1 CORINTHIANS 3

1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

It is hard work in our generation. The world is in such a wretched plight with regard to the truth, that we cannot begin where the apostles began. The apostles began straight off, whereas we have to convince men of the elementary principles. We have to begin at the very foundation, and show that man is mortal; that Christ is coming, and that the kingdom of God is to be established on earth.

Consequently, there is the tremendous danger that people getting to know these elementary things may think they are all right, whereas the fact of the matter is that the foundation is only laid for the work of fashioning them into the likeness of the people prepared for the Lord.

Well, if the difficulties are great, no doubt Christ's sympathies are great; if our situation is peculiarly discouraging, no doubt our welcome before him, if we overcome, will be correspondingly cordial.

Bro Roberts - Present suffering, Seasons 1:32.

3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

Disruption...must necessarily be the history of the truth everywhere in the absence of its great centre and head, for this simple reason: some love the truth and some do not, mistaking the love of the social circumstances generated by the truth for the love of the truth itself. (No discerning person will deny the truthfulness of this proposition.)

Now when two classes of persons in this condition associate together, sooner or later the divergence of their affections becomes manifest to each other. When this arises, antagonism, passive at first, becomes more and more distinct as circumstances afford scope for it, till at last it assumes the complexion of animosity, especially on the part of those who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.

My Days and My Ways Ch 16

7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

One of the two evenings, I spent with the Roberts' family, who are all in the Truth, except one (the youngest). They occupy the large farm adjoining Sunnyside. They recently lost the father, who died in the Faith. It appears they came from the neighbourhood of Huddersfield, Yorkshire, thirty years ago. The family consists of mother, five sons and one daughter, who, since the father's death, work the farm among them and manage very well.

Their acceptance of the Truth was a great surprise as well as a great comfort to brother Watson. He says he never did a thing with a more hopeless sense of duty than when he gave them Christendom Astray to read. He had begun to be considered in the district a little off his mind, and he expected this act of his likely to add to the evil report. But in some two or three months (during the father's lifetime) he was surprised to receive an invitation to the house, and to find that they had all been reading the book and were sure it was the Truth, and wanted some difficulties cleared away preliminary to their being baptized.

It is certainly an extraordinary circumstance that God should have given brother Watson society in the Truth on the very next farm to his own, with symptoms in various; directions offurther increase. The elder three sons are most earnest and interested; indeed, they all are. They are a great comfort to brother Watson.

Bro Roberts - Second Voyage to Australia

10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

In this place he styles himself "a wise architect," who had laid the foundation for an edifice upon which others were building; to whom he saith,

"let every one take heed how he buildeth thereon."

The saints in the aggregate were the building—the temple built for the Deity to dwell in through or by spirit. The spirituals among the saints were the builders of this holy temple; nevertheless the temple was "a building of God," "a house not made with hands," because all the power of these spirituals for the work of building was from the Deity, and consisted in the truth they taught which was from God, and which he confirmed through the gifts he had bestowed upon them; so that they

"were laborers together with God."

We may remark here by the way, that the holy temple these colaborers with the Deity were engaged in building in the apostolic age, has its holy and its most holy, after the pattern of the tabernacle in the wilderness, which was

"a house made with hands."

The building of "the holy" resulted in the Body of Christ as manifested in Paul's day. This was "the heavenly" constituted of the holy ones, or saints, collectively. But "the most holy" is not yet manifested, nor will it be until the apocalypse of Jesus Christ in his glory. This most holy is

"a house not made with hands aionian in the heavens."

Aionian, αιωνιον, that is, belonging to the course to which the things which are not seen pertain. When this house is built (and the builder of all things is God) it will be constituted of those saints only who in the "present evil world" walk in the truth. Those saints, who since they became saints, "walk after the flesh" will be purged out of the flock, and will never be reckoned among "the most holy." Concerning these the apostle says,

"if ye walk after the flesh ye shall die."

This is the death they shall be subject to after their resurrection. They shall die out from among the most holy, and be swallowed up of mortality, being found naked. These are "the wood, hay, and stubble," which builders even in Paul's day, built upon the foundation he had laid.

The saints who shall constitute the most holy, are "the gold, and silver, and the precious stones," of Zion, who, when the kingdom comes to her, shall be her foundations, windows, and borders—Isai. 54:11–13; Mic. 4:8.

The present house not made with hands is a mingled people, in which the faithful

"groan being burdened; not for that they would be unclothed,"

or reduced to dust and ashes;

"but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life."

