Below is the Bible Study written by Jim Rudiger for his Sunday School Class which meets at Third Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia. It's based on 1 Corinthians 4:1-13.
Before the virus, how many of you all watched baseball games on TV? The announcers were always talking about batters “following through” or pitchers “following through.” What does it mean to “follow through”? For a batter, it all starts with swinging that bat. But swinging a bat involves forces exerted through hands, arms and body to propel a bat through an arc. The “following through” part involves letting the muscles used to develop that force to gear down and then to mobilize other muscles to get out of the box and move toward first base. For a pitcher, arm and body muscles are used to sling a ball toward home plate. Again those muscles have to gear down after releasing the ball and the pitcher has to prepare to stop being a pitcher and becoming a fielder. The success a batter has in hitting the ball and a pitcher in throwing the ball is in having a good “follow through.”You don’t have to be a pitcher or batter in needing a good “follow through”. You get in a car and turn the key and the motor revs up. Next comes the good “follow through” - putting it in gear, backing out of your drive way, watching for other cars. Even cooking requires a good “follow through”. Much has been said in the past about my gourmet cooking which consists of the many uses of toast. Some might sneer at my chosen culinary skill, but there is a lot of tricky “following throughing” when it comes to toast. There’s choosing the right slices from a loaf of bread, centering them in the toaster, setting the timer so the toast isn’t too light or burnt. After the toast pops up, we are in the “follow through” phase - spreading the butter on the toast. Only by careful manipulation of the knife and butter pad can the cook completely cover the toast with butter without damaging the fragile surface. So you see, with much practice even you could become the Babe Ruth of toast.
In the first three chapters Paul deals with splits which were forming the Corinthian church. Some people were following Paul, some were following Peter and some were following a guy named Apollos. What did we learn about Apollos? Apollos was a Jew from Alexandra and started out preaching about Jesus in a very intellectual way. Aquilla and Pricilla, who were trained by Paul, heard him and while they were impressed with his fire for the Lord, they found some of his ideas a little off the wall. So they took him aside and instructed him in a fuller understanding of Jesus’ teachings. Apollos was thankful for their help and went out and preached even better than before and brought a lot of Corinthians to Christ. It seems obvious from this letter that Paul had met with Apollos and was also impressed with this man’s gifts. They seem to have hit it off and became very close while Paul was in Corinth.
The Corinthians weren’t following Christian teachers who taught differing views of the gospel. They all taught the same message but their followers were more taken by the messenger’s presentation than the message and were putting down those who weren’t following their guy. Chapter 3 dealt with the division caused by dedicating themselves to their leaders rather than Christ. Paul as much as tells them that by taking that position, they were dead wrong. They thought they were mature in the faith but actually they were like little babies ready only for milk and not solid food. Instead of growing up, they were attacking like children trying to bring down the other side. Sounds a lot like Congress doesn’t it?
We invest ourselves in our leaders and are sometimes over protective of their leadership. We do that with political leaders, sports leaders, job leaders and even religious leaders. When we become a rabid follower, we shut out any discussion of what the facts are and attack with the sharpest weapon we have and what is that? Our tongue. If our leader loses we lose because we have chosen that person and if that person is shown as stupid or a crook then that is a slam against us for using such poor judgement in following him.In the case of the church at Corinth, there was no problem between Paul, Peter and Apollos. They shared their experiences and their advise, focusing on the goal of bringing as many people to Christ as they could regardless of who got the credit. Bringing people to Christ was their “follow through”. Here is why Paul considered that the followers of the three church leaders weren’t “following throughing” on their commitment to Christ. They spent too much time focusing on the messenger and not the message. And that brings us up to our study for today.
1 Corinthians 4:1 Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. 3 But with me it is a small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. 4 I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore do not pronounce judgement before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.
