Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
Jesus Christ is the only foundation that can be laid, and no other can take His place. Upon that foundation every builder lays one of two opposite kinds of material, gold, silver and precious stones that are valuable, pure and enduring, or wood, hay and stubble that are cheap, worthless and perishable. Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it because it is revealed by fire that tries of what sort it is. Work that abides receives a reward proportioned to faithfulness, while work that burns suffers loss and is consumed. He whose work is burned may himself be saved yet so as by fire, barely saved with nothing to show but his own soul.
Foundation and Builders
Jesus Christ is the only foundation that can be laid, and no other foundation can take His place, with no human appointed to be a foundation for others to build upon. He is the foundation of every true church on which all who come to new faith must be established, with Christ crucified as the atonement for sin as the great central truth round which all other truths cluster and from which rightly understood truths derive their value and importance. Upon Him every person must erect his own character building, bringing materials of opposite worth, some precious and enduring as gold, silver and precious stones and some cheap and perishable as wood, hay and stubble, whose quality will be revealed and tested by fire on the day of judgment. Work that abides receives a reward proportioned to faithfulness, while work that is burned brings loss of the lifework as a failure, even though the builder himself who sees his wrong and sincerely repents is saved yet so as by fire.
Paul as a wise masterbuilder laid that foundation by first preaching the gospel and planting the church, and others like Apollos build thereon by watering and giving further instruction to help the seed develop. One planted and another watered, but God alone gave the increase, so neither he that planteth nor he that watereth is anything in himself, for they are one in object as laborers together with God and instruments in His hands though their work may differ in some respects. Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor, so a minister who does not dwell on the same things as his brother ministers but emphasizes another phase of truth or presents the Word in a different way must not be condemned. The church is God's husbandry, the Lord's farm, and God's building, where the lesson applies both to tilling the soil with ploughing and harrowing and skill to fit land for seed and trees unto harvest, and to the harder work of watching for souls and breaking up hardened hearts by much labor so the gospel seed finds favorable soil and produces a harvest.
Builders are individually in co-partnership with God, the cooperation of the divine with human agencies, and character cannot be built alone but only in union with the divine Builder through faithful cooperation with Christ. Believers must work out their own salvation with fear and trembling while God works in them to will and to do of His good pleasure, and if faithful in cooperating with Him, God works in and through them. God cannot work through those who make no effort, and gaining eternal life requires earnest work, for lack of spiritual strength proves failure to do one's part and work is needed to stand against Satan who began to work as soon as the plan of salvation was devised. The will must be in harmony with Christ's will in submission to Him following His example, with consecration of body, soul and spirit to Jesus in order to be transformed to His likeness and not conformed to worldly principles. Work built with care in cooperation with Christ can endure, while defective work will be exposed and tested by fire on the day of judgment.
Every man must take heed how he builds upon the foundation, for this is sound, definite instruction from the Lord to be studied, prayed over, and personally applied so that none need err. The warning is that spirit, words and acts shape a character for eternity, with gold, silver and precious stones representing work that endures and wood, hay and stubble representing work that fails the test. Each worker is to test his own course and work and improve himself, for the Christian work is individual and no one should spend time finding fault with another person's work. Every word of the chapter is to be understood and appreciated, and every man's work shall be made manifest when the day declares it because it is revealed by fire that tries of what sort it is.
The setting is Paul's correction of division and party spirit, rebuking the envy, strife, prejudice, jealousy, evil-surmising and glorying in men that make the church weak and carnal, such as saying I am of Paul and I am of Apollos. Such linking to the one man under whose labors light was received, taking his side and refusing harmony with brethren, and standing as independent atoms, shows carnality and babyhood in Christ rather than sanctification through the truth, crooking the straight path and turning the lame out of the way. Building with wood, hay and stubble is building in self-confidence when a man follows his own misconceived opinions, plans, desirings and suppositions, draws apart from his brother and builds without reference to his brethren, while gold, silver and precious stones are solid, sound work done in fellowship with brethren. The call is to unity, that all speak the same thing with no divisions but be perfectly joined in the same mind and judgment, to counsel and pray together with no independent opposing move, to not be controlled by human yokes or judge brethren because they do not count one's words, spirit and actions perfection, and to be all of one mind, love as brethren, be pitiful and courteous, which answers Christ's prayer in John 17. God will not send His Spirit as Comforter and Strengthener until His people obey in love and unity, with Christian instrumentality proved in harmonious action that strengthens one another and glorifies God before the world, to angels and to men.
The building work is not limited to one fixed way or set of ideas, for gold, silver and precious stones represent variety of material that can be laid on the foundation as each person works according to ability. The Bible must be studied carefully and prayerfully with much thought, like letters of instruction from friends when going to a new country, because believers are strangers and pilgrims journeying to a better, heavenly country and must make no mistake. God is faithful to teach those willing to be taught, but believers must not neglect their part.
Meaning of Materials
On this foundation two opposite kinds of material are laid, the one precious and enduring and the other cheap and perishable. Gold, silver and precious stones are valuable, pure and lasting work, while wood, hay and stubble are worthless work that fails the test and is consumed. The quality of each person's work is of these two sorts, and the day shall declare it because it is revealed by fire that tries of what sort it is, with abiding work receiving a reward and burned work bringing loss though the builder himself may still be saved so as by fire.
The materials are not the foundation itself but the quality of what is built upon it. They are work and its character, the life formed by daily choices, teaching and doctrine, spirit, words and acts shaping a character for eternity. They are also the people gained as converts, with gold, silver and precious stones as converts of true moral worth and most perfect Christians refined and polished by grace and affliction with prayer and patience in obedience, love and self-sacrifice as living stones, and wood, hay and stubble as carnal, unsanctified, gilded profession glossed over with seeming righteousness to imitate the true and not readily detected until God's day reveals it. God estimates this building not by outward appearance but by heart-purity brought into it, and He will then see every man's work just as it is and place His own estimate upon it.
The building so erected is the church as God's husbandry and God's building, His holy temple indwelt by the Spirit whom none may defile. It is a living temple built through the ages according to the divine pattern, likened to the splendid temple whose gold, silver and precious stones are its emblem. Believers are living stones quarried and polished and connected with Christ the living foundation-stone, refined by grace and by affliction endured with prayer and patience in obedience, love and self-sacrifice, while those who by worldly policy try by their own efforts to become as polished stones but are not built upon the true foundation cannot be living stones, and building on a false foundation like the great temple of Diana is found worthless when tried and perishes with its worship. Apostles and later faithful workers added enduring material from the world despite persecution, and each generation added to the growing temple of God, with Paul as wise masterbuilder laying the foundation for others to build on. As God's husbandry, the Lord's farm, the same lesson applies to tilling the soil, ploughing and harrowing and fitting the land for seed and trees unto harvest, and to watching for souls, breaking up hardened hearts by much labor so the gospel seed finds favorable soil and produces a harvest that rewards painstaking effort.
God's building in this sense is human character itself, the most splendid workmanship, while even the most splendid building human art can produce is liable to come to nothing without it. That character-building represents a structure formed point by point through daily choices and work until life ends, where every stone must be rightly placed because one flaw affects the whole structure. Each deed adds a material to it, and little choices and acts of faithfulness are its bricks, so that it can be built with care into a beautiful temple for God or built crookedly with unfit material, and neglecting small duties threatens the whole work. The lasting works of gold, silver and precious stones are the best qualities and works brought into this building, and they are not consumed but improve the doer and those connected with him, with every quality that adds to future happiness belonging in the character.
Testing by Fire
Every person's work built on Jesus Christ as the only foundation will be made manifest, for the day will declare it because it is revealed by fire that tries of what sort it is. That day is the final judgment, the last day, the final conflagration, the time of trouble, and the meeting around the great white throne. Then God will see each work just as it is and place His own estimate upon it, and each will answer for words, actions and results. The quality shown is whether the work is lasting worth like gold, silver and precious stones or worthless like wood, hay and stubble, with false theories and teachings that lead astray as combustible material, and the warning is to take heed how one builds since spirit, words and acts shape character for eternity.
Work that abides as gold, silver and precious stones receives a reward, proportioned to faithfulness, while work that is burned brings loss though the builder himself may still be saved so as by fire. In the time of trouble enduring work is sheltered in the Lord's pavilion and shines brighter, but worthless work leaves a person exposed to wrath. Burned work is consumed to ashes and leaves the lifework a failure, for believers are the temple of God where the Spirit dwells and worldly wisdom is foolishness with God. No human is appointed to be a foundation for others, and character cannot be built alone but only in union with the divine Builder through faithful cooperation with Christ with sufficient carefulness about the material brought to the foundation stone.
He whose work is burned may himself be saved yet so as by fire, as a brand snatched from the burning, barely saved with nothing to show for his life-work but his own soul merely saved. This comes after seeing his wrong with sincere repentance, purification and trial, for God desires not merely saving one's own soul but bringing others to Him who will cast glittering crowns at the Redeemer's feet. His loss is great and eternally forfeited, because the reward faithful stewardship might have gained is lost along with souls that might have been saved, souls led astray by his example who may never repent, and error sown in others that keeps growing to harm the cause and shame Jesus. Building with wood, hay and stubble is spending time in self-centered living, selfish worldly purposes and mere profession without labor for salvation of others, devoting time, talents and money to self while withholding means and robbing God, and it amounts to nothing, lost for this time and for eternity with a portion with unbelievers, while building with gold and silver is fruit-bearing selfless work that remains and cannot be consumed.
The fire also proves present character, for the fire that tries every person's work is the fire of Satan's temptations and snares laid for each person, and yielding to temptation means losing the battle. It is the storm of temptation that tests the building, revealing what kind of faith is held, so that only a building firmly and faithfully constructed on Christ the eternal Rock, formed point by point through daily choices with every stone rightly placed, will stand when each is seen as they are. Affliction tests what character and religion are made of, distinguishing those transformed by Christ's grace like gold, silver and precious stones from spurious religion and unsubdued character like material consumed in the day of God's judgment. With the end of earth's history near, right building bound to God and rooted in Bible truth is required to gain heaven and not be led astray by error, for to fail now is to lose everything.
Those who built poorly with perishable material and produce defective characters, especially parents in the characters they form in children and bring into the church through neglect and indulgence, may be saved and their children may be saved if they at last awake to their defects. Yet they will not stand on the same footing or be regarded in the same light as faithful builders who devote their lives to Christ, for there are degrees of glory among the saved as one star differs from another in glory. Worthless work of wood, hay and stubble will be consumed by fire, and those who do not remain steadfast in confidence to the end will discover this loss at the last great day.
Enduring Work Described
Gold, silver, and precious stones are pure doctrine taught in working faith, a true presentation of the Word substantiated syllable by syllable and held since 1844, able to stand the sophistry of the last days. They are the first principles of revealed truth to be taught as nourishing food, including that the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. Such building is offered to God in humility and love with hour-by-hour dependence on the grace of Christ to sanctify and cleanse from moral impurities.
They are true, simple, humble faith and steadfast principle maintained at any cost, imperishable gold that elevates and ennobles the receiver. They are faith, hope, and love by which workers partake of the divine nature and overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust, building so as to endure the fires of the last days. They are thankfulness and praise to God, kindness, and self-denying sacrifice, lasting valuable material worth more than gold that cannot perish.
They are character formed after Christ's likeness that elevates, ennobles, and sanctifies the mind, fitting a person for union with Christ's family above. They are characters made Christian in every sense by the sanctifying power of truth, free from self and brought up to God's high standard, and no one can do acceptable work until converted. In contrast, wood, hay, and stubble represent Judah's long-standing apostasy and unbelief, while gold, refined silver, and precious stones represent faith, obedience, and good works acceptable to God.
