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).
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