It’s a message from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and it represents a journey of sorts. A journey to an another land – and older land – where the goals of Christianity were not set by marketers in order to make it more palatable. Instead, the agenda was set by prophets who sought holy, godly people. Such a message will give us pause. When we read it, we are likely to say, “You are bringing strange things to our ears.” It’s not the kind of message we are not used to hearing today.
A hypocrite is someone who does things he claims he does not do. Marilee Jones, was dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Marilee recently resigned after admitting that her résumé she had submitted 28 years ago for an entry level position in the admissions department WAS FILLED WITH LIES. As far as the school knew, Ms. Jones had attended and graduated Albany Medical College, Union College, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — three well-respected schools in New York. Yet, the former dean of admission was only a part-time student for just one school year.
A church is composed of people who believe in Jesus Christ, or Christians. We tend of such people as respectable. After all, we’re not atheists or wicked people. We attend church… avoid scandal… and lead respectable lives. And though we are made saints by the immediate supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, Christians spend their lives engaged in guerrilla warfare. Engaged in a war to behave as we believe. Fighting to rid ourselves of sinful habits. Nevertheless, hypocrisy is a real problem for churches.
Church is the place where a line in the sand is drawn. People who belong to the church advertise themselves to their community as “one of them” – a Christ follower, a disciple. Church is comprised of a people redeemed by Jesus Christ, who came to defeat sin (1 John 3:8).
It’s the family that Christ started when He was on this earth. Therefore I say again, hypocrisy is a real problem for churches. How can the one family that Jesus Christ started tolerate the very thing Jesus came to destroy? How can the lighthouse not point out to the passing ships in the harbor where real danger lies? Can you imagine a cop who works together with the district attorney to manufacture false evidence? Do you think the police would allow an officer to continue on the force? Hypocrisy has the real danger of showing Christ’s followers as imposters.
Today’s Scripture
“I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17 That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18 Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21 What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness” (1 Corinthians 4:14-21)?
Today’s passage is predicated upon the relationship Paul had with the church in Corinth. Everything said in this passage is predicated upon the relationship describe in verse: “For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (1 Corinthians 4:15b).
Paul spent eighteen months in Corinth starting the church. Having started the church, Paul leaves to begin other churches. But as he hears reports from Corinth, the church reminds us of a bratty kid who is too arrogant to listen to their father. There is a genuine sadness mixed throughout the letter. The church had little respect for their father. They possessed little regard for his authority. This would have been debated the Corinth church as they were getting drunk during the Lord’s Supper part of their worship services. They were doing whatever they pleased and expected God to embrace their alternative lifestyles. And while the church is not a museum for saints but a school for sinners, it was needed that their father correct some issues.
1. Christian Belief Creates Christian Behavior
It’s important you don’t leave here today think Christianity is made up of people who try harder. You were not hardwired to make your own way through this fallen world. You were designed to make it through by God’s grace. In attacking hypocrisy, some would have us try being more moral. In place of such a notion, Christianity is essentially a gift given by God. It’s a gift of pardon for sin and PROTECTION from sin. Christianity is gift of both pardon from our sin and POWER to defeat sin. Christianity is not a club of “Holy Joes” who meet together for self-congratulation on their moral progress. Instead, Christian churches receive a power called grace.
Paul has already told this to the Corinth church. It was their Mayflower Compact. Grace was in their charter…
“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the GRACE of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:4-9).
Grace is unspeakably precious. Grace is not something we have a right to. Instead, grace was obtained by Jesus Christ. The word grace is used 155 times in the New Testament. And Paul himself uses the word over 100 times.
Grace
Grace is nothing is deserved and nothing is achieved. Note that it is only by the grace of God that you can do verse sixteen: “I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17 That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church” (1 Corinthians 4:16-17).
Christianity is not simply imitating godly people by your own power. Christianity is imitate godly people by the grace of God. Hypocrisy happens when our “want to” doesn’t match our “ought to.” The term hypocrite came from the world of Greek drama. It was used to describe the masks that the players used to dramatize certain roles. Even today, the theatre is symbolized by the twin masks of comedy and tragedy. In antiquity, certain players played more than one role, and they indicated their role by holding a mask in front of their face. That’s the origin of the concept of hypocrisy.
So hypocrisy is attacked not by will power alone but the fight against hypocrisy is fueled by the grace of God. “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
2. Every Christian Should Have a Spiritual Father
“For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (1 Corinthians 4:15b)
Paul reveals his heart for this church. He is saying that while God alone is ultimately our Father, a pastor does a lot of father. Like a father who is present a the physical birth of a child and responsible for raising the church, a pastor is oftentimes present a the spiritual birth of a Christian through the preaching of the Gospel. The pastor is likewise responsible for training and discipline of Christians in order to bring them to maturity.
