How do you know if your faith is genuine?

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.  1 Corinthians 3:10-15

Someone once told me that if they were an insurance salesman they would insure chimneys.  On a couple of occasions I've witnessed the unfortunate sight of a house that recently burned down.  The only thing that remained intact was the chimney.  Chimneys, whether made of rock or brick, do not burn.  The wood inside burns, but the chimneys don't.  There's a good lesson here.  Spiritually, we need to make sure we're built out of stuff that lasts, not the stuff that burns up.  We need to be made of stuff that endures the fires of trial and hardship--even the harshest elements.

In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul is speaking to Christians about their teachers and pastors.  He says we Christians are "God’s building" (vs 9) and "God’s temple" (vs 16) which is being built by our teachers and pastors.  But Paul says some pastors are building temples of wood, hay, and straw while others are building temples of gold, silver, and costly stones.  When the Day--meaning the Day of Judgement--comes the quality of the building will be revealed and if it's built with poor materials it will be burned up, even though the teacher will be saved (though just barely).  What this means is some pastors and teachers are building up temples out of materials that won't last.  In other words, our churches are producing Christians with inauthentic faith.  And fire will reveal it.

This is a sobering reality.  So here is the question for you:  Is your faith built with wood, hay, and straw or with enduring materials like stone and precious metals?  Will your teachers find you are burnt up on that Day or gloriously resilient?

I would rather not wait until that Day to find out.  So practically speaking, how do we know the quality and workmanship of our faith?  Answer this question: Will your faith endure the fire of trouble of today?  Today is the test of whether it will handle it on that Day.  The apostle Peter taught this when he wrote,

6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7  

Have you ever experienced a trial and wondered, "Why is this happening to me?"  Peter says all trials have purpose.  Ultimately, trials serve us by proving our faith is real and Peter says our authentic faith will result in praise, glory and honor when Christ returns.  Not all faith is genuine.  Sometimes it takes a trial to find that out.

I pray that you are being built into a temple of God that will withstand any trial.

6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,  2 Corinthians 4:17