1 Corinthians 4, “Who Do You Think You Are?”

1 Corinthians 4: Servants, Stewards, and the Lord’s Judgment

All right, first Corinthians chapter 4 reading the entire chapter hear the word of the Lord. 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 trustworthy.

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. But I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment 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've applied all these things to myself and Apollo's 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 favor 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 thank God 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 were 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 when reviled.

We bless when persecuted we endure when slandered we entreat. We have become and are still the scum of the world the refuge 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 to Timothy and 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 found 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. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. A little over two years ago the school district I graduated from outside of Houston, Texas made the news.

I'm not sure if his national news or not, but it made some splash out there. But they just had appointed a new superintendent of schools a man by the name of Lance Hint. It's just amazes me who had been a star football player and also a track team member.

He was shot putter and discus thrower with me. So he was he graduated with me and he was now presiding over the school board meeting. When a man also about my age shared a harrowing story of how he had been bullied in school.

And the same school district I was from and almost bullied so much that he almost committed suicide. And because of it he went home after being bullied and he got out a pistol and put the barrel in his mouth.

But couldn't quite pull the trigger. Now about 35 years later. He told his story to the school board with the with the new superintendent and concluded that bully Lance.

Was you.

That video made the news kind of one of these viral things and and I even posted my own account of seeing some of Lance's Bullying and so a reporter from a TV station in Houston called me up asking for details About Lance and any things he had done and I told him what I could but I said, you know I only had went to school there for one year.

The person you should really talk to is the student body president KJ Wilde now KJ was an impressive person even in high school. He was the class president. He was a natural leader with an outgoing personality.

He once gave an browsing Extemporaneous speech. Which is hard to do by the way, if you ever try to speak before a group of people with no notes. Just that's hard. He did that to us students. He was deeply involved in politics already in the early 80s in Texas.

He said that he was eventually going to become President not just of the student body but of the United States. That's who he thought he was. He was a president. He knew everybody everybody knew him and So I told the reporter well, he's the one he probably has all the stories about Lance.

You want to hear the reporter then inform me that in? 2015 KJ had been sentenced to seven years in prison for embezzling over nine million dollars. I Don't think he's gonna make it to the presidency. Which makes me wonder?

Who do you think you are. I Heard of a study done of children from several different nations. The US was one of them and the South Korea was another and the study consisted of a math test and then a self-esteem question at the end simply ask Are you good at math?

The students from South Korea did the best on the math test. But they were also least likely to boast about how good they were at math. They they were the most likely to answer that they were not Good at math, even though according to the test they were the students from the US Did the worst at the math test?

But had the highest self-esteem. They thought highly of their own math test. They were the most likely to answer. Yes. I'm good at math. Even though the math tests showed that they really weren't One commentator noted that they felt good.

About.

Being bad. Who do you think you are? I.

Wonder.

Do you think you're good at math? The gospel is the good news that God has saved his people through Christ that he has credited to his people the life of Perfect obedience that the Lord Jesus lived and on the cross he placed on him the punishment that our sins deserved without that gracious salvation.

We are kind of that old fact. We are then in that that old-fashioned word describes us Wretches there's without grace without goodness when we see that when we encounter it. We then finally know that that song that amazing grace is not just a title to a great song But it's an exclamation of a great truth that grace is greater Than our sin.

Then we are humbled and the grace is amazing that saved a.

Wretch.

Like me grace has a humbling power to it. The proud hate it the saved Sing about it. The problem with the Corinthian Christians is that so many of them had not been humbled by grace. They thought too highly of themselves.

They thought too highly of their heroes like Paul or Apollos or Peter and they thought too highly of themselves. They thought they were really something in this fourth chapter Paul tackles four illusions of What they thought they were unhumbled by grace.

They thought they were four things first. They thought they were judges. Second they thought they were earners. Third they thought they were Kings and finally they thought they were teachers. And verses 1 to 5 Paul begins by summing up all that he's been trying to say earlier.

This just continues these first four chapters are really all about this. Problem of their of their arrogance and their excessive attachment to men. They could only see The man that they liked Paul or Apollos not the maker and he said see us.

Instead of these great men. He says see us as Servants and the word there in Creek literally means is it like galley slaves? It's just the lowest of the slaves who who rode on command of the captain and then.

See us as stewards. That is men put in charge of a deposit. Like we put a bank in charge of our savings expecting them to safeguard it and then make more out of it. They are stewards here. See us as these kinds of stewards who are put in charge of this mystery of God.

