The Ministry of Apostles: 1 Corinthians 4✞
Passage
Paul has been talking to the Corinthians about how spiritually immature they have been—how infantile—in choosing to “follow” one spiritual leader over another. “I follow Paul,” and “I follow Apollos,” and “I follow Christ!” So if that’s an immature way to look at their leaders, how should they regard them?
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.
What is Paul, really? Or Apollos? Or Peter/Cephas? They are servants of Christ; they are stewards of the mysteries of God1. Frankly, even Christ Himself came to earth as a servant (e.g., Mark 10:35–45✞)! So when Paul or Peter or Apollos consider themselves servants they’re faithfully following in Christ’s footsteps.
If, of course, they’re found faithful – if Paul stops being faithful to the mysteries of God—stops being faithful to Christ—then the Corinthians have his tacit permission to stop regarding him as a servant.
And what if the Corinthians do judge Paul? Is he worried about what decision they’ll make? Not at all!
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.
Let’s take that in order:
- Paul doesn’t consider it a big thing to be judged by any human authority, implying that he only cares about God’s judgement.
- He goes so far on this point that he doesn’t even care about his own judgement! He is, after all, just another human authority, even when it comes to himself.
- That being said, he isn’t aware of anything against himself – but that doesn’t mean he’s innocent! He doesn’t have the right to acquit himself, only God has that right!
- This is a pretty deep point, by the way; we should remember that we’re prone to judging ourselves lightly, thinking that thing I did isn’t really that bad because there are extenuating circumstances—whereas when someone else does the same thing it’s somehow more sinful—but Paul does his best not to fall into this trap.
- Just because he’s not aware of anything against himself doesn’t mean there’s not something he’s done that he should be judged for. But God knows, and Paul leaves it up to Him.
- Given all of this, the Corinthians should follow Paul’s example and not pronounce judgement. That’s God’s job.
On that last point, see the thoughts below, where I’ll say some things any commentator would probably say about this verse…
Paul has already called out the Corinthians for their boasting; given that even Church leaders like Peter and Paul and Apollos are “just” servants of Christ, the Corinthians should follow their example and not be “puffed up” in their own minds:
6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. 7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
As a side note, I love that phrase “puffed up.” It’s evocative.
Peter is a servant of Christ; Apollos is a servant of Christ; Paul, who is writing this letter, is a servant of Christ. So are the Corinthians any different? They should also be servants of Christ. As a church, they actually have a lot going for them (despite some faults), but anything they have was a gift! Why should they be bragging about something that wasn’t theirs in the first place, but was given to them?
To really drive the point home, Paul gets sarcastic with them:
8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
Not to put too fine a point on it, do the Corinthians really think they know more about Christianity than Paul? Than Peter? Than Apollos? Do they really think they’re smarter than these men? (Again, more on this below…)
However, Paul’s sarcastic paragraph is not intended to shame the Corinthians; just to point them in the right direction:
14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
When the Corinthians read Paul’s letter he wants them to think, “he’s right, and I’ll try to do better!” He doesn’t want them to think, “he’s right, and I feel awful!” It is possible that they need to feel awful, in order to do better, but that’s not Paul’s goal; if it’s necessary, it’s only to get them to Paul’s real goal: he wants to lead the Corinthians in the right direction.
In fact, Paul, and the other leaders, want to be examples for the Corinthians:
15 For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17 That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.
As a Christian—and as a leader in my own local church—it’s hard to read Paul’s words without feeling inadequate. Can I say to my local congregation “be imitators of me” with a straight face? Sometimes I feel the best I can say is, “be imitators of the man you see on Sunday mornings, but try not to meet me during the week!” I honestly feel that, as church leaders, I and others like me should focus on being the kind of person another Christian could feel comfortable following, and leave the “be imitators of me” wording to be implied instead of directly spoken. Or maybe I’m being too tactical.
