A Father’s counsel to his Children

OPENING ILLUSTRATION

Plato

“The Republic”

Slaves who are confined in a cave, there is a fire going in the cave but these men are tied up in the cave. The only light they have is a vague light that casts a shadow onto the wall of the cave. All they see are the shadows cast on the wall. They have no clear view of reality. Plato calls the shadows opinion, he see’s this as less then being true knowledge. For a person to acquire true knowledge they must get out of the cave, out of the darkness and into the light of the Son. In the light of the son they can now observe objects as they really are. Reality is then known everything else is mere opinions that really do not matter.

Paul reminds the Corinthians at the beginning of chapter 4 that the opinion of men is not what matters to him. He is a servant and steward of what God has given him to protect.

The Message of 1 Corinthians 5. Servants and Stewards (4:1–7)

The word for servants is unusual, literally meaning an under-rower, i.e. someone who is simply responding to higher authority and doing his job. This authority is that of Jesus Christ.

The second word, stewards, is fairly common in the New Testament. The Greek oikonomos was a housekeeper or overseer (often a slave), charged with providing the establishment of a large estate with food and all things needful.

The Message of 1 Corinthians 5. Servants and Stewards (4:1–7)

He is very much aware that he must render account of his stewardship, and this sensitivity keeps him more than alert to the needs of the Corinthians.

Those who have been given a trust must prove themselves to be faithful.

As he is a servant he must be faithful to his master; as he is a dispenser, he must be faithful to those subject to his oversight. He must not neglect to dispense their food to them; nor may he substitute it for anything in it’s place.

NOTE: The application of this is to the ministers. The great thing required of them is faithfulness to Christ as servants.

Paul could care less if he is judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. His conscience is clear, but that does not make him innocent. It is the Lord who will judge Paul.

1 Corinthians: Crossway Classic Commentaries Ministers, as Stewards, to Be Faithful, as Paul Had Proved Himself to Be (Verses 1–21)

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.

As the Lord is the only judge, we must wait for his appearance, and neither assume his prerogative, nor anticipate his decision.

Whether a person is faithful in preaching the Gospel depends on his motives, for some preached Christ out of envy and rivalry (). this view of the passage is confirmed by the explanatory clause that follows, and will expose the motives of men’s heart.

BIG IDEA: Paupers of Christ know where they belong - OUT WITH THE GARBAGE.

“We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.”  

In this world of false glories, the cross and all who love it will never measure up to this week’s definition of cool. The early church accepted that, and triumphed. Now it’s our turn. And one thing to gladden us is this. Even below the bottom of the heap is the Lord Jesus Christ, the weakness of God and the foolishness of God, saving everyone low enough to discover him there.

RAY ORTLAND......

Pauper is an old-fashioned word for someone who is poor — really poor, like the paupers described by Charles Dickens or Mark Twain. The noun pauper has been around for over 500 years, but today, the word tends to mostly crop up in literature

PROBLEM: When we continue to lower the bar of righteousness we set ourselves up as Kings and not paupers. Knowing that you deserve to be thrown out with the garbage of scum and refuse helps you realize how helpless you really are and in need of a Savior.

3 way’s our standards change when we start living like paupers of the king.

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1.Human standards of obedience change when we understand what looks like to be a pauper of the king.

  Marks of a defective Obedience:

SUPERFICIAL OBEDIENCE TO SCRIPTURE (V. 6). The words ‘Do not go beyond what is written’ are in quotation marks implying that they were a popular saying among the early Christians. They say something that is commendable. But there was a danger of saying this and not doing it, of being ‘evangelical’ in name but not in practice.

vs. 20 Paul say’s that the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power.

*Shallow obedience to the Bible is one of the most subtle snares Satan places before us.

How were they going beyond the Scripture.

1) Pride in People:(v.6) the Corinthians pride and joy had been directed at people and their own accomplishments instead of their true master.

2) Boasting in our own Wisdom and Prestige (v.7)to be proud of ones discernment is to lack true discernment.

3) Self-Sufficiency (vv. 8,10) Paul is using irony in his approach. He states that they have all they want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings and that without us! They thought they had arrived and to be enjoying all that was theirs in the Lord Jesus. (Be careful of assuming you have arrived spiritually) “What makes you different? “Who thinks you are better than others? Your superiority over your brothers is mere self-conceit and inflation. Bigger question: who is the author of superiority?

