Viral Humility

But it provided a much needed
and deeply appreciated break. Please, if you would, turn to
1 Corinthians chapter 4, and I won’t be a bit critical of
you if it takes you a moment to even remember where 1 Corinthians
is. We haven’t been in that epistle
since May 9th. In between all the others who
preached, I did preach twice since May 9th, but on both of
those occasions, it was outside of First Corinthians. So we’re
gonna have to ease back into our study somewhat slowly. We left off having considered
chapter four, verses one through five. And we should review that
briefly as we begin to move to the next set of verses. Paul
himself, we find in verses four, one through five, he was not
above criticism. Paul knew that he wasn’t a perfect
man. And the knock against Paul was
that he had no tact. It was one of the criticisms.
He was too harsh. His preaching took too long. There were other criticisms of
Paul as well, and Paul kind of takes them in stride here in
chapter four. He’s continuing to address what
he has over the course of the first three chapters. That very real challenge of having
people improperly elevate either him or Apollos or Peter His discussion,
though, now opens up in chapter four to a related concern, that
of having people harshly judge and criticize either he or Apollos. It wasn’t enough to prop one
up, they had to criticize the other. Perhaps these detractors
were part of the crowd that sweetly favored his friend, Apollos. They liked his preaching much
better than Paul’s. Their critiques of Paul seemed
to center around his preaching, not the content of it, not the
theology, but perhaps more his delivery. Maybe they didn’t like
his outlines. Maybe they didn’t care for his
sermon titles. Maybe he wasn’t applicational
enough. Maybe he didn’t tell enough stories.
Whatever it was, these people were all over him and the church
in Corinth was divided because of it. And so here in chapter
four, Paul turns from the very uncomfortable idea of one faction
of the Corinthians exalting him to the opposite extreme of the
withering criticism by the opposite faction. That’s essentially what
you have in chapter four. Let’s take it in its entirety.
First Corinthians four, beginning in verse one. Let a man regard
us in this manner as servants of Christ, as stewards of the
mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is
required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. But to
me, it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you
or by any human court. In fact, I do not even examine
myself. For I am conscious of nothing
against myself, yet by this I am not acquitted. The one who examines
me is the Lord. Therefore, do not go on passing
judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who
will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness
and disclose the motives of men’s hearts. And then each man’s praise
will come to him from God. Now these things, brethren. I
have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes,
so that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written,
so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against
the other. For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did
not receive? And if you did receive it, why
do you boast as if you had not received it? You are already
filled. You have already become rich. You have become kings without
us. And indeed, I wish you had become
kings so that we might reign with you. For I think God has
exhibited us apostles last of all as men condemned to death. Because we have become a spectacle
to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for
Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ. We are weak, but you
are strong. You are distinguished, but we
are without honor. To this present hour, we are
both hungry and thirsty and poorly clothed and roughly treated. We are homeless. We toil, working
with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless.
When we are persecuted, we endure. When we are slandered, we try
to conciliate. We become as the scum of the
world, the dregs of all things, even until now. I do not write these things to
shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if
you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not
have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became
your father through the gospel. Therefore, I exhort you, be imitators
of me. For this reason, I have sent
to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord,
and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just
as I teach everywhere in every church. Now, some have become
arrogant as though I were not coming to you, but I will come
to you soon if the Lord wills, and I shall find out not the
words of those who are arrogant, but their power. For in the kingdom
of God does not consist in words, but in power. What did you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod
or with love and a spirit of gentleness? Now, again, in chapters
one through three, Paul has dealt with this repulsive idea that
people were making him and others, Apollos and Peter, the heads
of so many different camps. The very idea was abhorrent to
Paul. And Paul dealt squarely with
that, that faulty and childish reasoning. That kind of thinking
is wrong. But if that was wrong, how should
the Corinthians even think of their leaders? How should they
regard them? How should they regard Apollos
and Paul? How should any church think of
their respective servants in their midst? This is the question
that Paul addressed in the first five verses. We tackled this
back in May 9th. There we saw that there are divine
details in the calling to ministry. We saw, first of all, that it’s
a call to humility. Look at verse one. Let a man
regard us in this manner, not as the very right reverend, not
as the exalted pope. Let a man regard us in this manner
as servants of Christ. We talked about that that word
literally means slaves. It’s hardly a glowing title to
append to yourself if you’re seeking any kind of glory from
men. But the call to ministry is not
only a call to humility, it’s a call to integrity. Look at
verse 2. In this case, moreover, it is
required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. The call
to the ministry is a call to be who you claim to be, to live
how you claim to live. It’s a call to integrity. And
it’s a good thing because the very next portion of God’s call
to ministry is a call to scrutiny. You’re going to be examined.
