1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 3
A Reproof of Spiritual Pride. 1 Cor. 3, 1—23.
The laborers and the foundation: V. 10. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. V. 11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
The apostle now brings out the individual responsibility: According to the grace of God which is given me, as a wise master builder, as a chief engineer that knows his business, I have laid a foundation, but another builds on it.
Note that the grace of God is placed into the foreground; Paul intimates that without it the work could neither have been attempted nor carried to the present state. The grace of God is the real motive force in the work of the Church at all times.
And Paul knows that by this grace his work was done wisely; he had laid a foundation. Paul was not the possessor of only a single gift of grace, by which he would have been able to serve in only one single capacity in the Church, as exhorter or as pastor only, but he had been endowed with such talents as to make him a directive agent: he had great executive ability, he was a forceful preacher, he possessed great tact in approaching difficult cases, he could adapt himself to a great variety of conditions with great readiness. That was the reason why the grace of the Lord had selected him to found so many of the first congregations, as that of Corinth.
On his foundation, the basis which he had laid, another would erect the building. That was the inevitable result in Corinth and elsewhere. Until the end of time the Christian ministers, by the preaching of the Gospel, are building up the temple of God on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
And the warning of Paul is always timely: But let each one take heed how he builds upon it, how he attempts to construct the temple of the Lord. A mere zeal for the Lord, a mere avidity for work, is not sufficient to determine the method of the ministry of Christ. The minor workman must follow the directions of the master builder, the lines plainly laid down, and he must use fit material. If the teaching of any Christian preacher does not agree with the doctrine of Jesus Christ and the apostles, especially if it leads to justification by works and thus, under the name of faith, makes false Christians and work-saints, as Luther writes, then the methods must be condemned absolutely.
For, as the apostle solemnly declares: Other foundation can no man lay except that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ, v. 11. If men, teachers, arise inside or outside of the Church, claiming that they have a new way of salvation, a different way to heaven than Christ, who alone is the Way, then they are base deceivers, attempting to lay another foundation in opposition to the one and only existing one, which is Jesus Christ. This foundation was laid by God from eternity, when He destined His Son to be the corner-stone and foundation of the great Church, the spiritual temple dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and this foundation will remain as the only foundation, in spite of all the efforts of the enemies to overthrow it.
As Luther says: "I have experienced and noted in all histories of all Christendom that all those that correctly had and held the chief article of Jesus Christ, remained well and secure in the true Christian faith. And though they may have erred and sinned otherwise, yet they were finally preserved. For he who herein stands correct and firm that Jesus Christ is true God and man, who died for us and rose again, for him all the other articles will fall in line and stand firmly by his side, so altogether sure it is what St. Paul says, Christ is the chief good, basis, foundation, and all in one." (Luther, 10, 998).