1 Corinthians 4:1-21 Unity around the Qualities of Leadership
1 Corinthians 4: Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. 4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
As we started last week on this chapter of Scripture, we’re considering Qualities of a Christian Leader. The standards for Christian leadership are different than the standards for leadership in the world. I ran across some worldly wisdom about leadership.
“The question, ‘Who ought to be boss?’, is like asking, ‘Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?’ Obviously, the man who can sing tenor.” ― Henry Ford
“It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.” ― Adlai Stevenson
“People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.” ― Thomas Sowell
“First rule of leadership: everything is your fault.” ― A Bug’s Life
We summarized this chapter last week with two points: What are Christian leaders to be, and what are they not to be
What are the qualities of a faithful Christian leader: what we covered last time
I. The Christian leader is a Servant.
II. The Christian leader is a Steward.
Servants and stewards: In relationship to others, the Christian leader is the supreme servant. He or she gives themselves in service to everyone. The have an attitude of service. They not only look at the overall goals for an organization, but at the needs and growth of the individual. Even when someone opposes them, they seek to restore.
"Servant" in our English New Testament usually represents the Greek doulos (bondslave). Sometimes it means diakonos (deacon or minister); this is strictly accurate, for doulos and diakonos are synonyms. Both words denote a man who is not at his own disposal, but is his master's purchased property. Bought to serve his master's needs, to be at his beck and call every moment, the slave's sole business is to do as he is told. Christian service therefore means, first and foremost, living out a slave relationship to one's Savior (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.
And a steward- a household manager- is still a slave simply managing his master’s property.
III. The Christian Leader is Immune to human criticism
What we mean by being above human criticism is that you don’t change the standards because those you lead, or those you teach don’t like the standards. As a parent of teacher, there are times that I enforce a policy, or teach a lesson, and the child I am teaching or correcting says, “I don’t like you, you are not fair.” But I don’t change the standard because I am criticized. That’s what Paul is saying about leadership in the church.
3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. 4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
What is he saying here? That you have to have a thick hide as a Christian leader. In any position of leadership, you have to be somewhat immune to criticism. Everybody has an opinion about, “What we ought to be doing.” And there will be back-seat drivers and side-line quarterbacks in every endeavor in life. But the Christian leader has to be especially immune. Why? Because there is nobody but One that he is to be concerned about in terms of judgment; only the Lord. Look at what Paul says,
3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.
Even though he has told them that he wants them to regard him as a servant and a steward, he is not beholden to them for their evaluation. “It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you.”
There were people in the Corinthian church, and other Christian churches who were judging Paul.
2 Corinthians 10:10 For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.
Even in verse 18 of this chapter,
Now some have become puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.
They criticized Paul, not just for his speaking ability, but also his reliability.
And remember, this whole section of Scripture was written to address people who had a party spirit; “I am of Paul, I am of Apollos” which means that people judging each of these individuals by human standards and determining that one was superior in some quality over another. “Paul is boring.” Did Paul let it bother him? No
Paul says, “It is a small thing to me if you judge me. It doesn’t matter to me.” And then this nugget, “I don’t even judge myself.” He doesn’t sit around evaluating his actions, his preaching, his style. He’s not a naval-gazer.
Now, he’s not saying that he doesn’t look over his own life to determine if what he is doing is good or bad. He clarifies that.
4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.
What he’s saying is that the work that he is doing is the Lord’s work. And he is not aware of any glaring sin in his life. So, he doesn’t sit around and pick apart everyone of his actions and words.
Let me illustrate. I get up and preach every week. And when I get up and preach, I am usually very confident about the content of the message. I am very confident that I am delivering to you the truth of the gospel. But some weeks I do a better job communicating that truth. Some weeks I know that “you got it.” I know that I was able to effectively communicate the message. But in other weeks I know that my delivery could have been better. You walk by after the service and say, “Good sermon,” and I hear, “Nice try.”
But do you know what, that doesn’t bother me so much. “If I gave my best effort to deliver the message to you, and my abilities faltered some, I don’t worry about it.” I don’t judge myself in regard to style.
Like Paul I say, “I don’t see anything that should be judged in the content of what I said, so, what you think, or even I think about my style doesn’t matter, the one who judges me is the Lord.”
Then he goes on to say,
5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
What he’s saying is that when judgment from the Lord does come, it won’t be a judgment of eloquence or intellect. What will be judged? “The hidden things of darkness,” and I believe that “the hidden things” are further explained with the next words, “the counsels of the hearts.” What will be judged? My motives, your motives. Not how good our delivery was.
The most brilliant Christian parents are not judged by how good they were at convincing their child to obey. The best of Christian parents are not judged by how well their children turned out. No, they will be judged by their faithfulness, their example, their love, and how well they followed through with instruction and correction when they addressed behavior.
So, a Christian leader has a servant’s heart toward others, the faithful attitude of a steward in regard to the Word, and doesn’t worry about the praise or criticism of people. He puts his trust that the Lord knows his faithfulness.
