Today, we will look at Matthew 12:30: “He who does not gather with me scatters.” What is the lord Messiah Jesus saying in these words? It’s very easy to say, “Oh yes! My heart is open to God,” but what is the evidence of that openness? The evidence must be seen not just in talk, or in professing some kind of faith, but in the fact that we are active for God. The lord Messiah Jesus said: “Whoever does not gather with me scatters.” To put it in another way, he is saying, “He that is not working with me is working against me.” There is no neutral ground.
What is “gather” and “scatter”?
To gather or to scatter is work; it is activity, and the lord Messiah Jesus is saying, “I’m not just going to look at what you profess with your mouth that you believe this and that. The evidence is going to come in your life, whether you work with me or against me.” It’s important to understand this because today, you will generally hear a teaching that you are saved simply by believing; it requires no action on your part. You make a profession of faith with your lips, and lo and behold, you are saved! That is the end of the matter. Not so!
What does the lord Messiah Jesus say? He is our Savior, sent by God; let him answer the question. He said: “Whoever does not gather with me is the one who scatters.” This statement refers to any person, whoever it may be. Now it is plain that scattering is the opposite of gathering. So if you are not gathering with him, working with him, you are scattering. The lord Messiah Jesus looks at a person’s life, and not at what he says. Do you believe in him by gathering? We have to look at what “gather” means in a moment.
First, let us get down to understanding what “gather” and “scatter” mean in their original expressions. The words in the Greek “to gather” or “to scatter” can refer to gathering or scattering sheep. For example, the word “scatter” is used in John 10:12 where the wolf gets into the flock and scatters the sheep. You are either a shepherd or a wolf. That is the choice. There is no middle ground between these two. But the words in the Greek can also be used for harvesting, and I think the lord Messiah Jesus intentionally widens the scope. He is saying: “Whoever does not gather the harvest with me, scatters or destroys the harvest.” Either way, the meaning is the same, whether it has to do with the pictures of gathering in or scattering the sheep of God; whether gathering in or scattering, destroying the harvest. All these refer to bringing people to salvation, or driving them away from salvation.
These words can apply, in fact, to any range of people. “Whoever” does not specify who, but any person. If you profess to be a follower of the lord Messiah Jesus, and you are not gathering in God’s people, if you live a kind of life that is a disgrace to the gospel, what do you do? You drive people away from God. The Jewish rabbinic scholars have a saying that the unforgivable sin is the sin of profaning or disgracing the name of God, because that will drive people away from God, and so drive them away from salvation. That kind of sin means that you don’t just sin by hurting yourself; you sin by causing someone else to fall. If you, as a follower of the lord Messiah Jesus, bear the name of God and then behave in a disgraceful way, you are going to drive people away from God; you scatter. You are doing the work of a wolf, not a shepherd.
Followers of the lord Messiah Jesus are to be under-shepherds of the lord Messiah Jesus; he is the chief shepherd, and we work together with him, helping people turn to God.
A true disciple must gather with the lord Messiah Jesus, not scatter
Those who profess to be Christians, or preachers, may be very superficial. They say: “All you have to do to be saved is to just believe.” The lord Messiah Jesus goes much deeper; he is not superficial. He says this: “Whoever does not gather with me scatters.” If you are going to be a follower of the lord Messiah Jesus who wants to experience God’s salvation, then understand these words carefully. They mean that everything you do day by day is either going to contribute to bringing people to God, or it is going to have an effect of driving them away. Consider what kind of damage an unkind word or a thoughtless action may do to a brother or sister. It may drive that person away. It scatters the brother or sister. It doesn’t bring them in.
Conversely, doesn’t every work of love, every action of kindness that comes from faith draw someone closer to God? Think of it: if you go out to visit people, for example, maybe you don’t preach to them, but you just show them the love of lord Messiah Jesus through your visiting; you are helping to bring in the sheep; you are gathering with the lord Messiah Jesus. Or you lead a Bible Study, or you chair a meeting, or in your everyday life, how you live in your college, serve in your office, whatever you say and do, can help to turn people to God. That is so important to understand.
The apostle Paul teaches the same thing in 1 Corinthians 3:10-17, a passage which is so little understood today. This passage is, in many ways, simply an exposition of the lord Messiah Jesus’ teaching here. It really brings out his teaching.
When I speak about the confusion of understanding God’s Word, I ask you to join me in prayer in the days to come that God will raise expositors of God’s Word in his called-out assemblies, Bible teachers who can open God’s Word to you. The churches today are in a desperate condition, as we read in Amos 8:11-12: a time of famine will come in the world, not of food, but of God’s Word. Everywhere I have preached, including from one coast of Canada to the other, I have seen the same desperate hunger for God’s word - the message of salvation contained in the message about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus [Acts 8:12: But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus the Messiah, they were baptized, both men and women.. Too few people seem to be able to meet that hunger.
