1 Corinthians 3:10-15 Building on a Good Foundation
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: January 30, 2020 1 Corinthians 3:10-15
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
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 Christ. 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.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Paul is not being arrogant here. He is not saying that the foundation was made by him, and everyone else better build on it the right way. Instead, he is saying that through God’s grace he laid the best foundation, which was Jesus the Messiah. He is saying that everything else that comes, whatever learning that comes, whatever growth in understanding that comes, must have Jesus as the foundation. I guess that is why Paul could stay with a group for a comparatively short time and still expect them to grow and develop well even though they might not have the full scriptures to guide them. He trusted Jesus. He knew that he had taught them about Jesus correctly and that they had established a relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and Paul simply trusted the Spirit to take it from there.
(Understanding the Text / Application / Prayer) Paul says that if a Christian with a foundation in Jesus builds up on that foundation with fluff, the extra won’t survive, but the foundation will. That Christian will look back on his earthly life and see that it was wasted, but he/she will still have Jesus and live in the kingdom of God. On the other hand, if a Christian with a foundation in Jesus builds up on that foundation with quality material, he/she will be able to look back on their life and have the satisfaction of knowing that their time was not wasted. They can see the people that they helped in heaven and feel happiness in knowing that they had a part in that person being in heaven. The first kind of Christian may have regrets seeing someone that he/she hurt in this life by taking the focus away from Jesus to unimportant stuff. Maybe, there will be missing people because of the first Christian’s teachings. That will be a terrible regret. I pray not to have that regret. I pray that I will be an encourager building in good quality rather than a discourager bringing in fluff.
(Understanding the Text) Random thought: The “work” is the character and knowledge of human beings, so when Paul says that fire will test the work, he is referring to the fire of Jesus’ glory testing us. The “work survives” would be humans surviving the glory of God, but is it also parts of our personality and belief systems? Is Paul describing the glorification process here? No, I think I am being too literal and taking what he says too far. I’ll have to think this through some more.