Dear friends,
Just as Western society is confused over the subject of identity, so we are confused over the issue of judgementalism. The modern push is to be a non-judgemental, inclusive society, but the reality is one of high condemnation and exclusion of people whose views or lifestyle differ from those in power.
Christians believe in the judgement of God, but what do these judgements involve? And what are the differences between discernment and condemnation? I hope you enjoy our consideration of 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
I remind you again of our point of contact, namely respond@twm.email.
Yours,
Phillip
Phillip Jensen: Last week, when reading 1 Corinthians 3, we followed a very unusual procedure in which we read through the beginning of the chapter, then the end, before finishing with the middle. This time, as we look at chapter 4, we will return to reading 1 Corinthians chronologically, as the Apostle Paul wrote it.
Peter: 1 Corinthians 4
This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgement before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favour of one against another. 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?
Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! 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 honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labour, 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.
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?
Phillip: That is a great chapter in judgement. We now occupy a very judgemental society in which we regularly condemn and ‘cancel’ people. People are banished because of statements they make or their practices of life; at the same time, however, we are ‘anti-discriminatory’. Everybody is to be included, yet our ‘inclusive’ society keeps excluding people.
Furthermore, we Christians have a particular problem when it comes to the ‘celebrity Christianity’ that is around us. I remember being at a conference overseas where the speakers needed bodyguards because of the number of people who were pressing upon them. They needed bodyguards not to protect against someone who was going to shoot or stab them, but because so many people treated them as if they were pop singers. But these people keep on being caught out for their failures. I remember meeting Paul Cain years ago, one of the Kansas City prophets who was commended to me as the man who could tell me exactly what God thought on all kinds of topics. Paul Cain has died now, and the judgements that have come upon him because of his sexual immorality are just some examples of the many problems within the Kansas prophecy movement. In more recent times a great Christian writer, Philip Yancey, has now spoken of his 8 years of having an adulterous affair, during which time he was writing Christian books and his own biography. There are many of these kinds of people for whom we are judgemental, and indeed we should judge them, because they were exercising Christian leadership.
Peter: But the Lord said in Matthew 7:1, with words that are unforgettable, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” Yet, though I hardly know how to say it, judgement and discrimination is essential to being human and to being Christian. How do we chart these waters? How do we hear what the Lord says, but also live in a world where every moment we are called upon to make a judgement?
Phillip: “Judge not, that you be not judged” is one of the favourite verses of our inclusive society. It’s a part of the teaching of Jesus that people who have never read the Sermon on the Mount still know, because they love this message in isolation. But the full quotation warns you not to read it that way. Matthew 7:1-2
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”
What follows is the illustration of the speck in the eye versus the log in the eye. Therefore, it’s not saying, “Make no discriminations”; rather it is warning you that the judgements you make on other people are exactly the judgements that you will receive yourself, and that if you are harsh, then expect harshness towards yourself. If you are overly generous you may expect over-generosity, but the passage has got more to do with the word ‘judge’. That word carries the connotations of discernment, discrimination, and condemnation. Discrimination is essential in a fallen world, for you need to be able to discriminate between what is right and what is wrong. I had Paul Cain presented to me as the man who could tell me exactly what God was thinking. Do I accept that or not? That requires a discrimination. But that is different to condemning somebody for what they have done. I think of that passage in Galatians 6 which tells us that if anybody is sinful, then those who are spiritual are to restore them in a spirit of gentleness. You bear one another’s burdens, but you ought to look to yourself, lest you too be sinful.
One of the ways of dealing with somebody else who is sinful is to push them further down so that you can lift yourself up. “Well,” you may say, “I wouldn’t do that.” But the spiritual person says, “I would do exactly the same thing. Let me help you; let me lift you up.” It’s a different mindset in which we consider the other person. It’s not for us humans to condemn; that’s the Lord’s work, as is said in 1 Corinthians 4:4–5
For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgement before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
Essentially, he says, “I don’t even judge myself. I’m going to be judged by God, but that’s God’s work because he knows the secrets of the hearts. He knows everything, and so the judgement will be right and true and proper.” The message of chapter 4 is that we are to think about the other person, rather than condemning them.
