Not My Job to Judge

1 Corinthians 4:1–5 CSB

1 A person should think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of the mysteries of God. 2 In this regard, it is required that managers be found faithful. 3 It is of little importance to me that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I don’t even judge myself. 4 For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 So don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.

In fairness, Paul is speaking about himself and his fellow Apostles in this passage.

Because he is speaking about the early church leaders it crosses over to us today as pastors and church leaders.

This doesn’t mean if doesn’t apply to the church at large…

The keyword is… servant.

Servant, manager, steward - each of these are good descriptions.

We have been given a sacred trust, to share the gospel. We must have the heart of a servant.

Not only do we serve God but we also serve His church and the lost of this world.

We must serve faithfully.

We must be faithful to the Word of God.

We must be faithful to the fellowship of believers.

We must be faithful with the gifts God has given us.

We must be faithful in the mission God has given us to accomplish.

We must be faithful in keeping Christ the center of all we do.

We cannot be concerned with the court of public opinion.

This is two-fold - we cannot be concerned with peoples opinion ABOUT us but we also cannot concern ourselves in judging the ministry of others.

Let me clarify… Yes we should live in such a way as to attract people to us, we do not want people to have a negative view of us and our representation of Christ.

We also should speak out if someone is preaching something other than the biblical Jesus.

When I say concerned I mean public opinion should not prevent us from doing what God has called us to do.

There is a very good reason why…

God holds us accountable for our actions.

God will reward us as He desires for our faithful service.