"For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" 1 Corinthians 4:7
1 Corinthians 4Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though ye have ten thousand instructers in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?
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"Beginning with the acknowledging of every good thing in them that he could, and counting on God's faithfulness to accomplish His purposes of grace towards them (1 Cor. 1:4-9.); Paul first treats of those evils rife amongst the assembly of which he had been informed. "I beseech you, brethren," he writes, "by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you." (vv. 10, 11.) Schism had begun its work, and heresies would appear to test them. (1 Cor. 11:18, 19.) Schools of teaching they had fostered, which engendered divisions, pupils ranging themselves under different teachers, calling themselves after their names. But who were the teachers they ran after who allowed this, and, worse, fostered it? We may ask, but ask in vain. Their names, then familiar as household words, have perished; whilst those of God's faithful servants of the same date, as Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, remain to this day. What a lesson to any who would gather round themselves and encourage such a practice in our day! Such forget, or, at all events, by their action contravene, the teaching of this epistle.
How, then, did the apostle deal with this? He reminds them that he had not laboured with any such intent, and asks the pertinent questions,
"Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized unto the name of Paul?"
How carefully he had worked at Corinth, baptizing very few, lest any should say that he had baptized unto his own name. His work was to preach the gospel, not to baptize; to call on souls to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and not to make disciples to be surnamed after him. John the Baptist had disciples called after him. Paul avoided all that for himself; for what was right in John's day would have been wrong in Paul's day. (1 Cor. 1:13-17.) He preached too, but not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For he had understood the principle on which God was working; viz., to bring down all high thoughts of man, as evidenced: first, in the subject preached, the cross, and the person exalted, Christ crucified (1 Cor. 1:18-25); next, in the people called, and the instruments used for the preaching of the truth (1 Cor. 1:26-29); and thirdly, in the way of blessing provided for souls, for the Corinthians and all others.
"Of God,"
he writes,
"are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." (1 Cor. 1:30, 31.)
Now in the spirit of all this Paul had laboured at Corinth (1 Cor. 2:1-5), as a vessel feeling his weakness, but as a faithful servant refusing to resort to any methods of working attractive to the natural man. Such might have made the truth appear more palatable, but they would not have been of God. Now he worked that their faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. How dim had been their perceptions, that all this had escaped their observation! Evidently they had perceived neither the principle on which God was working, nor the spirit in which Paul had laboured in their midst. Was all his labour, then, in vain? No. He had begotten them in the gospel, however little many of them understood the preaching of the cross and the deep teaching of Christ crucified, whom alone Paul had desired to know among them. Some, however, had perceived it, and to them it was wisdom, for they were perfect; i.e., souls come to manhood in Christianity. But the natural man, ψυχικὸς; i.e. one unconverted, understands not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man, πνευματικὸς, discerneth all things, yet he himself is discerned of no one.
Did this last term fitly describe the saints of the Corinthian assembly? Alas! no. Taken up with their teachers and schools of doctrine, the apostle still had to speak to them as he had always done, as to fleshly σαρκιίνοι, even as to babes in Christ; for in them the Spirit, though they had received that gift, was not really working. That a quickened soul can be described as fleshly yet not carnal, Romans 7:14 really teaches, and that characterized the state of the Corinthian saints. (1 Cor. 3:1.) So he had fed them with milk, not with meat; for they could not have profited by the latter, neither yet, he added, were they in a condition to receive it.
"For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not men (ἄνθρωποι)?"
he asks. (1 Cor. 3:4.) Their strifes and divisions proved they were carnal (σαρκικοί), the flesh being at work in them. Their spiritual condition was that which he described as (σαρκἰνοι) fleshly.* Hence they not only stood in the way of their own spiritual growth by encouraging the formation of parties, but they were robbing themselves of the value and profit of gifts which the Lord had given for edification. If we take up exclusively one line of teaching, following one teacher, we deprive ourselves of the benefits we might derive from other gifts to men.
"Therefore,"
he writes,
"let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." (1 Cor. 3:21-23.)
How foolish were they! how shortsighted!
*Observe, he says as fleshly; for they really had received the Spirit, but their spiritual condition was practically like quickened souls which had not received that gift.
And what were the labourers in truth? In what light ought they to view them? Paul, and with himself he here joins Apollos, would have them remember that such are but ministers* (ὐπηρέτας) of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. (1 Cor. 4:1.)
*Servant (ὐπηρἑτης), really an under rower, an underling. Such was ever Paul in relation to Christ. This puts the laborer in his right place. Would that all such remembered this! (Chapter 4:1) It is not the servant whom men in general exalt, but the master. But what was it at Corinth? What has it been in the Church of God? In the absence in person of the Master, and from ignoring the presence of the Holy Ghost, the servant (lit. here, the underling) has been exalted and made much of How foolish on the part of the saints! how wrong on the part of the stewards! for stewards the laborers were, and are. (1 Peter 4:10) Now it is required in a steward that he should be faithful to his master; for to him lie must render his account. They were forgetting that. A faithful steward remembers whom he has to serve. His master’s approval is that which he seeks after, whatever others may say or think of him. In that spirit Paul had worked and would work. But what were the leaders of parties at Corinth doing? What sense had they of their responsibilities as builders? (Chapter 3:1019) Things were out of course in that assembly, and, as was natural, the fruit produced was in keeping with the seed sown. The teachers gloried in their gifts, unmindful of the One to whom they were indebted for whatever they had. The rest were reigning, as it were, then as kings, full, wanting nothing, though” without us,” as Paul writes; their hearts’ affections becoming estranged from him who had first brought to them the truth. Had those schisms made them better Christians? Chapter 4:8 supplies us with an answer. Hence he wrote, not to shame them, but to warn them, his beloved children, and sent Timothy to them, he himself hoping to revisit them, when he would know,, not the speech of those which were puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power; that was the proper test, and he would apply it."
from Christian Friend magazine
Photo by Jussara Romão on Unsplash
