1 Corinthians - Talk 3

Arrogance or Power? Pride or humility? Whip or Gentile Spirit?
Don’t judge Paul; But imitate Paul your father in the Gospel whose life is the way of the Cross.

Have you ever had the experience of saving up for a holiday, and looking forward to it so much that you thought you could burst, only to find yourself, when the great day arrives and you reach your long awaited destination, being so dog unwell from jetlag for half the holiday, and then for a week after you get home, you started to wonder if it was at all worth it?

Are you the kind of person that suffers from Jetlag?
It’s terrible quite frankly. I have distinctly unpleasant memories of being utterly awake and unable to sleep from 4am, and spending the next 4 hours lying next to Kath who was sleeping like a log (how times have changed) looking at life on the street below. Fortunately, even at 4am on Wednesday there is still things to look at out of a window in lower Manhattan, but by 2:30pm in the afternoon people were asking because of my catatonic state, whether I was a sufferer of narcolepsy or had just taken one too many valium.

It is a thoroughly unpleasant state of affairs, when your mind and body seem to be at odds, or even worse than that, at war with each other. Because, let’s face it, the body always wins in the end doesn’t it?
It will get used to things, when it is good and read, and until that point it’s bad luck really!

Well Paul in his letter is pointing out that the Corinthians are suffering from a form of spiritual jetlag. No really stick with me here! Their heads are in one time zone, but their bodies are in another. Their minds have moved on to the spiritual realm where Christ reigns, but they seem to be ignoring the obvious fact that their bodies are still in the earthly realm, where we don’t yet experience that rule in full. And as a result Paul, is having to tell them a few home truths to make sure that they get themselves correctly grounded.


Paul in this section instructs us that Christian maturity is about learning how to live with the ‘now but not yet’ time zone difficulty we find ourselves in. Our heads are in this new spiritual age of the Kingdom of Christ, but our bodies are still planted in the earthly garden of this world, (and it would seem our will manages to float between the two).

How do we live this wise and mature way now, well Paul in essence says,
‘follow me, because I know, follow and serve Christ.’

1. Do not Judge another man and his work, because the Lord will judge all!!
NIV 1 Corinthians 4:1
So then, men ought to
regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.
2 Now it is required that those who
have been given a trust
must prove faithful.
3 I care very little if
I am judged by you or by any human court;
indeed, I do not even judge myself.
4 My conscience is clear,
but that does not make me innocent.
It is the Lord who judges me.
5 Therefore judge** nothing before the appointed time;
wait till the Lord comes.
He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and
will expose the motives of men's hearts.
At that time each
will receive his praise from God.

Expl (clarity-difficulty-clarity):
Paul gives a direct command here to the Corinthian believers in V5 where he says:
5 Therefore judge** nothing before the appointed time;
wait till the Lord comes.

Paul is pointing out to them, that they have been judging people and their work for God, (and when he says people, what he means is that the Corinthians have been judging Paul himself, their very own God appointed apostle), So Paul commands them that judging people is not their business for 3 reasons.

Firstly, and most importantly they are not to judge people because they don’t have the authority to judge. God alone has authority to judge his workers, God appoints each to his work and will test the quality of each persons work fairly.

Secondly, the Corinthians are commanded not to judge because they don’t have the ability to gather all the required evidence properly in order to deliver a correct judgment. How can any man see the motives of another man’s heart?
Paul reminds them that Only God can know what is done in the dark, what is done in the hearts of men. Only God has all the evidence to judge justly.


Thirdly and Finally, the Corinthians are commanded not to judge because it isn’t the time for judgment yet. The Corinthians are a group of people who are just getting ahead of themselves, they are getting ahead of their father Paul in what they think they are ready to do, and yet more than that they are getting ahead of God and his plans for the world. They are suffering a spiritual jetlag, where their heads are detached from their physical reality.

So Paul commands them however, that only God knows the right time for judgment, but then only God has all the evidence for Judgment, but then only God has the authority to judge his own servants.

But God’s Judgment will come, and it will come for all people, and the standard of judgment will not be like the Corinthian church seems to think of people’s great oratory skills, or their impressive or spirituality, instead Paul tells us that the standard of God’s judgment for his servants will be their faithfulness to what they have been entrusted with.