They are unselfish labor for Christ and the future life rather than devotion of strength and talent to the things of this world, imitating Christ's example as a worker to bless and save the lost. They are fruit-bearing work that remains and cannot be consumed, done with the mind drawn away from self and centered on Jesus in earnest organized effort for others. They are giving consistent example and gathering straying children, relatives, neighbors, and friends, rescuing souls and leading them into right relation to God so that when redeemed they stand before the throne and cast their glittering crowns at the feet of the Redeemer, praising the Lamb that was slain.
They are thorough, solid work without carelessness or shabby workmanship, built to withstand trial, throwing whole energy into doing God's will and consecrating all powers to His service. They are cooperating with God after His order with an eye single to His glory, as willing and obedient laborers together with God, so that His mold is upon the work and not man's. Such work wrought through Christ in righteousness is most precious and as enduring as eternity, reflecting the builder's character and standing in the great conflagration that tries every man's work of what sort it is.
God alone as Judge discerns the difference in materials, and He estimates the work not by outward appearance but by the heart-purity brought into it. Wood, hay, and stubble are human devising and worldly policies that can mar the church, while gold, silver, and precious stones are the true doctrines of grace that come through Jesus Christ, and His truth alone is to be exalted.
Worthless Teaching Described
Wood, hay, and stubble are falsehood brought in as truth, human suppositions and fabrications mingled with God's pure, elevated, and noble work. This mingling puts fallacy and selfishness into the work, mars the beauty of the truth, and turns what should stand clearly before the world into a jumble of conflicting principles. Those who build this way while conscientiously thinking they work in harmony with the Word will, if saved at all, be saved as by fire, only as brands snatched out of the burning. Physicians' misleading claims and disrespect toward ministers are an example of such harmful additions that confuse people and mar the truth.
They are speculative theories and teaching mingled with human philosophy instead of the simple truths Christ taught, including spiritualistic theories, false science, sophistries, vain interpretations, fables, and human sayings. Such teaching is chosen when the Word holds rich, precious truths, yet fables and human sayings are offered as spiritual food and leave souls weakened and starving. It corrupts the truth and leads people astray, and those who turn to fables instead of purifying their hearts through obedience to the truth will be consumed in the day of trial. God estimates the work not by outward appearance but by heart-purity brought into it.
They are manufactured tests, claims of truth with no truth in them, heresies, sophistries, vain interpretations and misinterpretations of Scripture, and human ideas that sweep away the foundation laid in more than half a century of experience, put into other minds to unsettle souls. They are human inventions, maxims, and tests added without a plain Thus saith the Lord, especially suppositions about God's unrevealed plans, the unrevealed mystery of the essence of God, and what conditions will prevail in the new earth. Such speculations about the future life measured by this life can benefit no one, and workers must give deepest thought to vital revealed subjects rather than search into matters on which God has been silent. They also include teachings or subjects of little consequence, even about killing insects, like hay, wood, and stubble compared with the great last-day truths of salvation and eternal welfare, diverting minds from the simple path of truth.
They are twisting Scripture to support personal ideas, bringing the Bible to fit theories gathered from human books and from Scripture itself. This takes genuine gems of truth and places them in a false setting to substantiate error, as in a chart of the plan of salvation esteemed to illustrate truth, and mixes present truth with spiritualism and error. It includes making charts according to human theories and using high-sounding words whose meaning is not known in order to be exalted before the people. Such building weaves only deception and delusion for self and others, does not feed the flock of God with clean provender, does not reflect rays of divine light, and cannot be sanctioned.
They are imposing unsupported personal theories on another's foundation and on the church, which will be consumed in the fires of the last day. They are sentiments contrary to truth and unbelieving ideas mingled with education that weaken its force in youth when it needs confirming, so children sent among a mass of unbelievers have truth taken from their minds at the time they most need it confirmed. They include precious-looking material once laid on the foundation as precious, as by Dr. Kellogg, that will not bear the test when measured by the Bible standard but will fail in the fire. What is built must be tested before heavenly intelligences to reveal whether it is worthless human theory and falsehood or valuable truth gathered from the rich and powerful Word.
They include doing sacred work improperly by defective plans that exalt medical missionary work above the gospel ministry and lift the medical worker above the gospel minister. They dull the warnings of last-day prophecy, undermine confidence in God's warnings, spread sophistries through uninspired ways, suggestions, and plans that turn aside to fables, blind and confuse associate workers, retard the work, end in infidelity and denial of plain Bible facts, and wrongly mold the education of students preparing as medical missionaries. They are practices in medical missionary work that fail to follow the Spirit's guidance and the pure principles of the gospel and leave no reformative missionary impress. Those who assisted in this faulty building may still be pardoned because of God's great mercy if they repent from the heart, but their works will be measured by the Bible standard and consumed.
They include compromising faith by becoming unholy, abandoning the seventh-day Sabbath, and joining religious and political power, church and state, in support of a rival day of worship. The Seventh-day Sabbath is the distinguishing feature of the faith, so God's people must keep their discernment holy and remain loyal to His commandments rather than build wood, hay, and stubble on the foundation of His sacred work. Wood, hay, and stubble are also false sanctification that puts human definitions sanctifying sin under the name of sanctification. That false sanctification is self-righteousness and self-confidence inspired by Satan, claimed while disobeying the commandments of God, especially by breaking the marriage covenant in mind and act.
Worthless Living Described
Wood, hay and stubble are a Christless life that shuts Jesus out of heart, home, business and decisions and leans on human judgment instead, and such unfaithfulness receives exactly what its works deserve. Work done under Satan's direction is combustible and will be consumed by the fires of the last days, and binding influence with those at enmity with God instead of linking arm in arm with Christ makes the building profit nothing even if the whole world were gained. What accumulates in the heart and keeps Christ from entering is a miserable worthless production fit for purifying fire, and unless the spirit is cleansed of it the soul will be lost. Building in self-sufficiency without Christ, prayer and consecration bears no fruit that lasts for eternal life, while the one who commits the keeping of the soul to God rests in faith that He who promised is faithful, for to be true and loyal to Christ is life, eternal life.
Wood, hay and stubble are devotion of time, physical and mental talent and money to selfish worldly purposes while withholding means from broadening God's work and neglecting soul-winning under a false idea of economy and virtue. Such building is wrapped in selfishness, robs God daily and proves unfaithfulness as stewards of grace, for God is testing by present powers whether people will prove worthy to be entrusted with eternal riches. To devote strength and talent to the things of this world instead of unselfish labor for Christ and the future life is to lay combustible material that the fires of the last day will consume, while diligent gathering of straying children, unsaved relatives, neighbors and friends with means and influence and wisdom and tact secures a harvest of souls and a rich reward in the day of God. Works done for lasting good such as offerings to serve God endure as gold, silver and precious stones, but works aimed merely at amusement like the world's custom of exchanging gifts to amuse children are consumed in the day of God. Needless decorative work that spends time and money without serving others, selfish spending on personal gratification such as having photographs made, pictures of faces, ornaments and albums that become idolatry, fine crochet, costly houses for dogs while the destitute suffer, and overwork and business cares that clog light, corrode the mind and darken life, are all perishable building whose lifework ends in ashes with eternal forfeiture of the reward faithful stewardship might have gained and of souls that might have been saved, so that if the builder himself is saved it is only as by fire.
Wood, hay and stubble are cheap, exciting fiction and worldly books brought to the foundation, for the mind is composed of what it feeds on and advancement or weakness of conception follows the food given to the mind. Such reading fascinates the mind, intoxicates the brain, fastens it in a satanic network and holds it in an unreal world, so that eternal realities essential for present and future cannot be pressed home and the life is as barren for usefulness as a fruitless tree. A mind educated to feed on trash loses love for Jesus and inclination to righteousness, loses all taste for the divine Guidebook, cannot see beauty in the Word of God and no longer cares to study the character that must be formed to dwell with the redeemed and inhabit the mansions prepared. What young people take into mind and life must therefore be Scripture and practical truth rather than fiction and superficial fictitious teaching and influences, for light reading that fills the mind with trash is sinful because God claims the thoughts, and it determines the treasure laid up in heaven by preparing people for eternal life and warning the perishing. Feeding on exciting fiction weakens spiritual understanding, dulls love for Jesus and desire for righteousness, dwarfs spiritual life and leaves a person without the character needed for life with the redeemed.
Wood, hay and stubble are knowledge gained from infidel and pagan writings and years of study disconnected from God, a superficial treasure that dies with the learner, eclipses faith and the value of God's word, and will be consumed in the last conflagration. Such learning may appear valuable but is worthless material not worth gaining or keeping, for it brings no lasting spiritual riches. In contrast, knowledge of God and Scripture leading to wisdom and salvation is gold, silver and precious stones, heavenly knowledge far more excellent than what the world values, valuable and enduring into immortal life and to be carried into the paradise of God.
Wood, hay and stubble are the spirit, words and deeds brought into common labor as differences, selfishness, jealousy, evil-surmising, criticism, contention, evil reports, gossip, accusations and a spirit of opposition and repulsion that divides teachers and students, weakens churches and the gospel work, obstructs the salvation of self and family, and wastes time so that builders are found wanting. Words and thoughts marked by suspicion, distrust and wrong feelings arise when people fail to seek the Lord with subdued contrite hearts, and talking between meetings about mistakes and faults of brethren instead of searching one's own heart, praying and confessing one's own mistakes, looking at trifles until a mote becomes a mountain, letting self press in to put things in a wrong light, and speaking unwise words about men bearing responsibilities arouse wrong feelings, disappoint ministering angels and grieve the Holy Spirit. Only Christlike words and deeds that strengthen, bless and uplift one another, forgetting self and supposed differences while laboring together with Christ in meekness and lowliness, will stand the fire, for they are imperishable. Those who spread worthless material may be saved only through painful refining afflictions that bring recognition of error, repentance and conversion.
Wood, hay and stubble are letting self be considered, indulging appetite and leaving inclination to evil unrestrained by moral and religious principles that look beyond present transitory gratification to the future, yielding only occasional flashes of goodness that pass like morning dew instead of strong traits under the Spirit's control bearing good fruit. They are practices that degrade soul, mind and body and defile the temple, perverting God-given powers and senses to minister to the carnal mind, especially use of liquor, tobacco, tea and other drugs and destroying agencies, habits lessening healthful action of any organ of mind or body, and lives spent in continual excitement and selfish gratification. Such indulgence quenches divine attributes, sells reason for poison, debases life given for high and holy purposes, and gives Satan control of reason, affections and conscience. Lives abusing physical, mental and moral powers almost beyond recovery pile such material on the foundation, all to be consumed in the testing fire, and if they themselves are saved it will be only as by fire, so the greatest labor is not to be put forth for this depraved outcast class while more promising work is left undone, for Christ has provided restoration of God's moral image but people must cooperate with Him rather than work against Him through self-indulgence and intemperance.
Wood, hay and stubble are profession without conversion, broken repentance and transforming grace, empty profession and human plans, a heart whose central allegiance has not been converted for Christ to transform the character and an influence not thoroughly Christlike. They are rotten timbers put into character-building even by men of intelligence in responsible positions at the very time signs of the times are fulfilled, refusing to let go filthy garments and clinging to them as if of precious value, deciding the builders unfit to enter the mansions above and causing loss of heaven and an eternity of bliss. The defect appears in unchristian temper, self-exaltation, harsh judgment, disobedience to duty toward God and others and absence of the fruit of the Spirit, and because Christ is not underneath the first gale of temptation sweeps the foundation away and the collapse brings difficulty and defilement into the church. Believers must therefore put the best material into character-building, purify souls from sin, follow light received and have works matching profession of faith.
