1 Corinthians 4:1–13

Paul, and here he joins Apollos with himself, would have them remember that such men are only ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. It is not the servant whom people generally exalt, but the master. But what was happening at Corinth? What has happened in the Church of God? The Master is absent in person, and people ignore the presence of the Holy Spirit. So they have exalted the servant and made much of him. How foolish on the part of the saints! How wrong on the part of the stewards!

Servant (hyperetes), really an under-rower, an underling. Such was Paul always in relation to Christ. This puts the labourer in his right place. If only all such men remembered this.

Though they took the place of servants, they were not the servants of parties, but "the servants of Christ." We are told that the word used here for "minister," or "servant," means "an appointed servant." Christ appointed Paul and his fellow-workers as His servants. This matters, because the servant fears the One who appointed him and must answer to Him. In Christianity, as Scripture sets it out, the true servant is "the servant of Christ." That frees him from the fear of man. So he can set out the full truth with great plainness of speech.

Paul and Apollos belonged to the saints, but they were not subject to the saints. They were subject to Him who had given them their charge. So let those who thought about them and their teaching think of them in relation to Him. They taught in His name and by His authority.

In Scripture, "mystery" does not mean something that cannot be explained or understood. It means something no one could understand without God's revelation in the New Testament… So much so, that Scripture now calls the ministers of grace stewards of the mysteries of God. Some people have long been inclined to make mysteries of the sacraments, but that is never the meaning of the word in Scripture. Mysteries are New Testament revelations. God kept these truths to Himself in the Old Testament, and now He has revealed them.

The servants of Christ are also "stewards of the mysteries of God" — not the unholy mysteries of the pagan world around the Corinthians, but the precious truths of God, which the Holy Spirit revealed to the apostles. As the servants of Christ, they served One whom the world had rejected. As stewards of the mysteries of God, they handled things the world could not grasp. So neither the ministers of Christ nor the stewards of God's mysteries could ever be popular with the world.

They both served Christ and brought Christ to others. They also received a stewardship: to administer rightly the truth of the mysteries of God. God had revealed those truths to them for the sake of all His saints. What a blessed honour, yet what a solemn charge! For the requirement of first importance in a steward is that he be found faithful. Human intellect, zeal, ingenuity and ability are all worth nothing if this one thing, faithfulness, is missing. In this the steward answers to God, not to men.

We are also to be "stewards," and of "mysteries" at that, keeping the distinctive things of divine revelation uncorrupted and intact. Reasoning men may not accept them. The cross was foolishness to such people. But we must not hand that mystery over to them in any way.

The Apostle goes on to show what a steward most needs. It is not cleverness, nor eloquence, nor popularity, but "faithfulness". This agrees with the Lord's own teaching, when He spoke of the "faithful and wise manager" (Luke 12:42; older versions, "steward"). Later, near the end of his life, the Apostle could write to Timothy, "What you have heard from me … entrust to faithful men" (2 Timothy 2:2). We, like the Corinthian believers, may at times value servants by their knowledge or their gifts. But God measures their spiritual value by their faithfulness.

How great an honour, yet how solemn a charge! For the requirement of highest importance in a steward is that he be found faithful. Human intellect, zeal, ingenuity, ability, are all of no value if this one matter of faithfulness is missing.

Verse 2 stresses the great qualification a steward needs. He must be faithful to the one from whom his place and authority come. His highest achievement is to please his master and serve his interests, whether or not he pleases others in doing so.

The preacher's faithfulness stands in relation to the one who entrusts him. A steward handing out provisions is very unlikely to please all the servants in the house. Such officers get the least thanks when they do their work best. Anyone who sets out to please people takes on an endless and needless task. A wise doctor tries to cure his patient, not to please him.

But we are also to be "stewards", and stewards of "mysteries" — keeping the distinctive things of divine revelation pure and untouched. Thinking men may not accept them. The cross was foolishness to such people; and "the rulers of this age", the philosophers who claimed to be wise, did not know the "secret and hidden wisdom of God". But we must not hand that mystery over to them in any way. Our stewardship is of these things.