“The days are coming - declares Yehovah - when I shall send a famine on the country, not hunger for food, not thirst for water, but famine for hearing Yehovah's word. People will stagger from sea to sea, will wander from the north to the east, searching for Yehovah's word, but will not find it. (Amos 8:11-12 NJB)
I would share with you that by God’s grace, I am determined to make everyone training in the full-time Training Program skilled in the exposition of God’s Word. That is the emphasis in their training. My job is not to give them preaching material that they can find for themselves; I don’t even tell them what this or that Scripture passage has to say; I am concerned that they study and find the answer for themselves in the Word of God. That is why they have a very heavy program of learning to expound the Scriptures. They have to learn to expound difficult passages. They have to find out why they cannot understand it, struggle with it, make mistakes, but learn through them how to open up God’s Word, how to understand it, first for themselves, and then for others.
Today, the churches of Christendom have virtually no expositors, and pastors don’t know how to expound the Bible. They just repeat the things that they have been taught in seminary or Bible college. If you ask them about a passage, they cannot tell you what it means, because they have never been trained to expound God’s Word. What a disastrous situation this is!
Many of you know that I am physically weak, and weak enough that I don’t particularly care to train anyone. I didn’t bring anyone in for training, but God moved these people to come. And I know that God has given me this one task above all things, that they may become skilled to expound God’s Word.
My task is not to tell them what First Corinthians says, what Romans says, or what this or that passage says; I give them the key to expound God’s Word, then they can find out what it says for themselves. They don’t have to hear me telling them what it says. However, on Sundays, my task is to do the exposition and open God’s Word to you, because I cannot spend the time training you to expound God’s Word. Do join me in praying that God will raise men who can break the Bread of life and feed the hungry multitudes these days.
IT IS NOT A LOT BETTER to try to understand this difficult passage, 1 Corinthians 3:10-17, by turning to a commentary. I am sure many of you have read commentaries and found that by the time you finish reading them, you are just as confused at the end as you were at the beginning. It has not helped you very much because even these good people are not skilled in exposition, which is ironic to say. I hope, by God’s grace, to open up this passage to you.
Another reason why I want to share this teaching of Paul with you is that there is a dangerous misuse of it. When we don’t understand the Word of God correctly, we may find ourselves twisting the Word of God unintentionally, and we do that to our own destruction, as the apostle Peter warns. Twisting the Word of God is very dangerous, and to misuse it is to end up in destruction. Always remember those words of the apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3:15-16:
And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
“Gather” and “scatter” parallel “build” and “destroy”
Now let us read 1 Corinthians 3:10-17.
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 the Messiah.
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 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.
I think you can see immediately how important this passage is. It tells us that we are God’s temple; God’s Holy Spirit lives in us. I think the connection to our passage in Matthew 12:30 should be plain to you. We saw already that we either gather with the Messiah or we scatter. We saw that it can refer to a harvest, and 1 Corinthians 3:9 says: “for we are God’s fellow workers, you are God’s field, you are God’s building.” You are God’s field, and God’s workers are working in that field to gather the harvest. But if you have an unfaithful or a bad worker, he may scatter the harvest rather than gather it.
Paul says: “Or to change the picture, we can speak about building or destroying instead of speaking about gathering and scattering.” So from 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, he speaks about building, and in verse 17, he speaks about “if anyone destroys God’s temple,” which is the same as “if anyone scatters,” then “God will destroy him,” because God’s temple is holy, and he bought it pricelessly with the blood of his Son. So we do either one of two things: we either build or destroy.
Then Paul says “the Day” in verse 13, that is, the Day of Judgment, and “the Day of Judgment” is also the lord Messiah Jesus’ concern in Matthew 12:36. Then in verses 16-17, Paul says we are the temple of God’s Holy Spirit; the Spirit of God lives in us. The lord Messiah Jesus said: “He who does not gather with me scatters,” and then speaks about blasphemy against the Spirit and the danger of grieving or quenching the Spirit in Matthew 12:31, after he talks about gathering with himself or scattering in verse 30. Therefore, we can see the clear links between 1 Corinthians 3:10-17 and Matthew 12:30-31, and why this is Paul’s exposition of the lord Messiah Jesus’ teaching.
If our works are burned up, will we still be saved?
Let us consider 1 Corinthians 3:10-17. What does this passage say to us? I said that this passage has been dangerously misused and twisted by some people. How has it been twisted? I think you must be accustomed to hearing this kind of misuse of teaching: Even though you have no works, or if your works are so bad that they are only fit to be burned up, so long as you have faith, you will be saved anyway. A lie!
Is this what the Bible is teaching? Before you start twisting the Word of God, or allowing someone else to mislead you, I’m just going to open up the passage and leave you to decide. You will notice that I will give you so many references sometimes, because I am concerned that you don’t take what I say. It’s no better to believe what I say than to believe what anyone else says. I want you to see what the Word of God says, and my task is simply to show you what Scripture says, not to tell you what my opinions are.
Don’t listen if anyone is going to comfort you by saying, “You are such a bad Christian that you have no fruit at all, but it doesn’t matter.” Or “Your fruit is really so foul that it is only fit to be burned, but that’s all right.” You wouldn’t burn good food, would you? You will only burn what is useless, like “a field that brings forth thorns and thistles is only fit to be burned” (cf. Hebrews 6:6-8). If you are the one who brings forth thorns and thistles, you will be burned. Don’t you see that it matters very much?
