1 Corinthians — Chapter 4

Authorship & Background

Deep Dive

Setting: Paul writes from Ephesus in about AD 53–55 (16:8), a few years after founding the Corinthian church on his second journey (Acts 18:1–18). Roman Corinth was a rich, proud port city where people competed for honor and public speakers drew fans the way athletes do. The church had split into camps around favorite teachers, "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," "I follow Cephas" (1:12). Chapters 1–3 answered that with the foolishness of the cross, the gift of the Spirit, and the picture of ministers as farmhands and builders on God's field and temple. Chapter 4 closes the whole argument about divisions (1:10–4:21). It turns from what ministers are to how the church should judge them, and then to Paul himself: the suffering apostle and the father who will soon visit.

The Ministry of Apostles (vv1–21)

• "Servants of Christ" (v1). The word is hypēretēs. It was built from a word for "rower," and it originally meant an under-rower, a man on a lower bench of a galley. By Paul's day it simply meant an assistant or attendant, the word used for synagogue attendants (Luke 4:20) and temple officers (John 18:3). The point is not the rowing picture but the rank: Paul and Apollos are attendants, not party leaders. They belong to Christ, not to the Corinthian factions.
• "Stewards of the mysteries of God" (v1). A steward (oikonomos) managed a household or estate for an owner, often as a slave or freedman (Luke 12:42; 16:1). He ran everything and owned nothing. "Mysteries" in Paul is not secret knowledge for insiders but God's plan once hidden and now revealed in Christ crucified (2:7). Ministers hand out what belongs to someone else.
• "It is required of stewards that they be found faithful" (v2). Not clever, impressive or popular, the things Corinth valued in a speaker. The one question about a steward is whether he did what his master gave him to do.
• "Judged by you or by any human court" (v3). "Court" is literally "day," as the ESV footnote notes: a human day of judgment, set against "the Day" of the Lord (3:13). "Judged" here is anakrinō, to examine or cross-question, the same verb as in 2:14–15. The Corinthians were putting their teachers on trial, and Paul declines to treat their verdict as final.
• "I do not even judge myself" (v3). Paul goes further. He does not trust his own self-review either.
• "I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted" (v4). "Acquitted" is dikaioō, the verb Paul uses for being justified. A clear conscience is good (2 Cor 1:12), but it is not the court of final appeal. People can be blind to their own faults. "It is the Lord who judges me" (Ps 139:23–24).
• "Do not pronounce judgment before the time" (v5). The verb changes to krinō, to pass sentence. The Lord will "bring to light the things now hidden in darkness" and "disclose the purposes of the heart," motives no audience can see. This is not a ban on all discernment, since in the very next chapter Paul tells the church to judge a sinning member (5:12). It forbids handing down final verdicts on a servant's worth that belong to his Master.
• "Then each one will receive his commendation from God" (v5). The surprise is the word "commendation." Paul expects the Day to bring praise to faithful servants, not just scrutiny. What matters is God's "well done" (Matt 25:21).
• "I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos" (v6). The verb (metaschēmatizō) usually means to change form or disguise (2 Cor 11:13–15). Here it is a figure of speech: Paul has used himself and Apollos as the example, so as not to name the actual local leaders the factions were rallying around. Paul and Apollos were not rivals at all (3:5–9; 16:12).
• "Not to go beyond what is written" (v6). This is one of the hardest phrases in the letter, and it reads like a slogan Paul expects them to know. Most interpreters take "what is written" as Scripture, especially the Old Testament verses Paul has just quoted against human boasting (1:19, 31; 3:19–20): stay inside what God has said about leaders and pride. Others think it means the principles Paul has written in this letter, or a well-known maxim. A few scholars suggest it began as a scribe's margin note, but there is no manuscript that lacks it, so that remains a guess. On any reading the aim is the same: "that none of you may be puffed up."
• "Puffed up" (v6). The verb is physioō, from the word for a bellows, to inflate. It appears seven times in the New Testament, and six are in 1 Corinthians (4:6, 18, 19; 5:2; 8:1; 13:4). Pride was this church's signature problem, and love "is not puffed up" is the cure (13:4, KJV wording).
• Three questions (v7). "Who sees anything different in you?" means: who made you superior? "What do you have that you did not receive?" Nothing: gifts, knowledge, faith and even the teachers they boasted about were all given (3:21–23; John 3:27; Jas 1:17). "Why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" A gift cannot be a trophy. Augustine leaned on this verse against the Pelagian idea that people supply the first move toward God.
• "Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich!" (v8). Paul switches to sharp irony. The repeated "already" is the key. The Corinthians acted as if the kingdom had fully arrived: they were filled, rich, reigning, as if the age to come were here and the cross were behind them. Scholars often call this an "over-realized" view of the end times. Paul's answer is "would that you did reign," because then the apostles would reign with them. Christians do reign with Christ, but after enduring with him (2 Tim 2:12). The picture is close to Laodicea's "I am rich… I need nothing" (Rev 3:17).
• "God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death" (v9). Paul likely has a Roman triumph in mind. A victorious general paraded through the city, and at the very end of the procession came the captives who would be executed afterward. Or it is the arena, where condemned criminals were brought out last, after the games, to die. "Sentenced to death" (epithanatios) means condemned to death. Either way, while the Corinthians picture themselves on thrones, God has put his apostles at the back of the parade.
• "A spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men" (v9). "Spectacle" is theatron, the word for theater, the same word used of the great theater at Ephesus in Acts 19:29. The whole universe, seen and unseen, is the audience.
