In 1 Corinthians chapter 3 we can see a profound revelation and a deep experience of God’s building and how to build up the church.
We are the temple of God, and we need to take heed with what we build, so that we would not destroy God’s temple (and thus bring in destruction to ourselves, see 1 Cor. 3:17).
What does it mean to build with gold, silver, and precious stones? We need to ask the Lord this and receive an answer from Him in a subjective way concerning our work for Him in the church.
We need to experience the Father in His divine nature (the gold), the Son in His redemptive work (the silver), and the transforming work of the Spirit (the precious stones) so that we may first be constituted with God and then minister God into others.
We need to have an adequate experience of God’s divine nature, Christ’s redemptive work, and the Spirit’s transformation, so that we may impart to others something of what we experienced of the Triune God.
Before we can build with gold, silver, and precious stones, we first need to be constituted with gold, silver, and precious stones.
Lord, unveil us to see what does this mean! Lord, what does it mean to build the church with the divine nature of the Father? Lord, how can we experience the redemptive work of Christ in a daily way? Lord, how about the transformation of the Spirit – how can we cooperate with this? We want to give ourselves to You to build with gold, silver, and precious stones!
Gold – Experiencing the Father’s Divine Nature
It is one thing for us to KNOW that gold signifies the Father’s divine nature, and it is another thing for us to be not only gilded with gold but constituted with the Father’s nature as gold (2 Pet. 1:4).
We are born with a certain disposition and with certain natural good character traits. Even when we became a believer we may think that we are pretty good – we have some natural good humility, love, and kindness. But as we enjoy God in His Word, we will realize that God doesn’t want us to be good, but He wants to come in and replace us with Himself, to constitute us with His golden divine nature.
As the Lord shines on us through His speaking, we will ask ourselves more and more, Lord, is it me who is living now or is it You? Am I being just naturally good right now, or is it You living in me?
This kind of question shows a realization that we know a little about ourselves and that we need the Lord. This is what it means to grow in life a little more. As we come under the Lord’s shining, He will enlighten us, expose us, and replace us with Himself, adding more gold – more of God’s nature – into us.
As we experience the divine nature of the Father in such a way and we meet a brother or a sister who lives out their natural goodness or kindness, we will not be quick to criticize or correct but we will minister to him / her something of the God who was wrought into us.
The more we experience God the Father in His divine nature, the more we have the builded God wrought into our being, the more we can also minister to others such a God as gold, thus building up the church.
Silver – Experiencing Christ’s Redemptive Work
On the one hand, we experience, enjoy, and apply Christ’s redemptive work when we believe into the Lord initially, and we are saved. On the other hand, according to the New Testament, we need to continue to experience Christ’s redemptive work by being terminated, replaced, and brought back to God.
Silver was used in the old times to redeem someone or something by terminating its past, replacing it, and bringing it to another owner.
In the same way, we are now in the process of being terminated by Christ’s death, we are replaced with Christ Himself organically, and we are being brought back to God. Paul summarizes this in his experience as,
I am crucified with Christ (terminated), and it is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me (replaced), and the life I live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me (being brought back to God; Gal. 2:20).
All we are in ourselves both good and bad, in our natural man and in our flesh, needs to be terminated by Christ and replaced by Him.
As we are terminated and replaced by Christ, we are being brought back to God to enjoy Him and belong to Him. This is our experience of the silver and our becoming silver for God’s building.
As we experience the termination, replacement, and being brought back to God, we can also impart the reality of Christ’s redemption to others to bring them into this same process.
We “become silver” and we “impart silver” that others may “have silver added to them”. In this way, we build the church with silver.
Precious Stones – Experiencing the Spirit’s Transforming Work
How do we experience, become, and minister the precious stones? When we have the nature of God wrought into us and we experience the redemptive work of Christ, the result will be the transformation of the Holy Spirit!
The experience of the precious stones is the totality of the experience of gold and silver. Our experience of God’s nature and of Christ’s redemptive work issues in our transformation, and we become precious stones.
There’s a metabolic process going on in us as we turn to the Lord and allow Him to work Himself into us, and as He terminates us, replaces us, and brings us to Himself, we are being transformed!
This means that we have less of the self and more of Christ, and bit by bit our natural man is being discharged and the new man is renewed, having God’s element added to it.