Let us return to 1 Corinthians 3:10-17. To say, “No matter what kind of fruit I bring forth, I will be saved anyway” is a contradiction of Scripture, and it is also a misuse of this passage. Is this passage concerned with an individual’s life and salvation? Not at all! Look at this passage, and you will see that the whole passage is only concerned with the called-out assembly of God.
Paul’s concern is the called-out assembly of God, not personal salvation
First of all, in 1 Corinthians 3:9, Paul says: “you are God’s field,” and in verse 16, “you are God’s temple”; the “you” in the plural is referring to the called-out assembly of God. The whole passage is concerned with the building up of the called-out assembly of God, and nothing to do with an individual’s salvation. Paul preached the gospel to the Corinthian called-out assembly of God, and he refreshes their memory, saying, “I was the one who laid the foundation for this called-out assembly of God, establishing it here in Corinth. But Apollos, another servant of God, came, and he built on this foundation which I established.”
Or, to change the picture, he used the agricultural picture earlier in verse 6, “I planted, Apollos watered.” Paul plants the seed; he lays the foundation, and someone else, Apollos, waters to help it grow, he builds on that foundation. In verse 8, he says that it doesn’t mean that he’s better than Apollos. Whoever plants and whoever waters are equal. We are all doing different aspects of God’s work.”
Paul planted, others watered; Paul laid the foundation, others built on that foundation. So he is speaking about the building of the Corinthian called-out assembly of God, and the same principle applies to the building of any congregation.
Secondly, we notice that there is this word, “foundation,” in verse 10. When we compare this with Ephesians 2:20, we see that the same word is used in connection with the called-out assembly of God. He is saying that Jesus is the foundation of the called-out assembly of God, and the apostles and prophets are a secondary foundation built on this foundation. Again, he is speaking about the building of the called-out assembly of God, as a parallel passage in Ephesians 2:20 shows. He is not talking about individual lives.
Thirdly, verse 16 speaks about the “temple of God,” so we can see again that it has to do with the called-out assembly. The word “temple” is singular but “you” is plural, because Paul is saying, “You together constitute one temple of God.” Not only here in 1 Corinthians 3:16 but also in 1 Corinthians 6:19 and 1 Peter 2:5, the temple of God is a picture of the called-out assembly of God.
Fourthly, in the following verse, 1 Corinthians 3:17, he says, “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.” He is not speaking of anyone destroying himself because if you have already destroyed yourself, you don’t need God to destroy you anymore. But if anyone damages the called-out assembly of God, God will destroy him. The whole passage is simply concerned with the building of the called-out assembly of God, so we must not reduce it to an individualistic meaning.
Notice the parallel with Matthew 12:30 again: “whoever gathers with me” is talking about the gathering of God’s people, the called-out assembly; “Whoever scatters” has to do with a scattering of God’s people – God’s sheep, God’s harvest. Whichever picture you like to use has to do with the called-out assembly of God as well. So Paul is saying the same thing as the lord Messiah Jesus; he is expounding the lord Messiah's teaching.
“Work” is: Building up the called-out assembly of God
Once we have seen that this relates to the called-out assembly of God, we must ask the question: What is the work? If the called-out assembly is Paul’s concern, then the work, of course, has to do with the work of building up the called-out assembly of God. That is very plain.
“Build up the called-out assembly” is a favorite expression of Paul’s because he is always concerned with building up God’s called-out assembly. The Greek word, oikodomeō, so typical of Paul, translated in English as “edify” or “edification” and so forth, simply means to build up. It occurs 24 times altogether in the apostle Paul’s letters, 9 times in its verb form, and 15 times in its noun form, oikodomē, and each time, it has to do with building up the called-out assembly of God.
For example, in the Greek, the word “building” (oikodomē) that you see in “You are God’s building” in 1 Corinthians 3:9 is the same word in its basic form as the word translated in English “to edify.” Again, in Ephesians 2:21, the Messiah “in whom the whole building is joined together” is the same word as “building” in 1 Corinthians 3:9. (The ESV and RSV have translated the word “building” as “structure.”) Paul is saying the called-out assembly has its unity and structure in the Messiah. Furthermore, the word is translated as “to build up the called-out assembly,” “edify” in 1 Corinthians 14:4, 5, 12; Ephesians 4:12, 16, and many other references.
So in all these verses, we see Paul is always concerned with building up the called-out assembly of God. The work in question is building the called-out assembly of God. If you look at Paul’s letters, you will see his love for the called-out assembly of God, and his primary concern is to build God’s called-out assembly.
Who builds the called-out assembly of God?
Once we establish this point, we move to the next and ask the question: Who builds the called-out assembly of God? Here we have assumed, by the saying: “If my work is burned up, I will be saved,” that this is talking about the followers of the lord Messiah Jesus. Perhaps it is, but let’s not rush into the answer with these assumptions. Who builds the called-out assembly of God? What does the Bible say? Of course, in the first line of service, it is God’s servants. Let us look at what 1 Corinthians 3:9 says again: “We are God’s fellow workers, you are God’s building.” Who is the “we”? Who is the “you”? “We” is the apostle Paul, Apollos, that great servant of God, and also Cephas, the apostle Peter, who is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 3:22. And “you” are the disciples in the Corinthian called-out assembly, God’s building.
