Since we have so many who haven’t been with us in the first seven messages through our study of 1 Corinthians, it would probably be fitting for us to have a bit of a summary of where we are this morning. As I introduced this book several weeks ago, if you can imagine a really, really unhealthy church and then ratchet that image up at least four-fold in terms of being unhealthy, then you’ve begun to capture in your mind what the church at Corinth looked like.
As I said specifically in the introductory message to our series, when I say the church is unhealthy, I don’t mean just that they aren’t committed to expositing the text each Sunday or don’t practice church discipline or meaningful membership. I mean they’re doing things in the church and celebrating certain sins that even pagans would be ashamed of. They’re divided. They’re not only ignoring church discipline, they are actually bragging about their tolerance of sexually immoral practices. They’re settling some of their arguments between church members by suing one another. They have unhealthy marriages left and right. They’re not looking out for one another’s good at all. I mean, when they eat the Lord’s Supper, for example, some are rushing ahead and eating all the elements before others get there and are getting drunk on the wine they used for the meal. They’re using the gifts given to them by the Holy Spirit not to minister to each other but are bragging about their gifts in comparison and using them to claim they’re better than others. And to top it off, some are saying there’s not going to be a resurrection of the dead. That’s the church Paul is writing to in this letter.
Now, since we’re only a few chapters into the letter, Paul obviously hasn’t gone after all of these issues, but he has tackled the issues of their self-exaltation, divisiveness, and pursuit of things the world sees as valuable and worthy of applause. He’s told them that dividing behind different leaders, saying, “I am of Apollos,” for example, to the exclusion of Paul is prideful, misses that these men are mere servants of Christ and gifts from God, and shows that they’re settling for less than God has for them, since God has given them all of these men to learn from and profit from. Moreover, he’s confronted them in their pursuit of valuing what the world values by trying to be wise, powerful, and honored according to the world’s standards, when God’s very design in working our salvation through the work of Christ (and the proclamation of it) is not to appeal to the world’s wisdom. He knows they will deem it as foolish, but through the foolishness of the gospel and its proclamation, God is destroying worldly wisdom and thwarting worldly discernment. God’s design is not to have the world praise the church, the cross, or our gospel preaching in this life. The only way that’ll happen is if individuals repent, cease to identify with the world, identify with Christ, and have their eyes opened by the Spirit to see that what they once deemed as foolish and weak is actually the power and wisdom of God.
That brings us to our text this morning, where Paul brings this first argument that has stretched over these first four chapters to its conclusion, before going on to another topic in chapter 5. And I think it’s a fair summary of our text this morning to say that Paul seeks to correct the Corinthians’ delusion concerning what the Christian life actually looks like.
Therefore, it’s fitting for us to make sure we don’t have a deluded view of the Christian life. It’s good for us to ask ourselves this morning, “What does the Christian life look like? What’s it supposed to look like? Are there things we’re expecting as Christians or paths we’re pursuing that simply shouldn’t be our expectations?”
You see, it’s crucial that you and I get an accurate picture of what following Christ most consistently looks like because if we are deluded in terms of what our lives will look like if we faithfully follow Christ, then it may make our knees buckle when our Christian faith comes into harsh conflict with the world around us, as the world brings its disapproval, judgment, mockery, and even hatred. It may make us pause in our pursuit of following Christ when we are regarded by society in certain categories no one desires.
So, this morning, I want us to look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4:6-21, believing that it is a picture or model concerning what a life of following Christ looks like.
First, we see that:
In short, what Paul is going to describe in these verses is utterly incompatible with a proud heart or spirit. In fact, our pride—not persecution, not mockery, not suffering, not weakness—will be the greatest hindrance to us living the life that Paul lays out in these verses. I will go so far as to say that if you and I look closely at Paul’s description of his life as he follows Christ and at our lives as we follow Christ, and we see a great difference, it may be that the accurate diagnosis is simply we are just too proud for our lives to look like Paul. We may well think we’re better than that and deserve better than what Paul lays out. But, before we get to Paul’s description of his life, let me show you in the text why I’m saying that the Christian life gives no room for arrogant pride and boasting.
