No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 3:11)
From time to time, I have found myself looking for a house. When house hunting, you can come across some pretty bizarre configurations. You can almost do an archaeological dig on some of them. “This part was built first. Then they added this room. Then this garage.” The result can be a Frankenstein of a house, with some parts of the house more desirable and stable than others.
As Jesus tells us, it is important for our spiritual houses to be built on rock (see Matt. 7:24). Interestingly, Paul indicated that some Christians build on that foundation using better and worse materials. It is pretty clear that Paul did not believe some Corinthians were doing particularly well in their building. One man in 1 Corinthians 5 probably did not even have Christ as his true foundation. Earlier in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul told the Corinthians that their problem was that they were still living to some degree out of their flesh rather than the Spirit. They needed to move from being “carnal,” “fleshly,” to become “spiritual.”
There is only one rock that will stand up against God’s final evaluation, and that is the rock of Christ. We will be praised—or not—for how we build on the foundation of Christ. Most importantly, we will not have any part in that eternity if Christ is not our foundation.
Build your life as a spiritual house, not a house of flesh.
Ken Schenck is vice president for university partnerships with Campus EUD. He previously served as vice president for Houghton College (NY) and dean of Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University.
© 2022 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