Isn’t the meaning very plain? What is difficult to understand about this passage? May God grant to us his Holy Spirit so that we have expositors who are taught by the Spirit of God. In this picture, Paul is saying, “You are the called-out assembly of God; we are the builders building God’s called-out assembly. Or if you change the picture, you are God’s field, and we are the workers working in the field.” One is sowing, and the other is watering.
Clearly, if the work is destroyed, the workman still survives; if the building is burned down, the workman is still alive. Peter, Apollos, and Paul will still be there. But who are we talking about when we speak about the “we”? These are committed workmen of God, dedicated to God’s service. These are the kind of people who are engaged in building up the called-out assembly of God. If their work is destroyed, they will be saved, but that is no consolation to any dedicated worker of God. Paul fears that his work will be destroyed. It is no consolation to him if he survives, and the called-out assembly he is building is destroyed.
However, it seems to be a consolation for those who profess to be Christians who don’t live Christian lives and hope to be saved. I see all these professing Christians claiming consolation for themselves: “Even if my work is useless, I will be saved!” What work are you talking about? Did you engage in building up the called-out assembly of God? This passage is concerned with God’s workers building up the called-out assembly of God. Don’t misquote the passage! The key principle of expounding the Bible is to expound it in its context. You cannot take a verse out and make it mean whatever you like it to mean. You must look at the overall context. It is the most basic principle of exposition.
Those who are saved are God’s workers. But who are God’s workers? Are God’s workers only limited to people like Paul, Peter, and Apollos? No! Today, there are pastors and evangelists who should be building up the called-out assembly of God, who should be gathering God’s people and not scattering.
Every follower of the Lord Jesus Messiah should be totally committed to build up the called-out assembly of God.
Is building the called-out assembly of God only limited to full-time workers? No! That is why, right at the beginning, I said that each person must be engaged in building the called-out assembly of God. Everything you do is going to have an effect one way or the other, gathering or scattering. There is no neutral ground in between. This means to say, we can apply 1 Corinthians 3 to the followers of the lord Messiah Jesus.
But what kind of people are engaged and concerned with building up the called-out assembly of God? The answer is clear: only those who are totally committed, as followers of the lord Messiah Jesus, who love God with all their heart, mind, and inner being, and love His called-out assembly. I see the majority of professing Christians do nothing for the church at all. They are not concerned with building up anyone else; they just come to get something for themselves. When you begin to have the concern for building up the called-out assembly of God, you’ll begin to know what it is to be a true follower of the lord Messiah Jesus. A true follower of the lord Messiah Jesus engages in building up the called-out assembly of God. Even if his work is not of the highest standard, it will survive because he is committed.
Notice the lord Messiah Jesus’ teaching says, “He who gathers with me,” not he gathers himself. Today, the whole teaching of the churches is concerned about saving yourself. If you are not concerned about saving others, your chance of saving yourself is close to zero! The lord Messiah Jesus’ teaching is: Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. Any Christian who only loves himself doesn’t even know what it is to be a Christian. You must love your neighbor and be concerned for his salvation. Or are you always asking, “What about me? What do I get out of it?”
Those who build the called-out assembly of God will become transformed
When you become a co-worker of the lord Messiah Jesus, helping him to build up the called-out assembly of God, “working with me to gather,” as he said, you will experience a transformation; you will become a "new creation" in the Messiah, who has the mind of the Messiah. As Paul says to the Corinthians: “We have the mind of the Messiah.” (1 Corinthians 2:16)
Do you have the mind of the Messiah? What is the mind of the Messiah? The mind of the Messiah was to lay down his life for others. Do you have that mind of the Messiah? If you have the mind of the Messiah, surely, on the Day of Judgment, you will have nothing to fear. But don’t you, as some kind of a wishy-washy Christian, try to claim 1 Corinthians 3:15* for yourself, because all you will do is deceive yourself.
*[“If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”]
I repeat, this passage, 1 Corinthians 3:10-17, has to do with the followers of the lord Messiah Jesus, who are actively engaged as fellow workers with him in the building of the called-out assembly of God. This is what every follower of the lord Messiah Jesus should be doing, but we cannot preach it to the churches of Christendom today, because the churches of Christendom today are not like that. Christians of Christendom in their churches today are only concerned with saving themselves.
Yes, you must save yourself; that’s the first step. But you must go on from there to save others, to gather with the Messiah, to bring in the harvest, to bring in the sheep, whichever picture you like. And Paul is so concerned that he constantly teaches the called-out assemblies of God: Your task is to build up one another, edify one another. Take, for example, Romans 14:19: he said, “build up one another.” He repeats in 1 Thessalonians 5:11, “build one another up.”
Paul doesn’t just say build yourself up; he says build one another up. Certainly, you need to build yourself up, but more importantly, build the other people up in the called-out assembly of God. In this way, the whole called-out assembly of God is building each other up. It is not just left to one pastor to build the called-out assembly of God, not just left to Paul to build the called-out assembly of God, but each disciple is building the other disciples up. Surely you can do that; there is always some disciple who is younger than you spiritually, whom you can help. What are you doing if you are not helping that younger disciple? If you have just become a follower of the lord Messiah Jesus, you can help to gather non-Christians into the kingdom of God, sharing that salvation message with them. There is always work you can do. Even if that work may be limited at the beginning, there is always work in which you can serve God, if you are at all concerned to serve.
