foundations

I ‘m thinking today about a word of caution from Paul, as written to the baby church in Corinth. Here it is, in 1 Corinthians 3:10-11:

“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

The context was this: the Corinthian churches were arguing about which preacher to follow, Paul or Apollos. Paul is telling them it doesn’t matter; he was there initially doing the spade work and Apollos came later on, and as long as both preach Christ crucified, it’s the same effort.

The warning struck me, though: Build with care, because if you try to set any foundation except Jesus, your work will fail. Worse, you’ll be guilty of heresy or apostasy.

It makes me want to examine the foundations I’m building on. It would be easy, as some have done, to see Jesus as a way to make connections that are good for business, or to win followers on social media. If that’s what I’m doing – always a legitimate question for, say, a blogger – then I’m not building with care.

Or it would be easy to use Jesus as a club to chastise people I don’t like. I can call any viewpoint not my own “political correctness” or “identity politics” or “reverse discrimination” and mercilessly beat anyone who voices them from my morally-superior position as a Christian. But that’s a different foundation than Jesus.

It seems to me that if I have any agenda other than spreading the good news, winning souls, and encouraging believers, I’m probably building on a bad foundation.