1 Corinthians 3:12-23
12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. 13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. 15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.
16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
18 Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say,
“He traps the wise
in the snare of their own cleverness.”
20 And again,
“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise;
he knows they are worthless.”
21 So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Peter,[d] or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
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The foundation is Jesus but leaders can build a variety of things on that foundation–some good, some worthless. We may not know which is which, so we are to be careful and not just follow human leaders.
We do have the Holy Spirit in us and he can discern the valuable from the worthless. But I must listen to him. God’s wisdom is different, so I may miss the signs. Especially true since God’s wisdom appears as foolishness to the world. Unfortunately, I can easily be impressed by the wisdom of the world. It is all too easy to become a follower of some “wise” human. Here Paul says I am to allow the Holy Spirit to guide me through God’s word–that is how I stay focused.