Pastors aren’t apostles.  They’re functionally different.  But both are leaders in Christ’s church.  And the relationship between leaders and church is crucial for proclaiming the message of the church.   What  the apostle Paul writes to the Corinthian church, pastor and church must hear today.

The Corinthians have turned anti-Paul.  He doesn’t measure up to their worldly-wise standards.  By opposing him, they’re rejecting his apostolic authority and the gospel he teaches.  In 1 Corinthians 4 Paul attempts to bridge the gulf between the church and himself.

First, he asserts that apostles are God’s servants whom the church shouldn’t judge (4:1-5).

Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.  But 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.  I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment 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.

“Servant” is the Greek humayretays.  It refers to one who acts under the authority of another to carry out his will.  Paul urges the Corinthians to think of apostles as servants of Christ.

“Stewards” is the Greek oikonomos. It refers to one charged with running  someone else’s household.

“Mysteries” is the Greek mustayrion.  “God’s mysteries” refers to things that God has kept hidden, but now revealed (in Christ).

Trustworthiness is a necessary virtue for stewards. Paul urges the Corinthians to think of apostles as God’s stewards.

Paul emphasizes he is a servant of Christ and steward of God.  Therefore, the Corinthians shouldn’t sit in judgment (anakrino) of him.  When the Lord comes, he will carry out judgment.

Application cuts two ways. One, the church is not to judge the pastor.  That doesn’t mean don’t evaluate his ministry on biblical grounds.  Nor does it mean don’t try to build him up where he is lacking.  It means don’t stand against him, don’t reject or oppose him. Far too much harm has been inflicted on churches by members who just didn’t like the pastor.  Better to peacefully leave the church than stir up hostility.

The second “cut”:  the pastor must see himself as God’s servant and steward of God’s hidden things revealed in Christ.  He must cultivate humility and faithfully preach and teach the Word.  A proud pastor corrupts the message of the cross and, while “prosperity” sermons may attract listeners, they ignore gospel truth.

Next, Paul identifies the marks of authentic apostles (1 Corinthians 4:6-13).

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 favor of one against another.  For 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? Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals. We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

The Corinthian church is anti-Paul and pro-Apollos, who apparently is a more captivating speaker.  Whatever the saying “Nothing beyond what is written” means, it’s clear its purpose is “that none of you will be puffed up in favor of one against another.”

“For who sees anything different in you?” is an interpretation challenge.  Dr. Gordon Fee says it probably means something like, “Who in the world do you think you are anyway?  What kind of self-delusion is it that allows you to put yourself in a position to judge another person’s servant?”

Paul goes rhetorical in his next two questions.  Everything they have is a gift from God, so why boast as if they’ve achieved “wisdom” and earned spiritual gifts? 

Paul’s irony cuts to the core.  “Already you have all you want . . . become rich . . . become kings!”  Possessing the Spirit, the Corinthians have become triumphalists. “Triumphalism is the belief that the overt and consummate victories that we will experience in the age to come are available to us now.” This boasts “visible and irreversible victories in the present that result in a life free from persecution, suffering, or demonic assault. It’s the notion that since I’m a ‘child of the King’ I have a right to live in financial prosperity and complete physical health . . . [It] belittles those whose ‘lack of faith’ has resulted in a lingering, daily struggle from which Jesus came to deliver them.” (http://www.samstorms.com/all-articles/post/the-dangers-of–triumphalism—2-cor–2:14-)

Finally, Paul draws a series of sharp contrasts between his view of apostleship and theirs.  Picturing apostles as “a spectacle to the world”, Paul may have in mind the triumphant Roman general who parades his ravished captives as he marches home. Apostles, Paul argues. are like that–a “spectacle . . . like the rubbish of the world.”  This, Paul asserts, is true apostleship and true Christianity in the evil world.  To the triumphalist Corinthians, Paul is faithless and weak, living below the standard of “King’s kids” who possess the Spirit’s power.

We, of course, reject triumphalism and what is called today “the prosperity gospel”.  But in practice we live much closer to it than to Paul’s “spectacle” gospel.  Belief in the message of the cross hasn’t left us hungry or thirsty or homeless or beaten or reviled or slandered.  Should we simply thank God for that or consider if our crucified-Christ following is too lukewarm to evoke hostility?

Third, Paul issues his apostolic admonishment (4:14-21).

I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.  I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me.  For this reason I sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church.  But some of you, thinking that I am not coming to you, have become arrogant.  But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power.  For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power.  What would you prefer? Am I to come to you with a stick, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?

Though he’s written “hard” words, he grounds them in a father-children relationship.  Paul is their “father through the gospel”, because they came to believe through his preaching.  They are his “beloved children.”

From that image he makes a passionate appeal: “be imitators of me”.  For Paul this means two things.  One, imitate me by returning to the message of the cross.  In other words, look at life through the eyes of the crucified Christ, not through the eyes of human wisdom or misplaced triumphalism.

Two, imitate me by living like the crucified Christ.  That means don’t act as if the Spirit’s gifts make you superior to others and immune from suffering for Christ in this evil age.

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As I review this long exposition, I see several “take-aways”, all having to do with the pastor and the church.  I’ll comment only on the most powerful for me–Paul’s risky exhortation to the church:  “Imitate me”.  Preaching is comparatively easy; living a life consistent with the message of the crucified Christ is hugely challenging.

Pastors, you must live such a life so that the people to whom you preach can follow Christ as they follow you.  This means living like a humble servant and trustworthy steward.  It means responding to offenses as Jesus did and embracing suffering for him as a normal part of living in an evil age.  And it means loving the people as a father his children.  Christ calls us to this for the sake of his church and his glory.

Church, we must pray for our pastor to be worthy of imitation and follow him as he follows Christ.  We must look to him as model of the message of the cross.

Only then will the church be the body of Christ that glorifies him and makes him known to a world that so desperately needs him.