You’re going to be scrutinized. It comes with the territory.
Look at verse three and four. But to me, it is a very small
thing that I may be examined by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even examine
myself, for I am conscious of nothing against myself. Yet by
this I am not acquitted. The one who examines me is the
Lord. You are going to be examined
if you are in God’s service. And all Paul says here is that
he wasn’t concerned to be examined by the Corinthians particularly.
His concern, his much greater concern, was that he was going
to be examined by the Lord himself. There’s a fourth mark of the
call to ministry. It’s a call to accountability. Hebrews 13, 17 says this very
clearly. We will give an account. Those
who lead will give an account. to the Lord Jesus Christ. But
verse five says it equally clearly. Therefore, do not go on passing
judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who
will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness
and disclose the motives of men’s hearts. And then each man’s praise
will come to him from God. You know what Paul basically
says here? You can’t see a man’s heart.
You can’t know a man’s motives. But God can, and one day it’s
all going to come out. So again, in verses one through
five, Paul is instructing the Corinthians as to how he and
Apollos and any other leader in the church, how they’re to
be viewed, how they’re to be esteemed. But suddenly, and I
want you to note this, suddenly in verses six and seven, Paul
takes the focus off of the leaders and puts the spotlight on the
Corinthians themselves, on the church. Now, in order to grasp this transition,
I want you to observe something. In verses one through five, Paul
is in focus. He mentions and alludes to himself
nine times. You heard it as we read it. But
watch what happens in verses six and seven. Paul becomes very
direct with his church. He addresses them or alludes
to them no fewer than eight times. Paul is clearly transitioning
his focus here from himself to the Corinthians. And as he begins
to do this, he does it in a very gracious way. Look at verse six.
He begins very gently here. He addresses them as brethren. He’s talking to them and he calls
them out. And he sweetly begins to explain
to them that what he’s doing is for their sake. As he proceeds to urge them not
to exceed what is written. We’ll talk about that in a moment,
but it’s good advice. Then. In verse 7, in the final
portion of his argument for humility, he asks these believers a series
of very direct, even pointed questions. The focus is clearly
shifted from Paul to the Corinthians, and for good reason. Paul has
already dawned the mantle of humility himself in verses one
through five, referring to himself and Paul as servants, stewards,
nothing more. But Paul suggests here in verses
six and seven that humility is meant to go viral. Because of
the Holy Spirit’s work in the hearts and lives of sinners,
humility is supposed to be a virtue that is manifest in all believers. As Paul has humbly presented
himself before the church, he now turns his attention to them
to present his arguments for viral humility. I’ve referred to it as layered
arguments. He doesn’t give us just one argument
towards cultivating humility. He gives to us three, a series
of arguments for genuine humbleness. In the first three chapters,
I’ll remind you that as we’ve seen, Paul has spoken much about
the division that existed in the Corinthian church, and that
division, we noted, centered around personalities. If the
leaders are truly humble, as I believe Paul and Apollos were,
they themselves could not possibly have been fostering or endorsing
such division. That’s a certainty. But sometimes
it’s the followers, it’s the flock, it’s the believers who
promote such factiousness. They pick their favorite and
immediately begin to divide the church. And when they do, they
are actually the ones who are guilty of pride. This is Paul’s
underlying point in these two verses. There were divisions
built around personalities. And the personalities, namely
Paul and Apollos, were not responsible for these factions. Their followers
were. And that was an indication of
pride in their heart. But rather than rebuking such
divisive pride, Paul gently presents to them a case for humility. And he does so in three layers.
Let’s consider these arguments one by one. Look first at verse six. As we
begin to consider viral humility, the first layer that we see is
the spread of humility intimated, the spread of humility intimated
or suggested. Look at verse six, these things,
brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos
for your sakes. Paul begins here by intimating,
that is suggesting or hinting that the spread or at least the
need of the spread of humility, it should go viral. And he does so by telling the
Corinthians that he’s doing these things for their sakes. Whatever
it is that Paul is doing, he’s doing for them. It’s designed
to impact them. So what is it? What is it that
Paul has done for them? He tells us at the outset of
verse six, just glance at the verse again, these things, brethren,
I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes. Now, you know you’re in for a
linguistic treat when the average English translation takes four
words to translate one Greek word. That’s what happens here
in this verse. The Greek word is, I love this,
meta schematizo. You can practice on me at the
end. It’s a compound word, meta, which basically means with, and
schematizo. The root word of that verb is
schema, from which we get our word scheme. You can hear some
of this. And it just refers to the form
of something. Here the word occurs in its verbal
form. And the verb just refers here
to a change of form. Paul has taken a thing and changed
it and applied it to something else. And you know what? Paul kind of owns this word in
the New Testament. He’s the only one who uses it.