Paul also uses another picture to describe the duties of a church leader. Being a steward. What is a steward? What’s the difference between a servant and a steward? A “steward” had a special job. He was a servant who was in charge of his Master’s house and his belongings. Not only that, he had the responsibility for the other slaves who may be under him. A lot of times, he may even handle the finances of the house. What traits would the Master look for in picking a “steward”? Honest, trustworthy and hardworking. Paul is saying that he and the other church leaders are the stewards of Christ and as such have some authority over some of the other servants, but their chief job was to be stewards over “God’s mysteries”. What is “God’s mysteries”? It was God’s plan for our salvation. It was unknown or a mystery how God would do it until Christ and the cross. So, their job was to teach the people what the good news is and what God has done for them through Jesus and how this impacts on their lives. Paul is saying to the Corinthians that all of the leaders, Paul, Peter and Apollos, are important to God. They have been chosen by God to serve in this way because they have the trust of God. If God picked each of them - Paul, Peter and Apollos - then none of them should be treated with disrespect or put down. When God picked them, he used the word “and” not “or”. The bottom line is that no matter what position a person may have in the church, preacher, elder, teacher, circle leader - that person is still a steward for Christ and should be shown respect.Paul now talks about judgement, particularly the Corinthian’s judgement of Paul. By picking somebody else to follow, they were judging Paul. When we vote for somebody, we are also voting against somebody else. You see, the Corinthians with all of their divisions and their acceptance of a leader as their master were actually exercising judgement on the other leaders by saying they weren’t as important or worthy as the leader they had chosen to follow. Paul says there are three judgments we all face. What are they?
(2) The judgement of himself - Paul disregards that, too. He knew that sometimes a man’s judgement about himself is clouded by other things. He may be self righteous. He may be pig headed and doesn’t want the truth. He may be ignorant of his ability. He just might be having a bad hair day. A lot f times, one’s judgement of himself is depended upon an agenda that is important only to that person. This being said, we all have to face our own judgement. When we look into the mirror and see someone far different than the world sees, then we don’t need Ann Landers to tell us we have a problem. Shakespeare said, “Unto your own self be true and then you can not be untruthful to any man.” If you have the respect of the whole world but don’t have respect for yourself, then life may becomes more than you can handle.(3) Judgement of God - In the final analysis, this is the only judgement that really counts. Paul writes that the judgement that he waited for was not found in human courts but the judgement day of the Lord. God’s judgement is the final judgement for two important reasons. (1) Only God knows all of the circumstances. He knows what you have struggled with. He has seen the dark recesses of your heart. He knows those things about you that no one in the entire world knows, secrets that you can’t or won’t tell anybody else. He knows how low you have fallen and how high you have risen. To put it bluntly, God knows all of the facts. (2) Only God knows all of your motives. Many things that we do look noble when the motive may have been selfish or self serving. Peta (People for the Eating of Tasty Animals) says that it doesn’t want us to drink milk because it may not be healthy for us. Is that their real motive? No, they just don’t want cows to be milked because of some warped idea that cows have the same value as humans. Then sometimes we do things with the best of intentions, even noble intentions, and they end up looking pretty bad. I remember during the hostage crisis in Iran in the seventies, President Carter sent in a helicopter team to rescue them. The team crashed in the desert and President Carter looked bad although his intentions were good. You see only the creator of the human heart knows that heart and is the only one capable of judging it.
Paul tries to impress on the Corinthians that what he has been saying about he and Apollos applies to them too. What Paul has been saying is that he and Apollos are humble teachers and they need to exercise humility in their lives. If the Corinthians are truly humble like he and Apollos, they wouldn’t be puffed up about who their preacher was or go around bragging that “my preacher was better than your preacher”. Paul uses the phrase “Nothing beyond what’s written.” We don’t know exactly what Paul was getting at but evidently, he knew the Corinthians knew. We can only guess at what he meant. Possibly, they were spinning gospel they received from their leader in a way to make the leader look good. Arguing points that weren’t intended or included in the gospel. It was a way of picking your leader over the other so you would be the smarter guy. Paul says, “Look at yourselves honestly. Did you come up with the gospel on your own or did somebody tell you about it? Their telling you the gospel was a gift for you to receive so why brag like it wasn’t a gift, but a product of your own intellect.”
1 Corinthians 4:8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings! In deed. I wish that you had become kings, so that we we might be kings with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals.
Now Paul lowers the boom! Criticism is kinda hard to take sometimes. There is good criticism where the motive is to improve you and then there is bad criticism meant to hurt you. If I prepared a Sunday School lesson and I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t somewhere out in left field, I’d ask Jackie and she would tell me how it struck her and she would be brutally honest. We all need people who care enough for us to tell us when we may be making a mistake. Criticism doesn’t have to be mean and ugly, it can be given with love and patience.
