1 Corinthians 4:1

CHAPTER IV.

Ministers should be esteemed by their flocks as the stewards of

God, whose duty and interest it is to be faithful, 1, 2.

Precipitate and premature judgments condemned, 3-5.

The apostle's caution to give the Corinthians no offence, 6.

We have no good but what we receive from God, 7.

The worldly mindedness of the Corinthians, 8.

The enumeration of the hardships, trials, and sufferings of the

apostles, 9-13.

For what purpose St. Paul mentions these things, 14-16.

He promises to send Timothy to them, 17.

And to come himself shortly, to examine and correct the abuses

that had crept in among them, 18-21.

NOTES ON CHAP. IV.

Verse 1 Corinthians 4:1. Let a man so account of us] This is a continuation of the subject in the preceding chapter; and should not have been divided from it. The fourth chapter would have begun better at 1 Corinthians 4:6, and the third should have ended with the fifth verse. 1 Corinthians 4:5

As of the ministers of Christ] ως υπηρετας χριστου. The word υπηρετης means an under-rower, or one, who, in the trireme, quadrireme, or quinquereme galleys, rowed in one of the undermost benches; but it means also, as used by the Greek writers, any inferior officer or assistant. By the term here the apostle shows the Corinthians that, far from being heads and chiefs, he and his fellow apostles considered themselves only as inferior officers, employed under Christ from whom alone they received their appointment their work, and their recompense.

Stewards of the mysteries of God.] και οικονομους μυστηριων θεου, Economists of the Divine mysteries. See the explanation of the word steward in Clarke's note on "Matthew 24:45"; Luke 8:3; Luke 12:42.

The steward, or oikonomos, was the master's deputy in regulating the concerns of the family, providing food for the household, seeing it served out at the proper times and seasons, and in proper quantities. He received all the cash, expended what was necessary for the support of the family, and kept exact accounts, which he was obliged at certain times to lay before the master. The mysteries, the doctrines of God, relative to the salvation of the world by the passion and death of Christ; and the inspiration, illumination, and purification of the soul by the Spirit of Christ, constituted a principal part of the Divine treasure intrusted to the hands of the stewards by their heavenly Master; as the food that was to be dispensed at proper times, seasons, and in proper proportions to the children and domestics of the Church, which is the house of God.