He uses it four times in his epistles to the Corinthians and
only once to the Philippians. Nowhere else in scripture. It’s
illustrative for our sake that we look at the second epistle.
Don’t go there. Just listen. Paul uses this word
three times in second Corinthians to refer to the devil and his
false workers disguising themselves. Deceitful workers disguising
themselves as apostles of Christ. Satan disguising himself as an
angel of light. They are taking the form of a
thing and changing it. The use in Philippians is much
more positive. There it speaks of God’s promised
transformation of believers into a different form. We look forward
to that, don’t we? A new body. He will transform the body of
our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory. We
don’t know exactly what that looks like, but it sounds good,
doesn’t it? Here in 1 Corinthians 4, it’s a much simpler use of
this word. Paul basically says one word in the Greek. He says,
look, I’ve taken the form of these things and shaped them
and applied them to Myself and Apollos. To what things is he referring?
Well, when he says, I have figuratively applied these things, it’s very
clear he’s referring to the illustrations of humility, which he has plentifully
used since early in chapter three. Listen and remember, if you would,
remember the illustration of the farmer. I planted a polis
watered. The illustration of the builders
in chapter three, verse 10. Where he was a construction worker
working on a divine building project, and then most recently
in chapter four, verse one, he’s a servant. Now, Paul and Apollos
were not literal field farmers or house builders, and that’s
what Paul is telling us here. He wanted to make maximum impact
on the Corinthians’ lives, and so he used these illustrations
that were really designed to impact them and to bring them
to humility. Again, rather than coming at
their pride, which Paul certainly could have done, he had the authority
to do. Their pride was very evident. Paul takes, though, a more positive
approach and promotes the very opposite, the virtue of humility. Paul’s approach is that if they,
the apostles and the leaders of the church, have assumed so
humble an attitude, the quiet and hardworking farmer, the careful
and diligent builder, the faithful and selfless servant. If Paul
modeled these things, then surely the saints cannot but do likewise. The problem was, again, various
believers had latched on to various leaders and were effectively
trying to push up these respective heads of parties to make them
something they weren’t. Whether it was Peter or Paul
or Apollos. They were trying to make these
men something they were never designed to be. They were doing
so for their own selfish purposes. They had their guy. Ultimately,
it was their pride that energized this God forsaken approach. You see, leaders at times do
go off course. We’ve seen that even recently.
They let their position, their power go to their heads. But it doesn’t always start with
leaders. People, too, because of their own pride of wanting
their man to be the guy. Sometimes they go off course
as well. Sometimes people exalt others for their own selfish
purposes. So the first thing I would ask
you this morning, do you have your guy? It’s easy in a one
elder church to not let that be the case. But as soon as you
have a plurality, that’s where the problems begin. where people
begin to almost section off a leader and to try to triangulate him
against the other leaders in the church. It’s a dangerous situation. And so for the sake
of the Corinthian church, Paul applies these very humbling images
to himself, an Apollos, farmer, builder, servant. It’s a very
subtle argument. It’s really by intimation only. But his argument for humility
takes a much more direct approach as the verse unfolds. Glance
again at verse six. These things, brethren, I have
figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so
that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written, so
that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against
the other. As we consider viral humility,
this second argument speaks not only the spread of humility intimated,
but the spread of humility now urged. Paul comes out with it,
and he pleads with them not to be arrogant. Here at the end
of verse six, Paul presents the reasoning behind his use of these
illustrations. He gives two companion reasons,
purpose statements, really, both of them introduced by that little
phrase, so that, so that. Look at the first, so that you
may learn. And second, so that no one of
you will become arrogant. Like I said, this is a much more
direct argumentation now. I should tell you that the verbs
in both of these clauses are in the subjunctive mood. And
if that sounds vaguely familiar, it should, because we came across
subjunctive verbs plentifully in our study of Hebrews. Let
me remind you, this is the verb that speaks of unrealized potential. It hasn’t happened yet. It’s
not exactly a command, but it’s an encouragement to make something
happen. I likened it last summer to the
encouragement that a player might hear from a coach, kind of a
let’s go. Let’s go do this. So here, Paul
says, you may learn. That’s his hope. And that you
might not become arrogant. Unrealized potential, but it’s
a very real goal. Let’s look at both of these support
statements. when Paul says, so that in us
you may learn not to exceed what is written. Paul is almost certainly
referring to some biblical text, but it doesn’t indicate specifically
which passage that might be. Many commentators thought that
Paul might be looking back even to words that he had only recently