Therefore, we can see that 1 Corinthians 3:15, “If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire,” applies to God’s workers who build up His called-out assemblies. They may not be full-time workers, pastors, or evangelists, but they are disciples who are engaged in the work of building up the called-out assembly of God even in a small way. Witnessing to brothers and sisters who are young believers, helping them along, visiting friends, reaching out to bring them to God, or visiting the sick and the elderly to encourage them, engaging in writing articles to spread the Word of God. Serve God and don’t just think: how can I get built up? Clearly, if you want to build others up, you also have to build yourself up, but the Bible is concerned with building others up. That is most important.
The “work” - the called-out assembly of God that is built up - is tested by fire
What is the work that is tested by fire in verse 13? The word “work” here does not refer to work as an activity. The activity cannot be tested by fire, but the result of that activity can. Gold, silver, wood, and straw are the materials with which you work or build on the foundation; they do not work. So what does the work that is tested by fire refer to? It is the called-out assembly of God that is built up, the people that are built up, the result of the activity of building up. We don’t have to leave this to our opinions to try and work this out. The Word of God tells us very clearly. All we have to do is to be taught by the Spirit of God and study the Word of God. That is very essential.
What do the building materials represent?
Once we are clear about this, we have to ask the next question: what do the materials used to build on the foundation represent? 1 Corinthians 3:12 says, “If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,” six things are mentioned. Three things can stand the fire: the gold, the silver, and precious stones; three things cannot: the wood, the hay, the stubble or straw. Six materials are used, but what is being referred to by these materials?
1. Straw
Let me begin at the end and work backwards in this passage. First, what is this last material, straw? What does the farmer do at harvest time? The wheat is on the ear at the top of the stalk, and the farmer takes it off. What is left below is the stalk, the long stem of the wheat. That is this straw mentioned here. Sometimes, a lot of straw or wheat stalks can be bound together to form building material to thatch roofs. Although a thatched roof can neither stand fire nor a lot of rain, it can give temporary shelter. In Matthew 11:7, you find the same Greek word translated as “reed.” The Lord Jesus says: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? Did you go out to see a reed being shaken in the wind?” The Lord Jesus is saying that John the Baptist was not straw at all; he was closer to gold and silver.
Also in Matthew 12:20, the same word in the Greek is used and translated as “a bruised reed.” “A bruised reed he shall not break, smoking flax he shall not quench.” What is a bruised reed? The reed is a picture of a sinner, a man of weakness. John the Baptist was nothing like that. The lord Messiah Jesus is saying: “I have not come to break in judgment a person crushed by sin; I came to save sinners.” That is the beauty of this picture.
2. Hay
The next material is “hay.” The Greek word for “grass” is the same Greek word for “hay,” because hay is actually cut, dry grass. You cannot build with grass, but you can when it is cut and becomes dry grass or hay. And it is translated as “grass” in 1 Peter 1:24 – “All flesh is as grass and the glory of man as the flower of the field.” We are told that grass means flesh, so “grass” or “hay” refers again to the picture of human beings in their natural, unregenerate state, or the natural man.
We have to constantly refer to the Greek when we expound the Bible, because without checking the word in Greek, you just don’t know that you are dealing with the same word. If you read the English or the Chinese, the translation may translate the same Greek word with five different words, so you wouldn’t know that you are looking at the same word. Only if you are trained in Greek will you know that “hay” and “grass” are the same word in Greek.
3. Wood
The next one is “wood.” “Wood” again is a picture of human beings generally in the Bible. Take, for example, in Luke 23:31, the same Greek word is translated as “tree”: “For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” The Greek word for “tree” or “wood” is the same. When a tree is cut down, it is used as wood. A green wood or green tree is the picture of a righteous man in the Bible; and a dry wood in the Bible is a picture of a sinful man. So wood is again a picture of mankind, and it’s used most frequently in Ezekiel.
Now what do you build the temple with? You don’t build the temple with work; you build the temple with materials. In the Bible, these three types of materials, straw, hay, and wood, are pictures of human beings in their natural, unregenerate state. Get this point very clearly in your mind.
4. Gold, silver and precious stones
What about gold, silver and precious stones? These refer again to three types of people according to their quality. The remarkable thing is that when these words are used in the Bible, they always refer to godly people.
One reference about precious stones is in 1 Peter 2:5. The apostle Peter said to the disciples, “You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house,” which means, “You are like precious living stones, because you have God’s life in you, and are being built up into a temple of God.” Isn’t that exactly what Paul is saying in 1Corinthians 3:9? That is so wonderful! So again, stone is a picture of people, but this time, it refers to a picture of the followers of the lord Messiah Jesus.