Wood, hay and stubble are using God-given ability, capacity and talents in unsanctified cleverness, cheap wit and nonsense and false standards under a guise of professed godliness while under the tempter's control. Such work cheapens everything undertaken, gives the unconverted an excuse for wrongdoing and drags others down to the same level, despite the ransom paid for their souls by self-denial, self-sacrifice, humiliation, shame and reproach to rescue them from bondage to sin and slavery to a master who uses them to ruin souls. All such untrained, unimproved, misused and degraded lifework perishes and meets eternal loss, and in the day when the Judge of all the earth gives every man according to deeds done in the body their fun and frolic will appear as loss.
Character Building Daily
Every person is the architect of his own character, building it day by day with the intellectual and moral power God has given until the structure approaches completion at the close of life. Daily choices, little acts, words, tones, gestures and looks are the bricks and timbers, shaping a structure for usefulness in this life and fitness for a higher life hereafter. What is laid on the foundation is judged by quality: gold, silver and precious stones are useful service to Christ and works of righteousness, while wood, hay and stubble are wasted time and habits that weaken spiritual and moral character and must not be brought into the work. God gives wisdom to use life's opportunities in His service, and Christians are to seek the Lord's way and look daily for chances to bless others, for daily choices determine whether a person receives life that measures with God's life and carries lasting treasure into the next world to decide eternal destiny.
Character must rest on the eternal Rock, with Christ taken as pattern at every step instead of faulty men. Right building is doing God's Word, keeping a living connection, moving steadily forward in meekness and lowliness, guarding every point, putting away sin, and seeking with determination purity and perfection of character that harmonizes with professed saving truth. Selfishness enters like a flaw and makes the growing structure unsymmetrical, while upright actions, noble words, kindness, courtesy, cherishing and living the principles of truth, and using talents in the Master's service form a beautiful character for time and eternity. Such building must stand final inspection and the fires of the last day, where wood, hay and stubble are burned up with sad result for eternal destiny, while gold, silver and precious stones endure with no loss; failure here means loss of eternal life, but as people do the work God works with them and fits them for a place in His kingdom and readiness for His appearing.
Durable building requires cooperation of human agency in individual action with the divine, with God honoring men as fellow workers with Himself so that humanity touches humanity and the divine Worker with man lays hold upon infinity. As the structure goes up the enlightened person recognizes a power working within subduing soul, body and spirit, with results lasting not only for time but for eternity. The mind is a place of work for God or Satan, and people form their character in the likeness of one or the other toward a beautiful character-building for the Lord. Preaching alone does not build character; building is done by the Holy Spirit's power putting self to death, bringing different material into the character, relying on divine sufficiency so that Christ rather than self is exalted and the truth's power is shown.
Gold, silver and precious stones in daily life are Christlike words and deeds that strengthen, bless and uplift one another, forgetting self and supposed differences while laboring together with Christ in meekness and lowliness of heart. They are true Christianity as true love for God and for one another from pure, unselfish motives, appearing only when the whole lump is holy, with holiness to the Lord through Christ enthroned in the soul and His life circulating through the being, producing brotherly love and just and righteous dealing. They are courtesy, kindness, patience, grace, meekness, gentleness, forbearance and love for the brethren, with words expressing pure sacred treasures from a heart filled by the Spirit, in contrast to sharpness, harshness, rashness, impetuousness, criticism, variance, sharp dealing, selfish advantage, unjust terms in trade, money gained by sharp devices and worldly policy, and a critical, exacting, overbearing spirit which God will not accept, for every dealing with brethren is dealing with Christ in the person of His saints. Only gold, silver and precious stones will stand the test of fire, for they are imperishable, while differences, selfishness, jealousy, evil-surmising, opposition, careless conduct and unchristlike words and actions are wood, hay and stubble.
Patient, gentle and kindly instruction in the home and church, shaped by Christ's meekness, compassion, consideration, charity, patience and loving words and actions, is lasting work as gold, silver and precious stones. Faultfinding and harshness are perishable work that will be burned, and losing control of temper sows seeds of unrighteousness in children as wood, hay and stubble. Building with gold, silver and precious stones means lifting and bearing the cross of Christ, which is the highest honor and the pledge of the crown of eternal life, fitting men to unite with the angelic family and become children of the heavenly King. It means practicing true godliness, true sanctification, true wholeness to God and true solidity by denying self, taking up the cross, following Christ and sharing His humiliation and self-sacrifice, constantly laying that solid, sanctified, wholehearted character upon the foundation stone. Buying gold, silver and precious stones, which are the works of Christ, means continual growth to the full stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus through surrender of will and inclination to be molded after the divine similitude, with new knowledge by communion with God, allowing no divided service or halfway concession to a standard of absolute completeness like Christ's life. The opposite is misdirecting entrusted talents, following a path of one's own choosing, exhibitions of self, strife for supremacy, putting the false for the true, and sentimental soaring ideas shaped by hereditary taste, education and temperament, which God counts as nothingness and which perish in the fire of the last days, leaving a person lost to Christ's service and without Christlike character.
Building rightly means depending wholly on Jesus, His grace and the endowment of the Holy Spirit, without whom nothing can be done, as laborers together with God in a large, far-reaching work where the material decides whether one overcomes and wears the crown of life. It is placing oneself under Christ's love and care, looking to Jesus so He reflects His image, carrying out godliness in daily life and gaining the qualities He blesses in the Sermon on the Mount, with the whole heart's purpose refined, elevated, ennobled and sanctified, truth stamped on the heart and love for God with all heart, soul, mind and strength. It is trustful dependence, earnest prayer, obedience, economy, simplicity, humility and graceful dignity making a lasting impression, instead of pride, selfishness, dishonoring the truth, extravagance, display and needless expenditure for effect, which taint all works and are disapproved as hay, wood and stubble calling for conversion in positions of responsibility. Christ's promises supply wealth and power for this building, and sanctification through belief of the truth gives comfort, joy and quickening power.
Constant critical self-examination is required of what one brings to the foundation, for gold, silver and precious stones endure while wood, hay and stubble are consumed by the fierce fires of the last day. Each must see where his feet stand and take heed how he builds, making sure his own work will endure rather than condemning what others bring, thinking over the verse at home and personally applying it to test readiness for the coming, separating every hindrance, knowing God's will and traveling that pathway into light as free men confessing Christ. Nothing as hay, wood or stubble is to be taken in hand to handle or feed the mind, because the mind is assimilated to what it handles and advancement or weakness follows its food, determining the treasure laid up in heaven by warning the perishing and preparing people for eternal life. Bringing sacred things down to the common, mingling missionary efforts with commonplace things, and grasping worldly honor, prizes and flattering inducements must perish, while faithfulness like John the Baptist, counting the world as glittering tinsel beside pure gold and helping associates to pure thoughts, holy conversation and holy works, will stand.
The Lord tests material to be used in His cause to see if it will bear being hewed and squared, and material meeting every stroke of chisel and blow of hammer with anger and resistance is laid aside and replaced with other material to be tested likewise. Removal of weakness and every broken fragment does not ruin the building but renders it stronger, as His hand guides all toward a grand purpose running through the work from first to last. Those taken from the world must still submit to shaping and polishing, overcoming faults and developing Christlike character, for the character held when Christ comes is retained with no further preparation after His coming. Failures and blunders need not discourage, for when seen and confessed they meet just forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness and are turned into victories. Choosing this day whom to serve decides the material, with belief in Jesus making it possible to discard rotten timbers and build with solid timbers into a beautiful temple for God, while selfishness must be guarded lest it grow unsymmetrical and sinful choices bring combustible material for which others' sins give no excuse.
Frivolous words, foolish talking, jesting, joking and cheap remarks are wood, hay and stubble built into character. Such cheap nonsense creates careless disregard for order, turns minds from important subjects, and shows the heart contains no good treasure. Since Christ gave His life to save precious souls and has given ability to learn and power to obey, time is to be wisely improved and truth allowed to make wise unto salvation instead of choosing worthless material.
Church Ministry Mission
Ministers build converts upon Christ, and the converts themselves are the materials laid on that foundation. Gold, silver, and precious stones are converts of true moral worth, purified by the Spirit, true and enduring Christians joined to Christ as the living foundation stone. They are the most perfect Christians, refined and polished by grace and by affliction endured with much prayer and patience, whose obedience and love resemble Christ and whose lives are beautified and ennobled by self-sacrifice as living stones that will endure the burning day. Wood, hay, and stubble are converts with carnal mind and unsanctified character glossed over with seeming righteousness, gilded to imitate the true and not readily detected by mortal eye, including those who from worldly policy try by their own efforts to become as polished stones but are not built on the true foundation. The day of God tests the material and makes manifest every man's work, revealing what they really are, while building on a false foundation, like the great temple of Diana, is found worthless when tried and perishes with its worship, whereas stones quarried for God's house are found precious and enduring. Gentile believers accepted the gospel and became part of this building, though Jews who claimed exclusive descent from Abraham objected to their place in it.
One who teaches truth is a builder and the Word of God is the material provided to build with, which thoroughly furnishes for all good works. Precious material is brought to that foundation when teachers first seek to bring their own hearts, affections, and character into harmony with God's law, then help their converts develop the same godly character and active Christian virtues. Building with wood and stubble means failing to use that material and lacking power to use it to advantage, and failing to have the undying love of Christ in the soul. Without that love no one can build up a church of living characters, and work so built will be burned and the builder's labor will be all lost.
Each person's life work is building upon the foundation stone, and all activity and zeal when sanctified are to be employed in good works, bringing gold and silver and precious stones to the foundation and not hay, wood, and stubble. The Word does not repress and kill activity but directs it into proper channels, using the light of the Holy Word and laying hold of unsearchable riches and treasures in heaven beyond computation, the peace Christ gives of highest value, and the home in the mansions Christ has gone to prepare for obedient children, with no human capability or talent extinguished but all brought to Christ to be blessed and sanctified to His service. Laying gold, silver, and precious stones upon the foundation means laboring together with God by uniting with the angels in ministering to others, teaching those in darkness the truths that have enlightened believers, with mental faculties strengthened as Daniel's was and with apt words communicated through the angel standing by, exercising faith that works by love and purifies the soul and seeking living power from above, and this kind of work endures because fire cannot consume it. Building precious material on the foundation stone means making God the strength, becoming a student of Scripture so the Spirit impresses truth on the heart to control the life and form character for eternal life, and cooperating with Christ and working in His lines by sending out golden threads of influence that fasten to other souls and draw them to Christ, the opposite of refusing connection with Christ, coming under Satan's control, and binding and drawing other souls by human influence into false paths. Building with enduring materials is being ready to meet Christ in peace when the soon-coming end arrives, becoming an heir of God and joint heir with Christ to an immortal inheritance, in contrast to spending life seeking worldly gain that is never realized and never succeeds.
Ministers build upon the foundation through the work they do, and that work may be like lasting materials or like wood, hay, and stubble that will be consumed by the fires of the last day. They must therefore study and pray so they can teach faithfully and build well rather than bringing something that will be destroyed. They are called to do deep ploughing to gain the best harvest by bringing imperishable material — gold, silver, and precious stones — to the foundation, for hay, wood, and stubble will be consumed and the one who brings them may be consumed with them, because the salvation of the soul is precious. Those who bring perishable material risk being consumed with it, so they must carefully nourish and strengthen the church with sound teaching. Building with wood, hay, and stubble is living unsanctified lives, moving by impulse and acting from passion and prejudice, practicing secret faults such as selfishness, envy, falsehood, theft, sensuality and adultery, laying stumbling-blocks before children and unbelievers, and bringing impure, tainted offerings to God. Such building brings the displeasure of God, is an offense to His pure eyes, and stands registered in the books of record, and at the Judgment all open and secret sins and even the thoughts of the heart will be revealed and tested unless repented, confessed, and blotted out by falling on the Rock and being broken. Building with gold, silver, and precious stones is purifying the soul through the grace of Christ from moral defilement by thorough repentance, faith in Jesus Christ, vigilant watchfulness, unceasing prayer, diligent searching of the Scriptures, ceasing to do evil, learning to do well, and bearing fruit to the glory of God.
