How to Be a Faithful Servant: Remember Your Exam

Anyone involved in the ministry of the Word understands that the goal of our service is simply to be faithful to God (1 Corinthians 4:2). Whether counseling the Word privately or preaching it publicly, faithfulness is always our chief ambition. But how do we accomplish that goal? How can we be faithful to our charge as servants of the Word of God?

Over the past several months, I’ve written a series of posts addressing that question from the perspective of 1 Corinthians 3:5–15. In that passage, the apostle Paul laid out a virtual blueprint for how to be a faithful servant, and it takes the shape of three reminders. First, Paul reminds us that if we would be faithful servants then we must remember the servant’s role (vv. 5–7). We must not forget that we are simply instruments in the Master’s hand. We have been given our assignments from Him to be carried out for His glory. Second, we must remember the servant’s work (vv. 8–10). We are to work in conjunction with one another, for God, and according to God’s assignment. And all of our work must be done with special care, recognizing that we are building on the priceless foundation of Christ.

In this last post of the series, I want to point out one more reminder from the apostle Paul that should shape the way we serve our Master: We must remember the servant’s exam (vv. 11–15). These verses say,

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

These are sobering words—even for those of us who stand fully justified in Christ and have no need to fear our eternal state. Yet Paul reminds us that every servant of Christ will one day stand before the exalted throne of Jesus and give an account for how they have discharged their duty before God.

He spoke of the same event in 2 Corinthians 5:10, where he wrote that his motivation for living a God-pleasing life (2 Corinthians 5:9) was the reality that he would one day “appear before the judgement seat of Christ.” This is commonly called the “bema judgment” because the Greek word here for “judgment seat” is the word bema (βήμα)—which literally means “a step.”¹ It refers to the steps leading to a larger platform where a judge or king would sit to give a speech or make a ruling.²

Of course, the bema Paul has in mind here is the bema that belongs to Christ. And the evaluation that Christ gives is the evaluation of the works carried out by His people during their lives on earth. That’s the servant’s “final exam,” if you will. It’s the testing of all we’ve done to build up the body of Christ.

Notice how Paul frames this in 1 Corinthians 3:11. He says that there is only one foundation, which is Christ. However, in the next verse, he says that each servant of God who comes along builds upon that foundation. And we all build with similar materials. Either we build with gold, silver, and precious stones, or we build with wood, hay, and straw. Those are the material options. Categorically, either our labor will be carried out with high quality, imperishable material (gold, silver, precious stones) or it will be done shabbily (wood, hay, and straw).

Now, the point Paul is making here is that it’s the quality of our work that ought to concern us. Quantity is not the issue. The focal point is on the caliber of work rendered, which is further confirmed by verse 13. Paul writes,

Each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.

Notice that the work itself will be what is tested with fire. Fire was used to test metallic ore to determine its purity. Likewise, on that “Day,” the Lord will examine each servant’s work in order to demonstrate its true quality. Only the work that remains after the exam will be rewarded (v. 14). Any servant who presents wood, hay, and straw to the Lord on that day will fail the exam. They won’t be condemned, but their labor will be burnt up and they will lose certain rewards (v. 15).

So the servant’s exam is not about his ultimate salvation. It’s about the way in which He carried out His responsibility as a worker for God. Every servant will be evaluated and recompensed according to the quality of their labors. Work done for the glory of God and the eternal good of others will pass the exam and be rewarded. Work done for the glory of the individual, with selfish motives, will fail the exam and will be burnt up.

Fundamentally, then, we must remember that we labor for the Lord and will give an account to Him for the quality of our work. When we remember this, it will do at least three things for us:

First, it will call us to a higher standard of excellence in our ministries because we’ll recognize that we’re laboring for eternity. None of us want to be found out having thrown together a shack on the precious foundation that has been laid before us. We are laboring for eternity and that reality shapes how we minister to others in the present.

Second, remembering our “final exam” sets us free from the horizontal evaluations of men. It helps us say with the apostle Paul, “To me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court” (1 Corinthians 4:3). Paul could say that because he knew that God was the only one who could examine him in the truest sense (1 Corinthians 4:4). The praise and criticisms of men were of the least importance to him. He lived for that day when the Lord would come and would “bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts” (1 Corinthians 4:5a). When you live that way, with the final exam in mind, you stop living for the praise of men and you start living for the praise of God (1 Corinthians 4:5b).

Third, living in light of the final exam compels us to “secret labor.” By that, I mean that it drives us to do the work of ministering the Word with excellence even when no one on the planet knows the sacrifice you’re making; or when your counselee seems to be taking you for granted. Living in light of the final exam will compel you to “be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). It’s not in vain because “your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:4).

¹ Robert S. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden: Brill, 2016), “βῆμα.”

² J. P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, eds., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1989), “βῆμα.”