Our union in Christ is not a trade union - Notes on 1. Corinthians 3:8-13

Last time was all about the unity we as Christians have in the Spirit, and we learned that the more spiritual we are, the more unified we will be. However, God also created us as unique individuals, and what we learned last time should not lead us to minimize that. Individuality is a part of God's divine design for his own glory. Showing off that he is so unique that he could create billions upon billions of completely unique people, all in his own image.

His Spirit doesn't take away our individuality. To the contrary he makes us more into the unique individuals we were created to be at the same time as he draw us all together. And in heaven when our sanctification is complete and we are perfectly unified in Christ, we will still be individuals. And we will even be rewarded individually for the labor we do for God.

Verse 8

Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

Laboring as one:

Working together toward a common goal is something that comes quite naturally to us humans. At least when our common goal is making money. In our workplaces we have very little issue with understanding that our coworkers may have different jobs, requiring a different set of skills, and being rewarded differently. We accept it, and appreciate their contribution to the value chain, because in the end we know that by doing so we will all make more money.

One plants and another waters. Those are two jobs among many others in the Kingdom of God. One maybe helps support the planter with money for seeds, another helps the ones who waters by helping him carry his buckets back and forth.

We could choose to look around us, wondering who is the most important, who contributes the most, and why the guy working next to me doesn't do the same job that I'm doing. But out time would certainly be better spent looking around to see what contributions we ourselves could make with the unique set of skills that God has equipped us with. Because he is going to reward us individually according to our own work.

Receiving rewards:

Did you know that for each contribution we make to this work, God will reward us? Apparently God is not a communist, giving the same reward to everyone regardless what they do. More work means more reward in Heaven.

We are in a time of great financial insecurity. In fear of another global financial crisis, many of the people who still have money left after the last one are investing in gold. They do this because any currency could potentially become worthless due to hyperinflation. If you had a million Zimbabwe dollars in 1980, you would be pretty well off. They were worth more than US dollars. Now you couldn't even buy a bowl of rice for a million Zimbabwe dollars. Now if they believe that that will happen to their currency, it makes sense to exchange their wealth for another form of wealth that will not lose its value.

Their problem is that they are too short-sighted, because the gold that they invest in is perishable gold. This present world will come to an end, and it's gold will be worth less than the Zimbabwe dollar. Now if we believe that, it makes very little sense to store up treasures in any earthly currency. Even gold. Jesus said:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt 6:19-21)

I'm so tired of hearing people use legalism and guilt to make people give their time and money to the Kingdom of God. Worldly businessmen motivated by nothing but greed don't need to be guilted into investing their wealth in gold to preserve it, and only keep what they need for running expenses.

Likewise I'm tired of those who promise unrealistic short term returns on what you give to God. You'd be better of investing in lottery tickets or handing your money over to shady ponzi-schemer than to give something to God out of a greedy heart.

When you do God's work, by laboring yourself or by supporting others who do it, you are making a wise investment. You are putting the wealth that God has entrusted you with into the treasury of Heaven. And whatever wealth you have there will be yours for eternity. Whatever wealth you have on earth will be lost for eternity.

So... what do we get?

Let's allow ourselves a little sidetrack to speculate in what these heavenly rewards or treasures might consist in. The Bible gives us a little hint in 1. Peter 1:3-9 (ESV):

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 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.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The greatest thing awaiting us in heaven is Jesus Christ. All of us who are saved will see him, but our ability to enjoy him and rejoice in him. When we see him in heaven, we will all enjoy him to the fullest of our capacities. When the recipients of this letter went through different trials, it says it resulted in a greater appreciation for Christ. They had been united with Christ in his suffering, and by sharing that in common the loved him more. It does not seem unreasonable that the same would be true for those who have been united with Christ in his labor to build his church.

Verse 9-10

For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. According 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.

Building a temple:

Now Paul switches metaphors, and calls the church a building. A building for which he had laid the foundation, and others were building on. Laying the foundation was the job that had been assigned to Paul, according to the grace of God that was given to him, and he executed it faithfully. Then he went on to other cities to lay other foundations. That was his job, and when he entered heaven the rewards for the job he had done was waiting for him there.

Apollos and others came along later on and continued to build on that foundation. Paul did not forbid that. He encouraged it. He just had one stipulation. He said this building belongs to God, and if you're going to build on it, you'd better do it right. “Each man must be careful how he builds on it.” There are two things he particularly says to be careful about

Verse 11:

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

The divine building code:

First of all, don't mess with the foundation. Because the foundation is Jesus Christ. That is his sovereign act of election for himself a group of people, saving them and indwelling them with the Holy Spirit, and drawing them together in worship of himself. If you try to start out a church with any other foundation than that, it really doesn't matter how you build it because it will fall anyways.

Verse 12:

Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each 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. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.

Secondly, with the foundation being completed, you have options of how to build on it. Every builder will have his work tested by fire. Knowing that should lead us to chose wisely what building materials we use.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the fairy tale of the tree little piggies each building their houses. One out of straw, one out of sticks and one out of stone. Each of their buildings were tested by the big bad wolf, and in the end only the one built by stone was left standing.

Our work will not be tested by a big bad wolf, or even Satan, but by the fire of God himself. What can withstand the fire of God? Only the materials which he has provided.

There are many straw churches being built today. You can recognize them by their rapid growth, and light, fluffy preaching. Many are drawn in and become part of the church, but there is very little substance in any of them. What happens when God allows some trial to come and test them? They just blow away. They aren't solid believers, who have been transformed by the Spirit of God. They are merely carnal men having been persuaded by some preacher to try to become better people by going to church and hearing self-help messages. And if the pastor was sick one Sunday, Dr. Phil could easily have come and filled in for him without anyone noticing the difference.

Even though I point to churches with rapid growth, we aren't safe from this in a small church either. It is so easy to be tempted by the schemes of different church-growth gurus, and start imitate their deceptive and man-centered evangelism. Even a small church can be made up of mostly straw and flammable materials. People who may have a confession of faith, but who will not withstand the fiery judgment of God because they are not in Christ.

The judgment:

God does not reward us according to effort, but according to result. You can wear yourself out building a straw church, only to see all of it burn to the ground when Jesus returns. You will not receive rewards for those you led in a man-made sinners prayer, or persuaded to sign a “decision card”, or manipulated into raising their hand and walking an isle, if at the end of it all they go to hell. No one will look to you on that day and applaud you because your straw church was so big that the flames of it could be seen from the neighboring city. The years of your life that you put into it will have been utterly wasted. There is only one thing that remains for you: God's grace.

Verse 13:

If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

The foundation for your salvation is not your work. Salvation is not a reward for what you have done, but for what Christ has done. So even if all of your work proves to have been in vain, and you lose every reward, you still don't lose your salvation, if your salvation is built on the finished work of Jesus.