What about gold and silver? Gold and silver again refer to people. For example, Paul uses this expression in 2 Timothy 2:20, where he speaks of disciples as vessels of gold or silver, instruments of gold or silver. He goes on to say in verse 21, “If you purify yourselves from what is ignoble, you will be a vessel of honor, a vessel of gold or silver.”
However, if you don’t purify yourself, you will be a vessel of dishonor. And do you know what Jews do with vessels of dishonor? A vessel that is unclean or polluted is smashed and thrown out. This is apparently also a fact that is not understood today. For the Jews, moral cleanliness is very important. A vessel that is morally unclean will be destroyed. That is why Paul immediately says to Timothy, “Flee youthful lust” in verse 22. He is concerned that Timothy does not become impure but remains a pure vessel, a vessel of honor, of gold or silver.
In fact, this same picture is used in the Old Testament; for example, Psalm 66:10 says that the righteous is compared to silver that is being tried in the fire by God. Or in Malachi 3:3, God’s people are being tried in the fire like gold and silver are refined by fire. And this brings us right back to 1 Corinthians 3:13, which says that every man and his work will be tried with fire.
What materials do we use to build our called-out assembly?
To conclude this point on the materials, we see that the six kinds of materials always refer to people. What do we build the called-out assembly with? Always remember, in the Bible, the word “called-out assembly" means people; it never refers to a building. When I build the called-out assembly of God, it is the people coming into it that I am building. I don’t build the church with wood, bricks, and stones. In fact, the Early Called-out assembly did not have church buildings until the Second and Third Centuries. So we lead people into the called-out assembly of God and build them up when we are building the called-out assembly of God; we are gathering His flock [sheep], to use the lord Messiah Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:30.
What kind of people do you want to build the called-out assembly of God with? The spiritual quality of the people who are in the called-out assembly of God is what matters. What am I doing if I build the called-out assembly of God with natural men and women, unregenerate people, who call themselves “Christians”? I would be building the called-out assembly with wood, hay, straw, and these are pictures of natural men, unregenerate people. The churches in Christendom today are full of unregenerate people who call themselves “Christians.” They have never been born again, and have no idea what it is to be a disciple of the lord Messiah Jesus. The churches today are being built with wood, hay and straw, isn’t it? But by the grace of God, I intend to build with precious stones, gold and silver.
What makes the followers of the lord Messiah Jesus as gold, silver and precious stones? What is precious in God’s eyes? It is our faith that is precious! We read in 1 Peter 1:7: “your faith is more precious even than gold.” A person who is filled with faith has that which is precious as gold. The unregenerate man has no faith. He may call himself a “Christian,” and go to church every Sunday, but he has no faith. This kind of person is simply wood, hay, and straw. I don’t want to build a called-out assembly like this.
Many churches in Christendom today are simply community centers. What they have is a social gathering where everyone comes to meet their friends. It is not Christianity. These people go to church, and immediately after the service, they rush out to eat supper because someone else may beat you to the restaurant table, so that you won’t have a seat and have to wait standing. Why did they go to church in the first place, when they are in such a hurry to eat supper? What did they go to church for? To see their friends, and if they did not go, their church friends would say, “Where have you been? What happened to you? Are you not well?” You have to prove that you are well, your business is prospering, you haven’t gone bankrupt yet, and so you must show your face in church.
I have no objection to social centers. It’s very good to have social centers, but the called-assembly of God is not meant to be one. If we do that, we build a carnal congregation that is spiritually dead, like the Laodicea congregation: “You have a name for being alive, but you are dead” (Revelation 3:1). That is what has happened to many congregations they are wood, hay, and straw. If you are spiritually dead, you are just a carnal man/woman.
Being spiritual is: By faith, be like the lord Messiah Jesus, who is most precious to you
This is what Paul is concerned about for the Corinthians, and that is why right at the beginning, in 1 Corinthians 3:1, he says to them, “But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men but as men of the flesh.” He is warning the Corinthians saying, “You might just be wood, hay and straw, and I will end up building the called-out assembly God with people of the likes of you. I’m determined not to build with that. I want quality in the called-out assembly. I’m aiming to build spiritual men in the called-out assembly, but what are you?”
Paul speaks the truth to them directly and bluntly: “You are fleshly people, natural, unregenerate men.” He tells them exactly what he thinks of them. He says: “I can’t address you as spiritual when you are men of the flesh. I grant you that you may be some sort of “disciple,” but you are right now at the baby stage, and you’d best grow up in the Messiah, otherwise you’re not ever going to make it!” (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:1).
Then he changes the picture. He says, “I’m building the called-out assembly of God, and I have no intention of building with wood, hay and straw. I want you all to become gold, silver and precious stones. And how are you going to change from wood, hay and straw to gold, silver and precious stones? Through faith! There is only one thing that is precious to Paul, and that is the Messiah, as he says in Philippians 3:8, “I have lost everything in this world and I count it as rubbish because the Messiah is most precious to me.” That means to say, the more we become like the Messiah through faith, the more we are becoming like gold, silver, and precious stones.
Paul has one mission, one goal: to conform every Christian to the image of the Messiah. He says in Colossians 1:28 that he intends “to present every man mature in the Messiah before God.” He doesn’t want to have a called-out assembly full of spiritual babies. He says, “It’s fair enough that there has to be the baby stage, but don’t stay there. You must pass on from being wood, hay, and straw into the image of the Messiah, which is most precious.