4) Arrogance (v.18) Some Corinthians showed inadequate respect for God’s servants whom he had so clearly given to them. They had little regard for Paul their spiritual Father. (Testimony on investing day’s, weeks, months, into someones life only to have it throne back into your face)

5) Profession without Performance (v.19) They were full of talk without performance. They knew the right things to do and say but their lives did not stand up to close inspection. “In the same way, let you light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works........”

“Faith without works is dead.”

GOD HAS GIVEN US HIS WORD TO BE OBEYED

*God’s lavish grace on us puts pride in it’s proper place. (7)

English Standard Version Chapter 4

7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

When we boast, we have forgotten that it is God who makes us different from one another and, at the same time, complementary to one another. Pride and boasting in ourselves or others is a denial of God’s grace.

Paul in essence is saying that you have been given all you need to fulfill God’s plan and call on your life.

TRANSITION

At the heart of the boasting at Corinth was the conviction that they were really a very successful, lively, mature and effective church. The Christians were satisfied with their spirituality, their leadership, and the general quality of their life together. They had settled down into the illusion that they had become the best they could be. They thought they had ‘arrived’. Hence the irony in Paul’s double Already in verse 8: ‘you are filled … you are rich … you are kings’—already!

ILLUSTRATION

The Weird Strategy Dr. Seuss Used to Create His Greatest Work

David Finch, Oakland, Oregon

In 1960, two men made a bet. There was only $50 on the line, but millions of people would feel the impact of this little wager. The first man was Bennett Cerf, the founder of Random House. The second man was named Theo Geisel, but you probably know him as Dr. Seuss. Cerf proposed the bet and challenged that Dr. Seuss would not be able to write an entertaining children’s book using only 50 different words.

Dr. Seuss took the bet and won. The result was a little book called Green Eggs and Ham. Since publication, it has sold more than 200 million copies, making it the most popular of Seuss’s works and one of the best-selling children’s books in history.

At first glance, you might think this was a lucky fluke. A talented author plays a fun game with 50 words and ends up producing a hit. But there is actually more to this story and the lessons in it can help us become more creative and stick to better habits over the long-run.

What Dr. Seuss discovered through this little bet was the power of setting constraints. Con­straints are not the enemy. Every artist has a limited set of tools to work with. Every athlete has a limited set of skills to train with. Every entrepreneur has a limited amount of resources to build with. Once you know your constraints, you can creatively figure out how to work with them.

There are a lot of authors who would complain about writing a book with only 50 words. But there was one author who decided to take the tools he had available and make a work of art instead.

God has also given us constraints, such as, lack of education, lack of resources, a painful past, a besetting sin, or physical disabilities. But as we rely on God to overcome, we showcase his power and bring glory to him ()

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2. Human standards of strength and weakness change when we understand what it looks like to be a Pauper of the King.

vs.8

Double Already in verse 8: ‘you are filled … you are rich … you are kings’—already! This word indicates Paul’s own conviction that this is a valid part of the Christian message, but it is not one to be fully experienced in this life on earth: we have been filled, enriched, lifted to reign with Christ (cf. 1:4–9); but we shall not enter fully into that inheritance here and now. It is a theology of glory, but it has to be placed in the context of a theology of the cross, which Paul proceeds to do in verses 9–13.

“would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!” Paul is indicating that he would love to be beyond all this persecution, and beatings, the depression and the sheer weight of being fools for Christ’s sake. (v.10)

They may have arrived, but he has not. Paul is all too aware of his weakness.

v 9

English Standard Version Chapter 4

9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.

EXAMPLES OF TRUE WISDOM AT WORK

When a conquering Roman general paraded his spoils of war after an outstanding victory, ‘at the end of the procession’ came captives whose fate it was to die in the arena. Paul put himself and his fellow apostles into this category (v. 9). The background to what he now says (v. 10) is the difference between the two wisdom’s described in . Human wisdom, for example, tends to look down on working with one’s hands. The Greeks generally despised manual work, but Paul taught by example and precept that Christians should not do so (cf. )

Living for God and his Son Jesus Christ in the World means living according to principles, standards and values that are very different from those the world holds important and valuable.

