Phil Rowlands

Hello, my friends!

I was reflecting this morning on the profound significance of foundations – those unseen but oh-so crucial elements that everything is built upon. Whether we're talking about the foundations of a building, a relationship, or a life, the foundations determine the stability, integrity and shape of what will be constructed.

This truth is just as applicable to the church as the body of Christ as it is to physical structures. The church has been established on apostolic foundations, as the Scripture tells us in Ephesians 2:20 – “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.”

Can you imagine trying to build a house on unstable, shifting ground? Or worse yet, on no foundation at all? It would be utterly foolish – the whole structure would be incredibly fragile and at immense risk of collapse. Yet so often in our spiritual lives, we attempt to construct our faith without being firmly rooted and grounded in the apostolic doctrine laid down as the foundational teachings of the church.

The apostles were hand-trained by Jesus Himself over the course of three transformative years. He poured His very heart and life into these humble men, birthing them into an astounding new reality as His ambassadors and the foundation layers for His soon-coming church. The teachings they received from the Master became known as “the apostles' doctrine” – the bedrock truths upon which all of Christianity would be established.

This is why the apostle Paul was so adamant about only building according to this doctrinal pattern. As he wrote to the Corinthians, “According to the grace of God, which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:10-11).

Jesus was the chief cornerstone, but the apostles had the privilege of being the master architects who received direct blueprints from the Lord on how His church was to be constructed. Paul in particular was given profound insight as the apostle to the Gentiles. He even referred to the apostolic doctrine as a “form” into which believers are poured and shaped.

To the Romans, he explained, “You became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed” (Romans 6:17). This form, this mold, this shaping foundation, contained indispensable truths for every follower of Jesus to embrace and build their life upon. It was the new “form” of relationship with God under the new covenant, in contrast to the old “form” of relating through the law.

As Paul described, “We were held captive under the law...but now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:6). The old covenant form of knowledge shaped by the law has given way to the new covenant mold into which our lives are poured – the apostolic doctrine established on the gospel truths of our co-death, co-burial, and co-resurrection in Christ.

When we truly comprehend and build our lives on these apostolic foundations, everything changes. We experience the finality of Jesus' death being our death to sin, the power of His resurrection life pulsing within us. This, my friends, is the authentic Christian life – fashioned and shaped by the “pattern of sound words” repeatedly taught by Paul and the other apostles.

Terms like “righteousness,” “in Christ,” “grace,” “faith,” “new creation,” “eternal life” – these were more than just spiritual vocabulary for the apostles. They were visceral realities, transferring flesh-and-blood substance from the heart of God into the core of their teaching. As Paul instructed Timothy, “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me” (2 Timothy 1:13). Our lives are quite literally moulded by the contours of this healthy, life-giving doctrine.

Tragically, so many believers today have been shaped not by this apostolic pattern but by the “form of the doctrines of men” as Paul warned against in Colossians 2:8. We absorb the unsound words and toxic terminology so prevalent in the Christian subculture and religious environment around us. Lingo about “making a decision,” “sowing seeds for a harvest,” “breaking through,” “paying the price,” “deliverance” and so on – while not inherently wrong, these phrases completely bypass the apostolic pattern.  They are foreign to the gospel worldview and can so easily conjure up fleshly, works-based mind-sets about the Christian life.

This is why Paul was so strategic and intentional in passing on the pure apostolic doctrine to faithful, grounded leaders like Timothy and Titus. He didn't just cast these truths to the masses. No, first he would lay the foundations deep into the souls of proven disciples who could then be entrusted to “teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). To Titus, he emphasized that an elder “must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it” (Titus 1:9).

Do you see, my friends? Those who lead, teach, and disciple others must themselves be firmly rooted and shaped by the apostolic foundations. Otherwise, we perpetuate generation after generation of those “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). We spread an unsound, diseased form of Christianity built on the shaky, turbulent ground of man's inferior teachings rather than God's authoritative pattern.

Paul's words ring out with urgency: “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11). May we be those who humbly receive this foundation into our hearts and minds. May we recalibrate our lives around the beautiful, powerful words of the apostles' doctrine. And may we replicate this pattern by discipling faithful brothers and sisters who can then strengthen others in these eternal truths.

The most important part of the church truly is those things unseen – the foundations upon which everything else rests. Let's be a people solidly grounded in the apostolic gospel and doctrine modelled for us. For when the storms of life rage, these foundations rooted in Christ will ensure we remain unshakable upon the Chief Cornerstone.

Thank you, Lord, for Your incredible wisdom in establishing Your church upon such an indestructible, life-giving foundation. We embrace anew the pattern of trustworthy words handed down from the apostles, allowing them to mold and shape our thinking, our living, our existence. For in doing so, we become steadfastly established in the unshakable reality of co-union with our precious Lord Jesus. Amen.

Phil