The Apostle speaks of this time of fiery trial, and, likening the faith and works of a zealous Christian to a house built of gold, silver and precious stones, he declares that the fire of this day, in the end of this Age, shall try every man's work of what sort it is, and shall consume all but genuine faith and character structures. But we are to remember that such loyal characters grow not suddenly, in a few hours or days—mushroom-like—but are progressive developments, fine-grained and strong like the olive tree.
The text refers to the consecrated only. Its day in a general way includes the Gospel Age, but particularly refers to its close—now here. At this time the Lord has been pleased to permit fiery trials to come upon all His people. Among these are losses, disappointments, delays, restraints, shelvings, ours and others' faults, chastisements, hardships, necessities, oppositions, contradictions, weariness, sickness, pain, sorrow, persecution, error and temptations. These will infallibly reveal whether one is wholly, partly or not at all the Lord's. Happy are we, if we have as our work the "gold and silver" of Divine Truth and the "precious stones" of a Christlike character, which stand the tests.
Eccles. 12:14; Mal. 3:2, 3; Matt. 7:22-27; 12:36, 37; Mark 4:22; Luke 2:35; 12:2, 3; 1 Cor. 3:12, 14, 15; 4:5; 1 Pet. 1:7; 4:12.
