THE FOUNDATION
1 Corinthians 3:10,11; Luke 6:46-48
At one of our fellowship meetings recently, we thought of the Lord Jesus being the foundation, and we spoke about the need to “let each see how he builds upon it”. I have been exercised about that. I found it quite difficult to understand what Paul wrote about here, that we have to build upon this foundation gold, silver precious stones. Paul also gives the opposite of these things – wood, grass and straw – that “the work of each shall be made manifest”. I wanted to know what that involves.
I was led to Luke 6, and to the Lord Jesus saying “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say? Every one that comes to me, and hears my words and does them, I will shew you to whom he is like. He is like a man building a house”. We have to put into practice these words of the Lord Jesus, and build on the foundation. The foundation is the Lord Jesus, and we have to build on that foundation. It also means that we have to dig deep. This man dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. I feel exercised by that, but I can see the need for it, that if we call ourselves true Christians, we really have to put into practice the words of the Lord Jesus. There is no other way; it is a real exercise. Mr Coates spoke about how we should live by putting into practice the words of the Lord Jesus; he said that if we do not, then it is not true Christianity2.
We see that the Lord Jesus just prior to this section called some of the people hypocrites. These are persons who are not exercised about putting His words into practice. I can see for myself the danger of being a nominal Christian. We might be perfectly respectable, and appear to be all that a Christian should be, but if we do not put the words of the Lord Jesus into practice, then it is not true Christianity. I feel the challenge of that for myself. The Lord says “why call ye me, Lord, Lord”. If we do call Jesus Lord, then He is to have supremacy in our hearts. That is what it all comes back to – is the Lord Jesus supreme in our hearts? It is a test for us all. But if we really arrive at what it is to call Him Lord, then we can start to put these things into practice. The scripture in 1 Corinthians shows how we can build on the foundation.
I was thankful for the help that came in to our reading about this, and I trust that we will be encouraged, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Glasgow
14 December 2014
F.J. Roe