According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
(1 Corinthians 3:10-15 ESV, BOLD AND ITALICS MINE)

After reading this passage, I needed to ask the Lord what He was telling us about these two kinds of work. Obviously, I want the work that offers reward and not the one that brings loss.

There are three works this passage lends itself to, I’m going to speak a moment on all three.

Before I do, however, I want to talk about the word we’re all waiting for… WORKS. You probably see a lean towards grace on this blog. That’s intentional. I have nothing to keep me standing other than God’s grace (Rom 5:2). I’ve come to see the Bible as a book about God’s grace. It’s amazing how black and white this is in the scripture.

The two questions that seem to pervade when we start talking about the grace of God are, “So, people can sin and it doesn’t matter?” and “So, do people not have to do anything.”

Understand this, no one who receives the pure grace of God in their life is going to celebrate over they’re liberation to sin as much as they want… nor are they going to sit on their rear-ends and snooze. The most passionate people in the world are the one’s who really understand just what the Lord has done for them. (Luke 7:47)

Now… the three works.

Works of the Flesh… SIN.

The no brainer in this passage is that works of sin will be burned up. The great news is that the person himself “will be saved.” That messed with someone’s theology right there. God has extended grace to people who can’t get a handle on some issue in their life. Apostle Paul dealt with this… read this passage slowly a few times…

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

(Romans 7:15-25 ESV)

Works of the Flesh… Self-righteousness.

Did you know that you can work for God wrongly. Self-righteousness comes in two primary forms:

Self Gratification. Serving the Lord is satisfying and gratifying, don’t misunderstand. But we understand that you can do thing “for the Lord” just because you like doing the activity, and in no way offer it to the Lord. Examples would be… playing softball at a church, playing on a worship band so you have a gig… so on.

Also a way of self gratifying your own self righteousness would be participating in ministry because it makes you “more spiritual.” I’m not saying “grow spiritually…” I really mean it makes you feel like you’re really something. It allows you to boast beyond measure. It is a way of glorifying the self and not the Lord.

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. (Romans 4:2 ESV)

There is yet a second form of self-righteousness…

Working to gain God’s acceptance. When we work from the position of trying to get God to love us more, make us more righteous, not be mad at us, think well of us… etc… When we work form that place we are saying (knowingly or not) that what Jesus did isn’t enough.

The scripture says that we need to know what is good, acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2) The perfect it speaks of means “finished and complete.” The righteousness that God gives is complete for those who believe. Righteousness is a free gift… it can not be gained in any way other than freely from Jesus. Period. Also, do not mistakenly think that you can co-manage your righteousness with Jesus. He alone has provided.

Works of Faith… a labor of love.

There are things that you love to do and you love to honor the Lord with. You have gifts that you are passionately convinced He loves to see you move in. Only you know… no one can tell you… you just overflow into this gift. That’s a labor of love. This is the work that receives a reward. (Hebrews 6:10)

It’s important to understand that this kind of work comes from the grace of God.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10 ESV)

That’s pretty incredible if you think about it! God graces us to work, then rewards us for the work. Hallelujah! He gives and then blesses us for what He gave!

We know that when we work for the Lord, it must be produced of faith to be accepted before God (Rom 14:23). We also know that no works that we do of ourselves will be honored by God (Rom 4:2). But we do know that in Christ we have been accepted! (Rom 4:25)

That means that our works, when we’re in Christ and fully depend on Him, are accepted! Hallelujah! We can rest on Jesus work on the cross for our righteousness and work in the Kingdom as an overflow of the labor of love we have for Him! It’s not a begrudging task because He’s done the essential work, now we can do the overflow work! Praise be to God who causes us to triumph!

…remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Thessalonians 1:3 ESV)