Paul's Plight and Paternal Care 1 Corinthians 4:9-21
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“That a man or woman who indeed knows that he or she is nothing .. will be able to bear anything.”
“A man who is little in his own eyes will account every great affliction as little, and every mercy as great.” —Jeremiah Burroughs
These are twin truths we should all go into this study of 1 Corinthians 4:9-21 with. As Paul continues his letter or correction, admonishment, and encouragement. The Corinthians are thinking to highly of themselves and Paul is about to contrast how he and the apostles are viewed and persevered through affliction faithfully.
As we continue our theme of considering the servants of Christ from last week our first consideration this morning is,
I. Consider the Plight of Servants of Christ.
I. Consider the Plight of Servants of Christ.
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. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
A. Servants are made a spectacle by God.
A. Servants are made a spectacle by God.
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.
Notice what Paul writes as he continues to instruct the Corinthians on what it means to be a servant of Christ.
Paul writes,
For I think that God has exhibited us apostles,
Paul here again reveals his doctrine of the sovereignty of God. He pointed to the truth that everything that had happened to them as apostles was orchestrated by the hand of God. God is the one who had called them to serve and caused them to experience suffering and shame for the sake of the gospel.
This word exhibited means to cause something to be known publicly— ‘to show publicly, to demonstrate publicly.
Listen to what Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica.
For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
Paul over and over wrote to the church that their suffering for the gospel of God has been made known publicly. It was God who had done this that people might see the power, majesty, and might of God through Christ and those who had been called to serve and preach Christ.
Paul closes this verse explaining how God exhibited the apostles, as last of all.
John MacArthur writes, “The imagery is of condemned prisoners brought into a Roman arena to fight and die; the last ones brought out for slaughter were the grand finale. In His sovereign wisdom and for His ultimate glory, God chose to display the apostles figuratively before men and angels during the present age as just such worthless and condemned spectacles. Like doomed gladiators, they were ridiculed, spit on, imprisoned, and beaten, yet God glorified His name through them as He used them to build His kingdom.”
Who wants to sign up for that role? Who wants to be called to be an official messenger for Christ to proclaim the foolishness of the cross to the point of death?
We have not been called to be capital “A” apostles, there were only 12 of those. But we have been called to be messengers of the gospel and disciple makers. Just as the servants of Christ were called to faithful proclamation to the point of death, so are we. We may never suffer to the level of the Apostle’s or even some of the martyrs of our day, but we must always be willing to be made a spectacle by God to the world as we preach Christ crucified.
Steve Lawson provides a Point of application,
We are to be spectacles to the world, people are to know where we stand. We are to be open, exposed, and vulnerable to and for the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be bolder, more courageous, and more of a spectacle. Be willing to be viewed as the last of the world.
You may say, why, why would God make us public spectacles as we preach the gospel. Why would he make us like like fools before men?
Good news, Paul is about to tell us in verse 10. The answer is,
B. Servants are fools for Christ’s sake.
B. Servants are fools for Christ’s sake.
We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.
Notice Paul turning to a little sarcasm again to make a point. To once again show the Corinthians the error in their arrogance.
Paul opens verse 10 with,
We are fools for Christ’s sake,
Paul say’s the reason we suffer, the reason we are publicly shamed, the reason we are incarcerated, beaten, mocked and made fun of is for Christ’s sake. It is that His name may be glorified, that his person and work may be made known. Ultimately that people may know the excellencies of Him and be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son!
Paul is using sarcasm to show the Corinthians their own foolish. Paul say’s we are fools for Christ’s sake. They thought he was foolish because he kept preaching Christ, he kept proclaiming the cross. They wanted more, and they wanted it delivered it with more entertainment.
Then he turns to them and says,
but you are wise in Christ.
You who are splitting the church.
You who are dividing over teachers.
You who are still on milk and can’t eat meat.
You who are letting sexual sin run rampant in the church.
You who are still suing one another.
You who are defiling the Lord’s table.
You who are abusing the spiritual gifts.
Do you get the point Paul is making? He is saying we are fools for Christ, but you are not as wise as you think you are in Christ.
In this way, being wise in Christ is not taken here in a good sense, for he derides the Corinthians for wishing to mix up together Christ and the wisdom of the flesh, inasmuch as this were to endeavour to unite things directly contrary.
Here is where Paul continues his sarcastic correction of the Corinthians,
We are weak, but we are weak for the sake of the gospel.
Paul did not represent himself as a man of physical strength, but he was known as a man mighty in the Scriptures.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,
For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.”
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
You see over and over Paul boasts in his weakness, that he might exalt Christ. He is not ashamed of his lack of physical presence or oratory prowess. He was much more apt to proclaim the power of God, the power Christ, the power of the Spirit, and the power of the Gospel.
Consider these verses,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
Paul is constantly pointing to the power of God, but the Corinthians thought they were the ones with the wisdom, power, and strength.
Paul goes on,
You are strong, in your own mind…He wants them to see the absurdity of their own arrogant confidence. He hits them again,
You are held in honor,
Instead of holding Christ up and exalting Him, they were considering themselves honorable.
but we in disrepute.
Paul sought to rebuke the Corinthians for their elevated view of their own wisdom, strength, and honor. He wanted them to see how foolish it was for their teachers, and Apostles to be fools, weak, and without honor while they saw themselves as wise, strong, and standing above those who had brought them to faith in Christ through the preaching of the cross of Christ.
Paul and the apostles, gave up everything for the sake of the gospel. He gave up home, clothing, comfort, his health for the sake of the gospel. He gave up his own reputation to preach Christ.
Is there something that we need to give up and lay aside that we might be used for the kingdom to serve Christ?
Now in verses 11-13, Paul unpacks present realities of suffering in service to Christ. He explains,
C. Servants suffer like the scum of the world. (11-13)
C. Servants suffer like the scum of the world. (11-13)
To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
He opens writing, To this present hour, in other words right now, currently, this is our situation. Since we have been born again, “dropped our nets,” “denied ourselves,” and followed Christ.
We hunger and thirst
We are poorly dressed (stripped naked)
and buffeted
and homeless,
and we labor, working with our hands. (working to the point of exhaustion).
How do they respond in the midst of these distresses?
When reviled we bless;
When persecuted we endure;
When slandered (blaphemos) - blaspheme - defamed - have one’s reputation intentionally hurt, spread false reports, we entreat.
Does this sound familiar?
Paul’s language here is similar to Peter’s charge in
Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
Paul is saying we are living out what Peter calls the church to live out. While the Corinthians were did not have unity of mind, brotherly love, and a humble mind.
Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, were hungry, thirsty, poorly dressed, and working their fingers to the bone for the good of God’s people that they might be used for the spread of the gospel.
When slander came they stayed quiet.
When persecution came the persevered.
When reviling came they returned blessing.
Jesus Christ is our perfect example of this. He was blasphemed, persecuted, rejected to the point of death. But he never wavered from obeying God’s will.
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
1 Corinthians: New Testament, Volume 9a 4:8–13 The Harsh Trials Endured by the Apostles
CHRISTIANS AND SUFFERING. WOLFGANG MUSCULUS: What then? Is it impossible for people to be true and genuine ministers of Christ who are not taken for fools, who are not despised, who are not afflicted, who are not hungry and thirsty, who are not naked, who do not wander about without a home nor provide for themselves by working with their own hands? I answer: True Christian ministry and faithfulness to Christ are not found in these things. As a general rule, however, many ministers who are harassed ought to be considered honorable, while one finds that oftentimes the worst good-for-nothings are treated well. But the concern of ministers of Christ and other believers should be this: first that they seek the kingdom of God before all things from their hearts; and second that they are prepared to endure every circumstance for the sake of the name of Christ. Now if it happens that they are held in high esteem and experience peace, that’s okay. For even Paul knew not only hunger, but also abundance and plenty. But if the Christian faces the cross, persecution, and contempt on account of Christ, this also should be borne and endured in the faith and love of Christ.
I want you to notice the last thing Paul say’s about the apostle’s, the servants of Christ in verse 13.
We have become, and are still,
like the scum of the world,
Scum - sweeping, rinsing, or cleansings that would come out of the house, sweep around the privy, refuse, excrement, dung, trash....causes other to turn and gag..that is what we have become.
the refuse of all things.
refuse-drugs- synomous of the world - the scrapings form the bottom of ones sandals.
