1 Corinthians 3:14–17

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna in the highest blessed is He who comes in the name of our God.

 In Jesus we are a holy people. Set apart for good works.

Jesus did not leave us alone. He gave us His Spirit to abide in us. in Him and in the power of Holy Spirit He can do to do what we cannot.

Individually and collectively we are the Body Of Christ. 

There is no other way to the Father than through the Son, Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 4:1-3 reminds us to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." First5 

The Spirit is a person. And Jesus calls him the Paraclete. Now, translators land on different, yet similar, translations for this Greek word. Comforter, Counselor, Advocate, Intercessor. But the central message is the same: we are not alone. Max Lucado

1 Corinthians 3:14–17

14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. The New King James Version

A builder only received payment upon the completion of a project. Although Paul does not specify the reward here, it may include greater responsibility, praise from God, and the satisfaction of having one’s work endure testing by fire. 

He will suffer loss implies that the builders (leaders or teachers) will not receive payment because their work was consumed. These builders didn’t use sound instruction. Instead, they used their own wisdom, which resulted in the weakening of believers rather than their strengthening and growth. While these teachers will survive “as through fire”, the superstructure they built—their teaching in the Corinthian church—will not. 

The nature of this fire is evaluative, not punitive. Here, Paul completes the building metaphor. He claims that Jesus is the foundation of a building (the Church), and that the teachers of Corinth are building a structure on top of that foundation (the Corinthian church). 

The fire imagery in this section speaks of a narrow escape from a burning house, not the “refiner’s fire” concept. The function of this metaphor is both practical and cautionary. The Corinthians can evaluate the message of their teachers against received apostolic teaching, and they are warned against overestimating the worth of any individual teacher. 

Extending his metaphor, Paul now calls the Corinthian congregation “God’s temple”—the location of His presence in the Spirit in that city. Elsewhere, this language is applied to individual believers. Here, however, the notion applies to the entire congregation. Just as the Jerusalem temple served to unify Israel, the corporate temple concept in Paul’s writings serves to unify the Church. The Corinthians represent a unified body wherein God dwells; there can be no divisions among them. Paul uses the plural form of a Greek term to emphasize that the entire Church community is God’s temple (His dwelling place on earth), not just select individuals. Faithlife Study Bible

Paul had established the church at Corinth on the foundation of Christ. These building materials refer to the quality of work done by the Corinthians, and possibly also to their motivations or the kinds of doctrines they taught. 

The Day speaks of the time when Christ will judge the merits of His servants’ work, not whether they receive forgiveness of sin. Likewise, fire does not refer to the “eternal fire” of damnation but to the evaluation of believers’ works. Fire proves the quality of gold, but it consumes wood, hay, and stubble. 

Some “good work” is actually self-centered aggrandizement. The true value of such “service” will become obvious to all in the day of God’s judgment. 

“Do you not know” is a phrase, found in nine other places in 1 Corinthians, it always introduces an indisputable statement. There are two words translated temple in the New Testament, one refers to the temple building and all its courts; the other refers strictly to the Most Holy Place where no one but the high priest could go. 

Paul uses the latter term to describe the local church, in whom God dwells. Unlike 6:19, where the word temple refers to the individual believer these verses speak of the local church as God’s temple. God takes very seriously our actions in the church. Any person who disrupts and destroys the church by divisions, malice, and other harmful acts invites God’s discipline.  The NKJV Study Bible

Christ is a firm, abiding, and immovable Rock of ages, every way able to bear all the weight that God himself or the sinner can lay upon him; neither is there salvation in any other. Leave out the doctrine of his atonement, and there is no foundation for our hopes. 

But of those who rest on this foundation, there are two sorts. Some hold nothing but the truth as it is in Jesus, and preach nothing else. Others build on the good foundation what will not abide the test, when the day of trail comes. We may be mistaken in ourselves and others; but there is a day coming that will show our actions in the true light, without covering or disguise. Those who spread true and pure religion in all its branches, and whose work will abide in the great day, shall receive a reward. And how great! how much exceeding their deserts! There are others, whose corrupt opinions and doctrines, or vain inventions and usages in the worship of God, shall be made known, disowned, and rejected, in that day. 

This is plainly meant of a figurative fire, not of a real one; for what real fire can consume religious rites or doctrines? And it is to try every man’s works, those of Paul and Apollos, as well as others. Let us consider the tendency of our undertakings, compare them with God’s word, and judge ourselves, that we be not judged of the Lord. From other parts of the epistle, it appears that the false teachers among the Corinthians taught unholy doctrines. Such teaching tended to corrupt, to pollute, and destroy the building, which should be kept pure and holy for God. Those who spread loose principles, which render the church of God unholy, bring destruction upon themselves. Christ by his Spirit dwells in all true believers. Christians are holy by profession, and should be pure and clean, both in heart and conversation. He is deceived who deems himself the temple of the Holy Ghost, yet is unconcerned about personal holiness, or the peace and purity of the church. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

Psalm 20:6 Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.

Matthew 9:22 But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.

Romans 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.