judgeth" ( 1Corinthians 4:4 ), thus: To me for my part (though capable of being found faithful) it is a very small matter that I should be approved of by man's judgment; yea, I do not even assume the right of judgment and approving myself--but He that has the right, and is able to judge on my case (the Dijudicator), is the Lord. Then when you have done, go round the neighborhood to see the sick who have lain for ten, or twelve, or fifteen years upon the same bed, and after that go and visit some of God's poverty-stricken children who just exist in this world, and it is but a bare existence, maintained on bread and butter and a little tea, and but too little of even such things as those. 21. with a rod, or in love--The Greek preposition is used in both clauses; must I come IN displeasure to exercise the rod, or IN love, and the Spirit of meekness ( Isaiah 11:4 , 2Corinthians 13:3 )? 1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 3. it is a very small thing--literally, "it amounts to a very small matter"; not that I despise your judgment, but as compared with God's, it almost comes to nothing. 1 Corinthians 4King James Version. You have been chaste and modest, be glad of it: you might not have been so had you been encompassed with other surroundings. They are, however, born with the repute of nobility, and are at once regarded with respect. ye did reign--Translate, "I would indeed," &c. I would truly it were so, and that your kingdom had really begun. He does not seem to have been able to go as soon as he intended. He puts three questions to it in this verse, and these three all called upon his friends to go a little lower in their contemplation of themselves than their pride had before allowed them to go. Here all judgments in general are forbidden, which would, on our part, presumptuously forestall God's prerogative of final judgment. These very comforts that God gives you ought to make you enquire whether there is not something amiss with you, and instead of thinking you are strong and well you should search and see if there is not some weakness which the Lord in his mercy intends to remove by the double comforts which he gives to you. Read 1 Corinthians. Translate, "Already ye are filled full (with spiritual food), already ye are rich, ye have seated yourselves upon your throne as kings, without us." ye . And--"Now," marking transition. And ye are Christ's,.. He comes to set forth his own circumstances and those of the other apostles, and compares them with theirs. Dear brother, you have more joy than some, and possibly you feel ashamed of your fellow Christians who are so doubting and sad: beware that you do not become vain of your joy, and remember, that if your joy is true joy you received it of the Lord. But oh! I have nothing but what I have received. What mighty airs they give themselves! as I teach . the world--to the whole world, including "both angels and men"; "the whole family in heaven and earth" ( Ephesians 3:15 ). What made the difference then? . 4:7-13 We have no reason to be proud; all we have, or are, or do, that is good, is owing to the free and rich grace of God. Irony. We have too much to do to afford to boast. 1 Corinthians 4 is the fourth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. But, nevertheless, if they did so, they would be as wise as men who boast beyond their fellow-creatures because they happen to have more of rank, wealth, honor, and position, in this world. But then, who enlightened your understanding? Why am I not at this day among the most hardened of men? Sometimes there are cases as glaring as they are painful, and as vile as they are grievous. manifest . 5. We are weak, but ye are strong. Beauty is often a snare on this account. Look back some four years with some of you and recollect how different were your surroundings then to what they are now. To them this shows not power, but weakness. For this came--that ye may the better "be followers of me" ( 1Corinthians 4:16 ), through his admonitions. So Paul's master before him was "buffeted" as a slave, when about to die a slave's death ( Matthew 26:67 ). we . I should not dream of ascribing the man's salvation in any measure to himself. Oh no; "By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." Such teaching may appear very lustrous with affected holiness, and very fascinating, with pretended spirituality, and there may be much in your fondest desires which inclines your heart towards it, as there always is in the novelties of the present day, but try it whether it be of God by the test which is here suggested. Look with what pleasure he sees his comely face reflected in his breastplate; how much he admires his plume, he thinks how grand he shall look in such gear. So he sent into Macedonia Timotheus and Erastus." well did the poet say. When you reach the kingdom, you shall be our "crown of rejoicing, in the presence of our Lord Jesus" ( 1Thessalonians 2:19 ). 11. In this respect, what have we that we did not receive? Translate, "My son, beloved and faithful in the Lord." a. My dear fellow, all this while you have forgotten that to wear these things in the thick of the battle, where they will bear the dint of the sword, is what awaits you, and you do not consider that, not your gallant appearance, but your velour is what we want to see. Take these two cases then, and you have, heaven knows, reason enough to sing to the praise of sovereign grace. . Go and dwell with the Pharisee. What are we, after all, but as grasshoppers in his sight, as drops of the bucket, as lumps of animated dust; we are but the infants of a day when we are most old; we are but the insects of an hour when we are most strong; we are but the wild ass's colt when we are most wise, we are but as folly and vanity when we are most excellent let that tend to humble us. Why do you do it? but I should have gone as low as that, I should have been as black as he, unless restraining grace had kept me back in my unregeneracy, and unless constraining grace had pushed me forward in the heavenly race, ever since I have known the will of Jesus.". It will live on any soil. If the worst of examples had been before us instead of the best, what might we not have become? Lord--Jesus Christ, whose "ministers" we are ( 1Corinthians 4:1 ), and who is to be the judge ( John 5:22 John 5:27 , Acts 10:42 , 17:31 ). Free grace hath done it from the first to the last. 2. In what way is a new-born babe noble? 1 Corinthians 4:7 . Paul, in contrast, "thinks" that God has sent forth him and his fellow ministers "last," that is, the lowest in this world. Are they not our future rulers? There are some men and women of whose salvation, if it were to be wrought by man, we must indeed utterly despair; for their hearts are harder than the most stubborn steel. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 1:1-9 All Christians are by baptism dedicated and devoted to Christ, and are under strict obligations to be holy. The first is this. The man who knows that the Holy Spirit was first in his operations upon the mind, and who calls Christ Jesus the Alpha and the Omega of his salvation, is the man who can fairly go to the Lord, and pray for the conversion of this man or that; and he too is sure to give God all the glory of his salvation, and magnify and bless the grace of the Most High. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" 103 (Vers. Help My Unbelief!" "I seek not yours, but you." I can pity you. How do I feel? then let me serve him more than others. But who gave him that talent? How frightful is the sin of drunkenness, which degrades a man into a beast, which sinks him lower than the brutes themselves! Pride said, "I have such and such gifts"; but Paul replied, "what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" But this is not the most important point for us to observe. Everything, dear friend, that makes you to differ from the common sinner is the gift of God's grace to you. 12. working with our own hands--namely, "even unto this present hour" ( 1Corinthians 4:11 ). If I was asked, "Why is a man damned?" Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. O sirs, never sacrifice to your own net and drag, and say, "We brought up these treasures from the deep"; but bless God who gave you all that you have of earthly things, for what have you that you have not received? 1 Corinthians 5. "What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" That is true; an unwilling faith would be no faith: but then who influenced your will? Tools 1Co 4:3 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. Let us give of our substance to his cause, give of our time to his service and have our hearts in his love, and so shall we be blessed, for in returning Christ's love we shall feel that his love is shed abroad more fully in our hearts and more fully in our understandings. So let the man who boasts in experience remember that in the paths of peace he has gone nowhere except as the Lord's hand has borne him onward; he has been nothing but a staff in God's hands, and while he should be grateful he should never be proud. How often is our blood chilled with the sound of an imprecation, and how frequently our heart is made to palpitate with the daring impieties of the blasphemous. But the generality of the term "angels," and its frequent use in a good sense, as well as Ephesians 3:10 , 1Peter 1:12 , incline me to include good as well as bad angels, though, for the reasons stated above, the bad may be principally meant. (See Galatians 3:24-25 .) Here we will insert an illustration or two. Only by experimentally knowing that there has been a special work of grace in your own soul, will you be likely to place the Lord where he should be in your creed, for some provide a very inferior place for the Lord in the matter of their salvation. True, but who gave you the judgment, and who gave you the health with which to be industrious? . 1 Corinthians 12:4-11King James Version. Your spiritual prosperity would redound to that of us, your fathers in Christ ( 1Corinthians 9:23 ). He has just entered the service. 4. by myself--Translate, "I am conscious to myself of no (ministerial) unfaithfulness." . The Corinthians have become arrogant in their judgment, forgetting that all the good they have is a gift. O God forgive us, that such beasts as we are should ever be proud." Let us be like the great lakes of America, which receive the mighty rivers and pour them out again, and consequently keep fresh and clear. but the power--I care not for their high-sounding "speech," "but" what I desire to know is "their power," whether they be really powerful in the Spirit, or not. buffeted--as a slave ( 1Peter 2:20 ), the reverse of the state of the Corinthians, "reigning as kings" ( Acts 23:2 ). To such the music of the gospel is like singing to a dead ear, and the dropping of the word is as dew upon a rock. I would I could have a church all alive, all active, so that there never could be a want but those who have would be ready to supply, and never a work but those who are qualified would be ready to fulfll. I counsel thee buy of Jesus gold tried in the fire, and fine linen wherewith thou mayest be clothed. Paul is acknowledged as the author both by the letter itself ( 1:1-2; 16:21) and by the early church fathers. Oh! Read full chapter. Some there are of God's children who were once in affluence but have been suddenly plunged into the lowest depths of penury; they knew what it was to be respected among the sons of men, but now they are among the dogs of the flock, and no man careth for them. Be as confident as you can in your God, but be distrustful of yourself. A very few weeks, and those of us who have been loved more than others, those of us who have thought we could wash Christ's feet with our tears, and wipe them with the hair of our heads, will hare no more opportunities for spreading the name and fame of our glorious Redeemer.