We sometimes criticize others unfairly. We don't know all their circumstances, nor their motives. Only God, who is aware of all the facts, is able to judge people righteously. John Wesley told of a man he had little respect for because he considered him to be miserly and covetous. One day when this person contributed only a small gift to a worthy charity, Wesley openly criticized him.
After the incident, the man went to Wesley privately and told him he had been living on parsnips and water for several weeks. He explained that before his conversion, he had run up many bills. Now, by skimping on everything and buying nothing for himself he was paying off his creditors one by one. "Christ has made me an honest man," he said, "and so with all these debts to pay, I can give only a few offerings above my tithe. I must settle up with my worldly neighbors and show them what the grace of God can do in the heart of a man who was once dishonest." Wesley then apologized to the man and asked his forgiveness.
Daily Bread, July 20, 1992.
IV. The Christian Leader is not proud.
6 Now these things, brothers, I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to go beyond what is written, so that no one of you will become puffed up on behalf of one against the other.
A. Puffed up
Now Paul spends some time talking about one of the greatest temptations for Christian leaders; pride.
This must have been a very large problem in the Corinthian church, because it is addressed repeatedly in the letter. Over and over again Paul mentions pride, arrogance as a problem. The whole letter starts by addressing factions, which were a pride problem. Some were saying, “I am of Paul.” “I am of Apollos.” They were proud of themselves, and the clique they formed. And that’s not the last time he addresses pride. Let’s look at other places in the letter.
1:19 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”
31 so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the[t]Lord.”
3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise.
21 So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you,
4: 7 For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
5: It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.2 And [a]you have become puffed up and [b]have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
6 Your boasting is not good.
8: Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
13: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Pride over gifts
16: 14 Let all that you do be done in love.
Paul gives them himself and Apollos as examples of this kind of servant leadership. They didn’t exalt themselves, they lived in service to the churches. They were not puffed up.
The words for “puffed up” mean literally that. Someone who is self-inflated. It is translated arrogant in other places. Paul and Apollos did not “self-inflate.” Try to make themselves more important, or appear more important than they were. And this would be a great temptation. Paul just said that he didn’t listen to the judgments of others, the only one who should judge him is the Lord. And sometimes, people given positions of leadership are tempted to be arrogant. God is my boss. You can’t judge me.
Now we don’t know a lot about Apollos in terms of his service to the church. But we do know a lot about Paul and his service to the church. There’s an entire chapter where Paul lays out everything that he has sacrificed for the church. He was the opposite of proud-nothing, in service to the Church and the Lord, was below him.
2 Corinthians 11: 23 Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in [e]far more labors, in [f]far more imprisonments, in beatings without number, in frequent danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked—a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the desolate places, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brothers. 27 I have been in labor and hardship, in many sleepless nights, in starvation and thirst, often hungry, in cold and [g]without enough clothing. 28 Apart from such [h]external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak without my being weak? Who is made to stumble [i]without my burning concern?
No pride there—he continues instructing them about pride.
B. Go beyond what is written.
I don’t want you to think of yourself above what Scripture has already written about your pride.
Scripture addressed pride repeatedly.
The Bible already has a great numbers of verses addressing pride.
Isaiah 2:12The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled), Jeremiah 9:23This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, Proverbs 8:13To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Proverbs 16:18Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
The people in Corinth were taking pride in themselves. And it wasn’t even that most of them were great teachers themselves. They were priding themselves in that they were the followers of a particular great teacher.
There were likely those who were gifted in their own right, and here is Paul’s word to them. Even if you are gifted.
C. You still have no reason to be proud.
7 For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
Here’s his reasoning. No matter what you are taking pride in, you received it from someone else, so how can you take pride in it? Take anything in your life. Anything that you particularly value. Your family, your intellect, your home, you received all of it. It was given to you.
I am amused when people come up to me and say, “That’s a beautiful tie.” What am I supposed to say? “Thank you, I knitted it myself.” I didn’t make the tie, why am I proud for wearing it?
God is your creator, and He was and is Sovereign over your circumstances. You might say, “I studied hard to earn the degrees and knowledge that I have.” But wasn’t it God who gave you the brain capable of absorbing that knowledge? You say, “I worked hard to get my home and possessions.” But didn’t God give you the capability to work hard, and the life circumstances that allowed you to prosper from your work. What if you had been born in Cuba? Would you have the same possessions today? But you were given a gift. Being born in this country.
What’s the point? There is no reason to be proud.
I call this the dripping with sarcasm section. He is speaking tongue in cheek.
8 You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have ruled without us—and how I wish that you had ruled indeed so that we also might rule with you. 9 For, I think that God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are prudent in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are glorious, but we are without honor! 11 To this present hour we hunger and thirst, and are poorly clothed, and roughly treated, and homeless; 12 and we labor, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; 13 when we are slandered, we try to plead; we have become as the scum of the world, the grime of all things, even until now.
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