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Nov 1861

The house of Christ in its present probationary form covers all descriptions, and contains within its pale both wheat and tares, sheep and goats, good fish and bad fish, faithful servants and unfaithful, wise virgins and foolish virgins, honest-hearted believers who understand the word and wayside hearers who don't understand it as they ought, stoney-hearted receivers of it in whom it never roots, and thorny-circumstanced acceptors of it in whom it gets choked. As the result of the judgment, the one class will be eradicated and the other immortalised.

The case of a man's gold, silver, and precious stone-work abiding, and his wood, hay, and stubble-work being burned with fire, and yet he himself being saved (1 Cor. 3:12–15), is not a case of works of obedience or disobedience, but a case of such as a man may be instrumental in bringing to a knowledge of the truth.

Should they turn out of the gold and silver sort, they will be his crown of rejoicing in the day of Christ (1 Thes. 2:19; Phil. 4:1; Dan. 12:3); on the other hand, should they prove to be mere wood, hay, and stubble-believers, they will not be able to stand the fiery ordeal of judgment (Luke 21:36; 2 Thes. 1:8), and so will be consumed (Matt. 3:12; 13:30, 40); and as the result of this the brother who has built them upon the one foundation will suffer loss, the loss at least of the "reward" that would otherwise have been his.

The works to be burnt with fire are not a man's evil deeds (for how could they be burnt?), but worthless human material built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, by some heedless builder.

The Christadelphian, Jul 1889

12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

These materials had all to pass through "a fiery trial" for the proof of their faith. If the persecutions on account of the word were too hot for some of them, those that apostasised were thus proved to be "wood, hay, and stubble," consumed; but if they bravely withstood the adversary, and overcame him by their faith, they were as gold, silver, and precious stones, purified from dross.

Now, if a teacher had built a hundred converts upon Paul's foundation, and seventy-five of them had denied the faith to save their worthless lives and fortunes, he would "suffer loss."

When the Lord shall appear, and he should render an account of his stewardship, he would only receive reward for the abiding twenty-five; and no consideration at all for the

"washed hogs who had returned to their wallowing in the mire."

Still this loss of seventy-five percent would not result in his own perdition. He would himself be saved, provided he was on the foundation, and with the twenty-five had kept the faith, however fiery the times had been. This is being saved so as by fire—entering the kingdom of God through much tribulation.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, March 1853

13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

Now, this "precious faith" can only be educed by trial; for the trial elaborates the works. This is the use of persecution, or tribulation, to believers; which in the divine economy is appointed for their refinement. Peter styles the "manifold persecutions," to which his brethren were subjected, "the trial of their faith;" and Paul testified to others of them, that "it is through much tribulation they must enter the kingdom."

Probation is a refining process. It purges out a man's dross, and brings out the image of Christ in His character; and prepares him for exaltation to His throne (Rev. 3:21). We can enter the kingdom through the fire (1 Cor. 3:13); but, if a man be courageous, and "hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end," he will emerge from it unscorched; and be presented holy, unblameable and unrebukeable (Col. 1:22-23) before the King.

Elpis Israel 1.3.

14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

A man has no heart to‭ "‬fight,‭" ‬or‭ "‬run,‭" ‬or‭ "‬labour,‭" ‬if his attainment of a reward for so doing become doubtful or uncertain.‭ ‬On reading this,‭ ‬someone will exclaim‭ "‬shocking,‭" "‬base,‭" "‬mercenary.‭" ‬But not so.‭ ‬Common sense,‭ ‬backed up by Scripture,‭ ‬leads us to look for a reward.‭ ‬If we are not to strive for reward—much reward—why is the encouraging term‭ "‬reward‭" ‬employed‭? 

"‬My reward is with me,‭" "‬Your reward shall be great,‭" "‬The labourer is worthy of his reward,‭" "‬He shall reward every man according to his works.‭"

Further,‭ ‬does not Christ set forth the same truth in his parable of the talents‭? ‬Also Paul in his allusion to the effulgence of the stars in the millennial heavens‭? ‬All this teaching is too simple to be misconstrued.‭ ‬It must mean,‭ ‬and only mean,‭ ‬that great faithfulness means great reward‭; ‬little faithfulness,‭ ‬little reward.‭ ‬The margin is large,‭ ‬and where we individually stand,‭ ‬Heaven alone can tell.‭

 ‬Let us then aim high,‭ ‬and appreciate the goodness and equity of God in the arrangement He has made.

Bro AT Jannaway

‭The Christadelphian, Jan 1899

15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

The verse means that the failure of his work in others, though taking from his reward in the day of Christ, will not imperil a man's own salvation if he himself is able to come through the trial of the judgment-fire that will try his work. The context and other Scriptures show this conclusively.