But even if Paul’s goal is not to make the Corinthians ashamed, he’s not so naive as to think that everything’s perfect in the Corinthian church. There are people that may have to be dealt with:
18 Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21 What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
I said in a previous passage that, when talking about power, I don’t think Paul is talking about things like miracles (though he did perform a lot of miracles), he’s talking about the power of the Spirit – he’s talking about people coming to faith in Christ. When Paul comes to visit the Corinthian church, there will be people who oppose him and Paul will measure them by the results of their teaching: are they leading people to Christ? Are they, through their teaching and example, making stronger, more faithful, more loving Christians? Because if they’re not, their teaching—however eloquent it might sound—lacks power.
Paul ends this passage by saying he’s worried that he might have to deal with these people.
Thoughts
A few points below that I’d started to write above before realizing it was getting too wordy:
- A point on a potential misunderstanding about what Paul is saying about human courts/authorities
- The difference between “pronouncing judgement” and “using judgement”
- Why we are all in danger of thinking we’re smarter than Paul, or Peter, or James, or any of the authors of the Bible
Being Judged by Human Authorities
Above, Paul mentioned that it would be a “small thing” for him to be judged by any judge other than God, including the court system:
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.
emphasis added
I think there’s a danger some Christians fall into of reading this to mean that the human justice system doesn’t apply to the Christian. That’s a very poor reading of this passage! Not only does it take this phrase out of context, it actually makes the opposite point of what Paul is saying here.
We like to talk about Christians following their conscience rather than following the courts. “If Christianity were outlawed tomorrow,” we think, “then I’d be a Christian anyway, and take the consequences as they come!” And that’s a noble thought, but it’s not what Paul is talking about.
In context, he’s talking about the opposite: if Paul is acquitted by a human court, that’s what doesn’t matter to him. He’s saying he’s unaware of anything he’s done that he needs to be judged for – but he doesn’t rely on his own judgement to acquit himself, nor on human courts to acquit himself, he relies only on God’s judgement.
Paul’s underlying assumption in this passage is that he does follow the laws of the land! His underlying assumption is that, if he were to stand before a human judge and be accused of a crime, he’d be acquitted of that crime, because he hasn’t committed any! He’s not saying the human law doesn’t apply to the Christian, he’s saying that, as far as he is aware, he faithfully follows human law!
“Pronouncing” Judgement vs. “Using” Judgement
In verse 5✞ Paul tells his readers not to pronounce judgement, so I’ll tread some well-trod ground by saying something that almost anyone will say when elaborating on this thought: When Paul admonishes the Corinthians not to pronounce judgement, that’s very different from telling them not to use judgement. We are definitely to use our judgement – without falling into the trap that Paul warns us against here.
Before I even get into this, let me say that I’m differentiating between “using judgement” and “pronouncing judgement” for the sake of making my point clear; others might use the phrases differently. My intent is not to parse the English, it’s to try and tease out what Paul is saying in this passage and what he’s not saying. The point is how to “judge” and now not to “judge,” regardless of what terminology you’d prefer.
An Illustrative Example
I find examples work best, so let’s work through one.
If a brother from my congregation comes and tells me that he has cheated on his wife, I know enough about God’s will from all I’ve read in the Scriptures to be able to say that he has committed a sin. I can use my judgement and say that God doesn’t want His people committing adultery, so when someone commits adultery it’s a sin.
Saying that this man has committed a sin is not going against what Paul is saying here. It’s using my judgement. It’s a fact; I’m using my judgement to recognize that fact.
What I cannot do, however, is pronounce judgement. I can’t say, “he has committed a sin, so therefore I’m a better Christian than he is!”
First of all, trying to compare and contrast who’s a better or worse Christian is a foolish thing for a Christian to do under any circumstances, but that aside, I simply don’t have enough information. If God were to compare me to that man, maybe He’d find that, on the whole, despite the fact that he has committed the sin of adultery, he’s still a much more faithful servant than I am.
Nor can I say that this man is not a Christian because he’s committed adultery; maybe he is, maybe he’s not; God knows, but I don’t. He could be a non-Christian and this act is further evidence of it; he could be a Christian and this act was a mistake made by that Christian.
This is a problem of the human heart that we have to constantly fight against, because, frankly, we want to think “I’m better than that person.” We want to think “that man committed adultery and I’ve never committed adultery so I’m a better Christian than he is.” There’s no value in thinking this way, but we’re prone to it – so we have to resist that temptation.
