Foundations – Invisible but Essential

Matthew 7:24-27 - “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.  Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.  But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.  When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” (NLT)

Parallel passages: Luke 6:47-49

Devotional Series: The Stories Jesus Told

As some of you may know, I am a building a Bible study tool called Berea. Berea helps Christians take their knowledge of the Bible and Christianity a little bit deeper on a fun and engaging platform. What you may not know is I am building it with an AI tool.

Recently, I asked the tool to help me create an appealing call to action to encourage people to create a profile or join the waitlist. To my surprise the tool generated a whole host of lies for the site including fake reviews, an average rating score of 4.8, claims of 2000 people on the waitlist and 15,000 users. All these lies, in the ‘mind’ of the AI tool, were helpful social proofs that would encourage people like you to join the platform. The AI couldn’t see the hypocrisy in using lies to get people to sign-up to a Christian platform. But I could. Immediately, I told the tool that lies are not in my value system and asked it to remove all lies from my platform.

Why is this story relevant to today’s reading? It’s all about foundations. If I hadn’t told you this story you wouldn’t have known about it. I could have built Berea with all the lies. I would probably have more people signed up, using the platform and on the waitlist than I have today. But it would have been built on a foundation of lies - a principle that goes against the teachings of the Bible. As with all foundations, these lies would have been hidden and unseen. That’s the point of Jesus’ story.

We can actually build whatever we want on the wrong foundations, no one will notice because the buildings all look the same until something goes wrong. In my example, one can imagine a situation where lies and deception become integrated in the fabric of the culture at the company over time. It would only take one lie to be made public for the whole reputation of the Berea to be tainted.

Perhaps you think I am taking this a bit too far. The end justifies the means, if more people use the platform and the Bible then what’s the big deal? This, I think, has been the mistake of many of the global ministries who have come undone by scandal.  Foundations matter. We ought to constantly ask ourselves, what exactly am I building on? We need to constantly check if what we are building aligns with specific teachings of Christ, not in a general sense. It is easy to deceive ourselves into thinking "I can go against principle x because generally speaking I am building the kingdom of God". The trouble with this is, not only are we deceiving ourselves but we are also weakening our witness to unbelievers. Most people can smell hypocrisy and they hate its stench! Our foundations are crucial - they matter to us, the people we serve and the people watching us.

Questions for reflection: What foundations am I building on? Am I concerned with the way I am building? Am I a Christian hypocrite? Have I repented of my hypocrisy? Have I invited the Holy Spirit to help me to live a life that truly reflects the teachings of the Lord?