If what he has built... 1 Corinthians 3:14
What is it that the servant of God builds?
Nothing really other than their relationships with God and other people, fellowship if you will. The work of salvation is God's work. We can share the gospel, we can minister to others, and we can lead people in prayer to confess and receive the Lord, but only God the Holy Spirit, convicts a soul of sin and convinces a soul of truth. To suggest that God builds His church with wood, hay, or stubble is an absurdity. However there are those sharing false gospels, such as the prosperity gospel, the good works gospel, the gospels that aren't gospels because they deny the person of Jesus, etc. You can add numbers to your congregation through the use of lies, but such lies have no power to save, only the gospel of salvation has the power to save.
20 And again He said, “To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.” Luke 13:20-22
Contrary to what some teachers teach, leaven is never used to represent something good in scripture, but is a corrupting influence, and in the parable adds to the size but not to the substance.
Jesus preached to a predominantly Jewish audience. He declared that He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and when He sent the 70 out with the gospel of the kingdom, He specifically told them to stay out of the way of the gentiles. His gospel of the kingdom was given to the Jews under the law, who were only counted as righteous for their observance of the law. When He spoke to them of salvation it was always in the context of the law which He declared that He came to fulfill.
Paul, on the other hand, was sent to the gentiles and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to those without law, those outside the covenant of promise. The promises were to Israel and to the gentiles through Israel, but the gentiles only became recipients of the promises by faith, becoming children of faith, through the gospel. While the person of Jesus is central to the gospel whether spoken to the Jews or gentiles, the context is entirely different. Jesus Himself was born under and in submission to the law which was not yet fulfilled until His appointment with the cross, Paul was born under the law, but liberated from it by the gospel after the resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit. Context is everything to our understanding and only God can produce truly good works in us and through us. We contribute nothing.
Jesus said to His Jewish disciples:
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:5
Paul said to his gentile disciples:
12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:12-13
Jesus spoke to Jews under the law, Paul to "sinners of the gentiles." Both spoke of the power of God to save, but Jesus to Jews before the cross and Paul to everyone after the cross. The cross of Christ is at the center of redemptive history. The old Testament saints like Moses and king David looked forward to the cross and the promise of redemption. We look backward at the cross and the fulfillment of that promise in the person of Christ. There is no other way.