Except sometimes a church does have to pronounce judgement…
Since nothing is ever simple, let’s dig a little bit deeper into judging whether or not someone is a true Christian, because, as stated, it’s impossible to know whether someone is actually a Christian or not. A lot of good behaviour can cover up a bad heart, and very faithful Christians can do the occasional bad thing.
But sometimes a local church does have to decide if they think someone is really saved or not. Maybe they’re considering someone for membership, or considering someone for a particular position in the church such as a Deacon or Elder. (And maybe it’s not the entire church making these decisions, maybe it’s just the Pastors or the Elders or the senior leadership, but the same thinking applies.)
In such cases, again, the people making these decisions have to use judgement to make this decision. Based not on some specific actions or events, but based on the patterns of this person’s overall life, do they think this person is a Christian or not?
In general, a Christian will exhibit a pattern of Christian behaviour and a non-Christian won’t, so the decision makers have to go by that. But they also have to go with the spirit of this point from Paul: they’re using their judgement, but they’re not pronouncing judgement.
If the leadership decide that, on the preponderance of evidence at their disposal, this person’s life demonstrates that they’re a Christian, they should be aware that they could be wrong. (I’ve heard stories of men coming to faith after already having served as Elders for years and years!)
On the other hand, if the leadership decide that, on the preponderance of evidence at their disposal, this person’s life doesn’t demonstrate that they’re a Christian, they could also be wrong. This could be a person after God’s own heart who, for a variety of reasons, is doing things the leadership doesn’t approve of.
Regardless of whether they think the person is or is not saved, however, they’re not making that decision on behalf of God! It’s His job to save this person (if He hasn’t already), and to judge this person accordingly.
And, though it shouldn’t need to be said, even if the leadership decide they don’t think this person is a Christian, they cannot be saying that this person will never be a Christian – that they’re beyond saving!
Frankly, this whole example is a bit contrived, there are very few instances where a local church needs to make this kind of decision. The example that does come to mind is someone who’s already a member of the church who’s been exhibiting a pattern of sin, in which case the church leadership needs to make a decision about revoking their membership – but the Scriptures are clear that this decision has nothing to do with whether the person is a Christian or not, it’s about consequences of that person’s actions! In fact, the whole point is that there’s a hope that the person is a Christian, and having their membership revoked will be part of a work of reconciliation that brings them back to God!
But now I’ve gone off topic from being off topic. 🙂
Thinking We’re Smarter than Paul
I’ve said often, when blogging through the Old Testament, that we’re never to read the Scriptures in a judgemental manner. When we see people throughout the Old Testament disobeying and displeasing God we’re not to think to ourselves, “wow, what a bad person!”
If anything, we’re to see ourselves in those passages. Without the Spirit I would be behaving just like that – even with the Spirit I might do some of those same things, under the same circumstances! We’re saved by Grace, not by works.
But I’ll say the same thing here in the New Testament: when Paul gets sarcastic with the Corinthians about them thinking they know better than him, we shouldn’t be reading this thinking, “wow, those Corinthians were foolish, thinking they were smarter than Paul!” We should be realizing that we’re prone to the same foolishness.
If we’re really honest with ourselves, all Christians have had moments like this. We’re reading the Scriptures, or listening to a sermon, and find ourselves disagreeing with what we’re reading/hearing. “Well, yes, Paul might have thought that, but we know better these days,” we think – which is really saying, “I know better.” (Or, not to put too fine a point on it, “I know better than God,” since the Scriptures came from Him, but let’s set that aside for a moment.)
But… do I really think I know more about the Scriptures than Paul did? Paul the Pharisee, who knew the Law inside and out? Do I really think I understand God better than he did? Am I not falling into the same foolishness the Corinthians fell into when I think that way? (Hopefully, as a Christian progresses in their faith, these thoughts will occur less and less over time…)
Of course, none of us are objective observers; these thoughts don’t come from nowhere. Any judgement I make on the Scriptures is fundamentally impactful to myself – am I going to be judged for something, or aren’t I? So what I’m really saying, when I think Paul is “wrong,” is that this theology has the potential to curb my lifestyle, so I don’t want to listen to it, and therefore I disagree with him.
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