shared with them in 1 Corinthians. First Corinthians 1.19 is a good
candidate. It is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will
set aside. First Corinthians 1.31, let him
who boasts, boast in the Lord. First Corinthians 3.19 and 20,
the wisdom of the world is foolishness before God. For it is written,
he is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness. And
again, the Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless. Well, those are all absolutely
good possibilities. But since this word rendered
here, what is written is often used to refer to scripture itself. Given the context, Old Testament
passages about pride and boastfulness would likely be at the forefront
of his readers’ minds. They knew he was talking about
pride. They knew he was talking about a call to humility. And
so, Jeremiah 9 would certainly be a good candidate. Thus says
the Lord, let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, let not
the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his
riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he knows
and understands me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving
kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these
things. Regardless, Paul says, my hope for you is that you would
not exceed what is written, that you would pay close attention
to biblical principles and teaching. Scripture is absolutely clear. Those who exalt themselves will
be humbled. Those who humble themselves will
be exalted. Whatever this what is written
refers to specifically, his focus is on humility and arrogance. To go beyond what is written
then would be to cultivate a heart of pride and specifically to
push leaders up above others and above what God has designed
them to be and to do, all for personal benefit. The same is true for us, right?
It wasn’t just the Corinthians. We should let scripture be our
guide. We should desire to be and aspire
to be biblical in everything that we do. There’s no arrogance
in that. We too should not go beyond what
is written. And especially with regard to
church leadership. The one downside to a plurality
is that as soon as you have a plurality, you have the potential for factiousness. Where people begin to favor one
leader above the next, this should never be. In the church, regardless
of age or degrees or giftedness, an elder is an elder is an elder. One should never be exalted above
another, whether by title or by treatment. There’s a second purpose statement
that Paul makes here in verse six. We should consider that
briefly as well. There, Paul says that he has
humbly used these illustrations, farmer, builder, servant, so
that no one of you will become arrogant. on behalf of one against
the other. It’s a call to humility. This
second purpose statement really builds upon or echoes, emphasizes
the first. The first statement is much more
general, but this second statement is very specific, isn’t it? And
we shouldn’t be surprised by now that Paul should use the
otherwise alarming word arrogant. That word is a fascinating word.
It’s used six times in this epistle alone and once in Colossians. It literally means to be puffed
up, inflated. But the meaning is clear. It’s
referring to being puffed up with pride and therefore arrogant
is a good translation. To begin to glory in men, to
push up one leader as opposed to another, is to be puffed up
with pride. You’re proud because your guy
is in charge. This is the essence of party
spirit. As one pastor so capably said
it in a single line, He said, to cry up a favorite leader of
your own choosing, pardon me, to cry up a favorite leader of
your own choosing is to betray an inflated self-conceit. Did you hear what he said? As
soon as you select your favorite and begin to press him up, you’re already manifesting arrogance,
self-conceit. This should never be. Not in
the Corinthian church, not in this church, not in any church.
And the Lord has sovereignly appointed a model of leadership
that helps to protect against such factiousness. It’s a plurality
of elders who together shepherd and together exercise authority
in the church. It’s not a one man show. There’s a final argument to Paul’s
argument for humility here, the most direct of all, and we find
it in verse seven. Would you look there? We’re looking
at viral humility, the layered arguments. We saw the spread
of humility intimated, the spread of humility urged, and now we
see the spread of humility reasoned. Paul gets very Greek here in
his reasoning skills. Look what happens in verse 7,
for who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did
not receive? And if you did receive it, why
do you boast as if you have not received it? It’s as if Paul has zeroed in
on the Corinthians now. The first thing that he does
is hint at humility, then he urges humility, and now it’s
a strong reasoning. toward the cultivation of humility
in our hearts and lives. It’s tough to discern just how
intense Paul is here, but given what’s coming, we read through
the passage, given what’s coming in the upcoming verses, what
really could be called sarcasm. This passage certainly serves
at least as a transitional thought. Paul’s ramping it up. He is intensifying,
and why not? He’s already alarmed and indignant
about being made the head of a faction. He would never seek
such, and he’s disgusted at the news of being named the leader
of one of these parties. This portion of Paul’s appeal
takes the form of these three very direct questions. each question
asking the Corinthians, the you of each sentence about some particular
truth. First, Paul asks, who regards
you as superior? Well, now, regardless of what
