The key-note to this whole chapter is the opening statement, “we faint not” under the responsibilities and perils of it (see also 1 Corinthians 4:16). The grounds on which we are kept from fainting under these are here successively detailed.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Why do we not “faint_ ”? Answer, _First,_ Because of the _character_ of our ministry.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:1. LET A MAN SO ACCOUNT OF US AS OF MINISTERS OF CHRIST, AND STEWARDS OF THE MYSTERIES OF GOD. 1 Corinthians 4:2. Here, moreover, [1] _i.e._ in this matter of stewardship, IT IS REQUIRED IN STEWARDS THAT A MAN HE FOUND FAITHFUL. The figure here IS WARILY CHANGED in order to fasten a... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN AS WE RECEIVED MERCY not so much, mercy to “put us into the ministry,” as mercy for the courageous discharge of it (1 Timothy 1:12-14), WE FAINT NOT: [1] [1] Our Authorised Version rightly departs here from the received reading, which has but slender support. The difference between the two rea... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:3. BUT WITH ME IT IS A VERY SMALL THING THAT I SHOULD BE JUDGED OF YOU, OR OF MAN'S JUDGMENT _Gr._ ‘man's day;' as if he had said, ‘Men have their days for sitting in judgment on their fellows, and my detractors at Corinth may make free with my character and doings; but another “day”... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:3. BUT AND IF OUR GOSPEL BE HID, IT IS HID TO THEM THAT ARE PERISHING. It is veiled only in those who by their whole bearing towards the Gospel make it plain that they “are not willing to come to Christ that they may be saved” (John 5:40): see on chap. 2 Corinthians 2:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:4. FOR I KNOW NOTHING AGAINST MYSELF. As this is clearly the intended sense, so our translators probably meant to express the same, using the word “by” in a now obsolete sense. YET AM I NOT HEREBY JUSTIFIED all human judgments being but provisional. BUT HE THAT JUDGETH ME IS THE... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:5. WHEREFORE JUDGE NOTHING BEFORE THE TIME, UNTIL THE LORD COME (the second time), WHO WILL... MAKE MANIFEST THE COUNSELS OF THE HEARTS (Ecclesiastes 12:14; Romans 2:16), AND THEN SHALL EACH MAN HAVE HIS PRAISE FROM GOD according to his fidelity; for that is the one quality which the... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:6. NOW THESE THINGS, BRETHREN, I HAVE IN A FIGURE TRANSFERRED TO MYSELF AND APOLLOS FOR YOUR SAKES putting ourselves forward merely as illustrations of great principles applicable to all THAT IN US YE MIGHT LEARN NOT TO GO BEYOND THE THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN (in such places as Jeremi... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:7. FOR WHO MAKETH THEE TO DIFFER (in the way of superiority)?... [ Continue Reading ]
_Third_ reason why “we faint not” because the vessels which bear the treasure we bring to men are so utterly incommensurate with the salvation they are enriched with.... [ Continue Reading ]
[1] The allusion may be, as has been suggested, to the practice of depositing treasure in vessels of earthenware.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:8. NOW YE ARE FILLED, NOW YE ARE RICH, YE HAVE REIGNED AS KINGS WITHOUT US: YEA, AND I WOULD YE DID REIGN, THAT WE MIGHT REIGN WITH YOU. There is keen irony here: ‘A fine time of it ye have had since ye were relieved of our presence; we stood in your way, we kept you in bondage, it s... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:9. FOR I THINK, GOD HATH SET FORTH US THE APOSTLES LAST OF ALL, AS MEN DOOMED TO DEATH... A SPECTACLE (to be gazed on as in a theatre) UNTO THE WORLD, AND TO ANGELS, AND TO MEN to exhibit men's enmity to the truth.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:10. WE ARE FOOLS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, BUT YE ARE WISE IN CHRIST how enviable your lot, how pitiable ours! (irony, however, this is) WE WEAK, YE STRONG; YE HAVE GLORY, WE DISHONOUR.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:11. EVEN UNTO THIS PRESENT HOUR WE BOTH HUNGER, AND THIRST, AND ARE NAKED, AND ARE BUFFETED, AND HAVE NO CERTAIN DWELLING-PLACE having often scarce the necessaries of life.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:12. AND WE TOIL, WORKING WITH OUR OWN HANDS see Acts 18:3; Acts 20:34; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:8. Indeed be had to vindicate his liberty to preach at Corinth without hire (when that was ascribed to want of manly openness), and in order to do this he had to work for his... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:13. BEING DEFAMED, WE INTREAT in the sense of returning soft words for calumnies. [1] [1] See a Mace. xiii. 23 for this tense of the word (Meyer). WE ARE MADE AS THE FILTH OF THE WORLD, THE OFF SCOURING OF ALL THINGS, EVEN UNTIL NOW. As these are the strongest conceivable figures,... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:14. I WRITE NOT THESE THINGS TO SHAME YOU as if I thought your Christianity unreal, but that ye may be led to inquire whether it is not sitting too lightly upon you, and as to your preachers, whether their popularity is not due to their preaching an easy religion.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:15. FOR IF you SHOULD HAVE TEN THOUSAND INSTRUCTORS IN CHRIST, YET HAVE YE NOT MANY FATHERS; FOR IN CHRIST JESUS I BEGAT YOU THROUGH THE GOSPEL. Three agencies are named here as factors in conversion: _Christ,_ as the proper Agent (through His Spirit); the _Gospel,_ as the instrument... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:16. I BESEECH YOU THEREFORE, BE YE IMITATORS OF ME in preparedness to suffer for His name.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:17. FOR THIS CAUSE HAVE I SENT UNTO YOU TIMOTHY, WHO IS MY BELOVED AND FAITHFUL SON IN THE LORD for he was his spiritual father as well as theirs (see 1 Timothy 1:2; 1 Timothy 1:18; 2 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2 l). The apostle's plans at this time are stated in Acts 19:21-22 (see Pal... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:18. NOW SOME ARE PUFFED UP AS THOUGH I WERE NOT COMING TO YOU (afraid to shew myself).... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:19. BUT I WILL COME TO YOU SHORTLY, IF THE LORD WILL (see 1 Corinthians 16:7-8); and this caveat he might well put in, for he had found already that his own plans were liable to be overruled by the plans of a Higher than he, at whose absolute disposal he desired ever to be. AND I W... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:20. FOR THE KINGDOM of God is not in word (empty plausibilities), BUT IN POWER and, in the case of preachers, seen in self-emptying consecration to the one end in view.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 4:21. WHAT WILL YE? SHALL I COME UNTO YOU WITH A ROD, OR IN LOVE AND A SPIRIT OF MEEKNESS? in severity of discipline, or the reverse?... [ Continue Reading ]