1 Corinthians 4:3 Commentary and Bible Study

This verse may be trouble you on first reading. It sounds almost a little arrogant, not an awfully nice thing to say, but that is because we understand it incorrectly. This is spoken to the Corinthian church, and while the apostle in earlier chapters has commended them for many things, and they are an earnest and a good church, nevertheless there are some problems. Among them is this: that they have worldly ways of thinking, and when they assess people they assess them in terms of: ‘Can they speak like the Greek orators, use long words half of which we don't understand, can they impress us at an earthly level? Are they fine figures of men, and can they come across? That is what we want in the church at Corinth, to move our society. That is what we want to stir people and to bring them thinking about Christ. Perhaps they are prosperous or exceptionally well educated and can handle all language and people.’ ‘Because that is the way you think,’ the apostle says to the Corinthians, ‘because that is your outlook, your judgement of me I count as a very small thing. Your judgement is not good.’ I am listening, but because your tastes are so warped you are not the people to assess an apostle or a minister or your own local ministers. He set little value on the judgment of men of the world on his ministry, and sadly the judgment of the Corinthians has become very similar to the judgment of men. Ministers of Christ are not to be judged by worldly standards. ‘Yea, I judge not mine own self.’ Paul may still be thinking in terms of the Corinthians. I do not assess myself or examine myself to see how I am coming across, to see what impression I am making as a person upon you. Certainly, the minister looks at the congregation because he is concerned to see what impression the word is making on them, and if it is making no impression he says to himself, ‘I must be expressing this very poorly. I shall try again another way, another approach.’ But he does not consider how he comes across as a person: ‘I want people to feel well of me therefore I am going to curry their favour, and I am going to preach the sort of things they will be impressed by at a worldly level.’ The preacher must not look at himself to see how he is coming across in terms of natural gifts.