Christ puts positive first. The wise man is going to take longer to build.
This life is not the end of the story: you are building for eternity. The house you build in this life will be your home for ever and ever. Not that we can take anything from this world into next – obviously you cannot take your physical house or any of your possessions, but God takes account of your life here and how you respond to his offer of free salvation.
Many feel they are safe. They don’t serve God or worship him; they don’t fear God or obey him; they don’t pray to him or seek his salvation, but they think all is going to be well for them. Christ warns us that there are storms coming, the worst kind of storms, storms that threaten the soul. Do you have a plan for building your life? Nothing is more important, because the consequences are so momentous. This short life determines where we spend eternity, and if we do recognise this and prepare now we will have eternity to regret it. Life deserves serious consideration. You cannot just proceed blind through life as if there were no storms to face in the future. What you sow you also reap. Life in a sense goes on for ever; existence goes on for ever, for the soul is immortal and will be conscious for forever. Even the body which dies and decays in the ground is last forever. It will be raised up on the last day either in the resurrection of life, or in the resurrection of damnation. The things we do here have consequences which last forever.
This one has dug down through shifting sand of human opinion to solid rock of God truth. He has put his trust in Christ as the only Saviour and he walks with God. He depends on him in prayer, and trusts his promises; he puts into practice Christ’s teaching. He is living for the world to come because he knows this world is passing away; therefore he does not make his treasure here. The wise man is diligent in his building work where no human eyes can see. He is not interested in how men and women see him but he says, ‘God’s eye is upon me in my inner most being. I must be careful to build there, for hypocrisy is fatal.’ He comes to God and asks for a new heart and he must be born again. He asks God to try his heart to make him sincere even before the day of judgment comes.