Faithful labor for the gospel is like bringing gold, silver, and precious stones to build on the foundation, and ministers waste this opportunity when they let faultfinding, disputes, and doubt detain them from saving souls. Sowing doubt, showing unbelief by word or action, and shaking the faith of others does not bring that material to the foundation, does not bring people nearer to God, and does not make workers or hearers stronger in truth, purer, better, holier, more devoted and pious. True building is serving Jehovah and not Baal, elevating the standard and not bringing it down to a common level, exalting the truth, working in harmony with brethren in the Spirit of Christ, and going forth weeping bearing precious seed to return with sheaves rejoicing. Leaders build hay, wood, and stubble on the foundation when by speech, spirit, and manners they teach disregard for the robe of righteousness Christ purchased with His blood and train others that their own natural traits and self-chosen character are good enough to enter heaven. That work does not represent Christ's righteousness, words, and character, does not show covenant union with Him, and will not stand the test of the day of God but will be consumed, making their case worse than those who refused to come at all.
Those who build on the foundation should contribute work of lasting worth — represented by gold, silver, and precious stones — not worthless work represented by hay, wood, or stubble, and this applies to active missionary service, including medical missionary work and helping people who need aid and spiritual light. He who does his best in missionary work, using his ability in practical effort, prepares a solid foundation on which to build. As he goes forth in the meekness and simplicity of Christ to win souls and to work for the sick, the afflicted, and the suffering, combining medical missionary work with preaching the Word, his faith is built upon knowledge. He feels the Saviour close by his side teaching him how to wear His yoke and carry His burden restfully, trustingly, and cheerfully, and by the tact, skill, knowledge, and experience he gains in that labor with Christ he brings gold, silver, and precious stones to the foundation and establishes others in the faith.
God has laid a great foundation of truth and His workers must build on it in harmony with gold, silver, and precious stones, not with hay, wood, and stubble. The gold, silver, and precious stones mean most earnest, consecrated effort to present the principles by which the people are to stand, holding the fort in Washington in the day of opportunity when Sunday legislation is urged and petitions for religious instruction in public schools are sent in. Then heavenly angels work with power through human agencies and a decided influence for truth goes forth.
The materials used to build on Christ, the church's foundation, represent the principles shaping the church, with gold, silver, and precious stones as heavenly principles that endure, while wood, hay, and stubble represent objectionable, worldly-policy principles that can mar the church and take the place of what is lasting. Jesus Christ is the only true foundation on which the church is to be built, and builders must beware of marring the building by introducing worthless material that will not bear the test of trial. Faithful building means not being guided by those who have long known the truth for this time but have not yielded to its claims, and not conforming to the world to gain influence with worldlings. Those who desire characters that will make them laborers together with God and worthy of His commendation must separate themselves from the enemies of God and in all places stand firm for the truth. God wants those working in His field to examine what kind of work they are doing, how they are laying the foundation and what kind of material they are putting into the building, to see whether the structure can stand or must be taken down and another built up. Many who might be a power in labor are not because God is not working with them, and no one should dare to touch the work until possessing the Spirit of God.
In every church many have brought much wood, hay, and stubble to the foundation, and this faulty building means they need to repent and be converted and to be refined, sanctified, and purified. Humbling themselves before the Lord and making the purification of His Spirit their first work will bring a great reformation, and seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness brings all needful things added. Those who build on the foundation must bring gold, silver, and precious stones rather than chaff, which in the ministry means allowing God to cleanse and refine the mind and character, putting away childish and un-Christlike traits, and bringing to the work a life shaped by Christ. Leaders in the medical missionary work have been bringing hay, wood, and stubble to the foundation and rest under responsibility to clear it away. Building rightly means gathering gems of truth to the soul that will grow brighter and brighter under purifying fires, which requires being convinced of the need to die to self and to have an experimental religion of pure and undefiled religion, and being willing to humble the self so Christ binds the soul to Himself and God can work with the person.
Every professing Christian is building upon the foundation by his life and business relations with the unconverted. Building with worthless material means taking up room in the building as a stone that emits no light. Such builders are consumers and not producers, bearing no fruit to the glory of God, so the Lord cannot cooperate with them. They cannot shine as living stones because they do not receive light from the chief Cornerstone. There is no neutral place; Christians are either under Christ's rule doing the work God requires and doing positive good, or under the control of the enemy doing incalculable harm, and their influence is either a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.
Home Education Stewardship
Parents form the characters of their children for the church, and that forming is building upon the foundation that will be tested by the searching eye of God in the investigative judgment. Neglecting and indulging children and letting them follow their own way because it is easier lays perishable material and produces defective characters that trouble the churches. Passing over faults lightly, pleasing those under charge, and giving the impression that sin is not very offensive is faulty haphazard building that will not stand the test but will testify against the worker in the courts above with the verdict of an unfaithful servant. Educating, training, restraining, polishing and refining children as God's property in the way God requires unto the heavenly courts is faithful building that receives the Lord's pronouncement of well done, while devotion of life to the service of Christ builds enduring material. Those who built poorly and their children may yet be saved if they awake at last to their defects, but not on the same footing as faithful builders, for there are degrees of glory as one star differs from another.
Mothers build imperishably by educating children to form characters fit for the kingdom, setting before them self-denial and piety that leads away from cheap indulgence to earnest seeking of sonship with God. In the sowing time parents lay gold, silver and precious stones by sowing precious seed in golden moments that blossoms into correct habits, which is sowing to the Spirit unto life everlasting, a life parallel with the life of Jehovah, rather than sowing to the flesh which reaps only corruption. Such work tells for time and eternity and will stand the fires of the last days, whereas affections set on the world with disregard of truth and righteousness fails to build so. Losing control of temper sows seeds of unrighteousness in children and is building with wood, hay and stubble, while compassion, consideration, charity, patience and loving words and actions are building with gold, silver and precious stones.
In marriage the husband builds upon the one foundation with material to be tested, and must build pure faithful love that respects, cherishes and prefers his own wife with affections controlled by Christ to center upon proper objects. Building with dangerous sentimentalism and spiritualistic affection for another woman, impurity in mind and heart, suspicion and jealousy toward his wife, and pomposity seeking supremacy is worthless building that dishonors God, spoils both souls, breaks the law binding him to his wife as adultery already in the heart, and fulfills the wicked part of a sign of the last days so that God will not bless him in it. He must stop where he is, turn wholly to God, and be as true as steel to his vows in thought, word and deed, refusing to spoil his record as one who fears God and keeps His commandments, and then grace will be imparted and truth will triumph in his life.
Teachers build lives upon the foundation of God's law, and their teaching and training of youth is building to be tested. Work prompted by love to God, moved by the Spirit and wisdom from above, exemplifying the character of Christ rather than merely professing Christianity and letting wisdom from above pervade all instruction, is gold, silver and precious stones that endures and stands the test even in moral darkness and corruption. Work done in reliance on own strength and wisdom, with uncultivated manners and uncontrolled tempers that fail to influence youth for their eternal good, is wood, hay and stubble that is consumed and accomplishes little. The test is meeting the youth under care again around the great white throne, where failure brings grave consequences and workers must answer for their influence, while faithful Christlike example and instruction that win souls brings the approval of God, eternal life, the souls of students and the joys of the redeemed.
Education must first lay a sure foundation as the first and chief part, with faith in God, and then build upon it with gold, silver and precious stones. That lasting building means thoroughness in all efforts to learn, especially thorough work in first essentials such as language and spelling. The Bible and publications containing present truth are gold, silver and precious stones, the choicest safe elevating reading to keep prominent and in plain sight in the home for children and youth. Novels and light trashy magazines and worthless literature are wood, hay and stubble that poison the appetite for the enduring materials, so in homes of believers they must have no place and the inclination for them must be strictly denied.
Stewardship builds gold by taking money from earthly substance and transferring it to heaven's bank by laying it into the Lord's treasury for His cause instead of spending it on self such as rich dress and extras, sending treasure beforehand into glory to stand the great conflagration so that it is no sacrifice. Money used economically in simple safe ways for the progress and upbuilding of Christ's kingdom lays a great enduring work, while money and effort needlessly spent on works never appointed builds wood, hay and stubble that helps reproach the kingdom, clothe the church with filthy garments and urge believers into false positions by misusing reproofs. Devoting time, talents and money to selfish worldly purposes while withholding means from broadening God's work and neglecting soul-winning under false economy robs God daily, proves unfaithfulness as stewards tested for eternal riches, leaves the lifework in ashes in the last day with reward and souls forfeited, and if the builder is saved it is only as by fire. Treating the publishing house as common merely financial business with cheap routine work that does not develop workers or advance truth, diverting sacred Southern field donations to pay other debts, and forming commercial plans that draw workers from presenting truth, evangelizing, canvassing and needed service for gain, mingle human invention as wood, hay and stubble that cannot endure.
Ordinary business and labor must bless souls and glorify God and be faithfully done as duty to God, for work that merely keeps busy or occupies time is gathering wood, hay and stubble that will be consumed when every work is tried by fire, leaving nothing that prepares souls for that day and leaving the worker barely saved as through fire. Using God-given abilities to reform and bring order, discipline and sound principles into the home begins imperishable work that wins God's approval. Dealing dishonestly, including refusing to repay an honest debt, forms wood, hay and stubble character for eternal life, and work that helps testify to a lie for money is spiritually degrading, unapproved by God, and does not ennoble or elevate.
The human body is God's building not to be destroyed by careless treatment. Youth who let God-given life slip in idle dreaming instead of making success unto eternal life build with worthless material that through repentance may yet be saved as by fire, but with no treasure laid up and eternal loss testified through all eternity. Right building is fighting the good fight of faith to the utmost in probation, seeking first the kingdom and righteousness and hungering after righteousness without risking the soul for Satan's snares, moving step by step adding virtue to faith and knowledge to virtue and temperance to knowledge unto an imperishable crown.
Writings are building material tested as enduring or worthless, seen as it truly is by heavenly beings. Solid truth, living realities and practical verity gained by close searching of Scripture, written with Christlike simplicity and full of living experience, is gold, silver and precious stones that sows seed unto eternal life and strengthens and feeds readers. Cheap worthless comic romantic fictional coarse rough common articles without germ of truth, common stories in book form and imaginative romance that floods the world and sells readily yet has no food value, are wood, hay and stubble to be refused from print, for ready sale is no proof they should be circulated, advertised or noticed. Near earth's close with stern realities opening and no time for commonplace amusement, only books and articles with the needed message of practical faith, godliness and salvation, solid consecrated truth, are to be kept before the people, and hay, wood and stubble cleansed from the camp, for the mind takes the character of its food and must deal with realities and become conversant with Scripture.
God Himself is the foundation of gold, silver and precious stones, and to build with those materials is to have Him for pillars of truth and stand unmoved on the Word. That building holds fast point by point to sanctuary truth already given and stays on guard against modern ideas about the Spirit that take away from the sanctuary and against theories never given by God. Taking out any piece leaves the builder on sand, while standing on the Word rivets him to the rock so nothing can move or turn him away.
