As Paul turns to the building metaphor, he also switches to an exhortation with the imperative to be careful (3:10). He elicits pathos by warning them through a blend of priestly and apocalyptic images related to a holy temple and end-time judgment. Believers in Christ must pay close attention to their respective places related to this building. Asyndeton, the omission of conjunctions (“and”), helps highlight the materials of the project (3:12), and fiery purification and destruction related to the end of the age, along with a rhetorical question affirming the auditors as this building, which is a holy temple of God, contribute to the fear Paul wishes to provoke. He presents himself as a wise master builder who laid the foundation of this building by proclaiming the message of Christ crucified (cf. 2:2).223 Our apostle perhaps assumes an early tradition that Christ is the foundation of God’s assembly, which is viewed as an edifice (Matt 16:16–18; Rom 9:32–33; cf. Isa 28:16; Ps 118:22).224 Paul is the supervisor of contractors involved in Corinthian temple construction. Such an edifice needed to pass an inspection that imposed penalties on those who failed to build it according to agreed specifications.225 Similar to the field workers this position leaves no ground for boasting since Paul laid the foundation by the grace of God granted to him; credit goes not to the proclaimer but the one proclaimed, who is Christ.226
Some interpreters suggest that in 3:10 the singular pronoun another is a covert allusion to Apollos as the one who builds on Paul’s foundation, and the warning of impending judgment in this passage hints at a problem Paul has with this minister.227 However, the similar designation in this verse, each one, doubtless includes all Christian teachers and laborers who are each individually responsible to pay attention to the way they build up the community in Christ. Paul often uses nameless third-person singulars in this letter when warning multiple persons (e.g. 3:17; 10:12; 11:29; 14:38; 16:22).228 The activity of building here seems to be ongoing, and since Apollos had already left Corinth (16:12), it is difficult to maintain that Paul is only or primarily referring to him as someone who builds improperly.229 Anyone who leads, teaches, or presently influences the congregation members is being exhorted, and this includes some of the letter’s recipients since a number teach the congregation and exercise spiritual gifts that are supposed to edify members (4:15; 12:7–10, 25–30; 14:3–5, 12, 17, 26–31).
The materials used for the building are listed in two groups. The more valuable and less combustible gold, silver, and precious stones are first mentioned, then the less valuable and more combustible wood, hay, and straw. The valuable materials recall those Israel used to build its tabernacle and temple (Exod 25:3–7; 35:31–33; 1 Chr 22:14–16; 29:2).230 And the less valuables were used on houses of poor quality that could rapidly burn (Diodorus Siculus 20.65.1; cf. 5.21.5; Seneca Ep. 90.9–10).231 The sequence of materials leads up to a climax—they go through the process of fire.232 Elements such as gold and silver are refined though this process, whereas wood and straw are destroyed. Alexander Kirk persuasively advances in 3:11–15 that the building materials represent human persons and the work should be understood as the “product” or “undertaken work” rather than “deed” or “action.” That product is the Corinthian congregation.233 This is supported by explicit affirmations in 3:9 that the Corinthians are God’s field and God’s building (i.e., God’s temple, 3:16).234 As well, this congregation is viewed as Paul’s “work” in the Lord (9:1), and temple imagery for earliest Christians describes believers themselves rather than their deeds (Eph 2:19–22; 1 Pet 2:4–8).235 We can add to this that Paul returns with another structural metaphor of building up and tearing down that refers to the Corinthians in 2 Cor 10:8, 12:19, and 13:10 (cf. Jer 1:10). The word for build (ἐποικοδομέω), which appears four times in 3:10–15, connotes the activity of erecting God’s temple that is comprised of those who are in Christ.
This labor is rewarded and requires workers to preach, baptize, train, encourage, or in some other way help establish the faith of new converts who represent the material of this temple. The end product, then, which consists of Corinthian believers, will be revealed for what it is truly worth on the appointed day in which it will be tried by fire. Our text resembles an apocalyptic scene in which the day of the Lord brings about fiery judgment (Isa 66:15–19, 22, 24; Mal 3:2–3, 18–19; Zeph 1:18; 2 Bar. 48.39).236 Often fire is associated with the destruction of the wicked,237 and perhaps Paul assumes the essence of divine presence ignites the flames (2 Thess 1:8; cf. Heb 12:27–29), but ultimately this fire is symbolic of judgment, punishment, and purification. The day when this will be revealed happens at Christ’s return (1:8; 4:3–5; 5:5; Rom 2:16; cf. 2 Cor 5:10).
Paul’s narrative depicts a fire that tests the materials (i.e., human persons) of God’s temple. The workers whose materials survive the fire receive payment in the form of a reward; other workers are not rewarded since their materials are burned up.238 The workers themselves, however, are saved through the fire. This scene is not about bad saints losing their eschatological reward as opposed to losing their salvation.239 A careful distinction must be made between the workers and their work. If the materials represent various persons who comprise the congregation, it is these people who are destroyed by the fire—they fail to persevere in Christ or are otherwise unfit for final salvation on judgment day. The workers lose their disciples in the fire; their many hours of laboring to convert and nurture them turn out to be a costly waste of time. The workers themselves, however, remain saved.240 This loss imagines the realization of what Paul means when he fears that his own work among his converts will turn out to be in vain if they commit apostasy (Gal 4:11; 1 Thess 2:1; 3:5; Phil 2:16).241 The Corinthian believers are susceptible to such judgment if they persist in discord, vices, and assimilation to worldly ideologies.242 Their destruction would take away from the joy, honor, and other rewards Paul