Continuing the discussion of Christianity and Christian life, Paul singles out the main thing that constitutes its essence. The question is the extent to which a person shares...
Continuing the discussion of Christianity and Christian life, Paul singles out the main thing that constitutes its essence. The question is the extent to which a person shares in God's breath, the Holy Spirit, and the extent to which this breath determines his life. It is in this sense that the apostle calls Christians "temples of God."
Indeed, the human being was originally created by God in order to remain in constant fellowship with Him, a fellowship that included the possibility of the presence of God's "breath of life" in the flow of human life, which in the Bible is called the "soul." A person's "soul" (and therefore the person himself) is alive insofar as God's "breath of life" gives it life. This has always been true, and after Christ's coming, for Christians this "breath of life," God's breath, was revealed in all fullness as the breath of the Kingdom, of which every Christian is an inhabitant, if, of course, we are not speaking of nominal Christianity.
The main question of Christianity comes down to the measure of the presence of God's breath, the breath of the Kingdom, in the life of the Christian: to how much a person receives this breath and to what extent it determines the everyday course of his life. The outcome of a person's Christian path also depends on the measure of the presence of God's breath in his life. God, of course, rejects no one, and Christ will lovingly receive everyone who turns to Him, but with what will a person come to the end of his earthly path? What, in the apostle's words, will he have had time and ability to build in his life for the Kingdom?
A Christian's earthly life becomes the answer to this question. The main question of Christianity is not reduced to what to do and what not to do, but to how to live. It is not a question of external activity, even the most "correct" activity, but a question of the spiritual quality of existence. And that depends entirely and completely on one thing: on one's relationship with God and with Christ. On how far our human will follows the will of Christ, how far it is one with God's will. The greater the gap between our human will and God's will, the less God's breath, the breath of the Kingdom, determines our life.
Only this matters; everything else is secondary. This includes theological disputes, religious disagreements and divergences, and the success or failure of particular church parties and groups. There is one foundation - Christ Himself. And any activity is important only insofar as it allows a person to build life on the true foundation, to change its quality and allow the breath of the Kingdom to determine that quality. Everything that distracts from the main thing is better excluded from life. That is more reliable, because our earthly life is not endless and often ends earlier than we expect.
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3:10 According to the grace of God given to me - This he premises, lest he should seem to ascribe it to himself. Let every one take heed how he buildeth thereon - That all his doctrines may be consistent with the foundation.
3:11 For other foundation - On which the whole church: and all its doctrines, duties, and blessings may be built. Can no man lay than what is laid - In the counsels of divine wisdom, in the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament, in the preaching of the apostles, St. Paul in particular. Which is Jesus Christ - Who, in his person and offices, is the firm, immovable Rock of Ages, every way sufficient to bear all the weight that God himself, or the sinner, when he believes, can lay upon him.
3:12 If any one build gold, silver, costly stones - Three sorts of materials which will bear the fire; true and solid doctrines. Wood, hay, stubble - Three which will not bear the fire. Such are all doctrines, ceremonies, and forms of human invention; all but the substantial, vital truths of Christianity.
3:13 The time is coming when every one's work shall be made manifest: for the day of the Lord, that great and final day, shall declare it - To all the world. For it is revealed - What faith beholds as so certain and so near is spoken of asalready present. By fire; yea, the fire shall try every one's work, of what sort it is - The strict process of that day will try every man's doctrines, whether they come up to the scripture standard or not. Here is a plain allusion to the flaming light and consuming heat of the general conflagration.But the expression, when applied to the trying of doctrines, and consuming those that are wrong, is evidently figurative; because no material fire can have such an effect on what is of a moral nature. And therefore it is added, he who builds wood, hay, or stubble, shall be saved as through the fire - Or, as narrowly as a man escapes through the fire, when hishouse is all in flames about him.
This text, then, is so far from establishing the Romishpurgatory, that it utterly overthrows it. For the fire here mentioned does not exist till the day of judgment: therefore, if this be the fire of purgatory, it follows that purgatory does not exist before the day of judgment.
3:14 He shall receive a reward - A peculiar degree of glory. Some degree even the other will receive, seeing he held the foundation; though through ignorance he built thereon what would not abide the fire.
3:15 He shall suffer loss - The loss of that peculiar degree of glory.
3:16 Ye - All Christians. Are the temple of God - The most noble kind of building, Co1 3:9.
3:17 If any man destroy the temple of God - Destroy a real Christian, by schisms, or doctrines fundamentally wrong. Him shall God destroy - He shall not be saved at all; not even as through the fire."
3:18 Let him become a fool in this world - Such as the world accounts so. That he may become wise - In God's account.
3:19 For all the boasted wisdom of the world is mere foolishness in the sight of God. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness - Not only while they think they are acting wisely, but by their very wisdom, which itself is their snare, and the occasion of their destruction. Job 5:13.
3:20 That they are but vain - Empty, foolish; they and all their thoughts. Psa 94:11.
3:21 Therefore - Upon the whole. Let none glory in men - So as to divide into parties on their account. For all things are yours - and we in particular. We are not your lords, but rather your servants.
3:22 Whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas - We are all equally yours, to serve you for Christ's sake. Or the world - This leap from Peter to the world greatly enlarges the thought, and argues a kind of impatience of enumerating the rest. Peter and every one in the whole world, however excellent in gifts, or grace, or office, are also your servants for Christ's sake. Or life, or death - These, with all their various circumstances, are disposed as will be most for your advantage. Or things present - On earth.Or things to come - In heaven. Contend, therefore, no more about these little things; but be ye united in love, as ye are in blessings.
3:23 And ye are Christ's - His property, his subjects. his members. And Christ is God's - As Mediator, he refers all his services to his Father's glory.