Jesus Christ is the only foundation that can be laid, and no other can take His place. Upon that foundation every builder lays one of two opposite kinds of material, gold, silver and precious stones that are valuable, pure and enduring, or wood, hay and stubble that are cheap, worthless and perishable. Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it because it is revealed by fire that tries of what sort it is. Work that abides receives a reward proportioned to faithfulness, while work that burns suffers loss and is consumed. He whose work is burned may himself be saved yet so as by fire, barely saved with nothing to show but his own soul.
Foundation and Builders
Jesus Christ is the only foundation that can be laid, and no other foundation can take His place, with no human appointed to be a foundation for others to build upon. He is the foundation of every true church on which all who come to new faith must be established, with Christ crucified as the atonement for sin as the great central truth round which all other truths cluster and from which rightly understood truths derive their value and importance. Upon Him every person must erect his own character building, bringing materials of opposite worth, some precious and enduring as gold, silver and precious stones and some cheap and perishable as wood, hay and stubble, whose quality will be revealed and tested by fire on the day of judgment. Work that abides receives a reward proportioned to faithfulness, while work that is burned brings loss of the lifework as a failure, even though the builder himself who sees his wrong and sincerely repents is saved yet so as by fire.
Paul as a wise masterbuilder laid that foundation by first preaching the gospel and planting the church, and others like Apollos build thereon by watering and giving further instruction to help the seed develop. One planted and another watered, but God alone gave the increase, so neither he that planteth nor he that watereth is anything in himself, for they are one in object as laborers together with God and instruments in His hands though their work may differ in some respects. Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor, so a minister who does not dwell on the same things as his brother ministers but emphasizes another phase of truth or presents the Word in a different way must not be condemned. The church is God's husbandry, the Lord's farm, and God's building, where the lesson applies both to tilling the soil with ploughing and harrowing and skill to fit land for seed and trees unto harvest, and to the harder work of watching for souls and breaking up hardened hearts by much labor so the gospel seed finds favorable soil and produces a harvest.
Builders are individually in co-partnership with God, the cooperation of the divine with human agencies, and character cannot be built alone but only in union with the divine Builder through faithful cooperation with Christ. Believers must work out their own salvation with fear and trembling while God works in them to will and to do of His good pleasure, and if faithful in cooperating with Him, God works in and through them. God cannot work through those who make no effort, and gaining eternal life requires earnest work, for lack of spiritual strength proves failure to do one's part and work is needed to stand against Satan who began to work as soon as the plan of salvation was devised. The will must be in harmony with Christ's will in submission to Him following His example, with consecration of body, soul and spirit to Jesus in order to be transformed to His likeness and not conformed to worldly principles. Work built with care in cooperation with Christ can endure, while defective work will be exposed and tested by fire on the day of judgment.
Every man must take heed how he builds upon the foundation, for this is sound, definite instruction from the Lord to be studied, prayed over, and personally applied so that none need err. The warning is that spirit, words and acts shape a character for eternity, with gold, silver and precious stones representing work that endures and wood, hay and stubble representing work that fails the test. Each worker is to test his own course and work and improve himself, for the Christian work is individual and no one should spend time finding fault with another person's work. Every word of the chapter is to be understood and appreciated, and every man's work shall be made manifest when the day declares it because it is revealed by fire that tries of what sort it is.
The setting is Paul's correction of division and party spirit, rebuking the envy, strife, prejudice, jealousy, evil-surmising and glorying in men that make the church weak and carnal, such as saying I am of Paul and I am of Apollos. Such linking to the one man under whose labors light was received, taking his side and refusing harmony with brethren, and standing as independent atoms, shows carnality and babyhood in Christ rather than sanctification through the truth, crooking the straight path and turning the lame out of the way. Building with wood, hay and stubble is building in self-confidence when a man follows his own misconceived opinions, plans, desirings and suppositions, draws apart from his brother and builds without reference to his brethren, while gold, silver and precious stones are solid, sound work done in fellowship with brethren. The call is to unity, that all speak the same thing with no divisions but be perfectly joined in the same mind and judgment, to counsel and pray together with no independent opposing move, to not be controlled by human yokes or judge brethren because they do not count one's words, spirit and actions perfection, and to be all of one mind, love as brethren, be pitiful and courteous, which answers Christ's prayer in John 17. God will not send His Spirit as Comforter and Strengthener until His people obey in love and unity, with Christian instrumentality proved in harmonious action that strengthens one another and glorifies God before the world, to angels and to men.
The building work is not limited to one fixed way or set of ideas, for gold, silver and precious stones represent variety of material that can be laid on the foundation as each person works according to ability. The Bible must be studied carefully and prayerfully with much thought, like letters of instruction from friends when going to a new country, because believers are strangers and pilgrims journeying to a better, heavenly country and must make no mistake. God is faithful to teach those willing to be taught, but believers must not neglect their part.
Meaning of Materials
On this foundation two opposite kinds of material are laid, the one precious and enduring and the other cheap and perishable. Gold, silver and precious stones are valuable, pure and lasting work, while wood, hay and stubble are worthless work that fails the test and is consumed. The quality of each person's work is of these two sorts, and the day shall declare it because it is revealed by fire that tries of what sort it is, with abiding work receiving a reward and burned work bringing loss though the builder himself may still be saved so as by fire.
The materials are not the foundation itself but the quality of what is built upon it. They are work and its character, the life formed by daily choices, teaching and doctrine, spirit, words and acts shaping a character for eternity. They are also the people gained as converts, with gold, silver and precious stones as converts of true moral worth and most perfect Christians refined and polished by grace and affliction with prayer and patience in obedience, love and self-sacrifice as living stones, and wood, hay and stubble as carnal, unsanctified, gilded profession glossed over with seeming righteousness to imitate the true and not readily detected until God's day reveals it. God estimates this building not by outward appearance but by heart-purity brought into it, and He will then see every man's work just as it is and place His own estimate upon it.
The building so erected is the church as God's husbandry and God's building, His holy temple indwelt by the Spirit whom none may defile. It is a living temple built through the ages according to the divine pattern, likened to the splendid temple whose gold, silver and precious stones are its emblem. Believers are living stones quarried and polished and connected with Christ the living foundation-stone, refined by grace and by affliction endured with prayer and patience in obedience, love and self-sacrifice, while those who by worldly policy try by their own efforts to become as polished stones but are not built upon the true foundation cannot be living stones, and building on a false foundation like the great temple of Diana is found worthless when tried and perishes with its worship. Apostles and later faithful workers added enduring material from the world despite persecution, and each generation added to the growing temple of God, with Paul as wise masterbuilder laying the foundation for others to build on. As God's husbandry, the Lord's farm, the same lesson applies to tilling the soil, ploughing and harrowing and fitting the land for seed and trees unto harvest, and to watching for souls, breaking up hardened hearts by much labor so the gospel seed finds favorable soil and produces a harvest that rewards painstaking effort.
God's building in this sense is human character itself, the most splendid workmanship, while even the most splendid building human art can produce is liable to come to nothing without it. That character-building represents a structure formed point by point through daily choices and work until life ends, where every stone must be rightly placed because one flaw affects the whole structure. Each deed adds a material to it, and little choices and acts of faithfulness are its bricks, so that it can be built with care into a beautiful temple for God or built crookedly with unfit material, and neglecting small duties threatens the whole work. The lasting works of gold, silver and precious stones are the best qualities and works brought into this building, and they are not consumed but improve the doer and those connected with him, with every quality that adds to future happiness belonging in the character.
Testing by Fire
Every person's work built on Jesus Christ as the only foundation will be made manifest, for the day will declare it because it is revealed by fire that tries of what sort it is. That day is the final judgment, the last day, the final conflagration, the time of trouble, and the meeting around the great white throne. Then God will see each work just as it is and place His own estimate upon it, and each will answer for words, actions and results. The quality shown is whether the work is lasting worth like gold, silver and precious stones or worthless like wood, hay and stubble, with false theories and teachings that lead astray as combustible material, and the warning is to take heed how one builds since spirit, words and acts shape character for eternity.
Work that abides as gold, silver and precious stones receives a reward, proportioned to faithfulness, while work that is burned brings loss though the builder himself may still be saved so as by fire. In the time of trouble enduring work is sheltered in the Lord's pavilion and shines brighter, but worthless work leaves a person exposed to wrath. Burned work is consumed to ashes and leaves the lifework a failure, for believers are the temple of God where the Spirit dwells and worldly wisdom is foolishness with God. No human is appointed to be a foundation for others, and character cannot be built alone but only in union with the divine Builder through faithful cooperation with Christ with sufficient carefulness about the material brought to the foundation stone.
He whose work is burned may himself be saved yet so as by fire, as a brand snatched from the burning, barely saved with nothing to show for his life-work but his own soul merely saved. This comes after seeing his wrong with sincere repentance, purification and trial, for God desires not merely saving one's own soul but bringing others to Him who will cast glittering crowns at the Redeemer's feet. His loss is great and eternally forfeited, because the reward faithful stewardship might have gained is lost along with souls that might have been saved, souls led astray by his example who may never repent, and error sown in others that keeps growing to harm the cause and shame Jesus. Building with wood, hay and stubble is spending time in self-centered living, selfish worldly purposes and mere profession without labor for salvation of others, devoting time, talents and money to self while withholding means and robbing God, and it amounts to nothing, lost for this time and for eternity with a portion with unbelievers, while building with gold and silver is fruit-bearing selfless work that remains and cannot be consumed.
The fire also proves present character, for the fire that tries every person's work is the fire of Satan's temptations and snares laid for each person, and yielding to temptation means losing the battle. It is the storm of temptation that tests the building, revealing what kind of faith is held, so that only a building firmly and faithfully constructed on Christ the eternal Rock, formed point by point through daily choices with every stone rightly placed, will stand when each is seen as they are. Affliction tests what character and religion are made of, distinguishing those transformed by Christ's grace like gold, silver and precious stones from spurious religion and unsubdued character like material consumed in the day of God's judgment. With the end of earth's history near, right building bound to God and rooted in Bible truth is required to gain heaven and not be led astray by error, for to fail now is to lose everything.
Those who built poorly with perishable material and produce defective characters, especially parents in the characters they form in children and bring into the church through neglect and indulgence, may be saved and their children may be saved if they at last awake to their defects. Yet they will not stand on the same footing or be regarded in the same light as faithful builders who devote their lives to Christ, for there are degrees of glory among the saved as one star differs from another in glory. Worthless work of wood, hay and stubble will be consumed by fire, and those who do not remain steadfast in confidence to the end will discover this loss at the last great day.
Enduring Work Described
Gold, silver, and precious stones are pure doctrine taught in working faith, a true presentation of the Word substantiated syllable by syllable and held since 1844, able to stand the sophistry of the last days. They are the first principles of revealed truth to be taught as nourishing food, including that the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. Such building is offered to God in humility and love with hour-by-hour dependence on the grace of Christ to sanctify and cleanse from moral impurities.
They are true, simple, humble faith and steadfast principle maintained at any cost, imperishable gold that elevates and ennobles the receiver. They are faith, hope, and love by which workers partake of the divine nature and overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust, building so as to endure the fires of the last days. They are thankfulness and praise to God, kindness, and self-denying sacrifice, lasting valuable material worth more than gold that cannot perish.
They are character formed after Christ's likeness that elevates, ennobles, and sanctifies the mind, fitting a person for union with Christ's family above. They are characters made Christian in every sense by the sanctifying power of truth, free from self and brought up to God's high standard, and no one can do acceptable work until converted. In contrast, wood, hay, and stubble represent Judah's long-standing apostasy and unbelief, while gold, refined silver, and precious stones represent faith, obedience, and good works acceptable to God.