Paul begins, writing in verse 6, “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 is, Paul has been talking about leaders, like himself and Apollos, but he’s not been talking about them in some way that is unconnected to what the Corinthians are doing. Rather, he had an aim in mind. He wanted the Corinthians to learn through what he was saying about himself and Apollos “not to go beyond what is written.” He wanted them to start making application to themselves in regard to what Paul was saying about himself and Apollos.
Now, I think that concept is easy enough to comprehend, but there’s a phrase that Paul uses in verse 6 that is a bit confusing. What does he mean by “not to go beyond what is written”? We might guess simply that he doesn’t want the Corinthians to go beyond what he’s written in the first three chapters. That is, there’s no need to do more or other than what he’s written; just obey what he’s said. He’s not asking them to be creative, just obey.
Or, we might say more specifically that by “what is written,” Paul is specifically referring to the Old Testament texts that he’s quoted along the way. After all, when Paul writes “what is written” is his letters almost every time (if not every time) he’s referencing an Old Testament text. And throughout the first three chapters, he’s cited the Old Testament explicitly in six different places, all of which he has used to show the folly of human boasting in light of the wisdom and plans of God.
Therefore, whichever of these two things Paul might be referring to—his argument as a whole in the first three chapters or the Old Testament citations explicitly—I think we’re safe to see that Paul is warning them not to think that they need wisdom, power, or honor beyond that which God has shown us is true wisdom, true power, and true honor. That is, Paul’s thought may be summarized as: “Stop trying to be wiser than God. Don’t go beyond what he said, supposing you’re smarter or stronger or better than God is at knowing what is good and right and needed by us.” This is the very thing the Corinthians had done, going beyond God’s divine wisdom and chasing after a wisdom of this world so that they might boast.
And this understanding seems to be supported when we see that Paul ends the verse writing, “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” (v. 6). The heart of their problem was pride. The reason they were wanting to be wise in the world’s eyes, powerful in the world’s judgment, and honored among those in the world is because they were proud.
So, Paul not only exhorts them not to be proud in pursuing man’s wisdom but he kicks the prideful platform out from under them in verse 7, asking, “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?”
Since all of our lives, everything about us, and everything we do that may make us appear superior in any way to any other individual is simply a gift of God’s grace. Everything about you this morning is a gift. Did you have a good family? That’s a gift. Do you have intellectual abilities? That’s a gift. Do you have a tender heart toward the things of God? That’s a gift. Everything we have is no less than a gift from God. And that leaves no room for arrogant pride and boasting. Therefore, Paul starts there. If you what to know what the Christian life looks like, you can start by seeing that the Christian life gives absolutely no room for pride and boasting.
But now let’s begin to answer the question a bit more positively. In verses 8-13 we can note that:
At Christ’s return, everything will be made right. The books will be balanced, and as God’s people, we will know eternal blessing. We will reign with Christ as 2 Timothy 2:12 reminds us. However, right now, we are not yet in eternity. And in this age, there is suffering. This is why Paul can say that we suffer with Christ (in this age) in order that we might be glorified with him (in the age to come) (Romans 8:17).
Yet, from Paul’s perspective, as he heard of how the Corinthians were living and acting, he saw them as individuals who were living in this age as if they were already fully in the age to come. And he calls them out on this with a bit of sarcasm, writing, “Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! [Noting how he indeed wished we were in eternity by continuing] And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!” (v. 8).
However, in reality, that certainly wasn’t the case. Paul knew that we still lived in an age where there is suffering, Satan, sin, and death. And he wanted the Corinthians to know that what they were pursuing in terms of wanted they wanted their lives as Christians to look like was quite different from Paul’s life. Therefore, he begins to describe his life as a follower of Christ.
First, he writes, “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” (v. 9). Paul’s image of who he is as a follower of Christ is taken from the imagery of the triumphal procession of a Roman conqueror. As the Romans conquered a people they would lead a triumphant procession through the city toward the coliseum. And they would drag behind them those who have been conquered, high-ranking military officials, followed by lower-ranking officials and soldiers, followed finally by the lowest classes of people and slaves who would be at the end of the procession and be thrown to animals or killed by gladiators.
