1 Corinthians 3:9, 10 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. (The Message Bible)
This is such a fun verse for me at this particular point in my life. My son and his family bought my mother’s house this past spring- the house in which I grew up. My parents bought the house when it was brand-new so our family has been the only owners. My Dad was handy around the house and added the porch and finished off the upstairs. My son, it turns out, is pretty handy himself (it must skip a generation) and has been renovating and upgrading and personalizing the space. Both my Dad and my son were given the basic structure and built on that structure to make it their own. That is what Paul is talking about here. We all have certain givens in our lives- things we didn’t choose but are just the way of things. Some are situational, some are inherited through our DNA, some are forced on us by others. Our faith is one of these givens. You can’t make yourself believe in Christ. You could pretend you did or act like you did or even say you did but you know deep in your heart if you really do or not and if you don’t you can’t simply change that by the force of your will. But if you do it is a wonderful gift and becomes the foundation upon which the rest of your life will be built. Given that foundation we build as we are able and are led, in order to make our contribution to the bigger structure- the church, the community of faith, even the world. We are told here that it makes a difference and we should approach it with care. There is great joy in seeing what you can build when you have the proper foundation. This week, what are you building? What are you building upon? What care are you taking as you do so?
Logan Memorial Presbyterian Church 