That's just the gospel the great truths that were hidden before before Christ. But have now come to light and in Christ you see this stuff about mystery here. Don't get this weird idea. Some people have you know, you got to decode the Bible, you know, I've got a count the number of letters they are in the alphabet and What number they stand for and make some code out of it and decipher something mysterious thing that no one's ever seen.

That's not what he means by a mystery. Okay, he means what's been revealed in Christ now. That wasn't known before before Christ. God is saving a people from every nation and race through Christ that great truth Has been entrusted to them.

They are stewards of it whether Paul or Apollos or Peter. They're supposed to protect that and to increase it to more and more people know about it. They aren't to lose it being attracted particularly these Corinthians aren't to lose it by being attracted to other more flattering stories about how or whatever how we can become a God how we can evolve into a God or how we can save ourselves with enough determination and effort those other stories.

That they might appeal to ourselves are feeling good about ourselves to our pride but stewards if they are faithful. Don't fall for it.

Stewards.

Protect and increase what has been deposited with them here the mystery. The gospel Paul is telling them even even his own fans here. You know his own fan club there. I'm a Paul. Some of them said he said he didn't invent this message.

He's not a religious and philosophical genius that concocted this finally home theology. He's a steward. That's all he's been given this. This gospel and entrusted with keeping it safe. It's been handed to him by Christ by God and he didn't have to be creative.

It doesn't have to embellish it too often people today, you know to make a name for themselves. Maybe to sell a book or whatever get their videos watch they got to say they have something new. And he said no, I don't have anything new.

I just have what's been handed to me. I'm a steward over it and that's the people we are to honor people like that. He asked only to protect it and to make it known. That's how they were to think about him and Apollos for that matter.

We're stewards Apollos to has been entrusted with this knowledge and he was he's not being creative. It's not something new but he made up they thought too highly of their own self these people though in Corinth.

They thought too highly of their self chosen leader. That was because at root. They thought too highly of themselves. You know, they wanted to be the one that's following some new great thing, right? First though, they thought they could be Paul's judge.

They just assumed that they were in a position to appraise Paul like judges of the Olympics gymnastics Competition, you know, what's that number? Maybe it's coming up next year.

All right.

There's guys that know. Some athlete gymnast will do her his or her routine and then they'll be these numbers flashing up different judges given whatever. Nine point five. That's their attitude. They'll sit back the watch Paul or Apollos and sit back and give him so many points for his message so many for his style.

For so much for his letter writing so much for his personality, you know, whatever they didn't sit under the word being humbled by it. They were judges. They're sitting back approving of this. Disapproving of that some approved of him so highly some of them gave him such high marks.

They even said I'm a Paul. I'm in his fan club. He's their man. But they still assumed that it was their place to judge him. Our churches today are full of people who think that they are the judges that the church.

The pastor exists to puff them up to tell them what they think they already know. To tell them how right they are. To affirm them and what they already believe that and if he doesn't do that to their liking.

Well, they'll go find another one who will. That's just the attitude it's just so prevalent today in verse 3. Paul just shrugged his shoulders. You know, basically in other words. They're judging him and he says it's a very small thing that I should be judged by you in verse 3.

You catch that? I mean, that's that's the attitude I'm getting from him. It's a very small thing that I should be judged by you. Yeah, it's like I don't really care what you think of me. It's a small thing.

In fact, I don't really care what I think of me. Even if his own conscience is clear. He says that doesn't mean I'm right. Who do I think I am. I'm not my own judge that ultimately sure I try to examine myself see if I'm according to God's Word, but ultimately I'm not the one who passes verdict on myself.

And neither are you so I'm not too concerned about what you think. I'm not even too concerned about what I think. Do I think I can justify myself by feeling good about what I do. I can say I'm good at math.

But still be bad at it. I Can feel I can feel I'm a good Christian and still be a bad one or even not one at all. This ran directly counter to their to their culture in that day. They're they're pagan philosophy and Shakespeare's words and Socrates's thoughts.

This above all things to their own self be true. You know, we hear that all the time today follow your heart. What does your heart tell you don't anyone else judge you this kind of thing? You can judge yourself.

In their view in my own conscious, you know same dead often now my own conscious in my ultimate guide. People think if I feel right about doing something then I am right and I don't care what you think even if I'm feeling right about stealing from you or Hurting you are killing you enslaving you whatever it may be.

As long as my conscience is clear, then I'm in the clear as though I'm the ultimate judge. That's why many people think then and still today. That was what the world around these Corinthians taught. That's what the world around us teaches and that thinking it was still part of the way They lived and often is today and even in the church is often the way some You still call Christians around us live.

I've heard this even in church. So some will say that Their conscience is clear. They don't feel bad about what they did. Now. Sure. They threw a fit and told a lie. Maybe they broke their commitments or whatever they did, but they just don't feel bad about it.