"As each has received a gift", they were to use it to serve one another, "as good stewards of God's varied grace". The point is not each person's right, but the obligation arising from God's gifts to use whatever it may be in responsibility to Him. "It is required of stewards that they be found faithful" (1 Cor. 4:2), from the greatest to the least.

Faithfulness is worth more than outward, visible success. Wisdom is worth more than the most brilliant gift, as 1 Corinthians 13 shows. There may be a great deal of what passes for success where there is little heart-faithfulness to God. There may be little self-denial, little personal fellowship with the Lord, little separation from the world and its ways, little real submission to the word of God, and little prayer.

It is perfectly true that what Christ values is not success, but faithfulness. "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matt. 25:21, 23). At the same time, remember that the faithful servants in the parable were also the successful ones.

He does not say that the Corinthians' opinion of him does not matter. He says it matters least of all. Nor does he rely on his own examination of himself. He is not aware of any wrong motive in himself. But that will not clear him of all unfaithfulness before the Lord. The Lord knows the secret thoughts of the heart, and He alone can assess the measure of faithfulness in each of His servants. No one will know this "until the Lord comes". So the true servant does not look for, or place great value on, the approval of men.

Verse 2 emphasises the great qualification necessary in a steward. He must be faithful to the one from whom his place and authority are derived. His supreme achievement is to please his master and serve his interests, whether or not he pleases others in doing so.

Everyone agrees that stewards must be faithful to their trust... The Lord will settle accounts with His servants in due time. For this very reason (verse 3), Paul felt completely indifferent to any judgment men might pass on him or on his work in man's day... So for him, and for all who think like him, it was a very little thing whether men praised or blamed. His Master is his judge.

Paul says it is a very small thing to be judged by them, or by "man's judgment" — or as it literally is, "man's day." In 1 Corinthians 3:13 he had told us that "each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it." Here we have THE DAY when God's opinion is heard. This is MAN'S DAY, when men insist on making their opinion heard.

It was man's day, the day in which he had the earth to himself; not indeed without the restraining hand of God upon him, but still in such a way that, if once faith were not active, he might preach to himself the entire liberty which he loves. As a fact, man's day will end in the judgment of God.

The word means the inquiry that comes before the trial. Paul did not say this out of contempt for the Corinthian believers. He thought just as little of man's day, whoever might try a task the Lord had never handed to man. No one is competent for it, and the Spirit gives no ability for it.

They were worldly believers, and the judgment and criticism of a worldly believer comes far too close to "man's day" to have any real worth. It all left the Apostle quite unmoved in his own judgment. As the following verses show, it did not even ruffle his spirit. Not a trace of annoyance marks his words.

In fact, Paul did not even judge the value of his own work. He knew nothing against himself (a more correct translation), yet that did not justify him. His own estimate decided nothing. Judging the worth of his work belongs to God alone — not to him, and not to any man.

No one should conclude from this that a servant of Christ, however well taught or devoted, may think himself above all criticism and refuse to listen to correction. The very opposite is true. The opinion of a worldly-minded believer has little or no value. But the opinion of a godly, mature believer is worth a great deal.

In the days of the Reformation in Italy, a monk who had received the truth of the gospel was shut up in close confinement, guarded by a fellow monk. For years he bore his jailor's harsh treatment without a word of complaint. At last the order came for his execution. As he left the cell, he turned to his guard and said quietly, "Brother, we shall soon know which of us has been pleasing to the Lord." We too can leave every disputed question, about ourselves or about others, for the judgment seat of Christ to settle.

"I know nothing by myself" (v. 4) means I know nothing against myself as an accusation. It is an old English form. It was common enough two hundred years ago, and you will find it in Bishop Hall's writings, but no one uses it now. "Yet am I not hereby justified" means that this does not clear me, for the Lord judges or examines me.

