Faith in Focus #7

A reflection from Connection Church and other spiritual events from the week

Faith in Focus is a weekly reflection on what God has been teaching me throughout the week regarding my faith. Whether it’s personal interactions, reading, or the Sunday sermon, God speaks through it all, and I hope this helps you focus on His mission.

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Sermon Reflection: Only as Strong as the Foundation

Based on Jonathan Land’s sermon, Connection Church Sioux Falls, Dec 14, 2025.

In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul confronts a church proud of its leaders but careless with its foundation. During the third week of Advent, that ancient warning presses uncomfortably close to home.

At the front of the room sat an image of massive skyscrapers, the Petronas Towers, their steel and glass reaching confidently into the sky. But Jonathan Land began not with their height, nor their beauty, but with what no one sees: a foundation plunging more than a football field into the earth.

Buildings, he reminded us, are only as good as what they’re built on.

That image framed the message at Connection Church Sioux Falls, as the congregation turned to 1 Corinthians 3, where Paul continues his first major “hot topic” for the Corinthian church: pride. Not the loud kind, but the subtler, more dangerous variety. The kind that baptizes immaturity, celebrates rivalry, and mistakes gifted leaders for sources of life.

Paul’s argument is not abstract theology. It’s architectural. And like all good construction warnings, it’s meant to be heard before the cracks show.

The World Behind the Text

Corinth was a city that prized status, rhetoric, and public acclaim. Teachers gathered followings the way modern influencers gather subscribers. Eloquence mattered. Reputation mattered. Who you belonged to mattered.

So when the gospel took root in Corinth, those cultural instincts came along for the ride.

Paul had planted the church (Acts 18). Apollos, an eloquent Alexandrian preacher, followed and taught with notable rhetorical skill (Acts 18:24–28). Instead of receiving both as gifts from God, the Corinthians began sorting themselves into camps: Paul people, Apollos people, Cephas people, and perhaps most dangerously, “Christ” people who believed their spirituality placed them above correction (1 Corinthians 1:12).

Paul doesn’t deny differences in gifting. He denies that those differences justify division, pride, or immaturity.

And in chapter 3, his tone sharpens, not because the church lacks knowledge, but because they refuse to grow.

Walking the Passage

1. You Can Be “in Christ” and Still Act Worldly

Paul opens with an unsettling diagnosis:

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:1, ESV).

This is not a rebuke of unbelief. It’s a rebuke of arrested development.

Jonathan drew a necessary distinction: Jesus invites us to come like children (Matthew 18:3), but Scripture never calls us to remain childish. Childlikeness trusts. Childishness resists growth.

Spiritual immaturity, Paul insists, shows itself not in ignorance but in jealousy and strife (1 Corinthians 3:3). In other words, you can confess Christ sincerely and still operate according to the instincts of the world.

Jonathan named a reality many quietly feel, myself included: spiritual maturity does not track with age. Younger believers may display deeper humility, repentance, and obedience than those who have been around church longer. When that realization stings, Paul would say the sting is mercy.

Conviction, rightly received, is an invitation to grow — not a justification for resentment.

God, in His kindness, refuses to leave His children in infancy. Hebrews reminds us that discipline is a mark of sonship, not rejection (Hebrews 12:6). Jonathan illustrated this with the refining of metal: impurities do not leave without heat. Likewise, God may destroy immature attachments, not to punish, but to mature.

2. God Alone Gives the Growth

Paul’s agricultural metaphor cuts through both pride and despair:

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

Leaders are not the soil. They are servants.

Paul doesn’t minimize Apollos’ gifts, he acknowledges them. Apollos was a compelling speaker. Paul was not (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:10). Yet neither skill produces spiritual life.

Jesus says the same in different terms: seeds are sown; soils receive; God brings life (Mark 4:26–29).

This dismantles two common errors.

The first is leader worship: crediting spiritual growth to charisma, personality, or style.

The second is leader despair: believing faithfulness failed because visible results lag.

Both misunderstand the role God assigns. Plant faithfully. Water diligently. Trust God with the harvest.

3. Christ Is the Foundation

Paul shifts metaphors from agriculture to architecture:

“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).

Scripture consistently names Jesus as the cornerstone. The critical stone by which the entire structure is aligned (Isaiah 28:16; Psalm 118:22; Ephesians 2:20).

