For I am conscious of nothing in myself; but I am not justified by this but he that examines me is the Lord.
The believers at Corinth had sized Paul up and graded him. In reply he moves his own case to a higher court. He can say his conscience is clear. Then he refuses to treat that clear conscience as a verdict.
Older translations read, "I know nothing by myself." That wording has confused many readers, because it sounds like a claim to know nothing at all. One writer explains the expression and the clause that follows it:
"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.
Paul's conscience was good, and he says so. What he denies is that a good conscience settles the matter.
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.
This cuts at a common idea of holiness: that it means being kept from the sins we know about. One writer sees Paul heading off that mistake:
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.
If our awareness is not the measure, then things may be wrong in us that we have never noticed. One writer notes how Paul holds his integrity and his ignorance together:
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?
Paul's answer to his critics is not that they are beneath him. The enquiry is not theirs to hold.
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.
One writer sorts the judgments in this passage into four, and ranks them:
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.
- Conscience — Paul had no accusation on his conscience. It is a real and good thing to be able to say that.
- Not acquittal — A clear conscience does not clear a man. Being unaware of anything wrong does not prove he is right.
- Omniscience — The Lord judges him by what He knows, not by what Paul knows. Hidden faults may be there that he never saw.
- Court — The examination belongs to the Lord alone, and this applies to the least servant as much as to an apostle.
- Finality — The Lord's court is the last one, and it alone is perfect. It will bring everything to light.
So that do not judge anything before [the] time, until the Lord shall come, who shall also both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and shall make manifest the counsels of hearts; and then shall each have [his] praise from God.
Paul has just refused to let the Corinthians judge him as a servant of Christ. Here he says why their verdicts are worthless: they come too early, and from the wrong court.
Two courts are in view. One meets now and insists on being heard. The other has not yet opened.
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.
Paul does not even trust his own assessment of himself. Being unaware of any fault is not the same as being cleared.
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.
Two things stay outside our reach: what people did in the dark, and why they did it. So a verdict now is guesswork — and the guesswork cuts both ways.
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.
The Lord's light will go further than exposing what people hid on purpose. It will reach motives the person himself never traced.
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!
This verse is often quoted to shut down every kind of judging. In its setting it bans one particular thing, and the next chapter shows the same church failing the opposite way.
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.
The dividing line drawn from this verse is simple: actions are open to us, motives are not.
We are to judge actions, but never motives. God alone can judge perfectly the motive of our every word and action.
Commentators read the closing phrase (ESV: "his commendation from God") in two ways. Some put the stress on where the praise comes from, not on who receives it:
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.
Others note what Paul does not say here, and point to the Lord's aim in it all:
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!
If others judge you unfairly, this verse hands the case over instead of fighting it out now.
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.
- Wrong court. Your critics, your admirers and your own conscience all belong to "man's day". Only the Lord's inquiry settles anything.
- Wrong time. A verdict now goes out without the evidence: the hidden things and the counsels of the heart, including our own, are out of reach.
- Right scope. The verse bans judging motives, not actions. Chapter 5 shows the same church failing by refusing to judge what was plain.
- Right day. When the Lord comes, His light reaches even the motives a person never traced in himself.
- Right praise. Commentators differ on whether all are praised, or only that all praise comes from God. Both agree: the only praise worth waiting for is His.