How good it would be if we could each speak like this. How good if we were each so true to what we have learned of the mind of God that we are not conscious of anything wrong. Yet even a Paul had to admit that this did not justify him. The Lord judges him, not by what he knew, but by what He knows. So it is with all of us. Our own awareness sets one standard, and the omniscience of the Lord sets another. The difference between them is vast.

God could not accept any standard of holiness lower than the one He has displayed, in all its perfection, in the One He has glorified at His right hand. Many have failed to see this, and have made holiness consist in being kept from sin — from known sin. The Apostle has anticipated this error when he says, "I know nothing by myself." That is, he did not know of any allowed sin. But he adds, "I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me." The Lord alone can discern the true state of our souls.

Here is the integrity of a man who examines and judges himself, free from every known offence. And here too is the full admission that things might well be wrong in him without his knowing it. Trusting His grace, he could commit himself to the One who will bring everything to light in due time. If none of us ought to be able to say less than this, who on the other hand can say more?

No man is able to hold such an inquiry, not even an apostle. It would be taking over what belongs to the Lord. Nothing is more important than keeping this direct sense of responsibility to Him always and everywhere. Whether it is a question of Paul or of Apollos, the principle is the same. And it is not only for those whom God set first in the church, or in Christ's service. It holds for the last and the least just as much as for the first.

This passage speaks of judgment in a fourfold way. The judgment of "man's day," that is, of popular opinion in the world. The judgment of believers who are in a carnal condition, which carries not much more weight than that of man's day. The judgment a servant of God may form of himself. This is by no means infallible. The servant may work hard at weighing himself with a detached and impartial mind. He may be conscious of nothing in himself contrary to the Master he serves. Even so, not being conscious of anything wrong does not prove that he is right. The judgment of the Lord Himself. Here we reach perfection and finality.

In 1 Corinthians 3:13 he had told us that each person's work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will make it clear. Here we have THE DAY, when God's opinion will be heard. This is MAN'S DAY, when men insist on making their own opinion heard, and it is completely against the Apostle and everyone who thinks like him. The opinion of "man's day" was a very small thing with Paul.

A good conscience is a good thing; but it does not clear the person who may in this or that be blinded by self-love or other feelings. The Lord will decide at His coming; it is He who makes the only adequate inquiry.

On the one hand there are hidden things of darkness. If we sit on the judgment seat now, we give our opinion without knowing all the facts of the case, and with no power to make those facts come out. On the other hand there are the counsels of the heart. There are the counsels of the inmost heart of the one we are inclined to criticise — those secret springs and motives which we cannot see. AND — never let it be forgotten — there are the secret springs and motives of our own hearts too: the heart of the one who is the critic in the case.

At that time God's light will expose everything that sought the dark to avoid detection. It will even make plain the counsels that the hearts themselves failed to see through. How misleading the praise of men often is now, where shams and shadows rule for most!

We must of course be careful to consider this in its context. Chapter 5:12 shows that the Corinthians had been negligent in judging when they ought to have judged. In this chapter (4) they were judging when they ought not... Too often we may assume that our own motives are right, when in fact they may be badly mixed with selfishness and pride.

We are to judge actions, but never motives. God alone can judge perfectly the motive of our every word and action.

The point is not that every man is going to be praised, but that each who is praised will have his praise from GOD, and not from some few of his fellow-creatures. The Corinthians had their party leaders. They praised one leader far too highly and condemned the others — and the other way round. It was all worthless.

Mark, nothing is said of condemnation. The only result the Apostle sees in this bringing to light is "praise of God." No doubt much will be condemned and set aside when the hidden things of darkness come to light. Many a counsel of the heart will be judged in that day. But the Lord has one object in it all: to award praise to each and all. How this should stimulate our desire to be well-pleasing to Him!

How much there is that we cannot understand and cannot unravel, how many slights and insults in the presence of which we have to be silent in this day. But from all these things we can find relief by committing them to the Lord — the righteous Judge — against that day.

