Paul instructs the Corinthians to regard apostles as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Faithfulness, not popularity or public approval, is the standard, and final judgment belongs to the Lord.
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
1 So let a man think of us as Christ’s servants, and stewards of God’s mysteries.
2 Here, moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man’s judgment. Yes, I don’t judge my own self.
4 For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord.
5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each man will get his praise from God.
Paul applies these truths to himself and Apollos so the Corinthians will stop going beyond Scripture and becoming arrogant in favor of one leader over another. He reminds them that everything they have was received, not self-generated.
1 Corinthians 4:6-7
6 Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to think beyond the things which are written, that none of you be puffed up against one another.
7 For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn’t receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
Paul exposes Corinthian triumphalism through biting irony. While they imagine themselves rich, honored, and reigning, the apostles live as condemned, weak, dishonored, hungry, persecuted, and treated as the refuse of the world.
1 Corinthians 4:8-13
8 You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you.
9 For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men.
10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor.
11 Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place.
12 We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure.
13 Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.
Paul clarifies that he writes not to shame them merely, but to admonish them as beloved children. As their spiritual father in Christ through the gospel, he calls them to imitate him and sends Timothy to remind them of his ways in Christ.
1 Corinthians 4:14-17
14 I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
15 For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News.
16 I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.
17 Because of this I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every assembly.
Paul confronts arrogant persons who assume he will not come. He warns that when he comes, he will test not their talk but their power, because the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. He closes by asking whether they want him to come with discipline or gentleness.
18 Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.
19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing. And I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.
20 For God’s Kingdom is not in word, but in power.
21 What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?