What materials can Christians use to build on the foundation according to 1 Corinthians 3?
According to 1 Corinthians 3, Christians may build on the foundation with gold, silver, and precious stones, or with wood, hay, and stubble, or a combination of all six. The former require hard work, while the latter are common; every believer’s work will be made manifest for reward.
Les explains that Christ has to be the foundation, and a person must have faith in His finished work before being given the opportunity to add to His building. The materials are gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble, or a combination of all six. Gold, silver, and precious stones do not lie around; they take hard work to obtain, while wood, hay, and stubble are everywhere, and most Christians build with them because they are too lazy to work for the hard-to-get materials. Verse 13 says every man's work shall be made manifest—not the person working for salvation, but the one who has salvation and is now working for reward. Les notes this is a graphic difference from what most of Christendom teaches.