They were not actually lining up under the banners of Paul, Apollos or Peter, as 1 Corinthians 4:6 shows. Out of Christian tact, the apostle did not name the men who were making themselves party leaders, or whom the Corinthians were making into party leaders. He spoke "in a figure." He moved the matter over to himself and to Apollos, so that in that way they might learn the lesson: do not be puffed up for one man against another.

If he had rebuked those people by name, they might have shot back: "It is all very well, brother Paul, for you to rebuke us. The fact is you are jealous of your position. So you want to get rid of us, and leave no one to challenge you." How effective the rebuke was when he used his own name — and meant it!

Here the apostle explains what he has also done elsewhere. He applies to himself, and in this case to Apollos as well, a principle he meant for others. He does it so that the saints might profit. The men misleading the Corinthians were the ones he really had in view, as he implies here. But he lays down a standard, and he does not hesitate to measure himself and Apollos by it. The saints could then use that same standard on others, whose claims were as high and groundless as the service of Paul and Apollos was real and from God.

Romans 7:9 says, "I was once alive apart from the law." Paul does not mean to point to a state he had been in himself. It is a great principle, and he shows it by personifying it. As he says elsewhere, "these things I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos." That does not describe any one individual — it is every man.

It was for their sakes that he spoke so much about these two men who had helped their joy. He went against his own inclination, so that they might learn from these two, and from their own estimate of that ministry, not to go beyond what is written.

Subjection to Scripture is the only real freedom from harmful human influences. If we neglect or forget the word of God, we will not profit as we should even from a ministry that is itself from God. An inspired apostle would be only a snare and a hindrance to a soul that saw truth in him alone. Such a soul did not find the Master in His servant.

To be puffed up for one against another is to be more taken up with the vessel than with the truth the vessel contains, more taken up with man than with God — a serious mistake! "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each."

They were already forming themselves into schools of teaching, with this or that teacher as the head of the school. They were saying, "I am of Paul, and I of Apollos," and were making themselves disciples of men. They were coming to belong to those who in God's thought belonged to them.

Verse 6 shows us that the real party leaders at Corinth were not Paul or Apollos. They were most likely gifted local leaders, or even visiting teachers who pressed the Jewish law on the church. Paul points to them more plainly in his second letter. Paul avoided using their names, but he wanted all to learn the lesson, not to be puffed up for one as against another. No one has any ground for boasting, however shining their gift, for all that they have they have received from God.

"Who makes you to differ?" (v. 7) means: if anyone has more gift than another, where does it come from? It all came from God. One was saying, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos." But the apostle says to them: it is all yours. And if one is greater than another, who made him to differ? Just as John says, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven."

To those who might be seeking a position among the saints that was not theirs, he asks, "Who makes you to differ from another?" If a gift made the servant differ from others at all, he still had nothing except what he had received. If it was a gift, it was given and not earned by any merit. Where, then, was there ground for boasting? Unless near to the Lord and strong in His grace, how weak is the most gifted servant!

Did they, or could they, forget who it was who had put a difference between them and their former selves? Who and what were they, as believers, except by the grace of God? Forgetfulness has always been the standing discredit of God's people. What we hold should kindle gratitude and keep the Giver's grace always before the heart. Too often it has led instead to pride and thankless excess... Outwardly these Corinthians admitted that they owed everything to grace, yet they treated God's gifts as their natural right. So they dishonoured Him who had enriched them, even while they gloried in His gifts.

Verse 7 strikes sharply at this unseemly pride. Who created the differences among the saints? Certainly not themselves. It is God who has made each one just what he is. Or if it is a question of abilities, capacities, or spiritual gifts, we have not been the originators of these, but the receivers. And if we have simply received them — from God, of course — then thankful humility should be our only response. We must not boast as though we were self-made.

How sad it is to despise those today who are where we were yesterday! "What do you have that you did not receive?" So the apostle later rebuked the vain Corinthians. The godly couple he was staying with in that very city felt very differently: "But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately."

