from God rather than himself.

Second, notice John’s use of “us” in the first part of verse 3.  He wants to be included in what his fellow Christians receive from the Father.  Now wait a minute.  Isn’t that just a bit self-serving of John?  Not only does he want someone else to provide the gifts for his loved ones, but he wants to partake of those same gifts along with them.  Well, it might technically be a little self-serving, but only in the context of a desire for maximum enjoyment and gratification for all the parties involved in this process. 

Remember from 1^st John 1:4, the apostle’s conviction is that by sharing what he has experienced in Christ he will facilitate the experience of his audience in partaking of the fellowship he already enjoys with the God-head.  And furthermore, by entering into this process together everyone’s joy will be maximized: These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.  John understands something that we sometimes fail to realize.  A gift exchange is best done when both the giver and the receiver enter into fellowship around the gift.

Let me give a simple example.  Suppose there are two friends.  One of them has a fondness for art, specifically paintings.  The other friend decides to give a painting as a birthday gift.  This friend has the option of purchasing a painting that someone else has done or painting a picture on their own for their friend.  Now, for the sake of example ignoring the multitude of other factors that may be involved, and assuming the gift-giving friend does have some skill with a paintbrush, which would typically be the more valued and treasured long-term possession for their friend?  Would it be the “store bought” painting that required very little effort other than an infusion of cash?  Or would it be the personalized labor of love that required hours if not days of work?  Obviously, the latter is the superior gift because the gift-giver gave of themselves in a more intimate and committed manner than if they had simply rested on the efforts of someone else.

I think that is what makes John’s form of giving in this letter superior to many of our typical attempts to bestow good things on our friends and loved ones.  He wants to ensure that they receive from the best source possible.  And he wants to be involved personally in the procurement and enjoyment of what has been given.  He wants to be a part of his friends’ lives.

Now then, let us take a look at the three gifts themselves.  First up is grace, or ‘charis’ in Greek.  This is good will or favor.  More than that, it is unmerited or undeserved favor.  John doesn’t use this word often in his writings.  But one of his uses serves as an excellent example to illustrate what ‘charis’ is.  In John chapter 1 the apostle is describing Christ.  Verses 16 and 17 read thusly: For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.  For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

It is the contrast and comparison with the Mosaic Law that helps us to understand the kind of grace John is talking about.  The Law, as it was given to Israel, was an agent of bondage, slavery, and death.  This is not to say that the Law, in and of itself, was bad.  Rather, the inherent sin of the people, when confronted with the restrictions and commands of the Law, awoke and caused them to disobey it, resulting in their death.  In contrast to that, when Christ appeared we were released from the bondage of the Law.  When a prisoner is released, it is not they who have caused their freedom, but the one who is releasing them.  This is the idea inherent in grace.  It is an undeserved release from sin and death for a prisoner who deserves every bit of his punishment. 

Paul summarizes this contrast beautifully in Romans 7:5-6: For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.  But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

The second gift from God that John wishes upon his brothers and sisters is mercy; or ‘eleos’ in Greek.  Turning to Romans once again, in chapter 9 verses 22-23 Paul gives us a compelling image of the biblical concept of mercy.  He is contrasting wrath with mercy and equating those concepts with destruction on the one hand and glory on the other: What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?  And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.

In this comparison of wrath and mercy we can ascertain a full and accurate understanding of the latter.  Wrath, when applied to a person by God, results in their destruction.  On the other hand, mercy, rather than causing shame and annihilation, leads to glory and honor.  Therefore, mercy, being the opposite of wrath, can be stated as building up instead of tearing down.  It is kindness and care shown to another in demonstrable and quantifiable acts.

Finally, we come to the third gift that John hopes God will bestow on his audience; peace or ‘eirene’.  No one has characterized this word better than Jesus Himself.  In John 14:27 He is giving His disciples some final instructions, just prior to His arrest.  He knows perfectly well how their world is going to come crashing down in a few hours.  Their hopes and dreams for the future will not be what they had imagined.  Their rabbi, their teacher, their master will in a short time draw His last breath.  Completely contrary to their presumed notion of the Messiah conquering in power and glory, He will instead apparently be defeated in weakness and humiliation.  So in verse 27 Jesus gives them the following soothing balm for the pain He knows they will be feeling soon: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

This is the heart of the peace that comes from God.  The ways of the world lead to fear, stress, conflict, and pain.  But the ways of the world are not the ways of God.  We must pitch our tents upon His promises and His faithfulness.  We must construct our camps next to the streams of grace and mercy that flow out from Him.  And in so doing we will find a true cessation of hostilities with our Maker.  Even though this may not lead to peace with the world, the fact that we will be at peace with Him will cause us to have an internal peace even in the face of external conflict.

Now then, having covered all of this ground, contemplate with me just what is on the table here that John has presented as gifts to his loved ones in the church.  He has offered them treasures of incalculable worth.  He has presented to them the unfiltered and unblemished blessings of the Father.  This is comprised of truth, or the person of the living Christ.  Everything that John hopes and dreams for his fellow Christians is built upon the foundation of the loving truth of Jesus that fills the heart of this elder and pours outward toward his spiritual children.

What is carried along in the flood of love from God and through John are the tri-part blessings of grace, mercy, and peace.  God desires to show us favor that we have not earned, kindness for our most painful of hurts, and a supernatural serenity that defies human understanding.

Although John himself is not responsible for the transmission of these gifts, he directs our attention to the true source of them; the Lord.  And John is eager to be any part he can be of the conduit that facilitates the flow of these gifts from God to His children.

What a salutation this is!  Unlike the cold and impersonal sentence of death handed down by British courts.  In contrast to the callous and heartless nonchalance toward one’s enemies witnessed in Patton’s attitude.  Completely opposed to a false and insincere wish for mercy to be bestowed by God.  In opposition to all of that stands John’s towering testimonial to an authentic and dedicated desire to have others receive divine gifts of priceless value.

To be frank, John’s opening to this letter blows most of our feeble attempts at gift-giving out of the water.  As I consider the gifts of service I attempt to provide to those in my circle of influence, I must admit that I come up far short of John’s example.  The Scriptures teach us to seek out and work toward relationships framed and characterized by a loving adoration of both God and each other.  Ephesians 5:19 instructs us to speak to one another: in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.  And Colossians 3:16 exhorts us to: let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

I see these things evident in John’s greeting, thus presumably present in his relationships.  I fear they are often missing in my reception of others.  And I know for a fact they are sometimes absent in my relationships.  If we began to communicate with each other in the same manner as John did with his friends, what a powerful transformation it would make in our lives.  We should do away with sarcasm, impatience, harshness, condescension, and animosity.  Instead, we should fill our social interactions with kindness, patience, softness, humility, and friendship.  The words of the elder to his fellow church echo down to us across the centuries and they should drive us to conviction and repentance.