“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.
“Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:10-17 ESV)
The foundation to which Paul is referring here is a spiritual foundation, not a physical one, which is Jesus Christ and the gospel of our salvation. So by Paul stating that he laid a foundation, according the grace given to him, this is what he is speaking of. For he was called of God to preach Christ crucified, dead and buried, resurrected, ascended back to heaven, and coming again one day to receive his faithful ones (his bride) to himself for eternity. For he was called of God to preach the gospel of our salvation to the people.
And the gospel message that Paul taught was that Jesus Christ died on that cross, taking our sins upon himself, in order to put our sins to death with him, so that by faith in him we might die with him to sin and live to his righteousness, in walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands, and in holy and righteous living – all for the glory and praise of God. By faith in Jesus Christ we are, thus, crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin.
Now obedience to our Lord, and righteousness and godly living, are to be what we practice. And daily by the Spirit we are to be putting to death the fruitless deeds of darkness. No longer are we to let sin reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires, for if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But obedience to our Lord leads to righteousness and to sanctification, and its end is eternal life with Christ our Lord. For Jesus died that we might not live for ourselves but for him who gave his life for us.
So, for us to first of all be those who are building on this foundation, we have to first of all have the correct biblical foundation. For many people are building upon false foundations of false and altered gospel messages which are not in agreement with the teachings of Christ and of his NT apostles with regard to the full message of the gospel. For the correct foundation is what was spoken of above, but many have diluted that to a mere profession of faith in Jesus Christ but absent of death to sin and walks of obedience.
And building on the correct foundation has to do with our walks of faith and obedience to our Lord in holy living, and the works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10), and the fruit of the Spirit as evidenced in our lives, and our service to the Lord in ministry and in surrender to his will for our lives. But I admit that I find the wording here a little confusing, and even the old commentators don’t all agree on what it says. But what is clear is that both are building on the correct foundation.
So, this cannot, by that understanding, be saying that we can profess faith in Jesus Christ and then continue living in sin and wickedness and not in walks of obedience to our Lord, for that would not be the foundation that Paul laid – not according to the gospel that he taught and that Jesus taught. So this is not saying that we can live a wicked life and not walk in obedience to our Lord and that we can still be saved from our sins and go to heaven when we die, only as through fire. The other Scriptures refute that notion.
For what does it say next? If we destroy God’s temple, which is the body of Christ, his church, but which is our individual lives, too, that God will destroy us. For God’s temple is holy. It is not given over to willful and deliberate and habitual sin and rebellion against the Lord and in refusal to obey him and his commands. Yes, there will be believers in Christ who will bear more fruit than others, which is the kind of fruit that survives and bears more fruit. But we cannot refuse to obey the Lord and walk in sin and go to heaven.
For, if we say we have fellowship with God, but we walk in darkness (in sin), we are liars, and the truth is not in us. And if we claim that we know God, but we do not obey his commandments (New Covenant), in practice, we are liars. For it is those who practice righteousness who are righteous. And all those who practice sin are of the devil. And if we hold on to our old lives (of living for sin and self), we will lose them (for eternity), but if we die to sin and to self and follow Jesus in obedience, we will gain eternal life.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg
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