• "We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ" (v10). Three stinging contrasts: fools and wise, weak and strong, disgraced and honored. They throw back the Corinthians' own claims, and they recall 1:26–28, where God chose the foolish, weak and low. The church was measuring itself by the very standards the cross overturned.
• "To the present hour we hunger and thirst" (v11). This is no distant memory but Paul's life in Ephesus as he writes: hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed, "buffeted" (struck with fists, the word used of Jesus at his trial, Matt 26:67), and homeless, always on the move. 2 Corinthians 11:23–28 gives a longer list.
• "We labor, working with our own hands" (v12). Paul made tents (Acts 18:3) and later reminds the Ephesian elders of it (Acts 20:34). Upper-class Greeks looked down on manual labor, and a teacher who took no fees could seem second-rate next to a paid professional. Paul did it on purpose so the gospel would come free of charge (9:12–18).
• "When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat" (vv12–13). This is Jesus' teaching lived out: "bless those who curse you" (Luke 6:28; Rom 12:14). Corinth's honor culture expected a man to answer insult with insult. The apostles answer with blessing and kind appeals.
• "The scum of the world, the refuse of all things" (v13). Two rare words, each found only here in the New Testament. Perikatharma is what is thrown out after a thorough cleaning. Peripsēma is what is scraped or wiped off. Both are about as low as language goes: dirt and scrapings. Outside the Bible both words could also be used for a human scapegoat, a worthless person thrown out or killed to "cleanse" a city in a crisis, and Proverbs 21:18 in the Greek Old Testament uses perikatharma for a ransom. Some commentators hear that echo, as if the apostles are treated as the world's throwaway offering. Others think Paul means only "the lowest of the low." The lexicon allows both. The plain meaning, utter contempt, is certain either way.
• "I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children" (v14). The tone shifts at once. "Admonish" (noutheteō) is to warn and set straight, the word for a parent correcting a child (Eph 6:4). The irony was not contempt. It was a father's wake-up call.
• "Countless guides in Christ… not many fathers" (v15). "Countless" is literally "ten thousand." A "guide" (paidagōgos) was a household slave who walked a boy to school, watched his behavior and disciplined him. He had authority, but he was not the father. Paul uses the same word for the law in Galatians 3:24. The Corinthians had many teachers since Paul left, Apollos among them, but only one man had brought them to life through the gospel. Paul's claim is not that he converts people by his own power. He became their father "in Christ Jesus through the gospel."
• "Be imitators of me" (v16). "Imitator" is mimētēs, our word "mimic." It may sound proud, but look at what he has just described: hunger, labor, blessing those who curse. He means imitate that. He completes the thought in 11:1: "as I am of Christ." In an age before every believer owned a Bible, people learned the faith by watching a life.
• Timothy (v17). "My beloved and faithful child" echoes "my beloved children" (v14). Timothy helped found the church (Acts 18:5; 2 Cor 1:19), and Paul sends him to remind them of "my ways in Christ," a pattern Paul taught "everywhere in every church." Corinth was not getting special rules. Acts 19:22 records Timothy and Erastus being sent from Ephesus into Macedonia, and 16:10–11 shows Paul was unsure Timothy would be well received.
• "Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming" (v18). Some read Timothy's visit as proof that Paul was afraid to come himself. They were "puffed up" again, the word from v6.
• "I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills" (v19). Paul's plans are real but held loosely (16:5–9; Jas 4:15). He did go, though later than planned, and 2 Corinthians speaks of a "painful visit" (2 Cor 2:1) that most scholars place between the two letters. When he comes he will test not "the talk of these arrogant people but their power."
• "The kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power" (v20). This ties back to 2:4: Paul came "not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Corinth prized speech. The kingdom is measured by the Spirit's real work in changed lives.
• "Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?" (v21). The rod is a father's instrument of discipline (Prov 13:24). Paul is not threatening a beating but stern apostolic correction, the kind chapter 5 is about to require. He would much rather come gently, and he leaves the choice in their hands. The question leads straight into the case of open sin in chapter 5, which their pride had kept them from dealing with.
• Commentators: Guzik makes much of the "under-rower" picture for hypēretēs. The lexicon confirms that is where the word comes from, though by the first century it meant an attendant in general, so the picture is an illustration rather than what Paul's readers would have heard. Guzik and JFB both stress that a steward dispenses what is not his. JFB puts it this way: "Not the depositories of grace, but dispensers of it," and "the headship belongs to Christ alone." Matthew Henry keeps the balance: "Apostles were no more than servants of Christ, but they were not to be undervalued." On v3 he writes, "It is a comfort that men are not to be our final judges." JFB notes that "court" is literally "man's day," set against the Lord's day, and that Paul shifts verbs in v5 to forbid any premature verdict. On v7 Henry concludes that "all we have, or are, or do, that is good, is owing to the free and rich grace of God." All three read vv8–13 as irony aimed at awakening, not wounding. Guzik and JFB both see the arena or triumph behind v9, and JFB, like the Tyndale notes, compares Corinth's self-satisfaction to Laodicea. JFB explains the words in v13 as the sweepings left after cleaning. Guzik mentions the scapegoat custom as a possible second layer of meaning, and the lexicon supports that as possible but not certain. On vv14–21 Henry observes, "Reproofs that kindly and affectionately warn, are likely to reform," and that Paul, though he could speak with a parent's authority, "would rather beseech them in love." Guzik pictures the rod as a shepherd's tool for wayward sheep, while the context of a father and his children favors a father's rod. The point is the same either way.

