1 Corinthians 4:13 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Corinthians 4:13

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Whatever does the apostle mean? He means, we are like road sweepers. We don't have eminence, us preachers. We preach for Christ; we preach salvation; we preach down humanity, we tell people they are sinners, and they need forgiveness and they must repent. Therefore we are despised, we are made as the filth of the world. The road-sweeper goes along the road, certainly in olden times, cleaning up the highway, clearing up everything left by the horses and so on, and, inevitably, the filth adheres to him, and you see him at the end of the day and he was filthy from head to foot. That is what the apostle means. We are made as the filth of the world: people in the lowest possible strata of life, the lowest order who get dirty in their work. The more we preach, the more scorn is heaped upon us, and the more we are reviled by the world. It is not eminence we are after; that is the Pope of Rome. He goes in the opposite direction, and sadly that is some preachers. The prosperity gospel heretics, and even some sounder men aspire to be well-to-do. But we, the apostles, are made as the filth of the world and are the offscouring, the scrapings, of all things unto this day.

Application

What preachers today should look for is self-mastery, making no provision for the flesh, sacrificing all for Christ, following the simple lifestyle of preachers. God enables pastors to be supported by the people of God, not to have to make tents, not to need to work with their hands. But that does not mean we go to the other extreme, and swing like the pendulum and become rich, and have fine cars and multiple homes. That is not Biblical behaviour for preachers. Simplicity and reasonableness is the standard.

And it goes for all Christians. Are you rich? Do you have a big salary? Don't give it up. Oh yes, there are Abrahams in the Scriptures, and many other wealthy people; don't give it up. Be a great steward; stick to simplicity, self-mastery, self-denial. Stick to what is reasonable. Run your business, whatever it is you do. Take your big salary, but be great steward. Don’t be ensnared by it. I knew very well a very wealthy farmer who had many farms, and farmed on an industrial scale, and was very successful, but he always said, ‘I pray constantly and daily to run my farms, and to run my wealth, and not let it run me.’ And he lived that way too. He was reasonable. You would have thought him, had you known him, reasonably prosperous, but you'd never have known he was a multimillionaire. He was a great steward too. That is the standard for us. Think of the apostles. Think of the example of Paul: simplicity and reasonableness.

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1 Corinthians 4:13 Commentary and Bible Study