James Nisbet Commentary - 1 Corinthians 3:13 - 3:13

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James Nisbet Commentary - 1 Corinthians 3:13 - 3:13


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

TESTED BY FIRE

‘The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.’

1Co_3:13

How best can we prepare for the ordeal that awaits us all? The day of Christ’s appearing will be a day of joy and gladness, but it will be a solemn day too. The day of the Lord’s Advent will be a searching day even to His own. If we would be successful in our building, we must conform to plan. What is God’s plan for our sanctification? What is the Divine method of purifying the heart? There is a prophecy which supplies the answer—we shall find it in Mal_3:1-4 Its primary fulfilment was long ago, when the Child Jesus was presented in the Temple (St. Luk_2:22). Its ultimate fulfilment is still future, reserved for this very day of the revelation of Christ from heaven.

I. The day of revelation is the day of reward.—Salvation is of grace, yet faithful service is reckoned as a debt, and God will be no man’s debtor. There shall be a reward, a reward exactly proportioned to the work accomplished. ‘Every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour.’ Other parts of Scripture (the Parables of the Talents and the Pounds, for instance), teach us how careful and how liberal the reward will be.

II. Nothing done for Christ shall be forgotten.—‘A cup of cold water,’ even, given for His name, shall be remembered in that day (St. Mat_10:42). What a glorious ending to a life of faithful toil! The Master’s glad ‘Well done!’ the hallelujahs of the saints; the acclamation of the angels; all the labours and sufferings of life forgotten. The work of time a possession for eternity. This is indeed a glorious prospect. ‘Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like His.’

III. But what is to be said of the work that will not stand the testing?—‘If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: yet he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.’ ‘Suffer loss!’ Dread and ominous words. Suffer loss even in heaven itself—how can that be? Alas! it may too easily be realised. The work of a lifetime; the work which all men praised; the work to which the builder had devoted sleepless nights and weary days—must it all perish? must it count for nought? must the builder begin life in heaven as a pauper? Yes, it is nothing less; if the work will not abide the flame, ‘he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.’

Do you wish to be saved like that? If not, see to it that your house is ‘fireproof’ now. Let the fire of God play through and through it while you build, that the materials you use may be such as will endure.

—
Rev. E. W. Moore.

Illustration

‘In the elder days of art

Builders wrought with greatest care

Each minute and unseen part,

For the gods see everywhere.

‘Let us do our work as well,

Both the unseen and the seen;

Make the house where God may dwell

Beautiful, entire, and clean.

‘Else our lives are incomplete,

Standing in these walls of Time,

Broken stairways, where the feet

Stumble as they seek to climb.’