Doesn’t the meaning of 1 Corinthians 3:10-17 become absolutely clear now? We are building God’s church with people, and the people are being built up to become mature in the Messiah. Peter says, “You are the living stones which constitute the temple of God” (cf. 1Peter 2:5). We build with people, but the quality of the people is what is important. He doesn’t just say, “You are stones,” but “You are the living stones.” Why are you precious? Because you have God’s life in you. Oh! That is wonderful!
I also aim to build the called-out assembly of God with gold and silver and precious stones. I don’t want a church full of wood, hay, and straw. There are churches with hundreds of people in them, but I’m not going to be proud of a church that has hundreds of people if it only has wood, hay, and straw. Gold, silver, and precious stones are by definition far rarer, aren’t they? Would you build a huge wooden house? Is it more glorifying to God than a smaller temple of God that is full of gold, silver and precious stones? What do gold, silver, and precious stones do? They reflect light, don’t they? They are always beautiful and shiny. Oh, to see a called-out assembly that is beautiful for God, that reflects the light of God, that is glorifying God! What’s the use of having a church full of wood, hay, and straw? They don’t reflect glory to God.
False teaching is: God will not judge Christians
We press on to the next point. In 1 Corinthians 3:13 we see the word, “day.”
Each man’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.
Each of us is engaged in building up the called-out assembly of God, and what kind of work it is will be revealed on “that Day.” What is “the Day”? It is simply a well-known expression in the Bible for the Day of Judgment. That is why “the Day” is printed with a capital letter “D.” There are innumerable references to “the Day,” for example, Matthew 7:22, Romans 2:5, 1 Corinthians 1:8, 2 Corinthians 1:14. The word “fire” is a picture for judgment in the Bible, as in Matthew 3:12, 7:19; 1 Corinthians 3:13,15; Jude 7 and so on. So much of the teaching in the churches today has to be corrected. This situation has arisen because we don’t have expositors to open the Word of God.
There is a saying in the church today that the Christians will not be judged by God; only the non-Christians will be. I don’t understand how we can make statements like this when the Bible stands before us. I just don’t understand it. A cardinal article of the evangelical church is: “We believe the Bible to be the Word of God,” and yet what is taught is a flat contradiction of God’s Word. Where does the Bible say that a Christian will not be judged? Certainly, we will be judged! This passage already tells us that, because judgment is according to works. Every Christian’s work will be judged by fire.
We have seen that these materials wood, hay, straw, gold, silver, and precious stones refer to people, so when these materials are burned up, what is burned up? People will be burned up! These people who called themselves “Christians” in the churches will be burned up. Doesn’t your heart pain you? It pains me. That is why I preach with the passion that I preach. I don’t want to see anyone being burned up, least of all, those people who profess themselves to be “Christians,” but are not. And on the Day of Judgment, the lord Messiah Jesus will say to them, “I don’t know who you are; depart from me!” (Matthew 7:21). I don’t want to see that happen to anyone. Why do you want to remain as wood, hay, and straw and be burned up at the Judgment? Disciples will face the Judgment like everyone else!
The follower of the lord Messiah Jesus must also go through the Judgment
What about the worker of the lord Messiah Jesus? The worker of the lord Messiah Jesus also has to go through the Judgment like everyone else: me, you, and also Paul. This is what Paul says in the plainest words. I don’t see how anyone can contradict those words, which don’t even require explanation. In 2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul says,
“We must all appear before the Judgment seat of the Messiah, so that each one may receive good or evil according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
There is a view which says Christians will not be judged; they will only receive reward at the Judgment. Don’t be fooled by this kind of unScriptural teaching! We are all going to be judged. Every disciple will be judged. Paul says: “We must all appear before the Judgment seat of the Messiah.” And in that very context, he is speaking to Christians, so that each may not just be rewarded for good but also for evil, “according to what he has done in the body.”
He repeats the same point in Romans 14:10, just as specifically:
Why do you pass judgment (despise) on your brother? For we shall all stand before the Judgment seat of God.
In the light of these verses, I am utterly unable to understand how we get this kind of false teaching in the churches. Isn’t that plain enough? Does that require explanation? Or are we blind when we come to the Word of God? It’s a dreadful situation today that we find teaching flatly contradicting the Word of God!
The meaning is plain enough: The materials that we work with to build the called-out assembly of God are people. I don’t want to see anyone in this called-out assembly of God being consumed by the fire of God’s Judgment. That is why I preach as I do; I plead with you as I do. I would pray to God that each one of you be gold and silver and precious stones. Don’t be destroyed in the Judgment of God!
Paul did not labor to save himself
When your work, the people in the called-out assembly of God you built up, are destroyed, you’ll suffer for the great loss. It’s no consolation to Paul that he would be saved. After all, we did not labor to save ourselves; we labor to save others.
