Hard Words for Proud Hearts
Notes
Transcript
Engage:
Apostle Paul is not a stick figure. Emotional, intense, passionate.
He will use hard words, hoping to create soft hearts.
Tension:
His style may not match our personal or cultural standards of propriety (ND “nice”), however failure to correct his readers will eventually lead to gross error.
Truth:
<Exposit 1 Corinthians 4>
v. 1-5 Judgement
the Corinthians were abusively comparing the ministry of one teacher against another
v.8-10 Sarcasm
contrast the “armchair” quarterbacks to the actual players.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
Hard Words for Proud Hearts
v. 11-13. Affliction is normal from the Satanic world. Reflect apostolic character.
v. 16- Be imitators of me
I lived an example
I sent Timothy as an example
Application:
v. 1-5. Judge another by their journey, not by their present state
journey —> glorifies God’s grace
present state —> places one’s self as the standard
v. 14. Not shaming, but shaping.
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Hard Words for Proud Hearts
Action:
Receive
Believe
Confess
Repent
Progress
