What does Tribe teach about refining fire?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on refining fire begins with a promise that is also a warning: the fire is coming, and that is not a threat but a fact of following Jesus. Brian Hunter opened that conversation by pointing to Isaiah 43, where God tells his people that when they walk through fire they will not be consumed. Brian pressed on the word 'when,' not 'if,' and on the word 'walk,' a deliberate, trusting pace through something terrible rather than a quick escape from it. He said the refinement requires the full walk-through, and that getting pulled out early cuts the process short. Brian says, 'It is in the fire of tribulation that there is an opportunity to encounter Jesus.'
First Corinthians 3 shaped the second half of that message. Paul pictures every person's life as a building raised on the foundation of Jesus Christ, but constructed out of materials that only the fire can honestly evaluate: gold, silver, and jewels on one side, wood, hay, and straw on the other. Brian illustrated it with a story about a welded metal part being slammed on the ground to test whether the repair held. That, he said, is what the fire does. It is not cruelty. It is the only honest accounting of whether the work holds.
Justin carried that thread further in the Leviticus series, tracing it all the way back through the tribe of Levi and forward into Malachi 3, where God promises to send one who will refine the sons of Levi like a refiner purifies silver. Justin read that as pointing to Jesus, who is both the fire doing the refining and the one sitting over the process. He mentioned a devotional image of a refiner knowing the work is done when he can see his own reflection in the metal, and the point held: the refining continues until Christ sees himself reflected in us. Second Corinthians 3 gives that image its New Testament form, and Justin named it plainly: 'As we behold Jesus, we become more like him.'
Taught from Isaiah 43:1-4 · 1 Corinthians 3:1-15 · Malachi 3:1-4 · 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 · Revelation 3:15-18
The passage taught · 1 Peter 2:4-5, 9
4 coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious.
5 You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- March 23, 2025 Levi, Leviticus, Levite, and Us A guest speaker traces the tribe of Levi from Genesis to Jesus, showing how Christ fulfilled the priesthood and what it means for ordinary believers to live as priests today.
- January 13, 2025 Tested by Fire A sermon on walking through fire without being consumed, drawing on Isaiah 43, 1 Corinthians 3, and the California wildfires to ask what we are building our lives with.
Mentioned along the way
- March 24, 2025 Levi, Leviticus, and Us ｜ Justin A Wyoming church traces God's story from Levi through Moses to Jesus, showing how Christ fulfilled and replaced the Old Testament priesthood for all believers.