1 Corinthians 3:11 - Meaning and Application

Here the apostle tells us what foundation he had already laid under all his work among them, Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). All faithful ministers build on this foundation, and all true Christians place their hopes on this rock. Anyone who builds hope for heaven on any other base is building on sand. No one can lay any other foundation than the one already laid, Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of our Savior and his mediation, that is, his work of bringing God and sinners together, is the main doctrine of Christianity. It is the base and support of everything else. Remove it, and you destroy all our comfort and leave sinners with no ground for hope. It is only in Christ that God is reconciling a sinful world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). But among those who hold to this foundation and accept the general truth that Christ is the mediator between God and man, there are two kinds.

Some build on this foundation gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Corinthians 3:12). These are the people who receive and spread the pure truths of the gospel. They hold nothing but the truth as it is in Jesus, and they preach nothing else. This is good building on a good foundation. Everything fits together when ministers not only depend on Christ as the great prophet of the church, and take him as their guide and perfect teacher, but also receive and pass on the teachings he gave, in their purity, without mixing in error and without adding or taking away.

Others build wood, hay, and stubble on this foundation. They still hold to the foundation, but they depart from Christ’s mind in many things. They put their own ideas and inventions in place of his doctrines and commands, and they build on the good foundation things that will not stand the test when the day of trial comes. Fire will show what kind of work they have done, just as wood, hay, and stubble cannot endure fire but are burned up by it.

There is a day coming when what men have built on this foundation will be revealed. Every man’s work will be made plain, open both to himself and to others. Some may, in sincerity, build wood and stubble on the good foundation and never realize what they are doing. But in the day of the Lord, their work will be seen in its true light. It will be clear both to the one who taught them and to those who escaped their errors. We can be mistaken about ourselves and others now, but a day is coming that will correct every mistake and show us ourselves and our actions without disguise. “The day will disclose it,” that is, every man’s work, “because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each man has done” (1 Corinthians 3:13). This points to the last day, the great day of testing, and compare also (1 Corinthians 4:5). Some understand it as the time when the Jewish nation was destroyed and their old system came to an end. At that time, the structure that judaizing teachers wanted to build on the Christian foundation was shown to be only hay and stubble, unable to stand the test.

The language also points to the work of a refiner, where fire separates gold and silver from dross, the worthless part. In the same way, the day will separate precious work from worthless work. It will distinguish one man from another, and one man’s work from another’s, as clearly as fire distinguishes gold from what will burn away. In that day, some men’s work will stand the test and be found sound. It will be seen that they did more than hold the foundation, they built rightly on it. They used proper materials, and they arranged them in the right way. The foundation truths and the truths that belong closely with them were taught together. It may not always be easy to see that connection now, or to know what will stand then, but that day will reveal it fully. Such a builder will not fail of a reward. He will receive praise and honor in that day, and an eternal reward after it. Faithfulness in Christ’s ministers will receive a full reward in the life to come. Those who spread true and pure religion in all its parts, and whose work endures in the great day, will be rewarded, and how great that reward will be.

There are others whose works will be burned up (1 Corinthians 3:15). Their wrong opinions, false teaching, or empty inventions and customs in God’s worship will be exposed, rejected, and disowned in that day. They will first be shown to be corrupt, and then they will be condemned by God and cast off. The great day will strip away every mask and reveal things as they really are. He whose work is burned will suffer loss. If he has built wood, hay, and stubble on the right foundation, he will lose what he built there. His weakness and corruption will lessen his honor, even if in general he was an honest and sincere Christian. That part of his work will be lost and will do him no good, though he himself may still be saved.

Those who hold the foundation of Christianity, even if they build wood, hay, and stubble on it, may still be saved. That should widen our charity toward others. We should not reject people for weakness alone, because nothing will condemn a person except wickedness. “He will be saved, but only as through fire,” meaning saved out of the fire. He will be snatched from the flame that consumes his work. This shows how hard it will be for those who spoil and corrupt Christianity to be saved. God will have no mercy on their works, even if he may rescue them like a brand plucked from the burning.

The Roman Catholic teaching of purgatory is often built on this passage, but that is only wood and stubble. It is not taken from Scripture itself, but invented in dark and corrupt ages to serve the greed and power of the clergy, at the cost of people who would rather give their money than give up their sins for the saving of their souls. This text gives it no support. First, the fire here is clearly figurative, not literal. What real fire can burn religious rites or doctrines? Second, this fire is meant to test men’s works and show what they are. Purgatory, however, is said to punish, not test. It is supposed to deal with minor sins not fully satisfied for in this life. Third, this fire tests every man’s work, including Paul’s and Apollos’s. No Roman Catholic should dare to say that apostles had to pass through purgatory fire.