Pointing to Christ

The church at Corinth wanted leaders who looked like winners. Paul offers them apostles at the back of the procession, hungry, struck, cursed and still blessing. That is not a failure of ministry. It is the shape of the one they serve. Jesus was the steward who was perfectly faithful, the servant who was struck and slandered and answered with blessing, the condemned man made a spectacle and treated as refuse outside the city. His Father's verdict, not the crowd's, had the final word when he raised him. Everything the Corinthians boasted in, they had received from him. The Lord who will one day "disclose the purposes of the heart" is the same Lord who died for those hearts, and his commendation is the only praise that lasts.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik examines stewardship, the danger of premature judgment, the Corinthians' pride vs. apostolic suffering, and Paul's fatherly appeal.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of 1 Corinthians -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

Links open on the publisher's own site. Nothing here is reproduced on this page.

Reflection

• Faithfulness Over Success (v.2) — Paul says the one thing required of a steward is faithfulness, not brilliance or popularity. Are you faithful with what God has actually entrusted to you, even if it never looks impressive?
• Nothing You Have Was Earned (v.7) — Paul asks what the Corinthians have that they didn't receive as a gift, exposing how absurd pride really is. If everything you have — abilities, opportunities, salvation — was given to you, what room is left for boasting?
• Suffering Apostles, Prideful Church (vv.10-13) — Paul contrasts the apostles' hunger and hardship with the Corinthians' comfortable self-image of being wise, strong, and honored. How does your own comfort or status compare with the pattern of sacrifice Paul describes?
• A Life Worth Imitating (v.16) — Paul urges the Corinthians to imitate him, the way a child follows a father. Could you honestly invite someone to imitate your life right now, or would that expose gaps between your words and your walk?
• Power, Not Just Talk (v.20) — Paul says the kingdom of God is shown in power, not in impressive speech. Is your faith marked mainly by what you say, or is there visible evidence of God's transforming power in how you actually live?