The builder matters as much as the materials used

Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely. (I Corinthians 3:9-15 MSG)

A long passage today, but one with very specific instruction: There is but one foundation for the church - Jesus Christ. We can have no other foundation for our life, nor can the 'physical gathering together of believers' that we call the church be any different. We call buildings 'churches', but God calls the lives within those walls his church. When we begin to see 'church' as the lives that make up the 'inhabitants' of the building, we realize the importance of having the right foundation for our lives. We all are called to play a part in the 'building' of the church body. It may not seem like it, but when a group of dedicated lives are called together as a congregation, there is a work we are to be engaged in - ALL of us, not just the preacher, deacons, and elders!

We are called to spur one another onto full growth in Jesus Christ. Adding to that foundation requires particular care - so that we aren't adding thoughts, opinions, or popular culture into the 'required growth' of our members. Popular opinion may allow for 'deviations' from what Jesus taught was good for our lives, so embracing those opinions may actually be utilizing 'faulty building materials'. Personal interpretation of the scripture should also make us a little wary when it comes to growth within the body of Christ. Yes, God gives us opportunities to learn from each other, but we must always use the wisdom Jesus commended those of the Berean community of utilizing. The tested what they were being taught against the scriptures. If the principle being taught didn't line up with what the scriptures said, or what God revealed about his character within the scriptures, they rejected it as 'faulty building material'.

Any part of God's church that is built with 'faulty building material' won't stand up to inspection. As a builder must undergo various city, county, and state inspections, our lives must also undergo inspection to ensure we are being 'built up' with not only good materials, but in a manner that adds to the overall integrity of our lives. Faulty wiring will cause a house to burn down. Inferior plumbing can add much frustration to the one who has to constantly fix the leaks. As important as the right materials are, the right workmen utilizing those materials is equally as important. When God places a pastor and teachers over a congregation, he does so in order that we may grow up in him. If we haphazardly allow just anyone to fill the pulpit or provide our ongoing teaching in his Word, we could be opening ourselves up to some 'shoddy building'.

In the end, we want to do more than just barely get by in terms of how we stand before Jesus, don't we? We want to hear that 'well done' proclaimed over our lives. That won't happen if we allow shoddy building or incorporate shoddy materials into the building work. Remember, the church is never the building - it is the lives that inhabit the building. What goes into the development of those lives matters. Just sayin!