The Excellent Foundation
'Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter?
Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned
to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our
servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but
God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who
is at the center of this process but
God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant
jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are
serving. You happen to be God’s field in which we are working.
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.-15 (MSG)
We are only servants. Each with gifts differing but working toward the same purpose. We are only instruments that God uses so there are none that are greater, though our rewards may be! Amen!
My works should be of the best quality. I am to do my best in everything I set out to do. Excellence should be my guide. My works will be inspected! Whatever I say and do will be judged by others. In life, giving only of inferior materials and only what I have left-over will never make it through the thorough and rigorous review. Those works will be torn down and rebuilt!
When I use Christ as my guide and build on His holy foundation, then I can be assured that my works will hold up to scrutiny. He is my architect. He is my designer. I should consider all my undertakings wisely and line them up with the Word of God and judge them carefully for myself to avoid being judged by God.
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.-15 (MSG)
We are only servants. Each with gifts differing but working toward the same purpose. We are only instruments that God uses so there are none that are greater, though our rewards may be! Amen!
My works should be of the best quality. I am to do my best in everything I set out to do. Excellence should be my guide. My works will be inspected! Whatever I say and do will be judged by others. In life, giving only of inferior materials and only what I have left-over will never make it through the thorough and rigorous review. Those works will be torn down and rebuilt!
When I use Christ as my guide and build on His holy foundation, then I can be assured that my works will hold up to scrutiny. He is my architect. He is my designer. I should consider all my undertakings wisely and line them up with the Word of God and judge them carefully for myself to avoid being judged by God.
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