Paul likens himself to a builder and the Corinthian ecclesia to a building. He had laid Christ as the foundation, and built them upon that foundation. He then went away, and left the brethren to continue the work. He warns them to be careful whom they incorporated into the structure.

If they built upon the good foundation, men answering to gold, silver, and precious stones, they would receive a reward accordingly, for as Paul told another ecclesia, they would be his crown in the day of the Lord, and as it is written in Daniel:

"They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever."

But if any man built worthless material upon the good foundation, such as wood, hay, and stubble, the fire of judgment, trying his work, would destroy it, and the builder would suffer loss, but would not be himself destroyed if he individually could stand the fire.

In the day of Christ, we may find that the saints will be organized in groups in harmony with their present relations, that is, that those who bring others to the truth may receive those others as a special circle of their own subject to them in the day of the distribution of four and ten cities. In this sense, a man obviously suffers loss whose work does not stand the fire.

The Christadelphian, April 1875

20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

Skilled in the wisdom which comes from beneath, he is by nature ignorant of that which is "first pure, and then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." This is a disposition to which the animal man, under the guidance of his fleshly mind, has no affinity. His propensity is to obey the lust of his nature, and to do its evil works, "which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, sects, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such like" (Gal. 5:19).

All these make up the character of the world, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life," upon which is enstamped the seal of God's eternal reprobation. "They who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God," but "they shall die."

Such is the world of human kind -- the great and impious enemy of God upon the earth. Its mind is not subject to His law neither indeed can it be. What shall we say to these things? Is the world as we behold it a finality? Are generations of men, rebellious against God, and destroyers of the earth, to occupy it successively through an endless series of ages? Are men to repeat the history of the past for ever? Is the earth always to be cursed and sin and death to reign victorious? Who can answer these enquiries?

If we survey the starry canopy, thence no sign or voice is given expressive of the truth. They declare the eternal power and divinity of their Creator, but they speak not of the destiny of the earth or of man upon it. If we question the mountains and hills, the plains and valleys, the rivers, seas and oceans of the earth, and demand their origin, why they were created, their rocks, their strata, their fossils or deposits afford us no response.

Turn we to man and ask him "whence camest thou, and what is thy destiny, whence all the evil of thy nature, why art thou mortal, who made thee, who involved thee in this widespread ruin and calamity on every side?" Ask an infant of days the history of the past, and he can as well detail it as man can answer these enquiries without a revelation from Him who is before all and to whom is known from the beginning all He intends shall come to pass.

So true is it, that, unaided by light from heaven, "since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what is prepared for him that waiteth for Him; but, adds the apostle in his comment upon these words of the prophet, "God hath revealed these things unto us by His spirit . . . which things we apostles speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, interpreting spiritual things in spiritual words" (1 Cor. 2:9, 10, 13),

To the Bible, then, all must come at last if they would be truly wise in spiritual things. This is a great truth which few of the sons of men have learned to appreciate according to its importance. A man may be a theologian profoundly skilled in all questions of "divinity;" he may be well versed in the mythology of the heathen world, be able to speak all languages of the nations, compute the distances of orb from orb, and weigh them in the scales of rigid calculation; he may know all science and be able to solve all mysteries -- but if he know not the true meaning of the Bible he seemeth only to be wise, while he is, in fact, a fool.

Therefore the apostle says "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men" (1 Cor. 3:18-21).

If our contemporaries could only attain to the adoption of this great precept "let no man glory in men," they would have overleaped a barrier which as a fatal obstacle prevents myriads from understanding and obeying the Truth.

Elpis Israel 1.1.

Science and Revelation

"Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."—Paul.

Upon this we would remark, that "science" is all very well in its place, if it be true science, and not babbling about science. Truth natural and revealed, all originates from Deity. No sane man disputes this. Natural truth discovered and systematized by human observation and reason, is called science; and truth that cannot be discovered experimentally and inductively, but comes to us by the will of God through "holy men" specially moved to speak and write it by his spirit, is divine science, or system of knowledge, and called revelation.

This is always the same. Time changes neither its facts, purposes, testimonies, principles, nor reasonings. But not so with human science. What passes for science in one age, is repudiated in another. Hence the science of Paul's age is an old wife's fable in ours; and much of what now passes for first rate science, will be exploded in less than fifty years as the vain babbling of mere pretenders to knowledge.

The natural sciences cannot expound "the things of the spirit of God." The profoundest knowledge of chemistry, astronomy, or physiology, cannot answer the question

"What has God prepared for them that love him?"