And since they don't feel bad about it, it must be okay. But we are not even our own judges not ultimately so Paul says I don't even judge myself. He says I'm not aware of anything against myself anyway, in other words my conscience is clear, but I Could be wrong.

My conscience could be wrong because my my conscience is not the ultimate guide. I could feel good about Being bad. Just who do you think you are. You think you're the judge. Paul knows he's not the judge.

He does not ultimately even judge himself. He leaves that up to the Lord. The Lord is a higher court than even our Conscience so he tells the Corinthians just who do you think you are? You aren't the judge?

Don't even judge now. He says don't judge now before the time. Before the Lord comes he's the judge and when he comes he'll Know what? He might override your conscience. He might have felt good. You know, you might end up saying well, you've been doing bad.

Paul is telling them before the Lord passes his verdict. You aren't in any position to be passing verdicts of your own whether of a man on a man like myself. Paul saying or Apollo's whether he's serious is here.

That is whether he harbors secret sins, whether it's his experience is genuine or spurious. God only can decide and he will bring every hidden thing To light. Not everything is complete yet and We and we're so we have to wait and while we wait.

We aren't.

Judges.

No, who do you think you are?

The Humbling Power of Grace

Do you think you're an earner?

Yeah, you've earned and so you've deserved Every good thing that you you have. Do you believe that you have what you have, you know. Only your wages from your job from your business, but your blessings from God even your salvation it's all just.

The whatever you have from the gifts of the Spirit you all. It's all a result because you're such a great person. You've made the right decisions. You were smart enough to know what was right and what was wrong.

You did what it took to get the good things that you have.

Right.

Who do you think you are? In verse 6 he tells them that he's been applying this truth to himself and Apollos that they are but servants of God to bring them faith. They're the galley slaves and They are told.

They're they're stewards looking after a mystery given to them by God. You Corinthians he said you're so impressed with us. By us, but really we are nothing. It is God who gives faith who gives growth.

You're impressed, but the see how grace has humbled us. He's trying to model for them of the humbling power of Grace. Grace is humbled both myself Paul is saying and and Apollos. That's why we're not so impressed with ourselves.

We know we've received grace. We know we're only servants. Were the slowest of the servants were these galley slaves rowing in the ship only God's tools. To do God's will that that grace is the only thing that could have been greater than my sin.

The last thing that grace does for us is to puff us up. That's why the first thing grace does for us is to make us know Who we are? That we are sinners who need a grace that's greater than our sin in verse 7.

He he asked him What do you have? All the things that you have. What are the thing? What did you have that you did not receive? Other words, what do you have that was not given to you as as a gift of God?

What do you think you've earned? What is it? It's a rhetorical question. What's the answer? What did you have? It's not a gracious gift. Certainly our salvation our spiritual gifts the truths that have revolution our Revolutionized our lives the insights that have transformed us the power of the gospel.

Did you get those because why? There's something about you. They didn't come because you were we were cleverer than other poor sinners. No, they came only because God graciously decided to give them to us.

So we can't both can we? What do you have to boast about. That we were just more incisive thinkers. I just felt so much clearer than those other people. That's why I could see the gospel.

Better.

Than those other poor guys down the road. No that we were just a you know, I'm a better character than those other people. That's why I could see that the being a Christian was a better life than the life of sin.

Better than what's her name? I made a poem. I'm a much wiser person. Look look at her. Is that our attitude? No shouldn't be. No or even there was such a better family than that other guy. That's why we're saved and he's not no now sure.

God could have worked through our mind. Our insight or through our family. But we can't credit ourselves. Can we where did our mind come from? What our family come from? We are saved we have spiritual gifts we have every good thing there'd be a godly wife or a husband or Church that helps explain things or we have the ability mentally to understand his word.

Whatever it is. We have it all because God gave it to us as a gift. We just received it.

So.

Who do we think we are? Deserving earners. Getting our reward for what we did. Are just empty-handed recipients. The humbling power of grace shows us who we are. We're we are not earners.

We're recipients.

We have not deserved the good things we've been we've been given. We've been but we've been given them graciously. That fact makes us then Re-evaluate ourselves. Who do we think we are? We are dependent.

Needy.

Recipients.

Beggars blessed with treasures. We could have never earned. What do we think we are? Kings royalty. And verse 8 Paul goes. I hope you caught it. I didn't really try to act it out much. He goes.

Full bore in.

Into this inflated church. I mean you basically just Sarcastically mocking them. Where so many thoughts so highly of themselves he wants to burst their balloon. They were going to be they were going to be presidents.

