“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts on them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and its collapse was great.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

In 1173 AD construction began on a bell tower for a cathedral in a port city in Italy. Unfortunately, due to soft, sandy soil and a small, inadequate foundation, after construction of the second floor the tower began to tilt. It took 199 years to complete construction on the “Leaning Tower of Pisa.” Due to the poor planning of the original builders, it has required numerous reinforcements and slant corrections over the centuries. Currently it is estimated that it has been stabilized to withstand shifting and leaning for another 200 – 300 years. In the grand scheme of things, this is not very long.

There is no better real-life example of what Christ was attempting to tell us about our faith and the lessons He taught than the Pisa bell tower. Using a very well-known construction allusion, our Lord instructs us in how to build a strong house of faith not only within ourselves, but within those whom we disciple! It is critical to build a strong foundation of scriptural knowledge including the character of Almighty God, His love and commandments, His history with the world and mankind, as well as His covenants and promises including the Messianic prophecies we find in the Old Testament. With this foundation and strong base knowledge of apologetics, it becomes much easier to build a strong faith in Christ and what He has done for us!

However, without this strong base, we find we are merely going through the motions of something we have no way of truly confirming to ourselves, much less to others whom we seek to bring into Christ’s Body. It becomes much easier for the enemy, using the world and “science” as his tools, to “topple” our faith, or, at the least, to make it unsteady and subject to “compromise” and leaning toward aberrant teaching and sin.

In our scripture verse, Christ uses the word “act” to indicate that we must “act” on His words that He is teaching. This translation is good, in that we must “do” something with the words He has given us. But, like many words Christ used in the original language, there are multiple meanings that apply. The word translated “act” is the Greek word ποιέω (poi-AY-oh). It not only means “to do,” but also, more applicably, “to make ready, to prepare.” We should not just be teaching the fantastic, wonderful and amazing supernatural things that Jesus did for us throughout His life, ministry, death and resurrection. We must also PREPARE the hearer with a good foundation from which to draw from in order to understand and believe more fully. This is why scriptural knowledge and apologetics are so critical to our faith. When we fully know and understand the backstory, our faith is much more stable, strong and unshakeable, even during the strongest storms and earthquakes. Let us never forget to build a strong foundation in ourselves and in those whom we teach, learn and grow with!