1 Corinthians 3:13-15 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire… In treating this passage it should be noted that the first and chief reference of it is to Christian teachers and their work, and that it can only in a second sense be applied to the ordinary Christian, and the kind of influence for good which he strives to exert. Still, a great principle is enunciated in St. Paul's counsel to the teachers, and we may give that principle a wide and general application. The apostle is, in this part of the Epistle, dealing with the tendency of the teachers at Corinth to overpress their individual apprehensions of the truth, and so to make parties under their lead, instead of carefully preserving the unity of the Church in the common truth "as it is in Christ Jesus." "The image, in these verses, is taken from what would meet the eye of a traveller in Ephesus, where St. Paul now was, or in:Corinth, where his letter was to be first read. It is such a contrast as may be seen (though not in precisely the same striking form of difference) in London in our own day. The stately palaces of marble and of granite, with roof and column glittering with gold and silver decorations, and, close by these, the wretched hovels of the poor and outcast, the walls made of laths of wood, with the interstices stuffed with straw, and a thatched roof above. Then arose before the apostle's vision the thought of a city being visited by a mighty conflagration, such as desolated Corinth itself in the time of Mummius. The mean structures of perishable wood and straw would be utterly consumed, while, as was actually the case at Corinth, the mighty palaces and temples would stand after the fire had exhausted itself" (T. T. Shore). The point of the apostle is that, sooner or later, all earthly works come under severe and searching testings, which prove whether there is anything in them of permanent value, and destroy what had but a temporary use or was really worthless. There is a good and important sense in which the testing day is a continuous day. We need not put the thought of the proving of our life work off to some indefinite future. Every day tests and tries. Every night we may think that God weighs the day and its works in his perfectly adjusted balances. But the early Christian mind was very fully occupied with the idea of a particular day, on which Christ would appear and the judgment of mankind be completed; see 2 Corinthians 5:10. I. THE FIRE TEST FOR ALL LIFE WORK. Fire is conceived as: 1. The most destructive agent. 2. The most searching agent. Recent fires have shown how it can destroy eves buildings of brick and stone. Illustrate from the great Chicago fire. 3. The most purifying agent. Illustrate its power to cleanse the dross from metals. Compare the two other cleansing agents noticed in Scripture - water and blood. Both these cleanse by a mechanical process; fire cleanses by a chemical process, Nowadays, in great cities and in regard to great buildings, the most anxious question is, "Will the walls etc., stand fire?" We try to build places that shall be fire proof. Fire fitly represents the searching power of God: "As fire does, so does God in the end thoroughly search out and destroy all that is vile or refuse, all that is not thoroughly genuine and durable." For passages associating fire symbols with God, see Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 9:3; Psalm 1:3; Psalm 97:3; Isaiah 66:15, 16; Malachi 3:2, 3; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; Hebrews 12:29. It may be shown that (1) time, (2) difficult circumstances, (3) afflictions, test our life work, and act as the fire of God. Sooner or later, even in this life, men find out of what sort their work has been, but all mistake and delusion about the quality of our work will be swept away in the great revealing day of God. II. THE REWARD FOR ALL WHOSE LIFE WORK ABIDES THE TEST. The reward is really found in the abiding, the permanent character of the work. "Those who have built well shall have their reward in their work having survived the trial: of the fire." F. W. Robertson points out the doctrine of the rewardableness of work, as taught in this passage. "All were one, on the one Foundation; yet St. Paul modifies this: they were not one in such a sense that all their work was equally valuable, for 'every man shall receive his own reward according to his labour.' It is incredible that the mere theologian, defending the outworks, writing a book on the evidences of Christianity, or elaborating a theological system, shall be as blessed as he who has hungered and thirsted with Christ, and like Christ suffered. Nevertheless, each in his own way shall gain the exact recompense of what he has done." On the doctrine of rewards, consider (1) the sense in which they are present; (2) the sense in which they are future; (3) how far we may think of them as material, and how far as moral; (4) their precise adaptation to the worker, and relation to the work he had done; and (5) their coming as a gift of grace, never ks a claim of merit. III. THE LOSS OF THOSE WHOSE LIFE WORK WILL NOT ABIDE THE TEST. Their work will perish. It is proved to be "of the earth, earthy." It had no abiding spiritual character. Reference, no doubt, is to all so called Christian teaching that has mind in it, energy in it, individuality in it, but not Christ in it, and Christ wholly. All work that only glorifies the worker must perish. Only work that glorifies Christ can stand the fire test. Show with what care we should test our own work in God's sight, to be sure that no self seeking has crept into it and spoiled it. "If we would judge ourselves we shall not be judged." But St. Paul, while writing such severe and searching things, makes most careful qualifications, so that none should be unduly discouraged. This is said for the comfort of sincere souls whose life work has proved a failure. "He himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." "He shall be saved, while all his work shall be destroyed, just as, to use St. Paul's metaphor, a builder escapes from his house which has been burnt over his head, and stands trembling yet safe, looking on his work in ruins." "Surely the 'smell of fire' may be said to pass on him who sees all those works which he so honestly believed to be for God vanishing as worthless stubble in the searching trial which will 'purge away all the dross' of our human doings, and leave only what is of real value in God's sight." Impress how entirely our human will should be lost in the Divine will, so that our Christian work should be in no sense at all our work, but entirely God's appointment for us, and wholly done under his guidance and in his strength. Work that has the self seeking stamp on it will be sure to burn up. Precious stonework, gold and silver work, is work done wholly for Christ, in which the self does not appear. Let each man, then, test his ministry, his teaching, his influence, now, while he may correct his errors, and begin to do better things in a better spirit. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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