God’s Word for You
1 Corinthians 3:10-11 Christ the foundation
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, November 28, 2022
10 According to the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation like an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one must be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
From here to the end of the chapter, Paul talks about the church and really about each Christian as a building God is building. There are other builders or workers besides God, but God is the one who is in charge. Paul starts with himself as one of those other workmen. He was given a special grace from God, a gift above and beyond the usual grace given to Christians. He said: “Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you… I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given to me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of God’s people, this grace was given me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:2,7-8). Just as God gives each of us the gifts we need for our labor in the world, so he gave to Paul those unique and special gifts he needed for preaching to the Jews and the Gentiles. He was like an architekton. We get our word architect from this term, which is “master builder.” This person was more than the designer of a building, he was also there at the construction site taking responsibility for what was being built and how it would stand. In this case, Paul only says that he laid the foundation, and the grammar of Paul’s Greek words tells us that the process of laying that foundation is done and completed. This foundation is not easily torn down, but it is firmly placed like the foundation of a building. Just as the foundation of a building gives the rest of the structure something firm to stand on, so also the building of the church rests on the preaching of Paul and the apostles. “This stone, thus established,” says Luther, “is built upon by one who has confidence in the true word of God. This stone will render its superstructure sure and strong, because it is excellently established against every attack.”
The foundation itself, Paul tells us, is Jesus Christ. It is not merely something named Jesus, but Jesus himself, his words and his works, the actual salvation won for us upon the cross and the glory of the empty tomb on Easter morning. The foundation is the complete work of Christ, because the believer rests his whole faith on the truth of what Jesus has done. “If we stand grounded and built on that, we shall remain impregnable. We can let the world and the devil and all the false teachers and schismatic spirits send rain and hail and slush on us and storm and rage around us with every kind of danger and trouble.”
The foundation of preaching Christ crucified was Paul’s whole labor while he was with the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 2:2). Since that foundation is so sure and also so precious, Paul cautions all preachers and teachers: “But each one must be careful how he builds.” A building that stands on a good foundation but veers off away from that foundation will be prone to ruin and collapse. We keep our preaching and teaching firmly on Christ, and we must be careful never to try to build on any other foundation. “This is what the LORD God says: Look, I am laying a stone in Zion as a foundation, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone to provide a sure foundation” (Isaiah 28:16). And this cornerstone is Jesus Christ our hope (1 Timothy 1:1); our entire hope and certainty of the resurrection and of eternal life is in Jesus alone and no one else.
This might seem to be obvious, but we must be careful! So many have tried to build the “Christian” church apart from Christ, basing their structure on good works, or devotion to one human office rather than to Jesus and the Word of God, or to the idea of humanism, or social change, or a political agenda, or even an economic or military stand. We must stand on the solid rock of Christ and nothing else, no one else. We confess our faith including the words “the holy Christian Church.” This is the church founded upon Christ: “with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). The whole Christian church is united both on the foundation of Christ, and also under the banner of Christ, for it is gathered as the Church Triumphant in heaven and also here on earth (among us who are still living) as the Church Militant, “that assembly which under the banner of Christ contends constantly against the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.