The Holy Spirit is metabolically transforming us by the divine nature and with the cross. He arranges our environment to cooperate with His work so that we may be produced as precious stones, something solid and shining for His glory in His building.
As we experience the Spirit’s transforming work, we can also minister something of the precious stones to others, helping them to experience transformation for God’s building. We minister to others what we become and what we are.
The more we experience the Spirit’s transforming work, the more we become precious stones and we can minister precious stones to others for their transformation for God’s building!
The Building and the Builded God
God’s New Testament economy clearly reveals that God doesn’t need man as a helper or a tool to give Him a hand in the building up of the church.
Rather, God desires to work Himself into man and become man’s constitution, so that in man and with man God would build up the church with Himself experienced and enjoyed by man.
In other words, the building God (the God who desires to build up His house) is building Himself into us to become in us the builded God – the God who is built into us, constituted into us, through our many experiences of God.
What’s happening is that we grow in the nature of God the Father, in the redemption of God the Son, and in the transformation of God the Spirit. The more we advance in experiencing the Triune God in such a way, this growth will make us gold, silver, and precious stones for God’s building (1 Cor. 3:12, 16-17).
Through our eating of Christ and along with our spiritual digestion, assimilation, and metabolism, Christ becomes us and we become Christ, and in this way we become precious materials for God’s building (John 6:57; Eph. 3:17; Gal. 4:19)!
As we become the same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function, we are qualified to work with Him for His Body. What a wonderful fact, reality, and destiny – Christ becomes us and we become Christ to be the precious materials for God’s building!
We become the building and the builded God for His building, for the church to be built up. This is mysterious, divine, deep, and yet it is becoming our experience and will be our destiny for eternity!
When we work in this way, we will never destroy or damage the building of God but rather build it with precious materials – which is our God-constituted being!
Lord, build Yourself into us and reconstitute us with Yourself. We want to experience God’s divine nature becoming our nature. Lord, save us from trying to build the church with our natural man. Cause us to experience Your redemptive work that we may be terminated, replaced, and brought back to You. Lord, transform us daily to be the precious materials for Your building! May we build with the God we experience and enjoy daily!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother James Lee’s sharing in the message and portions in, Life-study of 1 Corinthians (msgs. 26, 32), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery, week 5 (entitled, The Iniquity of the Sanctuary versus Building with Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones).
- Buy this morning revival book online via Living Stream Ministry.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lord, transform us to Thine image / In emotion, mind, and will; / Saturate us with Thy Spirit, / All our being wholly fill.
# Oh, sanctify us, Lord; now add Thyself to us, / In our experience, Thy Person spread in us, / That in reality the church be glorious, / O Lord, do add Thyself, we pray.
# As we become the same as Christ / In life, nature, expression, and function, / We are qualified to work with Him / For His Body. - Pictures credit: Mt. Whitney (Montana, USA, by a friend), and from a friend on Facebook.
About aGodMan
YOU BECOME SO PRECIOUS TO GOD ONCE YOU FOLLOW CHRIST…
It is significant that Paul mentions only three categories of precious materials—gold, silver, and precious stones—for these correspond to the Three of the Triune God. The gold refers to the nature of God the Father, the silver to the redemptive work of the Son, and the precious stones to the transforming work of the Spirit. This is the experience of the Triune God becoming the supply for us to minister to the saints and the materials for the building up of the church. If we build the church with these precious materials, and not with our natural man or culture, we shall be taking heed how we build on Christ. Then our building work will not destroy the temple of God, and we shall not suffer God’s destruction. (Life-study of 1 Corinthians, pp. 235-237)
Building the church with gold, silver an precious stones is a huge light to us and should be to all God's children. God does not need or want anything that we can do for him in ourselves. Rather, He simply wants us to enjoy Him and be constituted with Him as the gold, silver and precious stones. It is only what He is that is acceptable materials for the building of the church as Christ's Body and bride. This is just like Eve in Gen 2 being purely of Adam's rib–the element of Adam. So the church must be a pure product of Christ. "Lord, teach us to experience You as the gold, silver and precious stones and then to minister You, the One who has been built into our being into others.
Lord, grant us adequate experiences of God's divine nature, Christ's redemptive work and the Spirit's transforming work that we may impart to others what we have experienced of the Triune God! We want to be the precious materials for Your building… Work Yourself more in us that we can minister to others the builded Triune God we have enjoyed for your building!