In this passage Paul and Apollos are teachers , and we should consider their doctrine if we wish to recognize what each material represents. Yet this letter is not a systematic statement of their teaching, so it is not so easy to identify the materials as in Romans, which sets forth their message in clearly defined aspects. Corinthians is more of a laboratory than a text book. So we turn to Romans and its three great themes, justification, reconciliation, and the deity of God, to explain the figure. In Romans we have three distinct divisions of the doctrine which Paul dispensed in Corinth.
Justification is the great basic truth on which all is built.
This may well be figured by the great stones, the precious stones, such as were used in erecting the temple. This is the manward side of the evangel. Then comes conciliation and reconciliation, figured by the silver. This is mutual because both man and God must be conciliated before there can be reconciliation. Then there is the gold, God's sovereignty, the Deity as Disposer, the divine aspect of our evangel, the most glorious of all.