Sermon

1 Corinthians 4 — Trusted and Proved Faithful

January 26, 2003

We continue today this timely journey through 1 Corinthians. What we heard in chapter 3 was a difficult word, and it does not get any easier in chapter 4. I want to be clear that our intention in looking at this word is first and foremost self-examination. Our aim is not to put in the sites anyone who is not here, but to put ourselves in the sites. Our approach should be like the old spiritual: “It’s me, it’s me, it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.”

The expositional preaching method is deliberate in making us examine what Paul calls “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). This method causes us to look at all of scripture and not merely pick and choose our pet themes or topics. We want not to examine scripture but to be examined by it.

I want to encourage you again to be reading 1 Corinthians along with me as we preach this series. The message of 1 Corinthians 4 is not going to mean as much to us if we do not know the context in which it appears, both what Paul has said before in 1-3 and what he will continue to say in 5-16.

The major theme of this chapter it seems to me is stated in v. 2: “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” This chapter is really a stewardship message. It is about the stewardship of the responsibilities that we are entrusted by God.

There are three movements as Paul develops this theme:

  1. vv. 1-7 Paul revisits the stewardship of leadership that he and others, like Apollos, had been given in ministering and laboring among the Corinthian believers.
  2. In vv. 8-13 Paul uses irony and sarcasm to contrast the false ways in which some were acting in Corinth with his own apostolic calling to serve the crucified Christ.
  3. In vv. 14-21 Paul expresses his own fatherly affection and concern for the church.

1. We begin with vv. 1-7. Here Paul, at first, seems to be continuing the same line of thought that he had developed in chapter 3. It is one of the central themes of the whole letter, first developed in 1:10-17.

In v. 1 he tells the Corinthians that they are to view those like himself, Apollos, and Cephas (see 3:22) as “servants of Christ (huperetas Christou)” and “those entrusted with the secret things of God (oikonomous mysterion theou).” The word for “those entrusted” is really “steward” and has the connotation, in Paul’s world, is of a slave or servant who was a given the responsibility of overseeing the functions of a household. Today we might say a “foreman” or “supervisor.” Again, the plain emphasis is that the workers are mere instruments. They are not the owners. They are not the prime agents. They are those entrusted with a responsibility.

In v. 2, however, we have that same emphasis on responsibility we saw in 3:10-15. The steward must be found faithful and trustworthy.

One of the things that we will see at work in this letter was that Paul was being mercilessly criticized by some in Corinth. His work was being negatively evaluated, his authority challenged (cf. 2 Cor 1:17; 3:1; 10:1, 10).

In v. 3 Paul reminds the Corinthians that he was not ultimately answerable to them, but to the Lord. He says, “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court (literally: on any human day); indeed, I do not even judge myself” (v. 3). This continues in v. 4 as Paul says, “My conscience is clear (literally: I know nothing [worthy of condemnation] in myself), but that does not make me innocent.”

Now surely Paul is not saying here that he is against self-examination and self-regulation. Indeed, in 9:24-27 he will describe himself as like an athlete who disciplines and trains himself in order to be victorious in Christ.

Nor is he by any means saying that he thinks that believers have no right to hold each other accountable. We will see this clearly in what follows in chapters 5-6.

I think what Paul is saying is that we can be mistaken. We can wrongly judge. That’s why he says he does not even judge himself (v. 3) Though his conscience is clear, that does not mean, necessarily, that he is innocent. What Paul is saying is that your conscience can fool you. We are so self-justifying and self-defending that we are all too willing to clear ourselves of guilt.

This is what the prophet said in Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

This is the consistent teaching of the Proverbs:

You see Paul recognizes the sin problem in his life and his great tendency to self-deception. Paul would not say, “To thine own self be true,” for he saw the corruption of his own heart. That’s why Paul says that the ultimate court for Paul is not within himself. Instead he says, “It is the Lord who judges me.” This is hardly letting himself off the hook.

In v. 5 he gives this as an admonition to the church at Corinth. He reminds them that there is coming a day of ultimate evaluation and judgement when each man will be tested. That which has been hidden in the dark, the secret motivations of men’s heart, will be dragged out into the light of day.

This was one of the themes of the teaching of Jesus in places like the Parables of the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43). This is not a story of terror for the righteous according to Jesus: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt 13:43). So, Paul too says in v. 5: “At that time each will receive his praise from God.”

What Paul says here reminds me of something that every parent with more than one child has gone through. You’re in another room and you hear an argument break out between your children. They are arguing over a toy or changing the tv channels or something like that. You hear: I had it first. No, I did. Or, I was here first. No, I was. And then they call out: Dad!!! Mom!!! Come here!!! You see, they know they need someone with more authority and more objectivity to come in and settle the matter once and for all.

Paul and others of those early Christians had this as their heart’s cry: “Come! Lord Jesus.”

Paul must have found it difficult to resist the inclination to justify and defend himself but he was able to rest in the knowledge that the ultimate testing of his motives was not with the church or with himself but with the Lord when he comes in glory.

In v. 6 Paul continues saying he has applied all these things to himself and Apollos in order the believers might learn (mathete) the meaning of this saying: “Do not go beyond what is written.”

We could spend some time just meditating on this verse alone. “Do not go beyond what is written.” Here Paul is talking about the central authority of scripture. Do not go beyond the scriptures. My experiences, my feelings, my reasoning can be deceiving. The question is not, “How do I feel about it?” but “What does the Word say about it?”

In this particular case, Paul is reminding the Corinthians that the witness of scripture has nothing to say about putting your faith and trust in men, but only in the Lord. Isaiah 48:11: “I will not yield my glory to another.” That’s why he follows this in v. 6 with: “Then you will not take pride (lit: be puffed up) in one man over against another.”

