Be Careful How You Build God’s Church, Part 1

By Robb Brunansky

Published April 9, 2026

The greatest construction project anyone around Jerusalem had ever seen in Paul’s lifetime was the construction of Herod’s temple. Herod wanted the building to stand out as the grandest temple in the ancient world. This complex sat on over 172,000 square yards, which made it twice as large as the Roman Forum build by Trajan, and three-and-a-half times more extensive than the temples of Jupiter and Venus combined.

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the temple had been under construction for 46 years, well beyond Herod’s life (John 2:20). Some scholars believe Herod’s temple was never completed, as embellishments, decorations, and repairs were ongoing until its destruction in AD 70. This massive, beautiful structure was, by all accounts, the most glorious building of its time.

Yet we find out in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 that Herod’s glorious temple was not the most important or magnificent building project in the first century. In verse 9, Paul tells the Corinthians that they, as God’s beloved people, indwelt by the Spirit of the living God, are God’s building. All believers are God’s temple – His magnificent building project.

This shift from God’s cultivated field to God’s building not only moves the metaphor from agriculture to architecture but the emphasis of the passage to a new topic, too. When we come to the building metaphor (verse 9), we move from a focus on the roles of church leaders in the growth of the church to the responsibility of church leaders in the building of the church.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “I will build My church.” Jesus ultimately builds the church, but He does so through us, His builders. However, He wants Christians to build a certain way, to follow certain specifications, and to make sure everything is up to code.

Christ’s desire is Paul’s burden when he looks at our responsibility as builders in the church, commanding believers to be careful how we build (verse 10). Christians must pay attention to what we are doing when we build God’s church. We should not be haphazard, sloppy, or distracted as we build. God wants us to build carefully and methodically.

Every single person engaged in building up the church must pay attention to how that person builds. Whether one thinks of himself as a church leader or has a position of official leadership in the body or is just a regular congregant, this command applies to everyone because all believers are called to build up the body of Christ in whatever place He has us.

The question we must answer considering this command is this: How can we build carefully, not negligently? If we were building a physical structure, we would understand what it looks like to build carefully versus carelessly, but what does that look like when we are building in a spiritual building? In verses 10-15, Paul gives us three specifications.

First, we must build God’s church on the proper foundation (v. 10-11).

Believers and leaders in the church must build on the right foundation. It’s not enough to want to help, encourage, or motivate people, or to inspire people to be better, or to break bad habits or to cultivate virtues.

Building on the right foundation requires we understand the power for building God’s church. Paul ministered according to the grace of God given to him. His work of building Christ’s church was not the product of his own power or resources, but of God’s in Christ. God’s grace in this context can be defined as God’s generous provision on the calling, capabilities, and power needed for faithful ministry. God calls us to a task, and He always ensures we have the gifts for the task He has called us to do.

We see a great illustration of this truth when Israel built the tabernacle in Exodus 31. God called Bezalel by name, then filled him with the Spirit of wisdom to do all the building tasks.

Through this illustration, we also see that we need the Bezalels among us in the church engaged in a number of tasks – Christians who have a variety of gifts – not just preaching, for example. Believers have different gifts depending on how God’s grace has gifted us (Romans 12:6). No gift is exalted over another; but rather God, in His generosity, pours out grace on His people, giving us all the gifts we need to fulfill His calling for our lives.

The Lord also continually energizes our service by His grace. When Paul was tired, discouraged, frustrated, depressed, or anxious, he didn’t look within for strength, but to God for power through His grace. He rested in God’s everlasting faithfulness, strength, and promise.

Building on the proper foundation also requires we exercise and depend on God’s wisdom. Those who depend on the world’s wisdom do not build on the right foundation. The right foundation is Jesus Christ (verse 11), who is a stumbling block and foolishness to the world. Unbelievers set the gospel aside because it is seen as inferior, irrelevant, or offensive; and people try to build on something else – human ingenuity, philosophy, wisdom, and desires.

On the other hand, Paul was wise because he was captive to the cross of Christ, rejecting the world’s wisdom. He was wise because he came to the Corinthians, not with superiority of speech or of wisdom, but only with the knowledge of Christ and Him crucified.

Any church that marginalizes the word of the cross, that puts Christ at the peripheral of its ministry, or that is ashamed of the word of Christ, is foolish and failing on the true foundation. True wisdom demands Christ be at the center of all we do – all our ministries and efforts. That’s one reason why we can never engage as a church in some secular cause where the gospel is not central. Our calling is not to champion for some worldly cause or crusade for some political change, but to build the church of Jesus Christ by His grace on the proper foundation.

To build on the proper foundation also demands we recognize Christ as the exclusive foundation of the church. God formed the one true foundation of the church through the death and resurrection of Christ. The foundation already exists before we ever do any ministry. To have a legitimate church, there is only one possible foundation to lay – and that is the foundation God established, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course, many try to lay another foundation other than Christ. We see that in Galatians 1, for example, when false teachers preached a different gospel; or 2 Corinthians 11, when false teachers preached another Jesus. The world has many foundations for their institutions and movements that are not founded upon Jesus Christ.

According to Paul, though, it is impossible to lay another foundation besides Christ Himself in the church of Jesus Christ. If any church is built on some other foundation besides Christ and His gospel, it isn’t a church. There is only one proper foundation for the church; and if we want to be wise, attentive builders, we need to build on the right foundation, which is Jesus Christ.

That means what unites us as the body of Christ, the foundation of everything we do, is the person and work of Christ. Anything we build that is not grounded on this foundation will not last. If we would be careful how we build, we must build wisely on the proper foundation of Jesus Christ, empowered by God’s grace.