1 Corinthians 4:3-4

“But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged, of you or of a human tribunal; yea, I judge not mine own self. 4. For I know nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the Lord.”

The two previous verses related to preachers in general, especially to Apollos and Paul. From this verse, the application becomes wholly personal to Paul. For in what he proceeds to declare, the apostle can evidently make no affirmation except in so far as concerns himself. ᾿Εμοί : “ with me (at least).” Paul cannot know whether Apollos thought like him on this point.

The preposition εἰς, which indicates motion, or tendency to a point, is slightly incorrect, with the verb of rest, ἔστι. It indicates the progressive reduction to a minimum of value, in proportion as the apostle weighs the judgments which are passed on him at Corinth. These unfavourable judgments become more and more with him the last thing which disquiets him.

The that (ἵνα) does not entirely lose the notion of aim: Paul has no interest whatever with a view to the fact that these judgments exist or do not exist. The term ἀνθρωπίνη ἡμέρα, which we render by a human tribunal, literally signifies a human day, a day of human assizes. The word day is used in the same way in the Latin phrase diem dicere. These last words contain a softening of what Paul had just said of the small value which he attaches to the judgments of certain Corinthians. The same indifference he feels in regard to all human judgment in general.

The term ἀνακρίνειν denotes rather the examination than the judgment; but as the examination issues in a sentence, and as we have no verb to render the strict sense, we must translate by the word judge.

Once on this way, the apostle goes to the very end. He does not himself feel adequate to judge himself with certainty. The ἀλλά indicates the gradation: “I refuse not only the judgment of others, but also that of myself;” comp. 2 Corinthians 7:11. He feels that in his inner man there are unexplored recesses which do not allow him to discover thoroughly the real state of things, the full integrity of his own fidelity, and consequently to pronounce a valid sentence on himself.