Appl: Do you fear other people’s judgment about your life, or do you fear God’s judgment?
Do you shrink back from the truth you know, because of the judgment of others? Because you know when you face God, the people you fear, they won’t be there!
Do you fear God alone like Paul did?
Are you willing to turn your back on worldly praise to follow Jesus?

2. Do Not go beyond what is written because it always ends in pride!
6 Now, brothers,
I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit,
so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying,
"Do not go beyond what is written."
Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.
7 For who makes you different from anyone else?
What do you have that you did not receive?
And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?


Expl (clarity-difficulty-clarity):
Paul goes on in V6-7to instruct the Corinthians to not go beyond what is written. Now this something of an enigmatic phrase and Paul doesn’t specifically explain what he is referring to, and you can go and read the commentaries about this if that sought of thing floats your boat.

However, it seems to me that it is most likely that Paul is talking about the gospel testimony that they have written down, the life and work of Christ that is written in the scriptures.

Both the Old Testament and New Testament scriptures point clearly, faithfully and truly to the Christ, and in turn tell Christ’s followers how they are to live in response.


The Corinthians it seems are overvaluing their new shiny spiritual toys and wanting to jettison the things of the past, the boring written testimony of God and it’s unimpressive apostle. And Paul points out these scriptures are the common treasures of all Christians, they are the gift of God.

Paul himself has been entrusted with great riches of the secrets of God, but instead of being judgmental he is faithful steward responsible for the running of God’s house we learned back in v1. He is the one charged with the responsibility for the distribution of the riches of the mystery of God, the power of God and the wisdom of God, the Gospel of God’s Christ, the crucified Messiah, the gospel message that is the power of God to save.

And Paul is clearly reminding the Corinthians that they likewise are to be faithful with the great common treasure for all Christians is of what is written down. So don’t boast and don’t go beyond what is written.


It’s a helpful reminder for us today isn’t it?
I mean we belong to a Society today where everyone wants to be special, they want fame and notoriety and exclusivity, how else do you explain the fact that the abomination that is big brother manages to stay on the air?
I mean somebody out there has to be watching it. People go on because they want to be special and exclusive, they want to be famous!

Paul is telling us through the example of the Corinthians; ‘Don’t be boutique Christians’, one’s seeking something that is exclusively yours, that gives you a reason to judge other Christians, but rejoice in, and be faithful with, what we have received in common. And what do we have in common, well the Christ as we have him in the scriptures.

Paul asks the apparently especially gifted Corinthian’s, ‘why would you boast anyway, all of it is God’s gift to you, it is not you did something impressive.’


3. Paul warns the Corinthians that you are getting way ahead of yourselves!

8 Already you have all you want!
Already you have become rich!
You have become kings-- and that without us!
How I wish that you really had become kings
so that we might be kings with you!
9 For it seems to me
that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession,
like men condemned to die in the arena.
We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe,
to angels as well as to men.
10 We are fools for Christ,
but you are so wise in Christ!
We are weak,
but you are strong!
You are honored,
we are dishonored!
11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty,
we are in rags,
we are brutally treated,
we are homeless.
12 We work hard with our own hands.
When we are cursed,
we bless;
when we are persecuted,
we endure it;
13 when we are slandered,
we answer kindly.
Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth,
the refuse of the world.

Expl (clarity-difficulty-clarity):
Paul goes on to explain with heavy sarcasm the reality of how wrong their perception of reality is. The Corinthians are suffering spiritual jetlag and they are ahead of themselves in two ways, firstly in terms of their expectation of the timing of events, and secondly in terms of their station in life.

Firstly, the Corinthians timing is out. Paul says in V8 twice that they think that they are , ‘already’ many things: filled, rich, kings who rule like Christ himself, in v10 they are wise, strong and honoured, which as you may remember is a total contrast to how they were described in Chapter 1. Paul is pointing out to them, they have got their timing wrong, these things haven’t happened yet, because if they had, well why would he as their apostle be such poverty as living in such a stark contrast to them now?


Secondly, the Corinthians are acting above their station in life, Paul describes himself as wishing he was also a king just like them, but instead he goes on in something of a satirical tirade to point out that rather than being a king, he is in fact a fool, weak, hungry and thirsty, beaten and slandered, the least of all – the scum of the earth he says, the dung of the world.

