On our journey this Lenten season,
I want us to carry with us Laura Jean Truman’s prayer:
“Keep our anger from becoming meanness.
Keep our sorrow from collapsing into self-pity.
Keep our hearts soft enough to keep breaking.
Keep our outrage turned towards justice, not cruelty.
Remind us that all of this, every bit of it, is for love.
Keep us fiercely kind.” from Sabbath Moments
Today I turn 74. I am so very thankful that God has saved a wretch like me! In this Lenten season I give up fear and walk in faith to accomplish all that He has planned for me. Nothing in our lives happen by chance!
The Old Testament was written for the Jews. It is profitable to all us. Today we are under the New Testament in the newness of Jesus the Christ. Paul was given the mystery of His salvation to ALL of us Jew or Greek, Male or Female, Slave or Free to join Him. As believers we form the Body of Christ, His Church.
1 Corinthians 3:9-11 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the foundation and salvation is only on that foundation. Faith allows Holy Spirit to mature us and build us up as the Body of Christ created for good works.
1 Corinthians 3:12-15 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 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.
In order to receive we need to believe that He is and a rewarder of those who believe. We can love others because He, in the agape love of God, first loved us. We preach Christ crucified and risen from the dead and in our faith Him alone are we saved!
Ephesians 2:8-10 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
God offers us His gift of salvation in Jesus. It has nothing to do with our good works but everything to do with His righteousness. He created us for good works to show others His love for His creation. We are a new person as we abide in Christ and in Him we are able to plant seeds of faith. We plant but Holy Spirit builds.
In order to receive we need to believe that He is and a rewarder of those who believe in His only begotten Son. We are purified in the furnace of affliction and we are then refined by the power of Holy Spirit. We are able to love others because He first showed us the agape love of God for us. He has given us Holy Spirit as a down payment for our salvation to keep us and to deliver us. We walk by faith and not by sight being confident that in being absent from the body we are present with the Lord. We are active, in His grace, to labor for Him because we love Him. We will all face Him to give account of our good works when they are done out of our love for God. It is nothing to do with our salvation. Carla
With fire symbolizes testing and judgment. This judgment does not refer to a person’s salvation, but to the quality of work done by those who labor on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Fire consumes combustible and worthless materials such as wood, grass, and straw (1 Corinthians 3:12). Though “fire” may purify or refine the quality of something, in this context it tests and exposes the quality of the builder’s materials.
A builder only received payment upon the completion of a project. Although Paul does not specify the reward here, it may include greater responsibility (Matthew 25:21), praise from God (1 Corinthians 4:5), 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. Faithlife Study Bible
Paul had established the church at Corinth on the foundation of Christ. Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw are building materials and 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 (2 Corinthians 5:10), not whether they receive forgiveness of sin. Likewise, fire does not refer to the “eternal fire” of damnation (Revelation 20:10) 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 (Revelation 3:17, 18). The NKJV Study Bible
1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.
1 Peter 1:7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
1 Corinthians 1:8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ
Today's reading begins with Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, delivering a sermon on the day of Pentecost, powerfully preaching God's sovereign plan of salvation through Jesus. Peter was speaking to a crowd of "both Jews and proselytes" (Acts 2:11), meaning people who were either born Jewish or converted to Judaism by faith. He asserted that Jesus is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament, the One the Jewish people had been waiting on! This marked a pivotal moment in their understanding of God's plan for redemption. Peter declared that Jesus is the eternal King descended from Israel's King David, that God raised Jesus from the dead, and that Jesus provides forgiveness and eternal life to all who believe in Him (Acts 2:29-36).
In response to Peter's message, many were "cut to the heart" by God's Truth and chose to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:37-38). The Greek word for "repent" is metanoeō, which signifies not only a change of mind but a new understanding of one's behavior. More than just a mental shift, it was a heart transformation that led them to embrace salvation through Christ and publicly proclaim their faith through baptism.
May we have the same heart as the early Church in Jerusalem and live "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" (Ephesians 4:2-3).
Peter's message ultimately emphasized God's sovereign plan of salvation through His Son. As Peter's fellow apostle Paul later wrote, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth" (Ephesians 1:7-10). First5
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