“For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers” (1 Corinthians 4:15a). “countless guides” refers to a slave that would lead a child to the schoolhouse and back home each day. This “guide” would accompany the child whenever the parent was absent. The “guide” was to protect the child and keep him out of trouble. The “guide” would be motivated by duty for the job rather than his love for the child. This person was frequently caricatured for his severity as a stern taskmaster. He is pictured on Greek vases with a stick in his hand. Paul draws a contrast between a father and such a taskmaster. Such a person is likely only to berate you with shaming tactics. Yet, a father who loves admonishes.
A godly father doesn’t ignore our sinful habits and attitudes. Instead, he lovingly addresses our hypocrisy. Contrary to what we think, the opposite of love is not wrath; it’s indifference. A father loves when he corrects us. Notice Paul’s words in verse seventeen: “That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church” (1 Corinthians 4:17).
These are not throwaway words in our day. Paul was intentionally contrasting Timothy, his model son in Christ, with the Corinthians Christians. “But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel” (Philippians 2:22). In essence, Paul is saying I am sending my faithful son to my rebellious sons in order to lovingly correct them: “I urge you, then, be imitators of me” (1 Corinthians 4:16).
Paul is their spiritual father. He expects for the Christians to imitate his values. They are to imitate his priorities. Instead of their hankering for high status, they were to accept his values to prize lowliness (1 Corinthians 4:8-13). He has offered himself as a model where he thinks of himself as no more than a menial field hands (1 Corinthians 3:5) and a servant (1 Corinthians 4:1). He has offered himself as a model by resisting the urge to think of themselves as wise or elite by using lofty words but they were to instead rely on the power of God through weakness, fear and trembling (1 Corinthians 2:1-4). While their ultimate aim was not to be Paul-like but Christ-like, they could imitate their father when his behavior modeled the Gospel.
In our contemporary day, we may not feel the force of Paul’s words in verse sixteen. In our families, there is little or no pressure to the son to imitate his father. Children, both small and adult children, sport their independence from their parents as a badge of honor. But in the first century, sons were expected to “imitate” their fathers. If your father were a baker, the son would very likely become a baker. If the father was a sheep farmer, then the son would almost inevitably become one as well. Christianity is not “do as I say” but Christianity is “do as I do.” While Jesus Christ is the pattern for the believer’s life, Paul can command other believers to imitate him. When each believer traces their lives after the pattern set in Jesus Christ, we become a pattern for others to follow. People need godly examples to follow. Paul was so confident in the grace of God that he could urge the Corinthians Christians to imitate him. Hypocrisy is a problem that you fight by the power of God’s grace by imitating spiritual fathers and mothers in the faith. The reason why hypocrisy inside the church is important is because church membership is a line in the sand. Church membership is A WALL AROUND THE CITY. It’s a list of names. It’s a way to say these people on this list are inside God’s grace. Everyone else is on the outside.
3. God’s Reign is Not Just Talk
“But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:19-20).
We live in a day with a constant parade of email chains… Blogs… Text messages… Cell phone drivel… Talk-show and talk radio nonsense. Just like us the Corinthians could talk a good game but never really did much of anything except critique people. Our day is filled with too many armchair Christians who fill the seats to only talk. Paul is directly challenging the Christians through the fourth chapter by using sarcasm among other means. He has responded to their arrogance (verse 18) with a tongue-lashing. God’s kingdom is not about chatter but power. He pushes back by asking if they have planted any churches… Have they seen anyone healed? Have they delivered anyone from demons?
It is akin to QUARTERBACK walking into the stands to hand the ball to an out-of-shape armchair quarterback, only to see them spill their nachos all over themselves. Paul finishes up by giving them a choice: Should he come with a tender hand of mercy or a firm hand of discipline?
Jesus said: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12). And connect this thought as well, “Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you” (1 Corinthians 4:18). Paul warns them that their father will be coming home soon (1 Corinthians 11:34) and he had better find everything in order. They were acting like arrogant, self-important children who have the house to themselves when the parents have slipped out for a minute.
The Corinthians Christians had become arrogant (1 Corinthians 4:18) crowing like a rooster. To use a Texas idiom, they had become “all hat and no cattle.” In the words of Glenn Campbell, “A Rhinestone Cowboy.” Paul doesn’t relish confrontation. Yet, he will not sit on his hands for fear of moral cowardice. Too much is at stake for hypocrites to run around as imposters advertising to those on the outside that the Gospel has no power.
Like a family that has saved for a year to experience the fun of Disney World, who then packed the car in anticipation, drove hundreds of miles, and stopped at the first Disney World sign they came to. Outsiders are looking to imposters and think they are the destination spot. We must rid ourselves of hypocrisy because… “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9).