That's what they were. They thought they had earned it all all they had and now we see they thought they had.

All that there was.

It's theirs by right. They imagine that the blessings of the Christian life the salvation all the spiritual gifts all the good things the the status. You know the children of the king the royalty of the universe were theirs to enjoy all of them.

Now.

Already.

Paul mocks them. Already in verse 8 you have all you want. Paul's just ridiculing them. There's really no way I don't see how to read this other than he is being sarcastic that he is mocking them. Now, why would he do that?

Is it that an un-christian thing to do? Just gonna mock someone ridicule them. Well, apparently not because here he's doing it and he's sort of he's the he's the standard we go by and he is doing it.

To poke a hole in their inflated self-importance. They thought they were reigning already. If they were Kings Queens on earth, you know strutting by and their and their royal power. We have the same today in the prosperity gospel people who imagine that they already that they right now Don't have to suffer any pains or any indignities or any loss.

The whole.

World everything they want is theirs for their. They're just saying it. All they have to do is say the words and it's theirs. This is taught today. They can speak. This is something I've actually seen.

I saw a guy do this once. Speak. The clouds are obscuring the sunset. He wants to see the sunset and so he can speak and the clouds will have to move. Funny, they don't. Whatever just seem to work. They are Kings already.

You know, the clouds exists for the sunset exists for his benefit that word already.

That's a very revealing word.

Sometimes it's just one word makes a whole key difference here already. He repeats it twice in verse 8 already. You have all that you want already. You are rich already. You're Kings. But that tells us tells us two important things.

One is that all these things that he's that they think they already have. That these things really are a valid part of the gospel. That we will have all That we want. We will be rich we will reign as kings and queens, right.

He didn't you know, he doesn't say these things are you'll never have. Their problem is that the. That they think they should have something that they should will never have. Their problem is that they think I have it.

They have it now. They have it already. Their problem is that they thought these blessings were.

Here.

It's prosperity gospel teaches this now today the same thing that there's nothing we have to wait on that we can have it all Now. But eventually, you know, they all end up the clouds don't separate And go away from the sunsets like they want they to eventually get old and die and.

Proving that they are indeed still waiting on that last enemy to be conquered that not everything is already. That some things are still Not yet. We still have to wait on some blessings, but but it by the fact he says already that means.

One day.

These will be for us. Well, there's another school of thought. It's called our preterist not a word I use. Many of us probably use often but that teaches that we. Sort of like the prosperity people. We already do have all there is.

That we have all that will ever have. The prosperity gospel says already we have all there is. We just need to believe it and name it and claim it. The preterists say we have all there is. The problem is.

Our expectations are too high. You know what? We we need to we need to lower what we want. You need to stop being disappointed in getting sick and dying and you know, all this bad stuff around us. You just need to accept it.

This is this is you have all that you're gonna have. This is it. That this is all there is. And we won't really have what we want. We won't be rich. We won't reign as kings and queens. Or if we do maybe they won't.

They won't say it. Remember I'm not really I'm not fairly representing their case. I'm mocking them. But if we do they would say it's it's in some kind of. It's some kind of vague.

Spiritual way.

But already we have they say all that we will already have. Well first here Paul implies that the future blessings the Corinthians was already seen we're boasting it and he's here. He's implying that they're real.

That they will be rich. They will have all we want. They will be kings and queens. But those things are waiting for us. They're not yet. For us they are. Not already here the the Corinthians like the prosperity people today thought they were now already.

The Preterists don't think that those things we will ever have them we'll never have all that we want and be kings and queens and All that. They're not physical literal blessings that are just symbolic for for whatever but here in in that little word already We see that they are wrong.

That we don't have it all yet. There's still some blessings. We have to wait on the prosperity people are right. They're actually more right than the Preterists because at least they see that the these blessings All that you want being being rich being Kings being Queens being royalty Tangible things we will have everything we will have all that We see here that because the Corinthians were not wrong and thinking that Christ would be Would would satisfy us and make us rich and ruling on earth.

They were only wrong that we have it.

Now.

Already and this is exactly what Paul is mocking here. He's saying it who do you think you are? You know, it's like like a child that thinks He could drive now. He's only 10 and he thinks he can get behind the wheel.

No. One day. Yeah, you could have that you're gonna have a car you can have independence, but not now. Not already. You've jumped the gun. Get back to the real world. You might tell a kid. Hey, wait, you know, no, you can't be behind the wheel.

It's not yours yet. And that's what he's telling him. Who do you think you are kid you're not driving yet. Here, he's sharply digging deep into them if you think It's already here. Then how do you explain us Apostles.