They are unselfish labor for Christ and the future life rather than devotion of strength and talent to the things of this world, imitating Christ's example as a worker to bless and save the lost. They are fruit-bearing work that remains and cannot be consumed, done with the mind drawn away from self and centered on Jesus in earnest organized effort for others. They are giving consistent example and gathering straying children, relatives, neighbors, and friends, rescuing souls and leading them into right relation to God so that when redeemed they stand before the throne and cast their glittering crowns at the feet of the Redeemer, praising the Lamb that was slain.
They are thorough, solid work without carelessness or shabby workmanship, built to withstand trial, throwing whole energy into doing God's will and consecrating all powers to His service. They are cooperating with God after His order with an eye single to His glory, as willing and obedient laborers together with God, so that His mold is upon the work and not man's. Such work wrought through Christ in righteousness is most precious and as enduring as eternity, reflecting the builder's character and standing in the great conflagration that tries every man's work of what sort it is.
God alone as Judge discerns the difference in materials, and He estimates the work not by outward appearance but by the heart-purity brought into it. Wood, hay, and stubble are human devising and worldly policies that can mar the church, while gold, silver, and precious stones are the true doctrines of grace that come through Jesus Christ, and His truth alone is to be exalted.
Worthless Teaching Described
Wood, hay, and stubble are falsehood brought in as truth, human suppositions and fabrications mingled with God's pure, elevated, and noble work. This mingling puts fallacy and selfishness into the work, mars the beauty of the truth, and turns what should stand clearly before the world into a jumble of conflicting principles. Those who build this way while conscientiously thinking they work in harmony with the Word will, if saved at all, be saved as by fire, only as brands snatched out of the burning. Physicians' misleading claims and disrespect toward ministers are an example of such harmful additions that confuse people and mar the truth.
They are speculative theories and teaching mingled with human philosophy instead of the simple truths Christ taught, including spiritualistic theories, false science, sophistries, vain interpretations, fables, and human sayings. Such teaching is chosen when the Word holds rich, precious truths, yet fables and human sayings are offered as spiritual food and leave souls weakened and starving. It corrupts the truth and leads people astray, and those who turn to fables instead of purifying their hearts through obedience to the truth will be consumed in the day of trial. God estimates the work not by outward appearance but by heart-purity brought into it.
They are manufactured tests, claims of truth with no truth in them, heresies, sophistries, vain interpretations and misinterpretations of Scripture, and human ideas that sweep away the foundation laid in more than half a century of experience, put into other minds to unsettle souls. They are human inventions, maxims, and tests added without a plain Thus saith the Lord, especially suppositions about God's unrevealed plans, the unrevealed mystery of the essence of God, and what conditions will prevail in the new earth. Such speculations about the future life measured by this life can benefit no one, and workers must give deepest thought to vital revealed subjects rather than search into matters on which God has been silent. They also include teachings or subjects of little consequence, even about killing insects, like hay, wood, and stubble compared with the great last-day truths of salvation and eternal welfare, diverting minds from the simple path of truth.
They are twisting Scripture to support personal ideas, bringing the Bible to fit theories gathered from human books and from Scripture itself. This takes genuine gems of truth and places them in a false setting to substantiate error, as in a chart of the plan of salvation esteemed to illustrate truth, and mixes present truth with spiritualism and error. It includes making charts according to human theories and using high-sounding words whose meaning is not known in order to be exalted before the people. Such building weaves only deception and delusion for self and others, does not feed the flock of God with clean provender, does not reflect rays of divine light, and cannot be sanctioned.
They are imposing unsupported personal theories on another's foundation and on the church, which will be consumed in the fires of the last day. They are sentiments contrary to truth and unbelieving ideas mingled with education that weaken its force in youth when it needs confirming, so children sent among a mass of unbelievers have truth taken from their minds at the time they most need it confirmed. They include precious-looking material once laid on the foundation as precious, as by Dr. Kellogg, that will not bear the test when measured by the Bible standard but will fail in the fire. What is built must be tested before heavenly intelligences to reveal whether it is worthless human theory and falsehood or valuable truth gathered from the rich and powerful Word.
They include doing sacred work improperly by defective plans that exalt medical missionary work above the gospel ministry and lift the medical worker above the gospel minister. They dull the warnings of last-day prophecy, undermine confidence in God's warnings, spread sophistries through uninspired ways, suggestions, and plans that turn aside to fables, blind and confuse associate workers, retard the work, end in infidelity and denial of plain Bible facts, and wrongly mold the education of students preparing as medical missionaries. They are practices in medical missionary work that fail to follow the Spirit's guidance and the pure principles of the gospel and leave no reformative missionary impress. Those who assisted in this faulty building may still be pardoned because of God's great mercy if they repent from the heart, but their works will be measured by the Bible standard and consumed.
They include compromising faith by becoming unholy, abandoning the seventh-day Sabbath, and joining religious and political power, church and state, in support of a rival day of worship. The Seventh-day Sabbath is the distinguishing feature of the faith, so God's people must keep their discernment holy and remain loyal to His commandments rather than build wood, hay, and stubble on the foundation of His sacred work. Wood, hay, and stubble are also false sanctification that puts human definitions sanctifying sin under the name of sanctification. That false sanctification is self-righteousness and self-confidence inspired by Satan, claimed while disobeying the commandments of God, especially by breaking the marriage covenant in mind and act.
Worthless Living Described
Wood, hay and stubble are a Christless life that shuts Jesus out of heart, home, business and decisions and leans on human judgment instead, and such unfaithfulness receives exactly what its works deserve. Work done under Satan's direction is combustible and will be consumed by the fires of the last days, and binding influence with those at enmity with God instead of linking arm in arm with Christ makes the building profit nothing even if the whole world were gained. What accumulates in the heart and keeps Christ from entering is a miserable worthless production fit for purifying fire, and unless the spirit is cleansed of it the soul will be lost. Building in self-sufficiency without Christ, prayer and consecration bears no fruit that lasts for eternal life, while the one who commits the keeping of the soul to God rests in faith that He who promised is faithful, for to be true and loyal to Christ is life, eternal life.
Wood, hay and stubble are devotion of time, physical and mental talent and money to selfish worldly purposes while withholding means from broadening God's work and neglecting soul-winning under a false idea of economy and virtue. Such building is wrapped in selfishness, robs God daily and proves unfaithfulness as stewards of grace, for God is testing by present powers whether people will prove worthy to be entrusted with eternal riches. To devote strength and talent to the things of this world instead of unselfish labor for Christ and the future life is to lay combustible material that the fires of the last day will consume, while diligent gathering of straying children, unsaved relatives, neighbors and friends with means and influence and wisdom and tact secures a harvest of souls and a rich reward in the day of God. Works done for lasting good such as offerings to serve God endure as gold, silver and precious stones, but works aimed merely at amusement like the world's custom of exchanging gifts to amuse children are consumed in the day of God. Needless decorative work that spends time and money without serving others, selfish spending on personal gratification such as having photographs made, pictures of faces, ornaments and albums that become idolatry, fine crochet, costly houses for dogs while the destitute suffer, and overwork and business cares that clog light, corrode the mind and darken life, are all perishable building whose lifework ends in ashes with eternal forfeiture of the reward faithful stewardship might have gained and of souls that might have been saved, so that if the builder himself is saved it is only as by fire.
Wood, hay and stubble are cheap, exciting fiction and worldly books brought to the foundation, for the mind is composed of what it feeds on and advancement or weakness of conception follows the food given to the mind. Such reading fascinates the mind, intoxicates the brain, fastens it in a satanic network and holds it in an unreal world, so that eternal realities essential for present and future cannot be pressed home and the life is as barren for usefulness as a fruitless tree. A mind educated to feed on trash loses love for Jesus and inclination to righteousness, loses all taste for the divine Guidebook, cannot see beauty in the Word of God and no longer cares to study the character that must be formed to dwell with the redeemed and inhabit the mansions prepared. What young people take into mind and life must therefore be Scripture and practical truth rather than fiction and superficial fictitious teaching and influences, for light reading that fills the mind with trash is sinful because God claims the thoughts, and it determines the treasure laid up in heaven by preparing people for eternal life and warning the perishing. Feeding on exciting fiction weakens spiritual understanding, dulls love for Jesus and desire for righteousness, dwarfs spiritual life and leaves a person without the character needed for life with the redeemed.
Wood, hay and stubble are knowledge gained from infidel and pagan writings and years of study disconnected from God, a superficial treasure that dies with the learner, eclipses faith and the value of God's word, and will be consumed in the last conflagration. Such learning may appear valuable but is worthless material not worth gaining or keeping, for it brings no lasting spiritual riches. In contrast, knowledge of God and Scripture leading to wisdom and salvation is gold, silver and precious stones, heavenly knowledge far more excellent than what the world values, valuable and enduring into immortal life and to be carried into the paradise of God.
Wood, hay and stubble are the spirit, words and deeds brought into common labor as differences, selfishness, jealousy, evil-surmising, criticism, contention, evil reports, gossip, accusations and a spirit of opposition and repulsion that divides teachers and students, weakens churches and the gospel work, obstructs the salvation of self and family, and wastes time so that builders are found wanting. Words and thoughts marked by suspicion, distrust and wrong feelings arise when people fail to seek the Lord with subdued contrite hearts, and talking between meetings about mistakes and faults of brethren instead of searching one's own heart, praying and confessing one's own mistakes, looking at trifles until a mote becomes a mountain, letting self press in to put things in a wrong light, and speaking unwise words about men bearing responsibilities arouse wrong feelings, disappoint ministering angels and grieve the Holy Spirit. Only Christlike words and deeds that strengthen, bless and uplift one another, forgetting self and supposed differences while laboring together with Christ in meekness and lowliness, will stand the fire, for they are imperishable. Those who spread worthless material may be saved only through painful refining afflictions that bring recognition of error, repentance and conversion.
Wood, hay and stubble are letting self be considered, indulging appetite and leaving inclination to evil unrestrained by moral and religious principles that look beyond present transitory gratification to the future, yielding only occasional flashes of goodness that pass like morning dew instead of strong traits under the Spirit's control bearing good fruit. They are practices that degrade soul, mind and body and defile the temple, perverting God-given powers and senses to minister to the carnal mind, especially use of liquor, tobacco, tea and other drugs and destroying agencies, habits lessening healthful action of any organ of mind or body, and lives spent in continual excitement and selfish gratification. Such indulgence quenches divine attributes, sells reason for poison, debases life given for high and holy purposes, and gives Satan control of reason, affections and conscience. Lives abusing physical, mental and moral powers almost beyond recovery pile such material on the foundation, all to be consumed in the testing fire, and if they themselves are saved it will be only as by fire, so the greatest labor is not to be put forth for this depraved outcast class while more promising work is left undone, for Christ has provided restoration of God's moral image but people must cooperate with Him rather than work against Him through self-indulgence and intemperance.
Wood, hay and stubble are profession without conversion, broken repentance and transforming grace, empty profession and human plans, a heart whose central allegiance has not been converted for Christ to transform the character and an influence not thoroughly Christlike. They are rotten timbers put into character-building even by men of intelligence in responsible positions at the very time signs of the times are fulfilled, refusing to let go filthy garments and clinging to them as if of precious value, deciding the builders unfit to enter the mansions above and causing loss of heaven and an eternity of bliss. The defect appears in unchristian temper, self-exaltation, harsh judgment, disobedience to duty toward God and others and absence of the fruit of the Spirit, and because Christ is not underneath the first gale of temptation sweeps the foundation away and the collapse brings difficulty and defilement into the church. Believers must therefore put the best material into character-building, purify souls from sin, follow light received and have works matching profession of faith.