Peter: Let’s take up this business of human judgement versus the Lord’s judgement as Paul talks about it. It’s interesting that he says in verse 3, “It is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.” I can see the truth of it, namely that there are times when someone will judge us. It may well come from someone who loves us, or even someone who doesn’t love us, and from this experience we can learn. I can think back to such experiences that I’ve had myself. So what is the best way of putting it? In the end, can we learn unconcern about how others judge us—bearing in mind that the Lord is our judge—except where there’s something to learn?
Phillip: Indeed, but how we think about this has also got to do with what we are judged for. For instance, I run faster than you do. That’s a discernment that can be made, but it’s not of great significance, unless you’re going to enter a competition. It’s not that all people are exactly the same and there is no discernment to be had between people. But the judgement we’re talking about here can be 1 of 2 judgements in the Lord. The first is the judgement of salvation: the condemnation that Jesus has borne for us. The second is that we all stand before the judgement seat of Christ to receive our blessings for what has happened in this lifetime, to see the outcome of our lives in this. That is what Paul is speaking about here. So I don’t judge myself.
You can discriminate, saying, for example, “I’d prefer to have Fred preach, because I think he’s a better preacher for this situation than John.” But to say, “Fred’s a better person because he’s a better preacher than John,” is a different thing altogether. It would also be wrong to suggest that God couldn’t use John to bring about his purposes in ways that Fred wouldn’t. The Lord will judge. So I personally don’t care whether you think I’m a good preacher or a bad preacher.
But notice that the basis of this judgement is faithfulness. That is, the Lord is not going to judge me on how many words I can say in a minute; he’s going to judge me on whether I’m faithful to the task that’s been given to me. In saying ‘faithful’, I don’t mean to suggest that we shouldn’t look at the outcome. Remember the parable in Matthew 25, where a man gives 3 workers different talents (sums of money) and the first 2 put them to work, as was intended. When the man returns, they are able to give back the money with interest because they’ve put it to work; they are called faithful. Whereas the third man buries the talent, because he doesn’t want to lose it, and he is called faithless, because it was given to him to do something with. Likewise, God gives us gifts to use for the salvation of the people, for the glory of the Lord Jesus. The judgement will come on how faithful we were to the tasks of the commission that God has given to us. But God’s judgement is superior to the judgement of other people, because God can see the secrets of the heart.
Peter: I love those sorts of texts which are really troubling, because they speak to you in the end very deeply. I return to 1 Corinthians 4:4, “For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.” That is one of those troubling texts, which is a good thing.
Phillip: And to quote Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
Peter: Indeed. It reflects reality too, because there are times when I am not aware of anything against myself, but it may be due to my very poor memory, or my misunderstanding of what it is that I’ve done. The Apostle says that he does not judge himself, that doesn’t mean you should never reflect upon yourself; it’s that the final judgement is not yours. In the end, the final judgement belongs to God himself. We may have an assurance of our salvation which depends upon the blood of Christ. Some people are smitten by internal agony frequently, while other people drift along without a thought. But either way, we must come to the cross of Christ and say, “This is what we are trusting for our salvation on the Day of Judgement.”
Phillip: That flows on from the end of chapter 3, that my works may be burnt up. But it’s not a question of salvation. It’s just that I don’t want it to be the case that I’ve done nothing for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ ever since I became a Christian 60 years ago.
Peter: Or worse, that you’ve done things which haven’t been so good.
Phillip: If I have done nothing, it will all be burnt up, but I will not lose my salvation at that point. It’ll just be that I have nothing to show.
Peter: What can we see here about Paul’s method in ministry?
Phillip: 1 Corinthians 4:6–7
I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favour of one against another. 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?
You start to re-think the last chapters which talked about people claiming, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas”. When you come to the last few verses, you start to see that there were real people who were arrogant, but Paul says, “I’ll come soon, and then I’ll see the talk of these arrogant people.” Because this arrogance is all talk; it’s not the power of God. Instead of doing the gospel work and transforming lives, they’re building themselves up. Those who are impressed by men, or by themselves, are the real arrogant talkers.
The other day, I heard the North Queensland politician Bob Katter describing people as “Double-degree-do-nothings.”
Peter: I love Bob Katter!