You know, we are a spectacle. People point to us and make fun of us. Because we're so often beaten and abused and suffering. We're like the he's saying you're like the captured men you see in a conquerors prayed who are pulled along at the end of a.

Procession.

Make made into a living trophy a king might go off to another country conquer it another country and bring back some captives. They would be a spectacle. So his people could look aha. These are the people we conquered and Paul is saying that's what we're we Apostles are like.

People are staring us even the angels are staring at us. Why are you being beaten like this, but you're dragged and away put on display you're like prisoners that's what we're like. Me Paul. That's Apostles.

That's what we're like. And you're acting you're acting like you are Kings already, but look at us. We're prisoners being dragged around really. What are you saying then Corinthians? That we we Apostles that I Paul we don't have enough faith.

We don't have as much faith as you do because you get to act like Kings, but we were like prisoners. That's why you're acting like a bunch of royalty while we suffer. Just who? Do you think you are? The Corinthians imagine they had it all.

Already and Paul just he just mocks them. We are fools. You are so wise. Yeah, right. What the puffed-up, you know those who have not been humbled by grace. Well, they can't stand the most while Paul is dishing out to them here.

Being made fun of. Not being taken seriously. He might even be laughing at them. He's certainly not laughing with them. When he cries out, oh if only you did reign already. Then we could reign with you.

You know, then we'd be friends of the Kings. We'd have benefits but no you don't really reign then from verses 11 to 13 He recounts for them what he and the other Apostles and many other Christians from that time to this they have to endure.

Now while we wait for the not yet We have to endure. Hunger and thirst are in rags. They're buffeted. They're homeless while doing manual labor to support themselves. They're reviled and persecuted. They're they're slandered.

They're treated like the scum of the earth. They're treated like.

Garbage.

That's what they have to take now. Well you you Corinthians you American Christians comfortable at ease. Already thinking you have it all thinking that you should never have to endure anything hard that before persecution comes.

You'll just be instantly beamed out of the earth. Isn't that convenient the Apostles? You know, they all suffered John all but all but probably John were executed for the gospel. John was exiled, you know to an island.

Many since then have suffered for the truth over 300 men who held to the biblical gospel stewards of the mystery of God faithful men over 300 were tortured and burned at the stake in Smithfield, England in the 1650s instead of renouncing the truth.

And we modern Christians I'm modern American Christians are told that things will get just get better and better or maybe if they don't get better and better if Persecution comes we won't have to taste any of it.

We won't have to suffer. No, not us all all those other people did but not us will be raptured out of harm's way. Is it that convenient to millennia of Christians have had to suffer for the gospel, but we think We're special.

I Wonder between the prosperity people and the preterist and those who think will be raptured out of danger. Could we modern Americans accept a ministry like this? Buffeted in rags. Persecuted a spectacle to the whole universe or do we think?

Maybe we think no we already Rain, we have it all. Already. Just who do we think we are? Who do you think you are? You think you're a teacher. At verse 14 Paul turns from the sarcastic mocking and then the humbling comparison with the the Apostles to it to a gentle pleading.

I Don't want to make you ashamed. He says He did kind of make them embarrassed. I don't want to make you ashamed. I'm admonishing you. Paul said that right after sarcastically just mocking them. He says and you gotta understand the context of that.

Okay His is mocking it from versus like 10 to from 8 to 10 is mocking but in that's in it's in this context of his correcting them Gently and loving them. I don't want to make you ashamed says in verse 14.

I'm admonishing you as my beloved children. That's the context of the mockery. I'm admonishing you as my beloved Children my children whom I love. It's only because he loved him so much that he was able to so stingingly mocking them and now he reminds them that they are.

They are his beloved children. He feels toward them as a father would toward his children. He became their father through the gospel. Because he brought the gospel to them because God chose to give them spiritual life through Paul's preaching.

He saw them born again He to begin to believe and to grow because God used him for that. He cared for them as they as if they were his own children and he wasn't just trying to you. He wasn't trying to use them for what he could get out of them.

You know to get whatever offerings he could out of them. In fact, he didn't take offerings from these Corinthians not yet. That's why he talked about working with his own hands. He wasn't using them for that.

He could have couldn't he could have flattered them. He could he had his own party. There are people his own Fan club said I'm a Paul. He could have used them told him everything. They wanted to hear to get money out of them and then go to the next church and do the same with them.

But he didn't do that. He cared for them as a father. That's why he's scolded them. He mocked them and then pleaded with them Anything to break through their arrogance and get them to experience the humbling power of grace.

Who do you think you are?

He tells them and he tells us you are still children. You're still students. You're learners. This is why the humbling this is what the humbling power of grace does in our lives. We know we don't have it all together.