That’s how Paul pictures his role and his identity as a follower of Christ. He, as an apostle, is at the end of Christ’s victorious triumphal procession, with the world and angels themselves looking on at the spectacles. His life is merely to be used to honor Christ’s cosmic victory. His life belongs to Christ and is to be used by Christ to whatever end Christ desires to honor Christ’s name.
And as Paul seeks to honor his Lord in this world, that translates into him looking and sounding like a fool for Christ’s sake, looked on as weak in the world, and held in disrepute by all. The Corinthians, however, are too proud for that, and they want to be seen as wise, honored, and strong. They’ve refused to think that road of foolishness, weakness, and disrepute is fitting for them. They want the world to see them as wise, powerful, and honored.
But Paul presses on, continuing the description of his life. He writes in verses 11-12a, “To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands.” On top of Paul says that he is a recipient of reviling, persecution, and slander (12b-13), having become the “scum of the world, the refuse of all things” (13b).
And before we quickly dismiss this as a portrait of the Christian life by telling ourselves, “Well, Paul was an apostle,” let me point to you verse 16 where Paul says, “I urge you, then, be imitators of me.”
Now, in light of this, let’s ask the question again, “What do we expect our lives to look like if we follow Christ?” Or perhaps we should ask it this way: “What do we expect our lives to look like if we follow a Christ who was crucified, nailed to a cross so that he drowned in his own blood at the hands of his enemies, and told us that no servant is above his master?” Or perhaps we can ask it this way: “What do we expect our lives to look like if we pursue divine wisdom, divine power, and divine honor in this world where the Lord tells us others will see it as foolishness, weakness, and downright idiotic?” I mean, if we were just starting our Christian lives, and this text was all we had to go by, wouldn’t we answer this saying, “We may well be regarded as the scum of the earth”?
Therefore, maybe one reason we struggle in following Christ is that our expectations are just off? Maybe we expect and long for the same things the Corinthians were longing for at times? Maybe we expect that we should be able to fit in with the world, be fashionable with the world, receive honor and respect from the world, and so on? Maybe we’ve said to Christ, in essence, “Yes, I’ll take up my cross, but I’m not quite ready to sacrifice the praise, acceptance, and admiration of the world. I mean, I don’t want to appear foolish in front of my neighbors, or co-workers, or fellow students.”
You see, I’m afraid that the great fight we’re going to increasingly have as a church in our culture, isn’t going to be found in bearing up against physical abuse (though that may indeed happen). But my guess is that it’ll be the pressure of being labeled foolish, ignorant, bigoted, and the like for arguing that we should be abstinent till marriage, that pursuing homosexuality is sinful, that husbands should love and lead their wives who walk in submission to them, that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and more.
If we love the approval of the world, crave it, and think that the world’s praise and our Christian obedience are compatible, then it is quite likely that we will surrender our Christian convictions are met with the world’s strong disdain. Isn’t that what the Corinthians were facing. I mean, this isn’t the first age in the history of the church where professing believers who made up local churches were boasting about their tolerance of sexual immorality, as churches in our day do, declaring their unwillingness to call pursuing a homosexual lifestyle sin. The Corinthians felt this pressure of the world’s approval, and when the gospel met the disapproval of the world, they had not been willing to let go of having the world’s approval. In their minds they hadn’t signed up to be regarded as scum and refuse in the world’s eyes. But that’s exactly what we’re willing to be considered when we place our faith in Christ.
Now, we may well live in an exceptional time and place. Perhaps we can stand strong in our Christian convictions and be admired and prosper. But let us understand that this is exceptional. Let us teach our kids what it looks like to follow Christ by pointing them to verses 8-13, not to some exception. Let them know that following Christ means we’ll be reviled, persecuted, and slandered while responding with blessing, enduring, and entreating. Let them know we’ve signed up to be the scum of the world and the refuse of all things. Only then will you be preparing them to follow a crucified Master who told us that his wisdom, strength, and honor will lead us to be considered as foolish, weak, and disreputable in this world. Read them this text and then read them Paul’s exhortation, “Be imitators of me.” That’s what our standard expectation for the Christian life should be.