I share the same feeling with Paul. To me, it’s no consolation if my work is burned up, but I will still be saved. I have given up my life for the building of the called-out assembly of God, and my whole life was wasted! If I build with wood, hay and straw, and my work is destroyed, I will weep on that Day. I have nothing to rejoice about. If I have given my life, my profession, my future to build the called-out assembly of God, I don’t intend to build with wood, hay and straw. It’s no consolation that I myself will be saved, because if all I want to save is myself, I would not be doing what I am doing now.
Paul would not be consoled either. Paul says, “Why have we endured all these things? I have been beaten, mocked, starved, shipwrecked, lashed on the back.” In the end, he laid down his life for the Messiah as well. What did he do all this for? To build the called-out assembly of God. If the called-out assembly of God he built is burned up in the end, do you think Paul is consoled? Do you think that would be a joy to him? The only person this scenario could bring joy to is an unregenerate man. No one who loves the called-out assembly of God would have joy at all if he alone got saved.
Paul is very concerned about this and he doesn’t say it only in this passage. He says again and again that his great fear is lest he should have labored in vain. In Galatians 2:2 he says, “lest I should have run in vain.” In other words, he is saying, “Do you think I have lost everything to run this race, that I should end up with nothing?”
He says this again in Philippians 2:16, where he tells the Philippians,
…holding fast the Word of life so that on the Day of the Messiah (Day of Judgment), I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Paul wants the Philippian disciples to hold on to life, because if they were lost, he says, “I would have run for nothing; I would have worked for nothing. I would have suffered for nothing. I would have thrown away my life and career for nothing.”
In the end, Paul was beheaded for the Messiah by the Roman sword. Do you think he wanted to do all that for nothing? Consider carefully what he said: “I may be saved after having built up the called-out assembly of God. If I build with gold and silver, I have a reward. But if what I built is burned up, I will run for nothing.”
He says the same thing in 1 Thessalonians 3:5. He constantly shows how close this concern is to his heart: lest his work should be destroyed. He said to the Corinthian called-out assembly, then to the Philippian called-out assembly of God, and now to the Thessalonian Church, all called-out assemblies of God which he had helped to build:
For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.
Paul says to the Thessalonians, “If Satan tempted you, and your faith collapsed, and you turned away from God, then I would have labored in vain. All my efforts have gone down the drain.” Do you see how this theme recurs constantly in Paul? He is very concerned that his work should not be in vain. And my concern is the same for my work.
Summary
What have we learned from this discussion? In Matthew 12:30, the lord Messiah Jesus is speaking to every disciple: “He who does not gather with me scatters.” We either gather with the Messiah on the battlefield, or we scatter. What do we gather? We gather the called-out assembly of God, God’s people.
When we turned to 1 Corinthians 3:10-17, we saw that it also has to do with the building of the church, just as Matthew 12:30 has to do with the gathering of the called-out assembly, the gathering of God’s people.
The main theme in this passage is the concern with God’s workers. Two names keep coming through the whole chapter: “Paul and Apollos.” In verse 22, there is a reference to Peter (Cephas) as well, who seems to have come by Corinth at some time and helped to build that called-out assembly. So we find that this whole concern is with God’s workers engaged in building up the called-out assembly of God. Every one of us is engaged, and must be engaged in building the called-out assembly of God, if we are true followers of the lord Messiah Jesus. That is why Paul widens the scope, opening his concern to any disciple by saying, “if anyone,” although he is speaking to the Corinthian Christians here.
We saw that in building the called-out assembly of God, we are building up people; and if we build people, we must make sure that they grow in grace and knowledge of His word. Don’t be content that someone decides for the Messiah. The churches sit back and are content with that. I’m horrified by this. We must go on from there to build them up into the fullness of maturity in the Messiah, until they show forth his glory, beauty, and power, until they become like gold, silver and precious stones, to be pleasing to God.
On the Day of Judgment, our work will be tested. If we are dedicated, committed followers of the lord Messiah Jesus, who have worked to build up the called-out assembly of God in one way or another, and if our work survives - that is, the people that we have brought to the Messiah and built up in the Messiah stand the test and are saved - we will receive a reward. If they don’t stand the test, they will be destroyed, and we will suffer. This word “stand the test” is a very key phrase in Paul’s teaching as well. To stand the test or not to stand the test, to qualify or not to qualify, is very much a concern of Paul.
The followers of the lord Messiah Jesus must have this understanding that we are called not just to believe in the Messiah but to work with him, to gather God’s sheep and build the called-out assembly of God. Paul wants to tell us that in order to be acceptable to God, the spiritual quality of our service is what matters. Let us take this to heart.
I would like to ask you the question again: What kind of disciple are you? What kind of material are you? Are you still wood, hay, or straw? Are you, by God’s grace and through faith, becoming gold, silver, and precious stones? And are you working to build others up in the faith? Are you building the called-out assembly of God? Are you an element in the called-out assembly of God, called to build others into the called-out assembly of God?
The concern of 1 Corinthians 3 is: What material do you build into the church of God, not what material you are. Even so, we must also ask ourselves, “What kind of material am I?” This is the test of whether we are true followers of the lord Messiah Jesus, whether we are working together with the Messiah to gather God’s people, to build the called -out assembly of God. If not, we will be scattering.
Written by Eric Chang and edited by Bruce Lyon
No comments:
Post a Comment