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First Corinthians Chapter Four

by Paul George  
11/13/2008 / Bible Studies

1 Corinthians 4:1-21

Quotes from the World English Bible unless otherwise noted

In chapter four, Paul returns to the subject of leadership in the church. In the church in Corinth there was a leadership crisis. In twenty-first Christianity there is a leadership crisis greater than the one in the church in Corinth.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul wants it clearly understood, even those whom God had appointed as apostles are to be regarded as servants, not as masters. Paul wants it clearly understood the apostles are mere men appointed by God to be His servants. As servants, the apostles did not own or possess their followers, as the false teachers seemed to do, and as their followers even boasted, we are of so and so. As stewards, the apostles had a certain authority to act in behalf of their Master, but they are still servants of Christ. As servants and stewards, the apostles are not intent on pleasing men but on pleasing the Master. The Lord is their Master, and He will be their Judge. They will give account to Him for their stewardship, and the standard for judgment is their faithfulness in fulfilling their stewardship. Paul makes it very clear the Corinthians must take their leader off the pedestal on which they had placed them.

In verses three and four, Paul pursues the matter of the judgment of himself and the other apostles as God's stewards. Paul informs the Corinthians he is not influenced by their judgment of his faithfulness to his calling as an apostle. However, he does not attack their ability to judge him, but rather by pointing out his own limitations in judging himself. If he cannot rely completely on his own self-evaluation, then how can he be influenced by the judgment of the Corinthians, whose knowledge of him is much more limited? The only One who is completely qualified to judge Paul is his Master.

If human judgment is fallible, then Paul can rightly instruct the Corinthians to refrain from making final judgments that should be left to God. This he does in verse five,
"Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each man will get his praise from God." "Therefore" indicates that the instructions Paul gives here are the conclusion of his argument in verses one through four. When he says, "judge nothing before the time" he is telling the Corinthians they are to stop what they are doing.

How is it possible for Paul to tell the readers of his letter to stop judging the acts of others, when we know there are times when we must judge the works and character of a person based upon the formula given in the Bible. We are to judge sin, which is clearly defined in the Scriptures, and evident in our life (1 Corinthians 11:17-31) and in the life of another (1 Corinthians 5). We are also to make judgments on spiritual matters involving believers (1 Corinthians 6). We are to judge the doctrinal truth of what we are taught (Acts 17:10-11). However, we are not to judge the convictions of a brother in the Lord that are not defined as sin in the Bible. We are not to judge a brother in any matter which the Scriptures have not defined as sin, and for which we have no biblical support, to do so is to place ourselves above the Word of God and to pass judgment on God's law and God, the Lawgiver and the Judge (James 4:11-12).

In our text, Paul is forbidding men to judge in God's place, passing judgment upon those things that God alone can judge. The judgment which does not belong to men is that which will be done by our Lord in the Day of Judgment, when He returns to the earth to establish His kingdom (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). The judgment Paul forbids is God's judgment, a judgment to be carried out by God in His appointed time. This judgment is God's judgment alone, because it is the judgment that only God can perform. Our judgment is temporal and incomplete; it is not final. When God passes judgment in that coming day, it will both "bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts." God's judgment will reveal the motives of the heart of man. These motives of the heart and things hidden in darkness are not just the wrong and sinful things the human eye cannot see, they are also the wholesome and commendable things we cannot see or know. Only God can reveal these things. Until then, we do not have sufficient information on which to make a final judgment.

Paul instructs the Corinthians to stop judging their fellow servants because they do not have sufficient data on which to base a judgment. The arrogant, boastful Corinthians who are judging actually think they are wise enough to judge in God's place. They base their judgments on outward appearances, a very dangerous thing to do. No wonder we will soon find Paul insisting that all do not possess gifts which produce visible results (1 Corinthians 12:29-30). These are the gifts the boastful Corinthians hold in such high esteem, because those granted such gifts are able to produce visible results, and thus judged spiritually superior by their fellow-Christians.
One thing remains vague in what Paul says, what are the Corinthians judging about which they are told to cease passing judgment? It seems evident that it is making a final and decisive judgment on the success and quality of the ministry of an apostle of our Lord. Paul warns these Corinthians, who are themselves servants of Christ, not to keep on passing judgment on the service of those servants who are apostles, and in so doing condemning apostolic leadership, while choosing to follow a particular favorite leader.

