1 Corinthians Bible Study Message 13 1 Cor. 4:14-21
1 Cor. 4:14-21
We must not browbeat or humiliate or judge self-righteously. A loving father does not do such things. But a loving father will always admonish, reprove, correct, and even discipline when necessary. He will do whatever he must that is right and proper for the welfare of his children.
It is a love that is determined and willful, having the one purpose of serving the object of love
As in natural fatherhood, procreation must occur before there can be love or admonition. A child must be born before he can be cared for and trained.
A father, by definition, is a man who has children. He is the agent of God’s creating a life. A man can be a man without having children and even a husband without having children. But he cannot be a father without having children. A Christian cannot be a spiritual father without being used by God to bring life to spiritual children.
Unfortunately, many Christians have never become spiritual fathers. They have never produced any spiritual offspring. They have never led a person to Christ and helped train him in the ways of God. A Christian is one who has been given new life in Christ, and one of the most important characteristics of life is reproduction.
23 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. 5 But all their works they do to be seen by men.
Discipling is more than teaching right principles; it is also living those principles before the ones being discipled (cf. 1 Tim. 4:12).
We cannot believe truths we do not know or live principles we have never heard of. A major part of discipling is teaching the Word of God, telling and explaining its truths.
Jesus’ teaching not only was the supreme model of power and depth but of simplicity. The great crowds to whom He preached were composed mostly of common, uneducated folk. Yet they “enjoyed listening to Him,” or, as in the King James Version, “the common people heard him gladly” (Mark 12:37).
There are times when spiritual fathers, like natural fathers, have to discipline their children. When a Christian slips into wrong doctrine or wrong behavior he needs correction. He needs to be told in love, but with firmness, “Your testimony is not what it ought to be. You are not living by the Bible principles you have learned. You need to change.” Such confrontations are never easy but they are often necessary.
Some of the Corinthians not only had slipped into sin but had become arrogant (phusioō, “to inflate, puff up, blow up”) about it. Thinking they would probably never see Paul again, as though [he] were not coming, they thought they could get by with doing as they pleased. They may have been so arrogant as to think Paul would not dare to confront them.
The church had a serious problem with pride and self-will, and when strong spiritual leadership was not in place, many believers easily slipped back into their old ways of thinking and behaving.