In this passage Paul uses this powerful image of the military parade of the returning and conquering king entering back into Rome, where the king leads the parade in the place of honour and then he is followed by his military commanders, and then by the spoils of war, including their prisoners. The Corinthians believe that they are at the front of the parade with the king, to which Paul sarcastically points out that the apostle’s in contrast are at the back of the parade with the prisoners, the one’s who would then go on to die in the coliseum.


Paul in this masterful and satirical passage purposefully exalts in the very things the Corinthians are embarrassed about, Paul exalts in the heart and power of the Gospel message, Paul exalts in his shame in eyes of the world, his shame of following Jesus, for that is the wisdom and power of God, that is the way of the cross.
Isa 53:2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Paul clearly is reflecting the teaching of Jesus here that No servant is above his master, and those who wish to come after Jesus must pick up their cross and follow him.




4. I write to urge you ALL to imitate me, your father in the Gospel!
14 I am not writing this to shame you,
but to warn you, as my dear children.
15 [for] Even though you have ten thousand guardians [tudors] in Christ,
[but] you do not have many fathers,
for in Christ Jesus
I became your father through the gospel.
16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me**.

Expl (clarity-difficulty-clarity):
This is the heart of what Paul has to say in the chapter, and indeed I think you could easily argue this is something of a centre for the book itself. Paul writes to warn the Corinthian believers to repent, to stop their current behaviour and turn back towards Christ, to follow the way of Christ, which is to follow the way of the cross, and this is the way the Apostle Paul lives, their father in the faith. Paul commands the Corinthians believers to imitate him.

And what does that mean, well those two things we have already been speaking about. Firstly, Paul’s way is to speak the gospel message, the message that is the foolish message in the world’s eyes of the crucified messiah.
And secondly Paul’s way of life is shaped by the message he brings, Paul lives the life of way of the cross, Paul is willing to be humiliated and suffer for the Gospel, he embodies the message of the crucified Christ and he is not above his master, Paul’s message and his life is the way of the cross. A way that is word and action, it is teaching and behaviour.

And in this he is commanding the Corinthians to follow him, that is what Christian people do, they follow Jesus, and they do not regard themselves as being above their master.

Phil3:10 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,

We all need examples
17 For this reason I am sending to you Timothy,
my son whom I love,
who is faithful in the Lord.
He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus,
which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

Expl (clarity-difficulty-clarity):
The Corinthians needed to fix their time clock problem and the solution was to learn from Paul by listening to his faithful servant Timothy, everyone in the church is to follow his example.

Conclusion: You choose, the whip or with a gentle spirit?
18 Some of you have become arrogant,
as if I were not coming to you.
19 But I will come to you very soon,
if the Lord is willing, and
then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking,
but what power they have.
20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
21 What do you prefer?
Shall I come to you with a whip,
or in love and with a gentle spirit?

Expl (clarity-difficulty-clarity):
Paul here is basically taking the pepsi challenge here and calling their bluff, This last section has shades of the rhetoric or trash talk you see at the weigh in before a heavy weight title fight, all you need is Don King in the background saying, ’only in America!’
So Paul is clarifying for the Corinthian believers their options, and the options are pretty emphatically clear aren’t they?

Paul the Apostle, who is their Apostle not only in name, but in God’s power is going to come to them, and not with the hot air of the Corinthians, but with a whip in one hand and gentle spirit in the other, the Corinthians get to chose their medicine.

Clearly the right response is to chose the gentle spirit, but in order to do that, they will need to stop the madness, the selfishness, the division, their infatuation with being impressive in the eyes of others, and instead they will need to pick up their cross and follow Paul, as he follows Jesus.

Conclusion:
Paul is reminding the Corinthians here of the basic truth of the Christian faith, that Jesus Christ is both saviour and Lord. The message of the Saviour is Gospel of the Crucified Christ who died for the sins of all who should believe in his name to completely save and redeem them from the judgment of God. But Christ is also the Lord, the one whom we are now to serve faithfully.
These are the two sides of the Gospel coin, the cross is the message of Jesus as saviour, but the cross is the way of living with Jesus as Lord

The Corinthians in their spiritual pride were trying to escape the cross, Paul rebukes them and calls them to follow him as they seek to live out the way of the Cross and follow Jesus.