Some in the Corinthian church had made the mistake of judging, boasting, and priding themselves in their superior gifts and achievements. They were judging the gifts of believers and preachers. They were usurping the authority of God alone to gift and to judge men. In reality, they were nothing more than a bunch of puffed up air bags. When this sort of thing happens in any church, division occurs. The fellowship and life of the church becomes threatened.
One of the answers is that we shouldn’t compare ministers. This answer takes off from Paul’s ninth answer about letting God be the judge of ministers. After all, He is the one who called them to carry out His ministry. Even though men may say things to disrupt a church fellowship or to degrade a minister just because they don’t care for him or her, it shouldn’t matter to the minister because the minister is simply following God’s call on their lives. But it still hurts and breaks hearts.
READ v. 6. The ministers Paul is referring to are himself and Apollos. What Paul had been saying was only an illustration for the Corinthians believers to apply to themselves. Paul creates two mind pictures to help the Corinthian believers see who he and Apollos were.
1. He tried to explain to them that they were mere servants of Christ. They were only the under-rowers, the slaves in the belly of the ship who serve the Lord and Master of the ship.
2. They were mere stewards, the slaves given the enormous responsibility to oversee the property of the Master of the estate. And because they were stewards and had been given this responsibility, they were expected to be faithful and were held accountable for their faithfulness.
The point is, Paul wasn’t writing to teach himself and Apollos who they were and what their calling was. Paul and Apollos knew who they were, and they knew their calling. Paul was writing to teach the Corinthians who their ministers were and how they were to be treated. There were two particular lessons he wanted them to learn:
1. Believers should stop comparing and judging their ministers, elevating them above what the Scriptures say. As we have learned before, some in the church were judging certain ministers to be better and more capable servants of God than others. They thought that they themselves were so spiritual that they could rank the servants of God.
2. Also, believers should stop bragging at the expense of another. A believer is especially fond of a certain preacher because that preacher had a great impact on them becoming a follower of Christ. They become partial to that minister because they have learned more from him than any other minister. However, a serious sin occurs when the believer begins to think that no other minister can preach and minister like the favored minister. That makes the person elevating a certain minister over another a prideful person.
Paul used the words “take pride” literally translated puffed up like an air bag. So the point to it all is that when someone acts that way, it’s nothing but hot air. It’s meaningless. It means nothing.
READ v. 7. First, God is the One who causes differences between men. Paul asks 3 questions but within these three basic questions lie several more detailed ones. Let’s allow these questions speak to each of us personally.
1. Who makes you different than anyone else?
What makes you think you have superior judgment to others?
What makes you think you have received enough spiritual growth and insight that you can judge God’s ministers?
What gives you the right to feel yo have received more than others because you sat under some minister?
What makes you think you are more spiritual than other believers?
Who is it that has made you spiritual?
2. What do you have that you did not receive?
What is your spiritual gift? Did you create it or was the gift given to by God?
If you are spiritually mature, did you earn the maturity, or did God by His grace grow you?
How did you become a part of God’s family—by your own efforts or by God’s grace?
What do you have that you didn’t receive? Life—a body—a mind—a spirit—the ability to think and work and play and live—breath? Did you receive it all as a gift from God?
3. Now, if you received it all, why are you boasting of being super-spiritual?
Why are you acting superior to other believers?
Why are you playing Lord as though you have the right to take God’s place and judge His ministers and people?
These are fairly pointed questions to drive home a point. Paul was telling them they had no right to play God and rank, and criticize, and judge the ministers.
READ v. 8. Some believers were acting as though their lives were full. The idea Paul projects here is them thinking they were perfected and complete. They felt they lacked nothing spiritually and therefore could judge these ministers.
Paul says he wishes they were reigning as kings, for then the ministers of God would be reigning with them. It would mean that God had already created the new heavens and earth and had rewarded the believers, exalting them to their promised reward. Take note: super spirituality is a dangerous state to be in.
READ vv. 9-10. Paul says true ministers are put last. He sees ministers as spectacles. They are being marched across the scene of world history to carry on their combat as ordained by the King. They are mere spectacles to the world and to angels and men, with few ever understanding and fully accepting them. And from among the few who do accept them, some eventually withdraw and turn against them. The Corinthian believers were living in full satisfaction and comfort while the ministers of God were suffering as spectacles of the world.
The minister is expected to serve and to be put last. Ministers are often treated as some kind of different person, in a different kind of profession, the kind of profession other people would not want nor choose for their life’s work. So Paul’s tells of the sharp contrast between ministers and believers.
- Ministers are fools for Christ, but you are wise to Christ.
- Ministers are weak, but you are strong.
- You are honored, but the minister is dishonored.
Believe it or not, this sharp contrast between the attitude of many believers and the true ministers was not just a problem with the Corinthians, it is the problem with too many believers and churches today.
READ vv. 11-13. Paul says, despite the way ministers are viewed, true ministers will still serve no matter the cost. True ministers are the servants of Christ, so they pay any price to share the gospel and to minister to people. He says that he and the apostles were bearing these very sufferings “even unto the present hour.” He then lists a few general things that ministers endure, but he was referring to all the apostles had gone through:
- Sometimes they lacked food, water, and clothing.
- They were tormented and beaten with fists.
- They had no home.
- They were not a burden to the church even if it meant them working at a secular job.
- They were reviled but they blessed.
- They were persecuted but they suffered it.
- They were defamed or slandered, but they beseeched or exhorted and met it with kindness.
- They were made as the filth and the scum of the earth.
It’s like I have said time and again, a minister, or pastor can never really say what he wants to say to these people who slander them. They just accept it as hot air and continue to do the Lord’s work.
So through all this, Paul implants some unspoken questions in the minds of these Corinthians as to where their focus was. These questions are pointed at us as well:
- What are you doing for Christ?
- How much are you suffering to preach the gospel and to minister to people?
- How many have honestly given all they are and have to share the gospel with the world?
If their and our focus was upon these things, we could be accomplishing great things for the Lord instead of occupying our minds and hearts on these puffed up, hot air bag issues and our churches would re-unite.
