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There is a whole lot of shaking going on. It isn’t about the economy or politics. The shaking is God’s World (Kingdom) being established. The shaking is God establishing His new agreement with a people after God’s own heart. The shaking is the light of Jesus driving out all darkness. The shaking is God’s love binding up the broken hearts and healing our bodies. The shaking is God’s Spirit moving in power.

In God’s Kingdom, there are no political parties. In God’s Kingdom, there is no need for bailout plans, He has all the resources He needs. In God’s Kingdom, there is no need for medical insurance because He is our insurance. In God’s Kingdom, all His benefits are available for us every day.

Clearly, God’s ways are not our ways. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. God knows what He is doing. God is shaking things up and that is a VERY good thing.

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

 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 as through fire. [1]

1 Corinthians 3:9-15

The grace of God that was given to Paul consisted both in a salvation that Paul ill-deserved, because he had persecuted the church, and in his equally ill-deserved apostolic commission. This grace provides motivation and guidelines for his task of church-building (not of church buildings, but of assemblies of believers likened to buildings).

We have good news! Want to know how to be saved? Click here or here for more.

 

Though often used for a head contractor, “a wise master builder” has to do with Paul’s being the initial builder of the Corinthian assembly in that he was first to proclaim the gospel in Corinth (hence “planted” and “laid a foundation”); for he isn’t claiming a supervisory role over Apollos.

  • Paul describes himself as “a wise master builder” in that the good news he proclaimed there consisted in God’s wisdom, that is, in a proclamation of the crucified Messiah.
  • “But each is to watch out how he builds” warns against gathering a personal following. Paul has even rejected one.
  • “Each” rules out any exceptions to this rule. For a builder to gather a personal following would be to contradict the foundation already laid—that is, Jesus the Messiah—with the superstructure of the builder’s personal following.
  • “For no one can lay another foundation” doesn’t mean merely that no one should. It means that Jesus the Messiah is the only foundation possible for a church.[2]

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Co 3:9–15). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[2] Gundry, R. H. (2010). Commentary on the New Testament: Verse-by-Verse Explanations with a Literal Translation (p. 639). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers.

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