Here, then, we have three solid reasons why humility should mark the servants of Christ. First, as to what they are: the Lord makes His servants differ in their qualifications, and everything they have, they received. Second, as to what they do: it would come to nothing unless God gave the increase. Third, as to what they preach: they exalt Christ, and Christ only.

But he strikes another blow, and this one is the sharpest irony. Isaiah did the same when he exposed the folly of idol-worship. Poor, even corrupting, doctrine always lowers practice. Without noticing it, the Corinthians had given up the place of sufferers with Christ. The apostle points this out witheringly. "Already" here means before the time. When Christ reigns, we shall indeed be at ease and fully satisfied. But now is the time to deny self, to take up one's cross, and follow Him, who suffered many things, indeed all things, here below. They were deceiving themselves: the time had not yet come.

This spirit had also led to self-satisfaction and a focus on material advantage. That focus practically made them reign as kings. They were filled up with earthly things (Corinth means "satiated"), and rich — but not in any practical spiritual sense. This display of material prosperity does not suit the character of the Church of God. His people trust a despised, rejected Lord. They wait for the time when He will be exalted and reigning.

They were full, they were rich, they had reigned as kings, "without us," adds the apostle. It is plain that the apostles were not reigning... they were a spectacle to the world for their sufferings, and to angels as well as men. What a false test, then, of a Christian's condition is what men would call his prosperity!

The thought that the church will one day reign without Christ is very harmful, though it comes naturally to man's heart! The Corinthian saints fell into it (1 Cor. 4:8) and were rebuked for its unspiritual, worldly character. What could be more opposed to the portion of the apostles, and of Christ? We are called to suffer now, not to reign... A loyal Christian heart could not enjoy, or even accept, a reign of saints without Christ, the Firstborn among many brothers.

No doubt it was with much anguish of heart that Paul wrote these words. Bad doctrine, as it always does, had produced bad practice. They had forgotten that the Lord's pathway through this world was one of suffering, shame and loss, and that theirs should be the same. Instead of suffering they preferred indulgence. Instead of trouble they preferred triumph. Instead of the world's curse they preferred its crown... Paul waited patiently for the time of reigning, so he could share it with his beloved children. But they preferred to reign without him.

At the crowning of a British king or queen, the lords and ladies who may attend Westminster Abbey bring their coronets with them. But they do not put them on until the crown goes on the sovereign's head. Today many Christians seem eager to put on their coronets before the Saviour appears, crowned with His many crowns.

They were full and rich, and reigning like kings, having a real "good time." Meanwhile their Lord was still rejected, and His apostles were sharing His rejection. There is a touch of holy sarcasm in Paul's words: "I wish you really were reigning, so that we might reign with you too." The saints will reign when Christ reigns, and the apostles will not be missing from their thrones.

First came the smaller fights, with men and beasts. The great spectacle was kept for the end. Perhaps it was some famous prisoner of war, some notorious criminal, or some fighter who would draw the eager eyes of the blood-crazed crowd. They would shout for his death till they could shout no more. "I think," said Paul, as it were, "that it is like that."

How movingly the apostle corrects their worldly-minded desire. Those whom He put first in the church He displayed last, as patterns of outward suffering. What could be plainer than the place God shows the Christian here below — a place of affliction, apart from the world?

This was the ambition of the apostles — if ambition can ever be holy. God gave it to them when He appointed them last. That place put them nearest to Christ, who went down into depths of suffering where no one could follow Him. But there are sufferings of Christ which grace does share with the Christian, and the apostles knew these best.

As far as this world is concerned, the apostles had much the same lot as the poor people condemned to death. The Romans kept them back for the last scene in their great public shows. The onlookers are not just a holiday crowd at an arena. They are the world, the angels and men. We do well to remember that the church is the lesson-book of the rulers and powers in heavenly places (Ephesians 3:10).

Man is not like the angels — glorious creatures, but kept unfallen by the power of God... In a certain way angels do need mercy, for no creature can even stand unless God upholds it. But they do not need redemption. Grace, mercy and love all come out in man. As Paul says, "we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men."

