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Servants of Christ: Humility and Faithfulness in Ministry
1 Corinthians 4:1-13
This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. 2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God. 6 Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. 7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? 8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! 9 For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. 10 We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honoured, we are dishonoured! 11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.
Monday 12th February
This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. 2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.
Paul has been insisting that the community at Corinth should not break up because some favour one leader over another. He has been effectively telling the Corinthians not to put their leaders on a pedestal. In our age of celebrity this is highly relevant. Paul’s aim is to help the Corinthians have a realistic view of what Christian leadership looks like, and that can be summed up in one word – servanthood. Christian leaders are those who have been given particular responsibilities of service. Have you ever experienced a church leader who forgot that this was their primary task? What happened? How did your church or community deal with that? How can Christian leaders prevent themselves from becoming proud and authoritarian? At the same time, however, those of us who are not in positions of leadership also have responsibilities – to support our leaders and not to begin to think that they are their simply to serve us – to do what we want! Leaders are servants of Christ and this should not be translated into – “servants of us”! Pray for those in leadership today.
Tuesday 13th February
3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
Paul, like every other believer given the responsibility of leadership, must be found faithful. But it seems strange that he should say that he does not care who judges him. He is concerned only with what God has to say. Does this mean that he doesn’t care what people think? Or that he won’t listen to criticism or advice? That would surely be inconsistent with good leadership and even healthy community living, which is , to a large extent, what this letter is all about. Perhaps he is saying that while he himself is pretty sure that his judgement is good on this matter, he knows that ultimately, human judgement will always be flawed, and that we can only rely on God to be the judge. I also suspect that he is saying that we should keep everything in perspective – there will come a time when all become clear and human motivations, ambitions and desires will be revealed for what they are – petty and transitory. How easy do you find it to be able to keep this kind of perspective on life? Ask God to help you have his perspective and not to rely too much on human validation and applause.
Wednesday 14th February
6 Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. 7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
No one really knows what “Do not go beyond what is written” means. But the general gist of Paul’s words seems to be – if our church communities are divided into groups who have appointed their own leaders, and each group thinks it is superior to the others, the whole community is in danger, not only of breakup but of forgetting why they have been brought together in the first place. They are danger of thinking that the church is there to serve them, rather than God himself. Have you ever been tempted to think that that church is there to serve itself (i.e, us!), rather than God? Have you any experience of people becoming so comfortable in their experience of church that they begin to think that it exists to make them happy, rather than for the purpose of worshipping God? What did you learn from seeing this? And what is Paul’s response? He reminds them that everything they have – including the church community – is a gift from him – not something that they can boast in as a human creation. So that leaves a question – how can we best steward this gift from God without becoming proud and possessive? Pray about this today.
Thursday 15th February
8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!
In this verse Paul is being rather sarcastic – he thinks the believers in Corinth have become proud and complacent. In his opinion, they think they know it all. They’ve got it all worked out. They have found the leader that they want, the comfortable group that they like and they think they don’t need anything more. They have it all sussed out! They have arrived spiritually! The technical term for this is “triumphalism” – when Christians think they know it all, that they know exactly how God does things and will do things. Can you think of ways in which this tendency amongst Christians can manifest itself today? What are the consequences of thinking like this? Paul is quick to say to them, if you think this way, you have got it all wrong – you are becoming spiritually proud. You are, in effect, saying, you don’t need God. Wouldn’t it be great if everything went the way we thought it should? For Paul himself that is certainly not the case, as he says here. Pray today that God will help us not to become spiritually proud.
Friday 16th February
8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! 9 For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. 10 We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honoured, we are dishonoured! 11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.
The Corinthians think they have everything sussed out – life is the way they want it to be. They think they know. They have become complacent and spiritually arrogant. But Paul will have none of that. He points to his own life as an apostle – one who is called to spread the gospel – his life is not marked by comfort and certainty, but rather by poverty and hunger, discomfort, danger and even a bad reputation! In a society in which honour is so important, Paul has none. He even says that he has become the scum of the earth – for no-one outside the church thinks that he is of any use whatsoever. His message seems to them to be nonsense and his poverty and suffering back that conclusion up – who wants to live like that? If the Corinthians have become spiritually complacent, he immediately lets them know that this has no place in Christian life. The Gospel is not for our comfort! This can be a painful lesson for all of us to learn. The Corinthians will have to admit to themselves that they have much to learn about the nature of discipleship. It is a challenge to us all – how can we help others not to become spiritually complacent and entitled like the Corinthians? Ask God to help us have his wisdom and not that of the world.
Saturday 17th February
Romans 8:12- 13
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
Sunday 18th February
Romans 8:14-17
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Marion Carson
Chaplain
Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash
