The Nature of Following

The 3 Motivations of Following

1 Corinthians 4:1–5 (NIV)

This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

Paul has been speaking against the church in Corinth for their factionism. There is no place for divisions like this in the church. The people of God are a united people because the One who has saved us has done so for our union not our divisions.

Paul continues to do battle with factionism as he calls the church in Corinth into the error of their perspective with those that they are seeking to follow. It has always been Paul’s understanding that the church and its people are called to follow. The very nature of discipleship is rooted in the surrendering to the process of following. Paul’s own words are “Follow me as I follow Christ.”

Paul though recognizes that the church in Corinth was settling for a lesser journey by choosing to follow mere men over following the One true God. Paul shifts their viewpoint by which they are motivated to follow and whom they judge worth to follow.

Paul opens by naming himself and his constituents as servants. The Greek work is huperetes. This is a term most often associated with the rower on the lower bank of a trireme, the Greek and Roman war ship that had three banks of oars. Paul saw himself as a laborer following the commands of His head.

Paul also sees himself as a steward of the gospel. A steward was the chief slave who was given control over the house, but had to to answer and respond to the desires of the master. Paul sees his role and the roles of those who the believers in Corinth had exalted to a position of status are just servants who are serving the same master as each one of them were to be serving.

Paul sees their roles as nothing more than living in light of the trust that has been given. In light of this understanding as one rising to the trust that has been given, Paul recognizes that there will be judgment to determine whether one has risen in response to the trust given.

We can be judged by our peers - while this may reveal some things about ourselves, the judgment of others is rooted in the temporary and limited sight of human understanding. Man can not judge motives or heart.

We can be judged by ourselves - while this may provide for meaningful self-reflection, we are but mere mortals rooted in the temporary. Often we are our own worst critics because we lack the ability to see beyond ourselves.

We can be judged by God - God is the only judge not bound by time or space. He knows both the physical and the heart.

The Attitude of the Follower

1 Corinthians 4:6–13 (NIV)

Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 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. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

Paul points us to what has made us different from whom we once were. It is Christ’s salvation and His redemption that has brought us our benefit, not any works of our hands.

Paul points us top the attitude of a follower which is to recognize their need for the leader. Christ’s life and sacrifice leads us. When we lead, we only lead ourselves to destruction.

The church in Corinth had adopted the views of the culture that they found themselves in. They felt that they lacked nothing as they adopted the Stoic ideal of self-sufficiency. This is seen in their ability to argue about such trivial things as who they follow.

We are in danger of adopting a Stoic ideal of self sufficiency in the world we live in today. The aim of the world is for us to find ourselves not left wanting. We can by our own hands provide what we need today, but what will those things do in light of tomorrow?

We are at war with the world. Our life has not been purchased for our comfort, but rather for our continued pressing in to the Lord and against the world. The enemy delights in an army that believes they are comfortable behind their fortress walls for in their comfort they deceive themselves of their safety. Their supply lines have already been cut off and they recognize not that their starvation has already begun.