WISE BUILDERS

The Oxford dictionary describes a building as a structure with a roof and walls, such as a house or factory and a temple as a building devoted to the worship of a god or gods. When Solomon built the temple of God, to show reverence to God the building was built in silence, the stones were very costly, carefully hewed and cut to dimension and made ready at the quarry before being transported to the temple site where they would fit perfectly together(1 Kings 5: 16-17; 6:7). The temple that Solomon built no longer exists, it was destroyed by the Babylonians because the children of Israel became rebellious to God and the presence of God no longer dwelt there.

God is building a new temple, we are this new temple of God. The temple of God is a living house composed of living stones its building has an architect and that architect is God Ephesians 2: 20-22²⁰ having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. .1 Corinthians 3: 11; 3: 16 ^‘Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? ^‘.God is building a house with Jesus Christ as the foundation and the chief cornerstone and we as the living stones being fitted together like that of the old temple but this time this new temple far outshines the old temple, it’s worth much more than the old one, it is the real temple and this temple will never be destroyed. God is building this temple in order to dwell in it.

To become living stones that can fit into this temple that God is building we need to be truly alive in Christ 1 Corinthians 15: 22 by growing spiritually and in faith in Christ Jesus. We are either building our lives for God to dwell in which leads to life or building it for the devil to dwell in which leads to death, but we are building our lives daily. To be living stones we have to build our spiritual lives so that God may dwell in it. We build our spiritual lives by praying in the Holy Ghost and with our understanding, studying the bible and meditating on it, fellowshipping with the brethren, sharing the gospel, helping the needy and advancing God’s kingdom here on earth. Jude 1:20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. When we build our Spirit man then the flesh becomes weak but whenever we don’t build our Spirit man the flesh is strong.  When we are rebellious to the will of God we cannot build our lives for God because our lives are not fit for God to dwell in hence we cannot be living stones and cannot be used by God.

1 Corinthians 3; 6-8 ‘I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. ⁸ Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.’ When we share the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are building for God even if it is just a tract that we hand out to people, or our lives minister to them we are either planting a seed in them or watering that seed but growth is occurring in the life of the individual until the person becomes fully grown and mature not needing milk anymore but meat. When we are advancing God’s kingdom and involved in building God’s business which is to win souls then we are building for God.

Everyone involved in building for God shall obtain a reward. We have to be skilful builders careful how we build and even careful how we build upon the building whose foundation has already been laid. We would either build upon it with gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay or straw. One day the fire of God will expose the worth and character of that which we are building, the things we did for God, and the motive behind them. 1 Corinthians 3; 10-15. Did we do them because we genuinely love God or we are seeking for attention, every wrong motive will be exposed on that day so it is wise to frequently examine the quality of what we are building before that day so that we can make the necessary adjustments. If whatever we are building burns during the fire test we will lose our reward but if it doesn’t burn we will receive our reward.

If we allow God to truly live in us and build a conducive home in our hearts for God to live in then we will build correctly for him, we will build with gold, silver and precious stone but if we shut him out and do things our own way, then no matter how good and magnificent the edifice we are building looks on the outside on that day it will surely burn. May God help us all to be truly wise builders in Jesus name. AMEN