Wood, hay and stubble are using God-given ability, capacity and talents in unsanctified cleverness, cheap wit and nonsense and false standards under a guise of professed godliness while under the tempter's control. Such work cheapens everything undertaken, gives the unconverted an excuse for wrongdoing and drags others down to the same level, despite the ransom paid for their souls by self-denial, self-sacrifice, humiliation, shame and reproach to rescue them from bondage to sin and slavery to a master who uses them to ruin souls. All such untrained, unimproved, misused and degraded lifework perishes and meets eternal loss, and in the day when the Judge of all the earth gives every man according to deeds done in the body their fun and frolic will appear as loss.
Character Building Daily
Every person is the architect of his own character, building it day by day with the intellectual and moral power God has given until the structure approaches completion at the close of life. Daily choices, little acts, words, tones, gestures and looks are the bricks and timbers, shaping a structure for usefulness in this life and fitness for a higher life hereafter. What is laid on the foundation is judged by quality: gold, silver and precious stones are useful service to Christ and works of righteousness, while wood, hay and stubble are wasted time and habits that weaken spiritual and moral character and must not be brought into the work. God gives wisdom to use life's opportunities in His service, and Christians are to seek the Lord's way and look daily for chances to bless others, for daily choices determine whether a person receives life that measures with God's life and carries lasting treasure into the next world to decide eternal destiny.
Character must rest on the eternal Rock, with Christ taken as pattern at every step instead of faulty men. Right building is doing God's Word, keeping a living connection, moving steadily forward in meekness and lowliness, guarding every point, putting away sin, and seeking with determination purity and perfection of character that harmonizes with professed saving truth. Selfishness enters like a flaw and makes the growing structure unsymmetrical, while upright actions, noble words, kindness, courtesy, cherishing and living the principles of truth, and using talents in the Master's service form a beautiful character for time and eternity. Such building must stand final inspection and the fires of the last day, where wood, hay and stubble are burned up with sad result for eternal destiny, while gold, silver and precious stones endure with no loss; failure here means loss of eternal life, but as people do the work God works with them and fits them for a place in His kingdom and readiness for His appearing.
Durable building requires cooperation of human agency in individual action with the divine, with God honoring men as fellow workers with Himself so that humanity touches humanity and the divine Worker with man lays hold upon infinity. As the structure goes up the enlightened person recognizes a power working within subduing soul, body and spirit, with results lasting not only for time but for eternity. The mind is a place of work for God or Satan, and people form their character in the likeness of one or the other toward a beautiful character-building for the Lord. Preaching alone does not build character; building is done by the Holy Spirit's power putting self to death, bringing different material into the character, relying on divine sufficiency so that Christ rather than self is exalted and the truth's power is shown.
Gold, silver and precious stones in daily life are Christlike words and deeds that strengthen, bless and uplift one another, forgetting self and supposed differences while laboring together with Christ in meekness and lowliness of heart. They are true Christianity as true love for God and for one another from pure, unselfish motives, appearing only when the whole lump is holy, with holiness to the Lord through Christ enthroned in the soul and His life circulating through the being, producing brotherly love and just and righteous dealing. They are courtesy, kindness, patience, grace, meekness, gentleness, forbearance and love for the brethren, with words expressing pure sacred treasures from a heart filled by the Spirit, in contrast to sharpness, harshness, rashness, impetuousness, criticism, variance, sharp dealing, selfish advantage, unjust terms in trade, money gained by sharp devices and worldly policy, and a critical, exacting, overbearing spirit which God will not accept, for every dealing with brethren is dealing with Christ in the person of His saints. Only gold, silver and precious stones will stand the test of fire, for they are imperishable, while differences, selfishness, jealousy, evil-surmising, opposition, careless conduct and unchristlike words and actions are wood, hay and stubble.
Patient, gentle and kindly instruction in the home and church, shaped by Christ's meekness, compassion, consideration, charity, patience and loving words and actions, is lasting work as gold, silver and precious stones. Faultfinding and harshness are perishable work that will be burned, and losing control of temper sows seeds of unrighteousness in children as wood, hay and stubble. Building with gold, silver and precious stones means lifting and bearing the cross of Christ, which is the highest honor and the pledge of the crown of eternal life, fitting men to unite with the angelic family and become children of the heavenly King. It means practicing true godliness, true sanctification, true wholeness to God and true solidity by denying self, taking up the cross, following Christ and sharing His humiliation and self-sacrifice, constantly laying that solid, sanctified, wholehearted character upon the foundation stone. Buying gold, silver and precious stones, which are the works of Christ, means continual growth to the full stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus through surrender of will and inclination to be molded after the divine similitude, with new knowledge by communion with God, allowing no divided service or halfway concession to a standard of absolute completeness like Christ's life. The opposite is misdirecting entrusted talents, following a path of one's own choosing, exhibitions of self, strife for supremacy, putting the false for the true, and sentimental soaring ideas shaped by hereditary taste, education and temperament, which God counts as nothingness and which perish in the fire of the last days, leaving a person lost to Christ's service and without Christlike character.
Building rightly means depending wholly on Jesus, His grace and the endowment of the Holy Spirit, without whom nothing can be done, as laborers together with God in a large, far-reaching work where the material decides whether one overcomes and wears the crown of life. It is placing oneself under Christ's love and care, looking to Jesus so He reflects His image, carrying out godliness in daily life and gaining the qualities He blesses in the Sermon on the Mount, with the whole heart's purpose refined, elevated, ennobled and sanctified, truth stamped on the heart and love for God with all heart, soul, mind and strength. It is trustful dependence, earnest prayer, obedience, economy, simplicity, humility and graceful dignity making a lasting impression, instead of pride, selfishness, dishonoring the truth, extravagance, display and needless expenditure for effect, which taint all works and are disapproved as hay, wood and stubble calling for conversion in positions of responsibility. Christ's promises supply wealth and power for this building, and sanctification through belief of the truth gives comfort, joy and quickening power.
Constant critical self-examination is required of what one brings to the foundation, for gold, silver and precious stones endure while wood, hay and stubble are consumed by the fierce fires of the last day. Each must see where his feet stand and take heed how he builds, making sure his own work will endure rather than condemning what others bring, thinking over the verse at home and personally applying it to test readiness for the coming, separating every hindrance, knowing God's will and traveling that pathway into light as free men confessing Christ. Nothing as hay, wood or stubble is to be taken in hand to handle or feed the mind, because the mind is assimilated to what it handles and advancement or weakness follows its food, determining the treasure laid up in heaven by warning the perishing and preparing people for eternal life. Bringing sacred things down to the common, mingling missionary efforts with commonplace things, and grasping worldly honor, prizes and flattering inducements must perish, while faithfulness like John the Baptist, counting the world as glittering tinsel beside pure gold and helping associates to pure thoughts, holy conversation and holy works, will stand.
The Lord tests material to be used in His cause to see if it will bear being hewed and squared, and material meeting every stroke of chisel and blow of hammer with anger and resistance is laid aside and replaced with other material to be tested likewise. Removal of weakness and every broken fragment does not ruin the building but renders it stronger, as His hand guides all toward a grand purpose running through the work from first to last. Those taken from the world must still submit to shaping and polishing, overcoming faults and developing Christlike character, for the character held when Christ comes is retained with no further preparation after His coming. Failures and blunders need not discourage, for when seen and confessed they meet just forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness and are turned into victories. Choosing this day whom to serve decides the material, with belief in Jesus making it possible to discard rotten timbers and build with solid timbers into a beautiful temple for God, while selfishness must be guarded lest it grow unsymmetrical and sinful choices bring combustible material for which others' sins give no excuse.
Frivolous words, foolish talking, jesting, joking and cheap remarks are wood, hay and stubble built into character. Such cheap nonsense creates careless disregard for order, turns minds from important subjects, and shows the heart contains no good treasure. Since Christ gave His life to save precious souls and has given ability to learn and power to obey, time is to be wisely improved and truth allowed to make wise unto salvation instead of choosing worthless material.
Church Ministry Mission
Ministers build converts upon Christ, and the converts themselves are the materials laid on that foundation. Gold, silver, and precious stones are converts of true moral worth, purified by the Spirit, true and enduring Christians joined to Christ as the living foundation stone. They are the most perfect Christians, refined and polished by grace and by affliction endured with much prayer and patience, whose obedience and love resemble Christ and whose lives are beautified and ennobled by self-sacrifice as living stones that will endure the burning day. Wood, hay, and stubble are converts with carnal mind and unsanctified character glossed over with seeming righteousness, gilded to imitate the true and not readily detected by mortal eye, including those who from worldly policy try by their own efforts to become as polished stones but are not built on the true foundation. The day of God tests the material and makes manifest every man's work, revealing what they really are, while building on a false foundation, like the great temple of Diana, is found worthless when tried and perishes with its worship, whereas stones quarried for God's house are found precious and enduring. Gentile believers accepted the gospel and became part of this building, though Jews who claimed exclusive descent from Abraham objected to their place in it.
One who teaches truth is a builder and the Word of God is the material provided to build with, which thoroughly furnishes for all good works. Precious material is brought to that foundation when teachers first seek to bring their own hearts, affections, and character into harmony with God's law, then help their converts develop the same godly character and active Christian virtues. Building with wood and stubble means failing to use that material and lacking power to use it to advantage, and failing to have the undying love of Christ in the soul. Without that love no one can build up a church of living characters, and work so built will be burned and the builder's labor will be all lost.
Each person's life work is building upon the foundation stone, and all activity and zeal when sanctified are to be employed in good works, bringing gold and silver and precious stones to the foundation and not hay, wood, and stubble. The Word does not repress and kill activity but directs it into proper channels, using the light of the Holy Word and laying hold of unsearchable riches and treasures in heaven beyond computation, the peace Christ gives of highest value, and the home in the mansions Christ has gone to prepare for obedient children, with no human capability or talent extinguished but all brought to Christ to be blessed and sanctified to His service. Laying gold, silver, and precious stones upon the foundation means laboring together with God by uniting with the angels in ministering to others, teaching those in darkness the truths that have enlightened believers, with mental faculties strengthened as Daniel's was and with apt words communicated through the angel standing by, exercising faith that works by love and purifies the soul and seeking living power from above, and this kind of work endures because fire cannot consume it. Building precious material on the foundation stone means making God the strength, becoming a student of Scripture so the Spirit impresses truth on the heart to control the life and form character for eternal life, and cooperating with Christ and working in His lines by sending out golden threads of influence that fasten to other souls and draw them to Christ, the opposite of refusing connection with Christ, coming under Satan's control, and binding and drawing other souls by human influence into false paths. Building with enduring materials is being ready to meet Christ in peace when the soon-coming end arrives, becoming an heir of God and joint heir with Christ to an immortal inheritance, in contrast to spending life seeking worldly gain that is never realized and never succeeds.
Ministers build upon the foundation through the work they do, and that work may be like lasting materials or like wood, hay, and stubble that will be consumed by the fires of the last day. They must therefore study and pray so they can teach faithfully and build well rather than bringing something that will be destroyed. They are called to do deep ploughing to gain the best harvest by bringing imperishable material — gold, silver, and precious stones — to the foundation, for hay, wood, and stubble will be consumed and the one who brings them may be consumed with them, because the salvation of the soul is precious. Those who bring perishable material risk being consumed with it, so they must carefully nourish and strengthen the church with sound teaching. Building with wood, hay, and stubble is living unsanctified lives, moving by impulse and acting from passion and prejudice, practicing secret faults such as selfishness, envy, falsehood, theft, sensuality and adultery, laying stumbling-blocks before children and unbelievers, and bringing impure, tainted offerings to God. Such building brings the displeasure of God, is an offense to His pure eyes, and stands registered in the books of record, and at the Judgment all open and secret sins and even the thoughts of the heart will be revealed and tested unless repented, confessed, and blotted out by falling on the Rock and being broken. Building with gold, silver, and precious stones is purifying the soul through the grace of Christ from moral defilement by thorough repentance, faith in Jesus Christ, vigilant watchfulness, unceasing prayer, diligent searching of the Scriptures, ceasing to do evil, learning to do well, and bearing fruit to the glory of God.
