Wednesday after the Tenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on August 11, 2021 by under
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:11-17 (NKJV)
3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
Devotion
St. Paul instructs us that there is “no other foundation” than Jesus Christ, for the Church, our salvation, our faith, our hope, and our lives. It is also a common theme in our hymns: 385 “Now I have found the sure foundation, Which holds mine anchor ever sure…”; 427 “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord…”; 460 “Behold the sure Foundation-stone, Which God in Zion lays…”; 466 “Christ, Thou art the sure Foundation…”; 473 “The Church’s one foundation Is Jesus Christ, her Lord…”.
In The Lutheran Hymnal, those are just the hymns that actually have the word ‘foundation’ in the title. That theme, however, appears in at least another nineteen hymns. It is an important theme, so it is important to have constant reminders in the Church, especially since it is so easy in this fallen world to get distracted with ourselves and the things that pertain to us.
It is not about us; it is about Jesus. When we make it about us, our world soon crumbles around us as our opinions prove to be nothing more than shifting sand. However, when we live on the receiving end of God’s grace through Christ, our lives are built on the foundation, cornerstone, and solid rock of His truth, and we stand firm in Him. “On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand…” (TLH 370).
Prayer: O God, Who declarest Thine Almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of Thy grace, that we, running the way of Thy commandments, may obtain Thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of Thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
