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Lowell Brueckner

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1 Corinthians 4

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 Chapter 4

The importance of God’s judgment

1.      This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God
2.      Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
3.      But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.
4.      For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
5.      Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.

How are we to look at those, who are called into the ministry? Paul gives the Corinthians the true guidelines, which can be trusted, as the correct view concerning leadership in the church today. A little later, he will define particularly the apostolic ministry, but in the first verse he puts two titles upon himself, along with all others, who have a specific ministry to the church. This is not a position in a local church, but in the church, in general. 

These are to be seen as 1) servants and 2) stewards. In the last chapter we saw that ministry is synonymous with servanthood, and that comparison still holds, as we begin this chapter. However, Paul has chosen another Greek term for servant now, huperetes. Its definition is, literally, a subordinate oarsman. There are some Greek words which are very interesting and important in this chapter. It describes the slaves, who rowed the Roman ships. It is quite the opposite extreme of expecting honor as a captain, which is the picture that the Corinthians had formed of their favorite leader. They are to be seen, Paul shows, as galley slaves, chained to the bench and subject totally to Christ. If we are to apply this term literally, they are the oarsmen, who move the church forward through the sea of life. Obviously, there is no justification for those who lord it over others, so Peter warned the elders as a fellow elder, “Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock” (1 P.5:3).

The other term, which Paul uses is that of a steward. Stewards were household managers to a well-to-do family, under the authority of the head of the house. They managed the purchasing and the distribution of the food. A steward to the church, in this context, must collect and distribute the mysteries of God. He does it under the direction of the Holy Spirit, who reveals these secrets to him, after which, the steward must distribute them for the benefit of the body of Christ. Once again, he is a servant to Christ and to the church.

1 Corinthians 3

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Chapter 3



Carnality versus spirituality



1.    But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

2.      I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,

3.      for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

4.      For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?



The Corinthians were in a contradictory state. On the one hand they were certainly people, who were recipients of the grace of God. They were rich in Christian speech and wisdom, and were receiving and practicing spiritual gifts. Yet, Paul said that they were still in the flesh. He went to Corinth somewhere near 52 A.D. and this letter is written from Ephesus around 56 to 57 A.D., so they had been Christians for four or five years. They are still infants (1).



Fleshly-minded people follow men and put their trust in men and their ministries. Because different men and ministries have been presented to the Corinthians, there are different opinions about which one has been the most profitable to them (4). Therefore there is jealousy and strife between the different members of the church (3). In his second letter to them, Paul revealed his goal to betroth “you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Co.11:2). When this goal is reached in a practical, heart-felt sense, then Christians reach a spiritual state and the factions cease. 


1 Corinthians 2

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Chapter 2



Paul’s personal way of speaking



1.      And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

2.      For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

3.      And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,

4.      and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

5.      so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.



In these first verses, Paul better describes his way of presenting the message of the cross. He began in chapter 1, verse 17 saying, “Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” The manner of presenting the gospel must match the message. It is about a Man, bloody and beaten, dying on a rugged cross. To preach that with eloquent wisdom is a contradiction to the message and, in fact, subtracts from its power; worse yet, it takes away from the glory that should only go to God (1:31).  The power of the message comes from God and the human power of an eloquent orator is far less than adequate in portraying the message.



I quote verse 21 of chapter 1 from the Amplified Bible: “When the world with all its earthly wisdom failed to perceive and recognize and know God by means of its own philosophy, God in His wisdom was pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believed.” The church makes a mistake by appealing to human desire for entertainment or by catering to man’s ego in its presentation of the gospel. The design of God’s plan for salvation from the onset is to make the individual uncomfortable. The message must be blunt, straightforward, plain and without psychological manipulation. It is a simple declaration. In Paul’s words it is without “lofty speech or wisdom.” Again in verse 4, he affirms, “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom” (KJV).