The real problem at Corinth is not between any of the apostles or their alleged followers. The real problem is divisions and cliques which center about others. Paul's intent to this point in the first Epistle to the Corinthians is to draw men's attention and commitment to the Scriptures. The Corinthians departed from the Scriptures, and in so doing, proudly boasted of their attachment to a certain leader and their disdain for others. In verse 7, Paul becomes much more specific: the Corinthians have become arrogant against the apostles. Verses 7-13 are a graphic description of how the Corinthians look at themselves and, in contrast, how they look at Paul and his fellow-apostles.

Paul raises three very crucial questions in verse seven that, if answered correctly by the Corinthians, will expose the seriousness of their self-deception and sin. Paul first asks, "Who regards you as superior?" Who is their judge? Is it the unbelieving community? God is their judge, not the corrupt Corinthians of that day. Paul asks yet another question, "What do you have that you did not receive?" The Corinthians boast in their abilities? Where did these abilities come from? If they were given, and they were, then they were given by God. If the Corinthians are boasting in their God-given gifts, then they are boasting in God's place. They have the wrong judge, and they have the wrong object of praise. Men have taken the place of God.

There is a third and final question: "If all that the Corinthians possess is a God-given gift, then how can they boast, as if it were not a gift?" If they take credit for something they were given, as though they were not the recipients of a gift, they have forgotten, or worse yet, they have forsaken, grace, they are self-deceived.

In verse eight, by divine inspiration and enablement, Paul virtually reads the minds of his audience and describes the way they look on themselves. They are "already" filled; they have "already" become rich. Indeed, they have become kings. These Corinthians are much like the Laodicean of Revelation 3: "Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked'" (Revelation 3:17 NASB).

The Corinthians think that they have already entered into the kingdom; they have already entered into the full benefits and blessings of Christ's work at Calvary. They are not unlike a number of professing Christians today, who argue that all of the blessings resulting from Christ's work on the cross are our present possession, and that all we need do is have the faith to claim them. They claim to possess them and look down upon all who do not. They also claim that those who do not possess them suffer and are afflicted in this life and do not experience success and the good life here and now. Such thinking contradicts the clear teaching of our Lord and of his apostles. Jesus clearly speaks of suffering and adversity in this life, and the glories of His kingdom in the next, as did all of the apostles.

How can these Corinthians miss the fact that if we identify with Christ in this age, we will suffer rejection, persecution, and affliction, but with the assurance of entering into the blessings of His kingdom when He comes? The answer is quite simple. First, Paul has already told us that these Corinthians need to learn not to "go beyond what is written." They are wrong because they have forsaken the Scriptures as the only source of divine truth. Second, they have twisted the Scriptures pertaining to prophecy and future things. Like many others in New Testament times and in the twenty-first century, they have distorted the doctrine of the resurrection, future judgment, and the blessings of Christ's kingdom.

If the Corinthians, boasting in their worldly wisdom, think they have arrived, they are equally convinced the apostles have not. Judgmentally, they look down upon the apostles in their suffering and humble service. Paul paints the picture of the Corinthians, sitting "on high" looking down from their lofty heights, disdaining the apostles who are a shame and a reproach to them. Paul says God has exhibited the apostles before the world as those condemned to die, as those being led to their execution. They are a spectacle to angels and to men. The apostles are fools; the Corinthians are wise. The apostles are weak; the Corinthians are strong. The Corinthians are distinguished; the apostles are without honor (v 10).

Paul's description of the apostles in verse eleven sounds remarkably like a description of the lowest rung of our own social ladder today. Even more amazing is the response of Paul and his fellow apostles to the abusive treatment of the world, and even some in the church. Paul labors with his own hands. Those whom he serves do not support him; rather, he supports them (Acts 18:3; 20:33-35; 1 Corinthians 9:1-23; 2 Corinthians 11:7-9; 2 Thessalonians 2:9). When the apostles are reviled, they give a blessing in return. When persecuted, they endure. When slandered, they seek to conciliate. In spite of this, or perhaps, because of this, they are regarded as the scum of the world, the bottom of the social barrel.

The unholy leaders whom some find so appealing are authoritarian leaders. They are men who lead in the same way the pagans ruled over others. They push people around, and their followers love it.

