1 Corinthians 3:13-14: Work That Abides

Krissa Lox

Active Member
1 Corinthians 3:13-14:

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

We generally know, though don't always put into practice, that we shouldn't be overly investing in temporary and destructible things, but what are things that we can invest in that will stand the test of time and fire?

Obviously winning more souls to the love of Christ is the primary eternal work we should be putting ourselves into first and foremost, but another eternal thing we don't always give as much thought or effort to is our relationships with our fellow brethren.

Sure, there's always going to be conflicts that naturally arise during our earthly time here due to all of us being imperfect people living within an imperfect world and trying to navigate around being constantly subjected to adversarial hostilities from those who reject Christ, but at the end of this lifetime we're all going to be living in the same heaven together for, well, forever.

While we probably won't be able to see everyone who is important in our earthly lives choose to be saved to go on with us to eternity, everyone who is saved is going to be an equal and cherished inheritor of God's love and grace in His Kingdom to come whether we considered them important or not. So we need to remain mindful that how we treat and interact with (or ignore or avoid) each other, for good or bad, can end up yielding consequences far beyond the immediate here and now.

In this verse we can be encouraged that work we invest ourselves in to reach and support fellow brethren will be seen and valued and rewarded by Jesus, even if we're not feeling particularly valued or rewarded for it anywhere else. And it doesn't necessarily take away from our primary responsibility of reaching the lost if it helps to illustrate Jesus' love to others in a more understandable way than words alone.

John 13:34-35:
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
 
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