Weekly Pursuit – Week 4 of July
Verses:
1 Cor. 3:12 “But if anyone builds upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, stubble.”
Excerpts:
In order to practice the proper church life, we need the genuine experience of life…Paul was not only a father who begot spiritual children but also a mother who fed them. We need to be spiritually strong and healthy so that, like Paul, we may be able to beget spiritual children and adequately produce the spiritual milk to feed them…If the elders become fathers who impart life to their spiritual children and mothers who produce the spiritual milk to feed them, we will have a proper family life in the church as the household of God. The unique way to practice the church life as a proper family life is through the genuine experience of life.
The new covenant ministers as sowers, planters, waterers, begetters, and feeders should eventually become builders. Paul speaks of himself as “a wise master builder” who laid the unique foundation, Christ, for others to build upon. Paul [then] speaks of building upon the foundation gold, silver, and precious stones. As we carry out the work of sowing, planting, watering, begetting, and feeding, Christ will grow in the believers. While the believers grow day by day, they will be transformed. Consequently, the believers will be not only mature plants, that is, full-grown men in Christ, but also gold, silver, and precious stones, precious materials for the building of God’s house. In the Lord’s recovery we need sowers, planters, waterers, begetters, feeders, and builders so that the Lord may gain His organic building, the house of God. (CWWL, 1970, vol. 1, pp. 579-581)