they thought that meant, that would certainly get their attention. The significance of this question
points to holding a favorable distinction about oneself in
comparison with others. I’m a better judge of character
than you. That’s the attitude. It’s the
sin of presumptuousness. You’re taking a position that
has not been given to you. In this case, it’s as if Paul
asks, Who bestowed upon you the authority to play kingmaker? Where do you get the idea that
you can appoint a leader of a faction in a church? Who ordained you
to serve as a judge over men whom God has gifted? Who gave
you the place to exalt one leader or one group to the detriment
of another? who deputized you to stir up
a faction?” The question is, of course, rhetorical. No one. The answer is no one appointed
them. These men were only carrying forth the gospel according to
the gifts and callings which God had bestowed upon them. They
never sought to be the head of a party. They never sought to
form their own denomination. Paul’s point with his initial
question is they’re presumptuous and they’re out of order by their
divisive behavior. It’s arrogant. Whatever gifts are manifested
among us as a church, we should be thankful regardless of to
whom God has granted them. The second question that Paul
poses builds upon that first question. He says, what do you
have that you did not receive? And the answer to this one question
is simple, isn’t it? Nothing. We don’t have anything
we didn’t receive. Absolutely nothing. This question
highlights the sin of ungratefulness. There’s nothing that anyone has
that they have not received as a good gift of God. Do you realize
that? Paul told the Athenians that
God has given to people life and breath and all things and
that all things pretty much summarizes all things. We don’t even take
the basics of life to ourselves. They’re given. James, as you
know, echoes this very succinctly. Every good thing given and every
perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights.
If you have it and it’s good, God gave it. Everything we have
in life is a gift of God. Our gender, our wealth, our race,
our nationality, our status, our opportunities, everything. And it’s no different in the
spiritual realm. As Peter reminds us that his divine power has
granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. God gave
it. No one has ever any reason to boast about what they possess. But let’s take this personally.
As I’ve said many times, a proud Calvinist is a contradiction
of terms. If we believe that God is absolutely
sovereign, that our life and our standing and our salvation
is due only to his mercy, How could we ever be proud? Even if you have some possession
or you have some position, these have been granted only for the
service of God’s kingdom, not your own personal enrichment. To elevate yourself beyond that
and to grasp at spheres and positions is to disdain one’s God-given
gifts. If the gifts that God has given
you aren’t good enough, you’re not thankful. As we observe God’s gift among
us, whoever has them, whoever possesses them, even if they’re
bestowed to someone else, we are to humbly receive these gifts
with gratitude, to elevate and align ourselves exclusively under
one gifted man over against another, For our own personal aggrandizement
is the result of pride. And Paul concludes his argument
with one last very searching question. And if you did receive
it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? The third
question draws out the answer derived from the two previous
questions. Here Paul addresses finally the sin of pride. Any
boastfulness or arrogance in light of the fact that God has
granted all gifts is inherently wrong. These servants of God,
Apollos and Paul, were but two of God’s many gifts to the church. Whatever spiritual gifts they
possessed, preaching, evangelism, leadership. These were for the
service and growth of God’s kingdom. Not to create a faction. not
to create a subset in the church, and rather than bickering and
positioning and wrongly elevating one over another, they ought
to be thankful for God’s blessings and glorify him alone. Well,
this too is for us, isn’t it? Whatever gifts we have personally,
whatever gifts are granted to a particular church are to be
humbly received faithfully appropriated and thankfully glorified in God
himself. God alone sovereignly bestows
his gifts. Anything else propping ourselves
up or others is arrogance and pride. This would go a long way
to fixing the promise of problems in Corinth. It will go a long
way to preventing them here in our midst. Would you humble yourself
in prayer? Merciful God, we thank you for
your clear word to us. Lord, we have been spared from
such divisiveness. The Corinthians weren’t. And
Lord, we pray that you would make us to be watchful for such,
that you would help us to receive our God-given gifts in whoever
they reside, and to do so with thankfulness, glorifying you
for them. Lord, we do pray that you would
use us in one another’s lives. and to do so for the sake of
glorifying you in our respective lives. Father, we know, we know
that if we are in Christ, the Holy Spirit has already bestowed
gifts to us and we are to take those gifts and use them joyfully
and plentifully for the growth of the church. Lord, we know
also that If anyone has not placed their
faith in Christ, they do not possess any gifts for usefulness
in the church. And so we pray for those who
do not know Christ, that you might draw them and might show
them the loving Savior who not only gives life and breath in
all things, but grants salvation by faith in Christ alone. Lord,
help these to turn to You. We pray all of these things in
Jesus’ name, Amen.