The Christian life gives no room for pride, and it means following a crucified Lord as we pursue what looks like weakness, foolishness, and dishonor. But I want us to see one more thing:
Paul begins this last section of our text (vv. 14-21) by noting that he’s not intending to shame them by what he’s said in verses 8-13. Rather, he just wants to admonish them.
But Paul isn’t content to allow his role in their lives merely be an exhorter. He is much more than that. He tells them that he thinks of them as their father. After noting that though they’ve had many teach them as guides, they don’t have many fathers, and then he adds, “I become your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (v. 15). He’s the one who brought them the gospel and nurtured them and built them up in the Christian faith.
I think it can be easy of us to think of perhaps teaching other believers on occasion or even praying for them here and there. But the Christian life means being willing to spend your life as a model of obedience to Christ so that others might imitate you. It means being willing to be fathers and mothers in the faith. This is a difficult but necessary labor for us.
But you may hear that statement and say, “Well, I can’t be a father or mother to anyone here. After all, Paul led these Corinthians to faith, but the people around me professed faith in Christ before I ever met them.” So, let me put down that obstacle for a second. Paul will go on to say that he sent (or is sending) Timothy to them so that he can remind them of how their lives need to be lived. But notice what he calls Timothy: “my beloved and faithful child in the Lord” (v. 17).
Now, Paul, it seems, did not lead Timothy to the Lord. Rather, Timothy heard the gospel from his mother and grandmother and believed. But that didn’t stop Paul from taking Timothy and modeling the faith for him, teaching him and showing him what it looks like to live as a follower of Christ. Paul imitated the faith for him, just as he was now imitating the faith for the Corinthians and calling them to imitate him.
That’s what we must be willing to do for one another. The Corinthians, it seems, weren’t struggling with understanding penal substitutionary atonement. They were struggling to live out the faith. They needed a model to imitate, one who would father them, even as fathers aren’t content merely to teach their children but to model life for them. That is the role we must be committed to take on in the church as followers of Christ. We must be willing to invite others into our lives so that we might model the faith and faithful obedience. We must be willing to show what difficult obedience and humble repentance looks like as they see it in us.
Now, I know that’s a calling we’re tempted to shy away from. Thinking of ourselves as fathers and having fathers in the church feels a bit awkward. But following Christ faithfully demands that we don’t think of the Christian life as a solo task. And if we’re going to help others, it means not only teaching them correct precepts of doctrine but also showing them how to live it out. It means we’re willing to give our lives so that others might honor and worship our Lord.
And on top of that, we don’t only model the Christian faith but do everything necessary to help them fight for holiness. In Paul’s case, he was not only writing this letter, but he was coming to the Corinthians for a visit. He wanted to confront any who were misleading the Corinthians. He wanted them to see that it doesn’t matter if what you’re saying gets the praise of the world as if you’re wise. Rather, what matters is whether or not we’re seeing the power of the gospel that changes lives. Paul wanted them to be a people transformed by the gospel, and he was willing to do whatever it took to help them get there. If he could come in a spirit of gentleness, he loved that. If he had to come with a measure of lovingly harsh discipline, he’d do that too.
You see, nobody likes confrontation. No one who is healthy at least wakes up thinking, “Man, I hope I get to restore my brother who has been caught in a transgression.” But understanding the corporate reality of the Christian life means that following Christ means loving our brothers and sisters enough to do anything necessary to see them honor and worship the Lord faithfully.
Now, this is a hard word to me. I struggle with pride. I like acceptance and praise. I’m selfish with my time, and energy, and life. But we’re called to follow one who humbled himself to the point of death on a cross so that we might follow him and lead others to do the same.
So, it may be that you and I this morning need to repent of being more like the Corinthians than Paul. But, if so, there is good news. We can repent, remembering the life, death, and resurrection of Christ for us, asking and trusting him to strengthen us to walk in difficult obedience to his commands. Therefore, as we come to the table this morning, remembering the one who was slain for us, let us visibly and publicly proclaim that we’re committed by his grace to take up our cross and follow him. Amen.