Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“So Solomon built the house and finished it. He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood. He covered the floor of the house with cypress boards. He built twenty cubits of the back part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling. He built this within, for an inner sanctuary, even for the most holy place. In front of the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long. There was cedar on the house within, carved with buds and open flowers. All was cedar. No stone was visible. He prepared an inner sanctuary in the middle of the house within, to set the ark of Yahweh’s covenant there. Within the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in its height. He overlaid it with pure gold. He covered the altar with cedar. So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold. He drew chains of gold across before the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold. He overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. He also overlaid the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary with gold.”
(1 Kings 6:14-22)

“Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies.”
(1 Corinthians 7:17)

Solomon spent a LOT of money on the wood that the Temple was made out of. And then he covered it up. He covered it with gold. That Temple sparkled and was impressive and cost a true fortune. No one could see part of it. There was workmanship and skill and talent that had been used, but NO ONE could see it because it was covered up. It was there, none the less. In fact, the outer layers wouldn’t have been able to be there if there hadn’t been a foundation to be on. Great care was taken from the beginning to the end. It didn’t matter whether or not anyone would see it. It was made to be special. It was made to be functional. It was made to last. The secret to lasting was care in all the details.

The church in Corinth had its roots in the city of Corinth. This is the place they had lived. This was the lifestyle that they had been living. They were no longer part of that lifestyle, but they weren’t sure how much of that former way of living applied to godly living. They were babies in the Lord. They had no development. They had no depth or maturity. They had no idea what they were doing or whether what they were doing was right. Paul was helping them with things he’d learned from the Lord and also with his own opinions. What he was telling them is that everything they did needed to be done with care. They needed their foundation in the Lord. Not on past behaviour. Past lifestyle. Or past desire. They didn’t have to change everything about what they were. They didn’t have to do things differently. They could honour the Lord who honoured them. They could embrace the Lord as He had embraced them. Jesus was now to be the foundation and on that foundation everything they were called to could be built.

Summary

Much like the early church, we get hung up on the smallest things. Should be become this denomination or that one? Should we start doing this thing or that thing? The Jews worship on Saturday, so should we do the same? What about Baptism? What about HOW we baptize? What translation of the Bible should we read? It goes on and on. What we need is to make sure our foundation is the Lord Jesus (John 15:5). Then we should build on that foundation only that which aligns with that foundation. Yes, we will differ about small things like translations, denominations, and days. But we will be firm on Jesus. On the Word. On the trust that makes the whole thing come to life. On the belief that strengthens that trust. Our foundation will be sure and what we build on it will be sure. We will be digging deep into Jesus and stabilizing our lives on Him (Luke 6:47-49; Matthew 7:24-27).