But Paul adds a warning often overlooked: a solid foundation does not guarantee a sound structure.

“Let each one take care how he builds upon it” (1 Corinthians 3:10).

You can be “in Christ” and still build poorly: using materials shaped by pride, competition, or self-promotion. Those materials may look impressive now, but Paul says a day is coming when the quality of each work will be revealed (1 Corinthians 3:13).

Salvation rests on Christ alone. But faithfulness is tested.

4. We Are God’s Temple

Here Paul’s language becomes corporate:

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).

The “you” is plural. Paul is speaking not primarily about individual piety, but the church as a unified dwelling place of God.

This makes division more than unfortunate. It makes it dangerous.

To fracture the church through pride, immaturity, or rivalry is to treat lightly what God calls holy.

Later in the letter, Paul will address individual holiness (1 Corinthians 6:19). Here, the warning is communal. How we treat one another shapes the integrity of the temple God inhabits.

5. Worldly Wisdom Creates Rivalry; Christ Creates Abundance

Paul lands the plane with a command as clear as it is countercultural:

“So let no one boast in men” (1 Corinthians 3:21).

The Corinthians boasted in proximity to famous teachers. Paul redirects them to a stunning truth: everything already belongs to them in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:21–23).

Why compete when the inheritance is shared?

Jonathan posed the question plainly: Why boast about knowing anyone else when we know Jesus? The eternal Son who entered the world as an infant, lived without sin, died for sinners, and reigns over all things (Philippians 2:5–11).

Worldly wisdom hoards status. Christ gives abundance.

A Fair Counter-Reading

Some interpreters argue Paul’s rebuke applies only to early-stage believers and not to mature churches today. But Paul grounds his argument not in timing, but in behavior. Jealousy, factionalism, and pride remain marks of worldliness regardless of how long a church has existed.

The passage confronts not newness, but resistance to growth.

The Turn

Advent trains our eyes downward before it lifts them upward.

The Corinthians wanted height: status, recognition, and alignment with impressive leaders. Paul takes them underground, to the unseen foundation already laid.

Growth begins there. Unity begins there. Maturity begins there.

Christ does not merely start the structure. He sustains it.

Song of the week:

The opening lines of Corey Asbury’s “Only Jesus For My Pain” read like a personal testimony, tracing a familiar arc of searching, disappointment, and surrender. “I must have tried most everything. It ended all the same,” Asbury sings, distilling a reality many know too well, myself included: the pursuit of purpose in places that ultimately cannot deliver it.

For years, that search played out in predictable patterns. Pain was numbed with alcohol. Loneliness and depression were met with relationships that promised connection but offered only temporary relief. Each attempt ended the same way, short-lived escape followed by deeper disappointment. The answers were being sought in the world, not in Jesus, and the result was always a crash.

That cycle came to a head during my final crash, a divorce, a moment that mirrored the song’s closing refrain: “And every single road I take leads right back to this place. Only Jesus for my pain.” What once sounded like a lyric became a lived confession.

Today, the pain still exists when life wounds or disappoints. What has changed is my response. By God’s grace, alcohol has been absent for more than two years, and relationships are now approached with a commitment to purity and intention rather than escape. The circumstances are not magically erased, but the way they are carried has been transformed by Jesus.

Only Jesus For My Pain doesn’t give us a false promise of a life without hurt. Instead, it points to a deeper truth: Jesus may not remove the pain, but He reshapes how it is faced. The journey is ongoing, perfection is not the goal, and failures are still present. But each step forward is a step closer to living out the song’s simple, hard-earned conclusion: Only Jesus is enough for the pain.

Carry It Into the Week

Stop measuring spiritual health by visibility or platform. Examine the materials you’re building with, such as habits, attitudes, and loyalties. Invite God to refine what cannot endure fire.

And when conviction comes, receive it as kindness.

Week in Reflection

This week’s reflection is brief but meaningful. As the calendar edged closer to Christmas, the days were filled with workplace gatherings and white elephant exchanges at Bible study, small moments that collectively served as a powerful reminder of how blessed I am to be surrounded by supportive coworkers and faithful friends. In the midst of a busy season, their presence offered both encouragement and perspective.

As the holiday arrives this coming week, my hope is simple. Everyone experiences a Christmas marked by joy, safety, and peace. And above all, a reminder worth carrying beyond the season…

God loves you, and so do I.