What to Build

"Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." 1 Cor. 3:12, 13. Here we have six materials that we find are built into this building. They are figurative, but I think we can see very clearly the first three are durable things: gold, silver and precious stones. You are not going to be able to get much of a mound of gold and silver and precious stones if you work your whole life. Still, when you take a match and light it and then put in that gold, silver and precious stones it does not do a thing to it. It lasts! It is not quantity that is so important here, it is the quality of the work. So when that fire is put to those materials, they last.
But there are three other materials—wood, hay and stubble. I think it would not take too long to build a good-sized pile of wood, hay and stubble, or straw. But what happens when you put the fire to that? It isn't long before the whole thing is reduced to ashes, and the wind comes along and blows the ashes away and there is absolutely nothing to show for it. These are figures that Scripture uses to show what our lives are going to be in that future day before the judgment seat of Christ.
It is not a question of judgment of our persons. It is a question of our works that are going to be proved in that day by the fire of God's judgment. Each one of us! It is a serious, solemn thing to think of how much may go up in smoke in that day. It is a challenge. Are you making your life count for eternity's day? Are you trying to make some impressive mound down here? We need to look at things in relation to how they will stand in that day when the fire is going to do the work of proving what kind of work it is.