12–13. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

Illustration

The Definition of Ministry

Ministry is giving when you feel like keeping, praying for others when you need to be prayed for, feeding others when your own soul is hungry, living truth before people even when you can't see results, hurting with other people even when your own hurt can't be spoken, keeping your word even when it is not convenient, it is being faithful when your flesh wants to run away.

TO WALK IN JESUS FOOTSTEPS IS TRUE WISDOM, ALTHOUGH THE WORLD SEES IT AS MADNESS

‘A servant is not greater than his master and for Christ’s sake he had become the scum of the earth. Paul see’s the apostles as supremely called to this suffering.

*Becoming a spectacle to the world shows who we really are in Christ.

ILLUSTRATION

The Incredible Story of an Unimpressive Pen

The next time you're signing your name at the DMV or another U.S. Government office, you probably won't notice the black pen in your hand. It, after all, is exactly like the dozens of other black pens you've used in post offices, courthouses, and other buildings throughout your adult life. You certainly won't think there's much of a story behind the modest implement that, likely as not, is chained to the well-worn desk you've been waiting to stand at.

But like everything, those pens have a story. For over 40 years, those Skilcraft pens have been assembled by (blind) factory workers in Wisconsin and North Carolina. They must meet rigorous government specifications: to write continuously for a mile, and within temperature swings from 40 below zero to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The original design—brass ink tube, plastic barrel not shorter than 4 5/8 inches, ball of 94 percent tungsten carbide and 6 percent cobalt—has changed little over the decades. It costs less than 60 cents. The standard length of the pen has helped lost Navy pilots navigate by map. Stories say that the pen can be used as a two-inch bomb fuse, or for emergency tracheotomies. It can write upside down.

The pen has a rich, fascinating history, woven together with war, peace, postage, bureaucrats, spies, work, and play. And you'd never know it to look at it.

Some of us, or some people that you know, may not seem impressive, and yet they bear the image of God.

When we become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men (9) it goes against the grain of our society, because it means that our life is now under a critical microscope for scrutiny and scorn. Most of us tend to follow our natural inclinations, to place a screen around our privacy and our real selves, allowing only those whom we choose to penetrate and see us as we really are.

NOTE: This is why many people choose not to engage in the community of the Church. It’s easy to keep everyone at arms length and live in the shadow of the cave instead of the light of Christ’s word.

NOTE: It is a sociological phenomenon that the Christian church is growing most noticeably among the poor in Third World Countries: this growth reflects accurately the way these Christians follow more closely to the pattern of Christian life and ministry described in the New Testament.

God has chosen the foolish...the weak...the low and despised 1:27-28. It is this divine wisdom which so intrigues, not just men, but angels (when they are given the chance to see Christian action in operation). Angels have always been fascinated by the message of the gospel, and the church has been commissioned to make ‘the principalities and powers’ aware of God’s wisdom in the cross of Christ.

3 Principles for understanding the metaphor or kings and paupers.

If we are among those who are blessed in our Christian life and work we can be assured that there are others who are afflicted.If we are experiencing the cost of Christian ministry we can be assured that it is releasing blessing in others whose lives we are touching. All Christians are, at on and the same time, both kings and paupers, it is the authentic Christian experience to be wealthy in Christ and yet despised by the world. We never reach our perfect bliss here.

WE ARE IN THE STATE OF ALREADY BUT NOT YET.

We live in two worlds and there must therefore be a constant tension. “It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.”

8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

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3.Human standards of conformity change when we understand what it means to be a Pauper of the King.

Imitating: Following the example of copying the behavior of another person.

vs. 15 “Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.”

Paul had earned the right to admonish them as sons, because he was their spiritual father. The words “in Christ” are not connected with guardians, as though he were speaking of “guardians who are in Christ” that is Christian instructors. These were usually a slave whose task it was to take a youth to and from school, and generally to oversee their daily activities.

This does not imply that he was claiming and arrogant authority over them that was displacing the other guardians in their lives. Undoubtedly Paul had seen many of the Corinthians come to faith in Christ and felt a spiritual obligation to them as his spiritual children.

