WORK AND ITS TEST
1Corinthians 3.7-15It was said a lot in the Bible about real Spiritual and Physical work in Christ and for Christ, which is very uncommon and scarce and limited subject in many churches, and in some churches absent completely. "Christians" in general do not like to do any work for Christ, because it is too hard for them, and of course people will not attend the church if they will hear about some work they must do in the Name of Christ or sacrifice something for the sake of GOD. It is much easier to donate money than perform some good work yourself.
Paul perfectly described in these verses his own mission, and the mission of his associates as the mission of GOD, spreading and teaching the Gospel.
Paul calls himself and others like him as workers-care takers, and people of the world as plants that required watering, but growth of that was watered belongs only to GOD Who give growth to people to grow in Christ. It is very similar to some parable of Christ Who presented examples of vineyards (the people) and field workers as prophets and teachers who are "watering" the GOD'S vineyard to keep it alive and grow.
Paul in verse 8 also mentioned certain rewards that every one of the workers will receive according to their labor. This can be compared to the parable of slaves and the master who gave to his slaves a number of coins to invest and expected from them to bring Him some profit from the investment.
This means of how honestly and sincerely the workers will do their job, also will depend and on their reward (verses 14-15). Rewards in the Bible have two basic meanings. One meaning that reward for good and honest deeds will be a positive reward leading to Salvation and Eternal Life. The other rewards can be very negative for cheating or idling doing nothing, and it usually comes in form of punishments or rejection by GOD.
So, this underlines the general perception of what a person will receive from GOD according to his/her life and deeds on Earth.
In verse 10 Paul talking about a certain foundation which is he had laid. The foundation is Gospel of Christ for which Paul works harder than anyone else and risked his life for it.
But in the second part of this verse Paul issued a warning to those who builds on the Gospel (foundation) of teaching of Paul his own foundation, not always based on the Gospel but on their own teachings.
Many warnings have been issued in the Bible concerning false teachers and false prophets, and they exist in many of the churches even today.
It seems at first glance they that false teachers preach according to the Gospel, but cleverly in some parts of their sermon they turning to false assumptions, false hypothesis, false theories and straight lies, bending, twisting, and giving false meaning and false explanations to the passages of the Bible in order to promote their own agenda or false doctrine.
So, in verse 11 Paul concluded that if someone laid his own foundation other than the Paul had laid - the foundation of Gospel Christ, this is false foundation and does not belong to the church.
Verses 12-15. Moreover, each and every foundation what any man laid, means personal believes and personal faith and personal works in the Name of Christ, all of which will be tested with fire, means to be tested with tribulations, suffering, and persecutions, and GOD will see whose work will stand the test and whose work will fail and collapse.
Because many claim to be a Christian, but the test of GOD will precisely reveal who is the true Christian and who is a false Christian. Similar to parable of Christ about house that built on the rock and the house that built on the sand.
THE TEMPLE OF GOD IS IN YOU
1Corinthians 3.16-17Paul presented and repeated in these passages some of the Statements of Christ concerning this subject, explaining that if a person contains a Holy Spirit in his/her spirit that person became holy and also contain in itself the Holy Temple of the Holy GOD, because in whoever the Holy Spirit resides where will be and His Holy Temple.
This shows that if a holy person willingly or unwillingly destroys his/her own Holy Temple of the Holy Spirit of GOD in his/her spirit by go astray from the Lord, the GOD Himself will destroy such person.
This proves one important fact, that even if a person contains in itself the Holy Spirit of GOD fail the Lord, he or she will no longer guided by the Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit will leave him or her.
The Holy Spirit usually does not permanently reside in human soul but occasionally in order to direct a person to a certain task or to a certain act to do, or to conduct something really extraordinary, and examples of such works of the Holy Spirit are numerous.
No one saved yet, until the Book of Life will open, and the names of the saved will be announced.