1 Corinthians 3:1-17
As school starts up again I’m reminded of my first day of school. I remember nothing of what I learned but I distinctly remember wearing Barney velcro shoes and eating a Eggo waffle on the small wooden table that my daddy made for my sister and I. I’m sure the technique my kindergarten teacher taught me for holding my crayon helped to prepare my mind to be planted with seeds of learning that would grow into the bushels of knowledge that I have stored away now.
It also reminds me that believers, like new students, once started out with little to no knowledge about God. We start out, as Paul says, being fed with milk. What kind of milk is this? God created you. God created mama and daddy. God created balloons. Milk is the simple and easy to digest morsels that start us out learning about Him.
So know that the basic knowledge of God has been planted in us, what does it need to grow? The correct answer is God but let us look at it in the context of the verses. We shall say for our purposes that your parents (or folk like unto) planted the initial seed. They wanting to see it grow so they continue to water it. They read and talk about the Bible with us. Make us learn verses and songs about God. And hopefully they have help. The church body helps as well, through preaching, bible studies, and even fun things like VBS. But it’s like we said at the start of this paragraph. God gives the increase.
So now in our story, God has given us a firm foundation, and has given us folks (with His help) that help us grow and build our Lincoln log house of Gods knowledge. We now have enough sense (hopefully) to add on to our house. But Paul gives us a list of unusable building materials. Gold, silver, precious stones. These are symbolic of things in the world that don’t add to our knowledge of God. The look good, but when tested against God’s truth they fall apart. So we must carefully choose what we add to our Lincoln log house. God’s truth is the perfect material to add on to our house.
Well now we are old. How does our house look now? Still ain’t finished. Roof needs shingling, one room ain’t got no sheetrock, and we still haven’t picked out the right lights. How can this be? We have worked our whole life building this thing. How can it not be complete?
It’s not complete because we are human. We have human minds. We can not know and understand all of God’s thoughts while here in this world. We will never understand why God does somethings and leaves others undone. We have to learn to be content with what God has given us and appreciate all that he has done for us. When creation has been made new, and we have incorruptible bodies, then (I pray) we’ll understand it all.
Isaac Watts sums it up pretty well.
“There is a house not made with hands eternal and on high. And here my spirit waiting stands, till God shall bid it fly.
Isaac Watts
Riley Lee