Now we have considered the plight of a servant of Christ, let’s finish up chapter 4 and,
II. Consider Paul’s Paternal Care.
II. Consider Paul’s Paternal Care.
I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
Notice first,
A. Paul admonished as a father.
A. Paul admonished as a father.
I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
Paul loved the church at Corinth, he saw them as brothers and sisters, but ultimately as beloved children. He wanted them to know that he was not writing to them to shame them, to embaress them, or to lord his authority over them.
Paul wrote to the church to lovingly, rebuke, exhort, and encourage them. Or as he explained to admonish them.
To admonish means, to advise someone concerning the dangerous consequences of some happening or action—to warn or warning.
Paul’s purpose in writing this letter was to warn them of their divisive, immature, and arrogant attitude toward the teachers and other believers within the body of Christ. Their behavior was going to do great harm to the body and discredit the church’s witness to a watching world.
So Paul warned them as a father, and reminds them,
B. He became their father in Christ through the gospel.
B. He became their father in Christ through the gospel.
For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
Paul says, look you all have numerous teachers, guides, mentors, disciplers, and shepherds, but I want you to hear me on this, I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I am the one who was sent by God to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to you and be used to plant the church hear at Corinth. So I want you to listen closely to what I tell you, I care for you as your own father, I want you to know the truth and live in accordance with these truths that come straight from the Scriptures, and don’t go beyond that.
Here is how I want you to do that, I urge you, then, be imitators of me. What a strong statement by Paul.
He is saying,
listen to me.
Be led by me.
Be an imitator of me.
Follow me, as I follow Christ.
Watch what I do, and copy me.
This pretty much wrecks or do as I say not as I do line. Instead of saying that we ought to be saying,
Watch me as I look to Christ.
Listen to me as I listen to Christ.
Copy me as I conform to the image of Christ.
Replicate me as I regulated by Christ’s Word.
Follow me as I follow Christ.
How many of us are as bold as Paul and can make this statement? How many of us believe this is the kind of life we ought to lead as believers?
Now, Paul not only admonished the Corinthians as his beloved children and set the example as their loving father, Paul also,
C. He sent his son to remind them of Christ.
C. He sent his son to remind them of Christ.
That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
Paul sent his beloved and faithful child to his beloved children.
Why did he do this? To remind them of my ways in Christ.
Timothy had come to faith through Paul’s preaching and had went along with Paul on his missionary journeys. He had watched Paul preach and live out the gospel. Timothy probably knew Paul’s theology and life better than anyone during this time. He has seen Paul proclaim the truth and persevere through persecution. He has seen Paul labor with his own hands and then go preach and teach as not to be a burden on the church.
Therefore since Paul was not able to come yet, he sent the one whom he trusted to teach the Corinthians how to follow him and be faithful to Christ.
Do you see how much Paul loved the local church. He was willing to send one of his beloved partners in the gospel, his beloved child in the faith to go serve the church at Corinth.
Paul has shown his love for Corinth, but now he is about to send a fatherly warning in verses 18-19.
Verse 18 begins, Some are arrogant, Paul says I love you but, listen here…There are some of you that are just plain proud and puffed up. Your arrogant attitudes are causing issues in the church.
You are acting arrogantly, as if I were not coming to you. You are behaving like you don’t think I care enough to come and correct you in person. You are sadly mistaken.
But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power.
Paul says, my plan is to come…and when I do, I will find out how wise, powerful, and honorable these puffed up people are. Paul is coming with the power of the gospel, the power of the Spirit, and the Scriptures.
What will these peoples power amount to when he gets there.
You may be thinking, man Paul is getting harsh here, but can any of you think of another Apostle that promises to show up and correct some who have became arrogant?
I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.
It is almost like Diotrephes left the church at Corinth and went somewhere else to cause problems. But John like Paul says, If I can get there, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense, refusing our authority, and I will get it straight.
I point us to this passage as well so we might see, that the Scriptures are pretty clear when it comes to how arrogance, pride, and those who are puffed up in the church are to be handled. They are to be lovingly admonished, warned, and called to repent in order to maintain unity, peace, and purity within the church!