1 Corinthians 4:1-13

“This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” (1 Corinthians 4:1)

Paul answers the Corinthian habit of ranking their teachers by turning the question of judgement around. A steward is not assessed by the household he serves but by the master who appointed him, so the only verdict that counts is deferred until the Lord comes and brings to light what is hidden in darkness. Paul will not even pronounce on himself: a clear conscience is not an acquittal. From verse 6 the argument sharpens into irony. The Corinthians speak as though the kingdom had already arrived, already rich, already reigning, while the apostles who brought them the gospel come last in the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. The catalogue that follows, hungry and thirsty and poorly dressed, buffeted, homeless, labouring with their own hands, reviled and persecuted and slandered, is not self-pity but a description of what apostolic ministry actually looked like, and it ends with Paul calling himself the refuse of the world. The passage sets a cross-shaped ministry against a congregation's appetite for impressive leaders.

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