Paul tells them what? They have all they want. They are rich. They are kings. Is Paul complimenting them on their accomplishments or being sarcastic? Paul uses sarcasm when he starts to criticize the Corinthians and he doesn’t give them any wiggle room. He tells them, “You lucky dogs! You’ve got it made. You have become rich and fat. In fact you have become kings. I wish you were kings so we would have it easier. But, here we are, poor lowly serfs. Boy, I wish I was as great as you think you are.”
Paul then tells them about how the apostles are put “as last of all.” What is he talking about? When a Roman general won a great victory he was allowed to march his victorious army through the main streets Rome. This was called a Triumph. He would have men walking along showing the people all of the rich things that he had plundered. People would stand along the road and cheer at the amount of wealth displayed. One crazy Roman Emperor, Caligula, once declared war on the god Neptune. He had the whole Roman army go to the sea shore and jab their swords and lances in the waves as they crashed on the shore. Then when he felt that Neptune had learned his lesson, he had the army go along the shore and collect sea shells spewed up by the sea. He thought that this was Neptune casting his treasures at the Emperor’s feet in submission. When they got back to Rome, he had his Triumph and the soldiers were forced to walk through the city, up one street and down the other, displaying conk shells and discarded crab shells. The people knew how nuts this guy was, but they knew that if they weren’t enthusiastic about his Triumph, they would be killed. So all of Rome stood there, stifling their laughter, and cheered each display of sea dollars and clam shells.
At the end of every Triumph was a group of captives who were scheduled to meet the lions in the arena for the amusement of the Roman citizens. These were the last in line. These poor people were forced to yell, “We, who are about to die, salute you!” as they trudged along. Paul is accusing the Corinthians of treating the apostles like the captives at the end of the Triumph. Their pride made them feel like they were conquering generals displaying their trophies. The Corinthians had began to think that being a Christian meant flaunting their pride and their privileges and bragging about what THEY had achieved - “they” and not what Christ has achieved in their lives. Paul saw the Christian life as one of humble service and ready to die for Christ if necessary. To Paul, he is willing to walk along life’s streets at the end of the parade and say to Christ, “We who are about to die salute you.”
1 Corinthians 4:10 We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, 12 and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless them; when persecuted , we endure; 13 when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.
Paul lists the differences between himself and the Corinthians. What are those differences?
Apostles: fools, weak, despised
Corinthians: wise, strong, honored
Paul goes on to paint a picture of what being an Apostle for Christ means. What does he list? They will be hungry and thirsty, their very subsistence was meager at best. No eating out at the Surf Rider for the Apostles. They won’t have fine clothes to wear. They shop at Goodwill, not Macy’s. Then he says something that must have seemed really remarkable to the Corinthians. Remember that Paul is speaking to mostly Greeks and Romans. He says that when the Apostles are cursed, they respond with a blessing. Now to Greeks and Romans this is not the way you handle being cursed. If they were cursed, it was a challenge to come back with an even nastier curse.
What do you think Paul means when he says that they have become the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things? What is dregs anyway? Dregs are the scum and residue left in the barrel after the wine has fermented and the good stuff removed. It is the stuff that is unwanted and thrown away. Paul is saying that the world views Christians by the world’s standards and by those standards we aren’t wanted and should be thrown away. You see, we are not a part of the dog eat dog existence. We have our values somewhere else, centered in serving Christ and not the world.
The world will never understand the Christian and where there isn’t understanding there is mistrust and even hatred. The world demands that we be tolerant of their views and lifestyles and if we do, then they will push us to accept more of their world view. If we don’t join, them we will be despised and called fanatics, the religious right, racists and intolerant. The only way that the world will accept Christians is for Christians to turn their backs on Christ and his teachings and take the world as our leader.
All of us reading this study are Christians. We’ve knocked the mud off our cleats and lifted the bat. That’s where we are as Christians - in the batter’s box. The world will throw us a curve and we have to follow through if we are to handled that curve. Our follow through as Christians tells the world that we’re prepared to score one for Christ.
Prayer: Father, forgive our selfish desire to win our point by tearing down others. Give us the spirit that opens our heart to the mission of the church - to make disciples of all people.
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