Paul's words in verses fourteen through seventeen are a dramatic contrast to this kind of leadership. He does not seek to shame them, or put a guilt trip on them. Guilt is profitable when it is a response to sin, and when it leads to repentance. Paul's epistle is not written to shame the Corinthians, but to warn them of the direction in which they are heading, and to urge them to turn around. Paul speaks to them not as a "lord," but as their father. While Paul cannot be present with the Corinthians, he does send Timothy who will remind them of what they have already seen and heard from Paul. He will remind them of Paul's conduct and of his teaching, which are in Christ. Paul can not only say, "Do as I say," but also, "Do as I do." Paul practices what he preaches. Timothy will remind the Corinthians of these matters. Furthermore, Timothy's reminder of Paul's teaching and conduct will be exactly the same message as he and Paul teach in any other church, this very important statement. It contradicts all those who tell us that Paul's words to the Corinthian church are uniquely fashioned for this one situation, but not for other churches. That is not what Paul says. His teaching and his practice are consistent in every church.

Are there those who will not heed Paul's gentle plea for repentance? Are there those who have somehow become bold in Paul's absence, convinced that they will never see him again? With Paul gone, some Corinthian leaders are beginning to reign roughshod over their followers. How bold they are in Paul's absence. For such folks, Paul has a stronger word of warning he is coming to Corinth as quickly as he can. His desire is that the members of the church have heeded his written warnings and made right the things in which they are wrong. If such is the case, Paul can expect to come and be warmly received, forgetting the sins of the past. However, if there is no repentance, if those who oppose him persist, Paul will come in power, and he will then use his apostolic authority to deal with them. The eloquent speech of these leaders will not be enough when Paul arrives, for he will expose their lack of real spiritual power. Paul is coming to Corinth. How do they want him to come? Do they wish him to come with love and a spirit of gentleness, made possible by their repentance? On the other hand, do they wish him to come with the rod of correction? The choice is theirs.

Paul's words to the Corinthians are for us as well, and they have much to say. We hear a great deal about leadership in the church these days. Sadly, most of what we hear is from the secular wisdom of this world. What we hear is usually sugar coating of spiritual terminology, some passage taken out of its context beyond its meaning or intent.
Paul attributes the leadership that many Corinthians followed to the secular wisdom and power of the day. Paul's leadership is described as a radical contrast to this worldly-wise leadership. We are told that a leader is "one who has followers." Leadership, by this definition, is not a matter of divine calling or of Christ-like character. Paul speaks of himself and the other apostles as servants and stewards. Servants are submissive to their master. This is exactly what we are called, and even commanded, to do.

Our task is not to succeed, but as servants to fulfill the calling, that God has given us. Our work may not seem successful, significant, or effective, but neither did our Lord's word win the approval of men. Paul too looks like a miserable failure. However, today is not the time to judge the results of our ministry, and we are not the ones to judge such things. Let us leave these matters to God and faithfully continue to fulfill our stewardship.

What we do in the present is very important, but only when considered in the light of eternity. The Corinthians erred in assuming that they presently possess those blessings God provides and promises for the future. They fail to understand that those who are men and women of faith must be willing to suffer for Christ's sake in this age, so that they can enter into His glory in the next. The unbelieving world, with its "wisdom" and "power" is all of this age. The Christian's "world" includes this age and the one to come. We are to live in this age in the light of the next. The unbeliever lives only for the present.

The church at Corinth had many problems; we have just as many in our own church today. Paul could have wielded his apostolic authority by naming names and calling out orders. He could have gone straight to Corinth and "had it out" with the problem people. Instead he exposed the problem and then dealt it in principle, rather than in terms of personalities. When he does name names, they are only figurative analogies so that the real culprits remain unnamed. Finally, Paul clearly exposes the problem: little groups of arrogant Christians are proudly following leaders who use secular means and who proclaim a secular message, turning believers from the truths of the Word and the simplicity of the gospel. These folks have come to think too highly of themselves and too poorly of Paul and his fellow-apostles, yet Paul admonishes them as their father, seeking to bring about repentance and reconciliation without the use of more aggressive means. Only as a last resort does Paul threaten the use of more forceful means.
There are many specific problems in Corinth that need correction. The next matter Paul must address is incest in the church (chapter 5). Paul did not deal with this problem first, because the Corinthians did not understand the Word of God. The Corinthians must see that God's Word is true wisdom, and that God's power is displayed through human weakness. They must understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the foundation for all life and ministry in the church. Christ crucified is the foundation and standard of all church life. The good news of the gospel humbles us and breaks our pride and arrogance. Only when these matters are set straight does Paul move on to address particular problems.

Retired pastor,Church of the Nazarene

Author of web site Exploring God's Word

www.thewordofgodonline.net

New American Standard Bible

King James Version

The World English Bible

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