Christ’s apostles
4
📚So men should regard us as the servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.2 📚Moreover it is required of stewards that a man be found faithful.
4:2 Faithfulness is the one absolute essential for all servants of Christ. See Matt 24:45; 25:21, 23; Luke 16:10; 19:17.⚜
3 📚But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by any human judgment. Indeed, I do not judge myself. 4 📚For I know nothing against myself, yet I am not counted righteous by that. The one who judges me is the Lord.
4:3-4 Paul was not much concerned about the judgment of the Corinthians on his faithfulness. He was Christ’s servant, not theirs. Christ had sent him and told him what to teach, not they. He was responsible to Christ, not to them. Compare Rom 14:10-12. He did not judge himself because that was not his work, and he knew that no one is capable of judging himself properly, let alone others. Only God can do that, for only He knows for certain what He has given an individual to do and what may be that individual’s motives, struggles, temptations, difficulties, inner failures and successes. Paul’s conscience was clear – see Acts 23:1; 24:16. This lack of worry about the judgment of others gives freedom to serve God as He directs.⚜
5 📚Therefore do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes. He will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make known the purposes of the heart. And then everyone will have praise from God 📖.
4:5 He means judge nothing about the faithfulness of others or their motives. Later on he told them to judge the outward behavior of people (1 Cor 5:12; 6:1-6). Christ can and will judge the hidden things of the heart. This no man should try to do.⚜
6 📚And these things, brethren, I have applied as an example to myself and Apollos for your benefit, that you might learn in our case not to think beyond what is written, so that none of you becomes puffed up for one against another.
4:6 The problem with the believers in Corinth was that they were not viewing God’s servants in a Biblical way (“what is written”). Paul used the illustration of himself and Apollos to show them this. They were judging men, exalting or condemning as they pleased, and they needed to learn not to do this.⚜
7 📚For who makes you to differ from others? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you received it, why do you boast, as if you had not received it?
4:7 Some were boasting in their abilities or position or the fact that they were followers of one teacher rather than another. They had fallen into the absurd sin of considering themselves superior to other believers there (this is the exact opposite of what their views should have been. See Phil 2:3. Compare Luke 18:9). Paul reminds them that whatever they had that was worth having was a gift from God, so that if they boasted they should boast in the Giver and not in themselves (1 Cor 15:10).⚜
8 📚Already you are full! Already you are rich! You have reigned as kings without us! How I wish you really were reigning, that we also might reign with you.
4:8 Paul seems to be saying, “Evidently, you think you have risen very high in the Christian life; that you have reached the goal of perfection; that you have begun to reign with Christ in glory!”⚜
9 📚For it seems to me that God has displayed us, the apostles, last in the procession, like those condemned to death. For we have been made a spectacle to the world, and to angels and to men.
4:9 Paul is referring to the persecutions and hardships the apostles endured (Acts 5:17-18, 40; 12:1-4; 14:19; 16:22-24; 2 Cor 11:23-27). In those days the authorities sometimes made criminals parade before the people before executing them. Paul says his position in the world seemed like that. But he does not believe this is because of blind chance or fate. He knows that God has done this for a good and wise purpose.⚜
10 📚We are fools for Christ’s sake 📖, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak 📖, but you are strong. You are honoured, but we are despised. 11 📚Even to this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are poorly clothed, and are beaten, and homeless.
4:11 2 Cor 11:27. Such is the way the world treats the best and most spiritual of all people. Compare Heb 11:36-38; John 15:18-21; 16:33.⚜
12 📚And we labour, working with our own hands 📖. Being reviled, we bless 📖; being persecuted, we bear it; 13 📚being slandered, we plead. To this day, we have become like the filth of the world, and like the scum 📖 of all things.
4:8-13 In these verses Paul uses irony or sarcasm to strike a blow at their boasting. He does so for the benefit of their spiritual life.⚜
14 📚I do not write these things to shame you, but as my dear children I warn you.
4:14 Paul’s purpose in writing these things was not to move them to pity him or to make them ashamed. He saw their poor spiritual condition and in love for them (“my dear children”) was trying to warn them about it.⚜
15 📚For though you may have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
4:15 They had experienced spiritual birth into God’s kingdom (John 1:12-13; 3:3-8), and this was through the ministry of Paul. Compare Gal 4:19.⚜
16 📚Therefore I beg you, imitate me.
4:16 Phil 3:17; 1 Thess 1:6. Paul was not at all trying to draw men after himself (1 Cor 3:1-7). But he knew that God had made him an example of how men should live and had revealed to him the gospel he preached. He was an imitator of Christ, so it was safe for believers to imitate him – 1 Cor 11:1. He was not like many who preach one thing and practice something else (Matt 23:3; Rom 2:21-24). It was not safe to follow the false teachers who had come to trouble them.⚜
17 📚For this reason I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dear son, and faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my ways in Christ, which I teach everywhere in every church.
18 📚Now some of you are puffed up, as though I would not come to you.
4:18 These people were of one of the factions there opposed to Paul. With their worldly wisdom and sinful pride they thought themselves quite superior to him. And they thought he would not return to Corinth.⚜
19 📚But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills 📖, and will know, not the talk, but the power of those who are puffed up. 20 📚For the kingdom of God is not in talk, but in power.
4:20 Paul’s opponents in Corinth could make good speeches but could they live good lives? Christ’s true gospel is the power of God to salvation (Rom 1:16). It makes men new (2 Cor 5:17). If a person is not changed, if he has no power to live a humble, obedient, holy life, his talk and teaching are in vain. Compare Rom 14:17.⚜
21 📚What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod 📖, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?