They were planned by God, for you to accomplish. You are brought into this world as a gift of God to the world, and you have a work to do, that will represent God, bring blessing to others, and expand His kingdom. It says that we should walk in them. In other words, this is a lifestyle, not just some simple thing, or single action, we do. A similar thing is laid out in Paul's letter to Titus.
Titus 2:14 – “Jesus gave Himself for us…” (that's the work that He did on the cross) “…so that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people”.
Notice there, we see salvation. Jesus gave Himself to redeem us (to pay the full price to rescue us), as it says, “from every lawless deed and to purify Himself His own special people”. Jesus paid a full price - firstly to rescue us, from the power of sin, curses, and demonic spirits; that we might be purified, or set apart or made clean, made holy, to be His special people, and there it is: zealous for good works. Titus 3 also says a similar thing - we are created for good works. God has distinctly designed you, gifted you, and He prepares you, to do some things which are unique through you - to bring blessing to other people, and advance His kingdom. Every person's gifts, and capacities, and life circumstances differ, and so too do our assignments.
Let’s go back to 1 Corinthians 3 again... It says: “If any man builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw”. There are different types of materials we can use to build. You have a building built of wood, or bricks; there are many ways you can build a building. So, in terms of our life, and our ministry, we must choose the materials we use to build. He says: we can build with gold, silver, precious stones - they are building materials that will survive the fire; or we can build with wood, hay, stubble - but if you put a fire to them, are all burned up and consumed; just ashes are left.
Frequently in the Bible, wood is used as a symbol of humanity. When the Bible is talking about people, He uses the word ‘wood’ - it may use the picture of trees, symbolic of people. Wood is symbolic of people; but gold is very symbolic, or used consistently through the Bible, to speak of things which come from heaven, things which are eternal. The city of God is paved with gold. When they made the tabernacle, the ark that would carry the presence of God, it was made of wood overlaid with gold, a picture of Jesus Christ in His humanity, but fully divine.
If it talks about different materials, then it tells us very clearly, that Jesus is not just looking at the works we do. He's also looking at the kind of work, the motivation of our work. People can do things for many different reasons, or motivations. Notice it says: “the fire will try the work” - what sort it is, meaning the quality, or nature of it. So when we come and stand at the Judgement Seat (or the Bema Seat) of Christ, He's going to evaluate: what did you do; and what was the motivation - what was the quality, or the nature, of the work you did?
Jesus will test everyone's work with fire. What does that mean? Generally, in the Bible, the ‘fire of God’ refers to the activity of the Holy Spirit, which exposes and consumes what's of no value. It says: “He will test every man's work with fire”, meaning He will put it through a testing - the Holy Spirit will look at, evaluate. I'm not sure what the testing will literally be like, but it's very clear the testing will reveal every man's work - what sort it is. The word ‘reveal’ means it's the word ‘apocalypto’, meaning: to take the cover off something, and reveal what has been covered or concealed.
Everyone's work will become clear! That word ‘clear’ means: to be plainly recognised; evident; or its true nature revealed. Was it genuine, authentic love; or was there an agenda purpose behind it? We can't tell, when people do things, why they do them. People do things for many different reasons; but when the time of evaluation of works, God wants to see not just what we did, but what sort of work it was. Was it a dead work, or was it living work? What is the quality of the work? It's the Day of the Lord; the coming of the Lord; and it says: The Day shall reveal the work. Everyone's work will become clear - the Day will declare it; or literally, the Day will make something plain, or take the cover off it.
The next thing is: “the fire of God will…” (we believe it refers to the Holy Spirit) “…will test and reveal the quality of every man's work”.