The answer to this question cannot be read "in trees, and stones, and running brooks." All nature is dumb and silent as the grave upon it. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, Galen, Celsus, Bacon, Leibnitz, Davy, Faraday, Gall, Morse, and a host of others devoted exclusively to science and philosophy, with all their principles and facts, could not thence approach within the shadow of a shade of "the things prepared."

This is the testimony of Scripture; and therefore whatever speculators in science may say to the contrary, we believe it.

A person, then, may be as ignorant of what passes for science, as Balaam's most learned of all donkeys, and yet be able most intelligently and demonstrably to answer the question before us.

All the prophets and apostles could do this, and have done it, but were nevertheless ignorant of what is called science in our time; but with all their ignorance of this they were better physiologists than any now extant; for none of these can demonstrate the motive power of the animal machinery called Man; and he that is ignorant of this, is a mere quack in "physiology and the laws of health."

Whatever "theologians" may have done, the Bible has not "mistaken the nature of man's disease, but has well defined it, and prescribed a remedy which is the only true one, of which "theologians" and the scientific are ignorant alike.

The Bible does not "promise future good to all," nor does science. Science teaches nothing about the destiny of nations and individuals. It is only pretenders to science, who set up for prophets with only a little learning for their stock in trade, who prophesy lies in the name of science, often "falsely so called."

These "promise future good for all," and prophesy smooth things to soothe the flesh in the practice of abomination, and the rejection of the truth of God. The Bible testifies evil for every soul of man who knows not God, and obeys not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

...Truth, however, requires few words.

If the natural immortality be true, the Bible, where alone true immortality is taught, will certainly teach it. We ask, therefore, but one plain and direct testimony from the Scriptures, declaring that man is naturally immortal. He is indeed a bold man, bold even to recklessness, that will undertake it; when such a passage is produced, it shall certainly be emblazoned to the honour and glory of the discoverer in the Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come.

In conclusion we would respectfully invite our correspondent's attention to the words of Paul, "the teacher of the Gentiles," whether scientifics or barbarians. "Avoid," saith he,

"profane, vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so-called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith."—1 Tim. 6:20.

Paul's interpretations were independent of science, which he pronounced "false," when all the world protested it was the true wisdom. Paul declared that it was folly; and his judgment has been endorsed as true and altogether right by all the real lights of the science of today. His interpretations were true, and only true together; yet he knew nothing of modern science.

We argue, then, that the truths of revelation are perfectly intelligible to all unsophisticated, unspoiled, childlike inquirers after them without any aid that "science" or the sciolists can afford; who prophesy only in the words of their masters, whose "science" is a hash of facts, principles, and arguments plagiarized from the works of the thinkers and discoverers of the age, and unverified by their own experiment and observation.

The mere man of science is a fool in "the deep things of God," in which the unscientific man of an intelligent faith is as the sun in the midheaven to a lightning bug compared to him. Our friend is welcome to the bugs, big and little, light and dark; give us the fools whose science is the word of God, which lives and abides forever.

Editor.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Nov 1860

22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

But, the "pure and undefiled religion" of God has no present temporalities, or worldly interests. It has no "lands, tenements and hereditaments," nor "states," colleges, or "sacred edifices." It is like the Son of God in the days of His flesh, homeless, houseless, and poverty-stricken among the sons of men. It has great riches, and good things in store for the poor in this world who are rich in faith (James 2:5); it promises them the possession of the world (1 Cor 3:22) with all the honour, and glory, and riches of it, with endless life for the enjoyment of them; but, it requires faith in God with filial obedience to His law, in a time of tribulation (Acts 14:22; 2 Tim. 3:12), as the condition of the inheritance.

It is perfectly absurd to imagine, that men who are revelling in all the luxuries, conveniences, and comforts of life, enjoying the honour, glory, and friendship of the world, as do the ecclesiastics of antichristendom in their several ranks, orders, and degrees -- to suppose, I say, that such can inherit the kingdom of God with Jesus, and that "cloud of witnesses," of whom Paul says "the world was not worthy," is preposterous. If men would reign with Christ they must believe His doctrine, and suffer with Him (2 Tim. 2:12), in enduring persecution for the word's sake (Mark 10;29, 30; Luke 18:29).

Elpis Israel 1.5.

23 And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

I understand that a man who becomes Christ's ceases to be his own. He is the property of Christ, and as such is bound to give himself to his service. He is the brother of Christ (and therefore a Christadelphian), and as such is bound to place his chief affections on his Elder Brother, Lord, and Master.

It is his duty to spread a knowledge of the truth by every means in his power, to regulate his life in conformity with his precepts, to obey him in all things, to do good to all, especially those of the Household of Faith.

The Good Confession