Faithful labor for the gospel is like bringing gold, silver, and precious stones to build on the foundation, and ministers waste this opportunity when they let faultfinding, disputes, and doubt detain them from saving souls. Sowing doubt, showing unbelief by word or action, and shaking the faith of others does not bring that material to the foundation, does not bring people nearer to God, and does not make workers or hearers stronger in truth, purer, better, holier, more devoted and pious. True building is serving Jehovah and not Baal, elevating the standard and not bringing it down to a common level, exalting the truth, working in harmony with brethren in the Spirit of Christ, and going forth weeping bearing precious seed to return with sheaves rejoicing. Leaders build hay, wood, and stubble on the foundation when by speech, spirit, and manners they teach disregard for the robe of righteousness Christ purchased with His blood and train others that their own natural traits and self-chosen character are good enough to enter heaven. That work does not represent Christ's righteousness, words, and character, does not show covenant union with Him, and will not stand the test of the day of God but will be consumed, making their case worse than those who refused to come at all.
Those who build on the foundation should contribute work of lasting worth — represented by gold, silver, and precious stones — not worthless work represented by hay, wood, or stubble, and this applies to active missionary service, including medical missionary work and helping people who need aid and spiritual light. He who does his best in missionary work, using his ability in practical effort, prepares a solid foundation on which to build. As he goes forth in the meekness and simplicity of Christ to win souls and to work for the sick, the afflicted, and the suffering, combining medical missionary work with preaching the Word, his faith is built upon knowledge. He feels the Saviour close by his side teaching him how to wear His yoke and carry His burden restfully, trustingly, and cheerfully, and by the tact, skill, knowledge, and experience he gains in that labor with Christ he brings gold, silver, and precious stones to the foundation and establishes others in the faith.
God has laid a great foundation of truth and His workers must build on it in harmony with gold, silver, and precious stones, not with hay, wood, and stubble. The gold, silver, and precious stones mean most earnest, consecrated effort to present the principles by which the people are to stand, holding the fort in Washington in the day of opportunity when Sunday legislation is urged and petitions for religious instruction in public schools are sent in. Then heavenly angels work with power through human agencies and a decided influence for truth goes forth.
The materials used to build on Christ, the church's foundation, represent the principles shaping the church, with gold, silver, and precious stones as heavenly principles that endure, while wood, hay, and stubble represent objectionable, worldly-policy principles that can mar the church and take the place of what is lasting. Jesus Christ is the only true foundation on which the church is to be built, and builders must beware of marring the building by introducing worthless material that will not bear the test of trial. Faithful building means not being guided by those who have long known the truth for this time but have not yielded to its claims, and not conforming to the world to gain influence with worldlings. Those who desire characters that will make them laborers together with God and worthy of His commendation must separate themselves from the enemies of God and in all places stand firm for the truth. God wants those working in His field to examine what kind of work they are doing, how they are laying the foundation and what kind of material they are putting into the building, to see whether the structure can stand or must be taken down and another built up. Many who might be a power in labor are not because God is not working with them, and no one should dare to touch the work until possessing the Spirit of God.
In every church many have brought much wood, hay, and stubble to the foundation, and this faulty building means they need to repent and be converted and to be refined, sanctified, and purified. Humbling themselves before the Lord and making the purification of His Spirit their first work will bring a great reformation, and seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness brings all needful things added. Those who build on the foundation must bring gold, silver, and precious stones rather than chaff, which in the ministry means allowing God to cleanse and refine the mind and character, putting away childish and un-Christlike traits, and bringing to the work a life shaped by Christ. Leaders in the medical missionary work have been bringing hay, wood, and stubble to the foundation and rest under responsibility to clear it away. Building rightly means gathering gems of truth to the soul that will grow brighter and brighter under purifying fires, which requires being convinced of the need to die to self and to have an experimental religion of pure and undefiled religion, and being willing to humble the self so Christ binds the soul to Himself and God can work with the person.
Every professing Christian is building upon the foundation by his life and business relations with the unconverted. Building with worthless material means taking up room in the building as a stone that emits no light. Such builders are consumers and not producers, bearing no fruit to the glory of God, so the Lord cannot cooperate with them. They cannot shine as living stones because they do not receive light from the chief Cornerstone. There is no neutral place; Christians are either under Christ's rule doing the work God requires and doing positive good, or under the control of the enemy doing incalculable harm, and their influence is either a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.
Home Education Stewardship
Parents form the characters of their children for the church, and that forming is building upon the foundation that will be tested by the searching eye of God in the investigative judgment. Neglecting and indulging children and letting them follow their own way because it is easier lays perishable material and produces defective characters that trouble the churches. Passing over faults lightly, pleasing those under charge, and giving the impression that sin is not very offensive is faulty haphazard building that will not stand the test but will testify against the worker in the courts above with the verdict of an unfaithful servant. Educating, training, restraining, polishing and refining children as God's property in the way God requires unto the heavenly courts is faithful building that receives the Lord's pronouncement of well done, while devotion of life to the service of Christ builds enduring material. Those who built poorly and their children may yet be saved if they awake at last to their defects, but not on the same footing as faithful builders, for there are degrees of glory as one star differs from another.
Mothers build imperishably by educating children to form characters fit for the kingdom, setting before them self-denial and piety that leads away from cheap indulgence to earnest seeking of sonship with God. In the sowing time parents lay gold, silver and precious stones by sowing precious seed in golden moments that blossoms into correct habits, which is sowing to the Spirit unto life everlasting, a life parallel with the life of Jehovah, rather than sowing to the flesh which reaps only corruption. Such work tells for time and eternity and will stand the fires of the last days, whereas affections set on the world with disregard of truth and righteousness fails to build so. Losing control of temper sows seeds of unrighteousness in children and is building with wood, hay and stubble, while compassion, consideration, charity, patience and loving words and actions are building with gold, silver and precious stones.
In marriage the husband builds upon the one foundation with material to be tested, and must build pure faithful love that respects, cherishes and prefers his own wife with affections controlled by Christ to center upon proper objects. Building with dangerous sentimentalism and spiritualistic affection for another woman, impurity in mind and heart, suspicion and jealousy toward his wife, and pomposity seeking supremacy is worthless building that dishonors God, spoils both souls, breaks the law binding him to his wife as adultery already in the heart, and fulfills the wicked part of a sign of the last days so that God will not bless him in it. He must stop where he is, turn wholly to God, and be as true as steel to his vows in thought, word and deed, refusing to spoil his record as one who fears God and keeps His commandments, and then grace will be imparted and truth will triumph in his life.
Teachers build lives upon the foundation of God's law, and their teaching and training of youth is building to be tested. Work prompted by love to God, moved by the Spirit and wisdom from above, exemplifying the character of Christ rather than merely professing Christianity and letting wisdom from above pervade all instruction, is gold, silver and precious stones that endures and stands the test even in moral darkness and corruption. Work done in reliance on own strength and wisdom, with uncultivated manners and uncontrolled tempers that fail to influence youth for their eternal good, is wood, hay and stubble that is consumed and accomplishes little. The test is meeting the youth under care again around the great white throne, where failure brings grave consequences and workers must answer for their influence, while faithful Christlike example and instruction that win souls brings the approval of God, eternal life, the souls of students and the joys of the redeemed.
Education must first lay a sure foundation as the first and chief part, with faith in God, and then build upon it with gold, silver and precious stones. That lasting building means thoroughness in all efforts to learn, especially thorough work in first essentials such as language and spelling. The Bible and publications containing present truth are gold, silver and precious stones, the choicest safe elevating reading to keep prominent and in plain sight in the home for children and youth. Novels and light trashy magazines and worthless literature are wood, hay and stubble that poison the appetite for the enduring materials, so in homes of believers they must have no place and the inclination for them must be strictly denied.
Stewardship builds gold by taking money from earthly substance and transferring it to heaven's bank by laying it into the Lord's treasury for His cause instead of spending it on self such as rich dress and extras, sending treasure beforehand into glory to stand the great conflagration so that it is no sacrifice. Money used economically in simple safe ways for the progress and upbuilding of Christ's kingdom lays a great enduring work, while money and effort needlessly spent on works never appointed builds wood, hay and stubble that helps reproach the kingdom, clothe the church with filthy garments and urge believers into false positions by misusing reproofs. Devoting time, talents and money to selfish worldly purposes while withholding means from broadening God's work and neglecting soul-winning under false economy robs God daily, proves unfaithfulness as stewards tested for eternal riches, leaves the lifework in ashes in the last day with reward and souls forfeited, and if the builder is saved it is only as by fire. Treating the publishing house as common merely financial business with cheap routine work that does not develop workers or advance truth, diverting sacred Southern field donations to pay other debts, and forming commercial plans that draw workers from presenting truth, evangelizing, canvassing and needed service for gain, mingle human invention as wood, hay and stubble that cannot endure.
Ordinary business and labor must bless souls and glorify God and be faithfully done as duty to God, for work that merely keeps busy or occupies time is gathering wood, hay and stubble that will be consumed when every work is tried by fire, leaving nothing that prepares souls for that day and leaving the worker barely saved as through fire. Using God-given abilities to reform and bring order, discipline and sound principles into the home begins imperishable work that wins God's approval. Dealing dishonestly, including refusing to repay an honest debt, forms wood, hay and stubble character for eternal life, and work that helps testify to a lie for money is spiritually degrading, unapproved by God, and does not ennoble or elevate.
The human body is God's building not to be destroyed by careless treatment. Youth who let God-given life slip in idle dreaming instead of making success unto eternal life build with worthless material that through repentance may yet be saved as by fire, but with no treasure laid up and eternal loss testified through all eternity. Right building is fighting the good fight of faith to the utmost in probation, seeking first the kingdom and righteousness and hungering after righteousness without risking the soul for Satan's snares, moving step by step adding virtue to faith and knowledge to virtue and temperance to knowledge unto an imperishable crown.
Writings are building material tested as enduring or worthless, seen as it truly is by heavenly beings. Solid truth, living realities and practical verity gained by close searching of Scripture, written with Christlike simplicity and full of living experience, is gold, silver and precious stones that sows seed unto eternal life and strengthens and feeds readers. Cheap worthless comic romantic fictional coarse rough common articles without germ of truth, common stories in book form and imaginative romance that floods the world and sells readily yet has no food value, are wood, hay and stubble to be refused from print, for ready sale is no proof they should be circulated, advertised or noticed. Near earth's close with stern realities opening and no time for commonplace amusement, only books and articles with the needed message of practical faith, godliness and salvation, solid consecrated truth, are to be kept before the people, and hay, wood and stubble cleansed from the camp, for the mind takes the character of its food and must deal with realities and become conversant with Scripture.
God Himself is the foundation of gold, silver and precious stones, and to build with those materials is to have Him for pillars of truth and stand unmoved on the Word. That building holds fast point by point to sanctuary truth already given and stays on guard against modern ideas about the Spirit that take away from the sanctuary and against theories never given by God. Taking out any piece leaves the builder on sand, while standing on the Word rivets him to the rock so nothing can move or turn him away.