Phillip: He’s a great one. There are the people who have all the qualifications under the sun, but they don’t do anything. Likewise in this passage, here’s this arrogance among the church, but rather than talking about them and therefore getting caught up in the politics of it, Paul has talked about a policy and about himself, so that you will follow the argument that has been written, rather than worrying about the particulars of these ‘super apostles’.
Peter: What method in ministry is he talking about? What can you see here which makes us think as ministers of the gospel?
Phillip: That he is concerned with how well people will understand what he is saying. He takes us back to the very principles of the gospel itself, and diffuses the personality issue of the church. But he also describes his method back in verse 14.
Peter: “I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.” That’s not insignificant. There’s a big debate about what the marks of the church are: preaching, sacraments, or discipline? If we’re going to accept discipline as a mark of church, we have to think of what it means. 1 Corinthians flows into that question, for as this verse points out, Paul is not trying to make the church feel ashamed.
What does that mean? Do we try to make people ashamed? We may. If our ministry is our real sense of our identity, and if we are driven by the desire to have power over other people, then we may well admonish others in a way that creates shame in the other person. But the apostle, in telling us here about ministry, says that this is not what he aims to do. What he aims at is to admonish them. We admonish children in order that they may learn from it and grow into the adults we want them to be. Likewise, the aim of admonition in ministry is not to make us feel superior; it is very deliberately for the blessing and usefulness of the other person.
Paul also uses the language of family in this passage. The way in which the Corinthians came to Christ was through Paul ‘fathering’ them. Additionally, he says that when Timothy comes, he will remind them of what Paul has done so they may imitate the Christian life as they saw it in Paul. It’s not that Paul is putting himself in the centre of things; rather, these are the earliest days of the Christian faith, and Paul as a man is expressing that faith.
Furthermore, as he mentions several times, the Corinthian church is not the only church. There is a universal brotherhood, if you like, of Christians from all of the different churches.
Phillip: I would like to highlight several key points that you mentioned which are important. Firstly, there is Paul’s claim, “I became your father.” ‘Father’ can be a powerful position. In fact, Jesus said, Matthew 23:9, “And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.” That is because ‘father’ connotes this patriarchal power. But in this passage, it’s a term of love and commitment that is being expressed, to admonish your children out of responsible and loving care.
You also talk of the marks of the churches. As John 13:35 says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Love, then, surely should be the key mark of the church.
Peter: I believe so, and too little is spoken of it. I can remember a lady who came to our church, and because we didn’t have prophecy from the front, she left as soon as she could. I said, “But we do love each other,” to which she responded, “It doesn’t matter; you don’t have prophecy.” Regardless, I think that Christian love in the congregation is immensely important, and is a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Phillip: A key aspect of 1 Corinthians, which we mentioned a few weeks ago, is that while it’s written to a specific context, it’s a universal letter. Therefore, what he’s saying to the Corinthians is true of all churches. There is a Christian way of living that is universal, at least in some elements. It may be that some church members differ in small ways such as attire, but Paul never implies that those things matter in the slightest. But there are certain things about love and care for others that are true everywhere. Likewise, arrogance and boastfulness about our ministries, skills and abilities are wrong everywhere.
The Corinthian problem seems to be their ‘over-realised eschatology’. That is, they think that heaven has already arrived, whereas the Apostle Paul knows that we’re still in this world; that the eschatology, the last days, have not yet arrived. So the ‘super-apostles’, the arrogant people who speak of their victorious Christian living, have missed the point. The apostolic reality is seen in 1 Corinthians 4:9–13
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 honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labour, 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.
This demonstrates the contrast of the apostolic reality as opposed to the arrogance of people’s arrival, because in this world, our ministry is of the cross. You can’t be a preacher of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and be a conquering king yourself. Bearing the cross gives us the expectation of rejection and refusal.
Peter: Here is true wisdom. Judge not by what the eye sees; instead, judge in accordance with what God has revealed to us about himself, ourselves, and the world. In the end, leave the ultimate judgement to God in the assurance that Jesus died for us and that we are in Christ.
Phillip: You as a minister never rise above being a servant. William Cowper’s hymn, ‘God Moves in a Mysterious Way’, is one that I love. The last verse goes
God’s purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour.
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his work in vain.
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.
That is what will happen on the last day.
Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Links & Recommendations
For more on this topic, check out this talk by Phillip on 1 Corinthians 4. It’s called The Foolish Stewards of God.
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