0517 TESTING EACH PERSON’S WORK

TESTING EACH PERSON’S WORK

 

Back to the matter of Paul and the preacher who followed him, Apollos. Flattering as it may seem, when Paul hears that some in the church are saying, “I am of Paul,” and another says, “I am of Apollos,” what Paul hears is a bunch of immature groupies, regardless of whose group they are in. Do they not see? It is Christ whom they should be following. He’s the one who brings life. Paul very clearly sees it, and calls it out. The church is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, not of any human.

 

That’s when Paul uses an illustration that I really like. Each worker builds with some material—gold, silver, gems, wood, hay, straw. Then he says, 

 

“their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.”

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Each person’s work will go through fire. Every one. Through fire. I always imagined “the Day” to be the coming Day of Judgment, when God will show with what material each person’s work was built. And I still believe that to be true. But actually, I think the testing by fire comes much sooner. 

 

Having been in ministry for some decades now, I see the fire coming to each person’s work. You can be flashy and make a great first impression on your town, but what is left of your work when you are gone? 

 

1. Your work is tested when you have left. Is your legacy found in some fond memories? Or have you helped to place a burning love for Jesus in the hearts of those whom you reached?
2. Your work is tested when the next minister comes. Do people show earthly devotion to you, and align against those who gladly follow the new person? This is the very case that Paul is describing with Apollos here.
3. Your work is tested when the next generation takes over. When your spiritual children have their own spiritual children. Are they notably zealous, mature, reproducing Christ in yet others? What’s left of your spiritual legacy in two generations?
4. Your work is tested when the culture shifts. The techniques or programs you used will not work in the next generation. That is one of the only sure things in the fickle business of ministry. So, was your work built around a program that is no longer effective? Or was it built on Christ alone?
5. Your work is tested when persecution comes. Anyone’s faith is truly tested when it is no longer safe to believe. It creates a winnowing that truly seems like fire. You might say that our nation experienced a winnowing the last couple of years with the pandemic. Church attendance was no longer an option, and many never came back.
6. Your work is tested when you are gone. You are experiencing your eternal reward, but what is left of your memory on earth when you are no longer a part of anyone’s current experience? In a hundred years, your life will be remembered in less than a sentence by even your own family members. What will that sentence be? 

 

This is the test of fire that everyone’s work will go through. May your life’s work stand the test, and Jesus be the final word of all you do. Amen.