2. In vv. 8-13 Paul uses irony and sarcasm to contrast the false ways in which some were acting in Corinth with his own apostolic calling to serve the crucified Christ.

There has been a lot of speculation through the years as to what the false teaching was that Paul was confronting in Corinth. Some think that the problem was that there were those in Corinth who were teaching that the resurrection had already come in its fullness. They had an “over-realized eschatology” (your $2 seminary word for the day). The practical implication of this is that they thought they had already arrived spiritually. They were reigning as kings. So, they could not tolerate a man like Paul who seemed so weak in his personal appearance.

Some have drawn parallels with the modern “health and wealth” gospel and its notion that suffering is inconsistent with mature Christianity.

So, we see Paul beginning: “Already you have all you want (KJV captures better the literal sense: Now ye are full)! Already have you become rich! You have become kings?๎and that without us!” (v. 8). You see they claimed to be experiencing a higher, more elitist spirituality than Paul. Paul says he wishes this were so (end of v. 8).

Then in v. 9 Paul begins to set up a contrast between himself and these who feel that they have already arrived. Now all through this Paul uses irony and sarcasm. Some are offended by this sanctified sarcasm but Paul does not back away from using all the rhetorical skills at his disposal to confront their false piety.

Paul says that, in contrast to those who claimed to be kings, it seemed that God has chosen to “put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena” (v. 9). This would have been a scene familiar to those in Paul’s world. A conquering general would come back from war and ride in the front of the procession with his troops and coming behind would be the captured prisoners who would be led into the arena and put to death. Paul says that he is like one of these captured and humiliated prisoners whom Christ leads in his captive train. Cf. 2 Cor 2:14: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.”

Paul continues: “We have been made a spectacle (theatron) to the whole universe, to the angels as well as men” (v. 9). We are theater, a spectacle, to the whole world!

You see Paul’s point seems to be that our relationship with Christ is not centered on his meeting our needs (making us kings) but on our becoming his servants. Paul is saying that the apostles live out the message of the cross. Our lives have become a scandalous spectacle in the eyes of the world but a thing of beauty in the eyes of the Lord.

“We are fools (moroi) for Christ, but you are so wise. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, we are dishonored” (v. 10). Do you hear the sarcasm in that?

In vv. 11-13 Paul continues to describe the cruciform lifestyle that is demanded of those who will follow after Christ.

To be in Christ means to go hungry and thirsty. I think of Lottie Moon the missionary in China giving away her food to those starving around her in time of famine. It is to be in rags (gymniteuomen). It is to be brutally treated. I think of those most recent martyred missionaries of Yemen. It is to be homeless (astateo, to be unstable, to wander from place to place). We recall the word of Jesus to the man who said, “I will follow wherever you go” : “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Luke 9:58).

In v. 12 Paul says, “We work hard with our own hands.” The authentic disciple does not have dollar signs in his eyeballs! Paul then seems to echo the teaching of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:10-12). When cursed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we answer kindly (vv. 12-13). The disciple of Jesus lives out the counter-cultural and counter-intuitive ways of Jesus.

These, Paul says, are the marks of an authentic believer in Jesus. He is one who does not come to Christ to receive a life of ease and blessing. He is one who loses himself in knowing Jesus Christ and him crucified and in sharing in his sufferings. Phil 3:10: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

The exclamation point comes in v. 13: “Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.” The word for scum (perikatharmata) here refers in some other contexts to the dirt that was scraped off the body when taking a bath. Paul is saying, We are no better than the ring around the tub. We are garbage!!!

3. In vv. 14-21 Paul expresses his own fatherly affection and concern for the church.

Again, we recall that Paul was the founder of this church (Acts 18). He was the spiritual father of the church. Here Paul takes the tone of a father lovingly yet firmly rebuking the church. I do not write to “shame” you but to “warn” you (v. 14). In v. 15 Paul claims the privileged position of having been the spiritual father of these believers in Corinth. Though they have a myriad of guardians (paidagogous) or teachers, Paul says, you only have one father.

In v. 16 Paul urges the believers at Corinth to imitate him. Literally: Become my imitators (mimetai). It is interesting to read the commentators on this passage. There are many modern folk who feel that Paul is here being arrogant and even manipulative. We have a hard time in our age thinking that anyone could claim enough moral uprightness that would allow him to set his life up as a standard. But Paul did not have that awkwardness. You see Paul was calling on them to imitate him only to the degree that he was able to imitate Christ. Cf. 11:1: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” Paul sends Timothy to them to remind them of his “way of life in Christ Jesus” (v. 17). The faith is both caught and taught.

The final word Paul gives in vv. 18-21 is one of warning to those in Corinth who were arrogant (puffed up) in thinking that Paul would not come to set the record straight with them. Paul reminds them that if the Lord wills he plan to come soon (v. 19). Paul was apparently a man known for his spiritual power. Acts 19:11: “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul.” In v. 20 Paul says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” It’s not all “chin music” but about real demonstrations of the Spirit’s power.

In v. 21 Paul says something that might take you aback. I mean Christian leaders are supposed to be gentle and loving and meek. But Paul basically says, You make the choice. “Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentile spirit?” Sometimes the Daddy, in love, has to take the belt off. Paul does not want to come to administer discipline with harshness. He wants to come like a loving Daddy who is ready to gently guide his spiritual children into greater wholeness and satisfaction in Christ.

Final questions:

There’s a great scene in the movie Schindler’s List at the end of the movie when the protagonist Oscar Schindler is given a ring made by the Jews he has saved and on it is inscribed the proverb, “He who saves one life, saves the whole world.” But Schindler breaks down weeping and says, I could have done more. I could have done more. I want to suggest to you that at the end of history we will not be saying look how much we did. But, we could have done more.

“Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful” (v. 2).

Jeffrey T. Riddle
Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

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