1 Corinthians 4: 1 - 7
4 Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy. 3But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. 4I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5Therefore do not pronounce judgement before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.
6 I have applied all this to Apollos and myself for your benefit, brothers and sisters,* so that you may learn through us the meaning of the saying, ‘Nothing beyond what is written’, so that none of you will be puffed up in favour of one against another. 7For who sees anything different in you?*What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?
History is full of charismatic leaders. Not even the best ideas truly sell themselves – movements need heroes, men and women that embody the virtues of the ideology and possess the power of persuasion necessary to sway hearts and minds. The singular hero provides the group with an essential focus for their emotions surrounding the group’s ideals – they allow the followers to fall in love.
It seems to me that when God came to us in the form of Jesus Christ, He took a gamble. Believing in the power of His message, He created for himself an earthly medium through which to announce it. He must have thought 33 years would be long enough – after all, a message so powerful, so good and true, surely we would get it the first time. But as anyone who’s ever tried to get a five-year-old to get their shoes on can tell you, you wouldn’t believe how many times you need to repeat a message before it finally sinks in. And with Christ crucified, the burden of the precious message fell to His followers to spread. Lesser vessels, but as when a parent leaves the teenager in charge of the younger children, there must have been a hope that the authority created by the message itself would be enough to overcome the flaws of its new stewards. But again, as anyone who’s ever left a teenager in charge of a five-year-old can tell you, sometimes you come home to find the entire house covered in Cool Whip.
Poor Paul is trying his best here to remind the Corinthians to keep their eyes and hearts on the message as it was handed down by God’s most perfect messenger. But ideas, even holy ones, are tricky – we’ve all played telephone, we know how easily messages are distorted even when there isn’t some smart-aleck who changes the words to something involving butts. And here we are, two thousand years and billions of transfers between us and the original. The Church itself has taken on so many different forms, and we have fallen under the sway of countless messengers. The crucial thing that Paul is laying out here, a message I’m sure he hoped would reverberate throughout history, is this: Put not your faith in anything or anyone but the Word. Not in me nor in any other human messenger, but in the Word and the loving ideals contained in the Word. If there’s anything history has shown us, it’s to be wary of leaders that claim that they alone can save us – strongmen who ask that we put our trust in them personally. Even Jesus was frank about his role – he was a carrier medium, a transmitter. Beware the leader, Paul is saying, who claims to have all the answers. We were all given the answers already – keep your hearts on the prize and let God sort it out in good time.
It seems to me that when God came to us in the form of Jesus Christ, He took a gamble. Believing in the power of His message, He created for himself an earthly medium through which to announce it. He must have thought 33 years would be long enough – after all, a message so powerful, so good and true, surely we would get it the first time. But as anyone who’s ever tried to get a five-year-old to get their shoes on can tell you, you wouldn’t believe how many times you need to repeat a message before it finally sinks in. And with Christ crucified, the burden of the precious message fell to His followers to spread. Lesser vessels, but as when a parent leaves the teenager in charge of the younger children, there must have been a hope that the authority created by the message itself would be enough to overcome the flaws of its new stewards. But again, as anyone who’s ever left a teenager in charge of a five-year-old can tell you, sometimes you come home to find the entire house covered in Cool Whip.
Poor Paul is trying his best here to remind the Corinthians to keep their eyes and hearts on the message as it was handed down by God’s most perfect messenger. But ideas, even holy ones, are tricky – we’ve all played telephone, we know how easily messages are distorted even when there isn’t some smart-aleck who changes the words to something involving butts. And here we are, two thousand years and billions of transfers between us and the original. The Church itself has taken on so many different forms, and we have fallen under the sway of countless messengers. The crucial thing that Paul is laying out here, a message I’m sure he hoped would reverberate throughout history, is this: Put not your faith in anything or anyone but the Word. Not in me nor in any other human messenger, but in the Word and the loving ideals contained in the Word. If there’s anything history has shown us, it’s to be wary of leaders that claim that they alone can save us – strongmen who ask that we put our trust in them personally. Even Jesus was frank about his role – he was a carrier medium, a transmitter. Beware the leader, Paul is saying, who claims to have all the answers. We were all given the answers already – keep your hearts on the prize and let God sort it out in good time.