They gave themselves to Him, and so became a spectacle to the world, to angels and men. How right it will be that they are lifted up with Christ in the coming day of glory!

When God makes the counsels of the heart plain, people will get praise that is worth something, but now it is all a mere nothing.

The apostle writes with the finest feeling. There is sarcasm, but also real love that could use it for good. He sets out the true path of Christ: a path of suffering, but of victory over the world. Faith working by love can alone secure such victory.

The world viewed them as "fools" and "weak", and so "despised" them. But they were content to be thought fools "for Christ's sake". Sadly, like the believers at Corinth, we may often be tempted to use our knowledge of Christ to appear wise in the eyes of the world. We may use it to gain power and honour there.

The saints at Corinth were wise (not for Christ, but) in Christ; they were strong and they were honourable. There is a double meaning in this description. For them, as for their teacher, there is wisdom, strength, and honour in their Head. But the apostle truly grasped his own standing as a man in Christ, and this led him to live and work for Christ.

The world held them up to contempt and ridicule. They were a strange sight to angels and to men, willing to be fools in the world's eyes for Christ's sake. This was practical experience. The Corinthians would stop short at the position that was theirs as "wise in Christ." They did not choose to accept the experience of suffering with Christ that goes with it. In this real Christian experience the apostles were "weak" and "despised." The Corinthians wanted only the attractive side of the truth, with its strength and honour.

They were taking their ease, reigning as kings without us, he said. "And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you," that is, at Christ's appearing. Instead of that, God set the apostles last of all. He did not display them in fine clothes, feasting in luxury every day, though they were first in spiritual power and authority. He set them out as men doomed to death, a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

How much Obadiah missed by pandering to the world, accepting ease and honour among the ungodly! … "You are held in honor," wrote the Apostle to the ease-loving Corinthians, "but we in disrepute." But Paul was happier than they. Yes, standing apart from the world system is loss, as men judge. But the spiritual gain in fellowship with God is immense.

From a worldly standpoint how foolish of Moses to leave the splendid place he had in Pharaoh's court! And so we might go on until we come to Paul and his companions, who were "fools for Christ's sake." What are we who profess the name of Christ? Have we fitted ourselves to the spirit of the age so well that we hardly know what reproach for Christ is?

They had despised the apostle. Yes, he says, we have been put to shame, despised, persecuted, in distress; you have been at ease, like kings. That reproach matched their own pretensions and their own reproaches. It cut them to the quick, if they had any feeling left. Paul and his companions had been like the rubbish swept off the earth for Christ's sake. Meanwhile the Corinthians were resting in comfort and ease. Even while writing to them, this was still his position.

As to circumstances, the Corinthians were "full" and "rich" (verse 8), but these devoted apostles had to face "hunger and thirst". At times they were naked and buffeted by the storms of life. They had to "wander without a home", and labour, working with their own hands to meet their needs.

To make the precious truth of God known, the apostles were willing to sacrifice every earthly advantage. They went as far as hunger and thirst, lack of clothing, hard knocks, and having no settled place to live.

Hardship and mistreatment came upon him; not because he sought them, but because they met him in the path of his devoted service. The world which had persecuted the Master did not spare His zealous follower. In doing His Father's will, the Son of God knew both thirst and hunger. Poverty was His usual condition in the world which He had made. And Paul resembled Jesus, in the way a vessel of divine grace can copy the Fountain which has filled it.

They were a spectacle to the world for their sufferings, and to angels as well as men. How false a test, then, of a Christian's condition, is what men would call his prosperity! As to the Church in general also, how false a test this would be! The Church at large has, as we know, followed the Corinthians in this way. It is reigning far more than suffering… Are we in communion with the apostles or not? They remained, as we know, until their end in martyr deaths, for the most part, in exactly the condition the apostle describes here.

What a crushing contrast — not for the Corinthians of that day only, but for the still more selfish and empty state of our own time, and in fact ever since!