*Christians are to imitate good examples of other believers.

FIGHT CLUBS: Exist to encourage each other to live a life aligned with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The ultimate goal is to love Jesus more, through our affection for him and our allegiance to him, by helping each other rehearse the gospel and fight sin.

12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

*Christian leaders are to set examples that can be imitated.

7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

*Christians must not imitate bad examples

33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

ILLUSTRATION

Americans Don't Like Discussing Religion

Alan Cooperman, "Many Americans don't argue about religion—or even talk about it," Pew Research Center (4-14-16)

A summary of a report from Pew Research Center, "religion [seems] to be a subject many people avoid. About half of U.S. adults tell us they seldom (33%) or never (16%) talk about religion with people outside their family. And roughly four-in-ten say they seldom (26%) or never (13%) discuss religion even with members of their immediate family."

And when the researchers asked, "What do you do when someone disagrees with you about religion?" just 10% of evangelicals say they "try to persuade the person to change their mind." The vast majority of evangelical Protestants (70%) try to "understand the person's beliefs and agree to disagree," while about one-in-six (18%) say they "avoid discussing religion with the person" altogether.

Of course we should try to understand another person's beliefs, but according to this survey 88% of evangelicals would not dare to challenge a non-Christian's beliefs. At some point, we have to not only understand but also challenge someone else's worldview

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4.Human standards of rule and reign change when we understand what it means to be a Pauper of the King.

Being a part of the kingdom of God means we submit to his rule and absolute authority over our lives it is not a matter that is up for debate. The kingdom is not a matter of mere talk but of power.

The kingdom of God and or heaven is spoken of in 3 Ways:

It is God’s reign and rule in human life.

It is God’s kingdom of which christian’s are a part by new birth.

It is God’s kingdom that Christians possess as an inheritance in the future.

By their conduct the Corinthians were not living as citizens of God’s kingdom as they should.

They needed to appreciate that the Christian life is not a matter of words but of performance in holiness, spiritual maturity and obedience to God.

CONTRAST BETWEEN THE CORINTHIANS PRIDE AND PAUL’S WEAKNESS.

The Corinthians Pride (vv.6-8,10)

THEY WERE LIVING INDEPENDENTLY of Scripture (v.6)

THEY TOOK PRIDE IN ONE PREACHER over another (v.6)

THEY THOUGHT THEMSELVES superior (v.7).

THEY FORGOT that ll the riches they enjoyed in Christ were gifts of grace (v.7)

THEY WERE SELF-SUFFICIENT and considered themselves to have arrived spiritually (v.8)

PAUL’S WEAKNESS, in common with all the apostles (9-13)

HE WAS FREQUENTLY a public spectacle of weakness (vv. 9,10)

HE KNEW WHAT IT WAS to be in need materially and physically (v.11).

HE WAS DEPENDENT UPON MANUAL WORK to meet his basic needs (v.12).

HE WAS CURSED, persecuted, and slandered (vv. 12-13).

HE WAS TREATED AS WORTHLESS by the world (v. 13).

The truth about these situations is that the Corinthians’ pride was foolishness because they were following human wisdom; Paul’s weakness was the secret of his strength because he was walking the way of the cross (cf. ) which is true wisdom.

CLOSING

What was their chief issue? They had bad memories. They had something of a gospel amnesia that brought about Christian apathy. They had forgotten who Christ is and what he had done (). But they had also forgotten who they were. In effort to remind them of both of these things in one fell swoop the Apostle lovingly reminds them,

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”” ()

Did you catch what Paul did there? He is ascending the greatness of Christ by reminding the Corinthians that they really are not that impressive.

Wen we rightly understand the awesomeness of Christ it has the uncanny ability to remind us that we are really not that awesome. At the same time he does not diminish the church, after all Christ loves the church, it’s the means by which His gospel goes forth.

Erik Raymond is the senior pastor at Redeemer Fellowship Church in Metro Boston.

To put it another way, the beauty of the church is seen in the preciousness of the gospel she preaches and the weakness of those who preach it. It is as if Paul is saying, “You didn’t get into this by being great and impressive. You got in because God is rich in mercy to those who are not very great nor impressive.” Praise God for this.