No thrones for the apostles until the day of Christ. In this world they hungered and thirsted. They were naked and buffeted, reviled, persecuted and defamed. They were treated as the scum of the world, the refuse of all things (1 Cor. 4:11-13). So where do the thrones come from that the boasted "successors" of the apostles now sit on?

It pleased God to arrange things so that the great apostle worked at an honest trade to meet his needs, and did so in the wealthiest and most luxurious city of Greece. What a death-blow that is to clericalism on one side and to worldliness on the other! Yet, given the circumstances of both Paul himself and Corinth, this was exactly the course that was worthy of the gospel of the grace that sent it out.

They thought it far beneath a Christian minister to work with his hands from time to time — often poor, sometimes in prison, knocked about by crowds, and so on. They put it all down to bad judgment, and thought he could have avoided it. They wanted a servant of Christ to be respectable, in public and in private.

As to the treatment they received from the world, they were "reviled", "persecuted" and "insulted". Yet this treatment only drew out of them a witness to Christ. When reviled, they blessed. When persecuted, they submitted patiently. When insulted, they entreated.

Paul and his companions had been treated as the scum of the earth for Christ's sake, while the Corinthians were resting in luxury and ease… Patience and meekness were their only weapons.

But if we are to gain the blessing in a time of suffering, we must first give up all thought of taking our case into our own hands and getting revenge on those who wrongly oppose and abuse us. Whatever the suffering, the believer is to hold back from taking vengeance. When reviled, the flesh is always ready to revile back. When it suffers wrongly, it is ready to threaten, and it would love to take vengeance on everyone who opposes and insults us with hard words.

Other Scriptures make it clear that the Christian may "entreat," "exhort," and even "rebuke," but he is never to revile or threaten.

If people call you Beelzebub, you know very well why you should bear it, giving back blessing for cursing. To be like our Master is a privilege we have little of.

Those He put first in the church (1 Cor. 12:28) He put on show last, like the prophets before them, as examples of open suffering. What could be plainer than the place of affliction, apart from the world, that God marks out for the Christian here on earth? On no point is Christendom more at odds with Christ and His word to us.

Clearly those who misled the Corinthians, and the saints they misled, had made the church their world. Principles of the flesh had replaced the grace of Christ for their souls. They had their own schools and spectacles, just as the Greeks outside had. The apostle writes in a burst of the finest feeling. There is sarcasm in it, but also real love that could use sarcasm for good. He sets out the true path of Christ: suffering, but victory over the world.

When people reviled them, they answered with blessing. When persecuted, they endured it quietly. When misrepresented, they pleaded rather than defending themselves in anger. The world treated them as garbage to throw out, or unwanted residue to scrape off a pot. It is worth noticing the phrase "unto this day." This treatment lasts only through the present day of grace. What a change indeed when "the day of the Lord" comes!

This is what the church is called on to do among enemies it cannot set aside. If we are seeking God's glory, we will not want to justify ourselves. There may be pleading — "when slandered, we entreat" — but never proud self-vindication.

As far as this world is concerned, the apostle treated all its glories as loss and filth (Philippians 3:8), while the world, on its side, treated the apostles as filth and the off-scouring of all things. How blessed it is that these servants followed in the steps of their Master. In their own measure they shared in His sufferings at the hands of men. Christ weighs their faithfulness perfectly. In the day to come they will have His praise and share His glories.

They were reigning as kings, these people who could boast that Christ was theirs. Meanwhile Paul and his fellow apostles, men who fully owned that they were Christ's, were the refuse of all things. That is what we learn from chapter 4 of this letter. Paul could not reign where Christ was crucified; he had to be as his Lord.

Hold part of it back, make something of man, and you may be a popular preacher even in Christendom. Declare it fully — the truth of Christ's rejection, and of His glory at the right hand of God; the resulting end of man, and the judgment of the world in the cross… and you must still be counted "as the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things."

As a whole this is impossible — not in this or that detail, which superstition can easily imitate, but as a whole — except through the constraining love of Christ, which makes those who follow Him like Himself. He cheers those who set out and go on in such a path with the bright comfort of reigning together with Him.