Examining the Servants of Christ
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
We're looking this morning at 1 Corinthians Chapter 4, 1 Corinthians Chapter 4 and verses 1 through 5 in our continuing study of 1 Corinthians. We've been encouraged by the response of our folks to the series which we gave in the last three weeks on God and Satan, but now we're returning to our study of 1 Corinthians and find ourselves in Chapter 4 looking at the first five verses. I confess to you that the passage is written as much to me as it is to you. It is addressed to the Corinthian congregation, but it is the definition of the true place of the minister. It's the guideline or the standard by which the minister is to minister.
And it is the attitude in which the people are to hold him. And so it's a very important portion of scripture. It's been a very heart searching time for me, a time of self examination, a time of measuring myself against the word of God in order to see that I fulfilled that which God has laid out as His pattern for His minister. One of the very popular games that people play in the church among many games is the game of evaluating the pastor. All kinds of criteria have been offered as the standard for who is to be the most honored pastor and who is to be the tops and who's the bottom and why so and so is better than the other and so forth, there are even institutions that give special honors to the people who fit their criteria. And I suppose that because ministers are in the public eye and because we're always up in front, it is tempting to rate and rank them and the game then is very common.
Ministers are generally ranked by the following criteria. The size of their church, the ability of their staff, the size of their staff, the style of their preaching, the degrees they've received academically, the books they have written, the particular scriptural emphasis that is associated with them, their popularity with people, their social status, etc., etc. And on this basis we all, I think, are tempted to rate and rank ministers.
And may I hasten to add that all of that is offensive to God. All of it. And in this passage, Paul discusses the issue of evaluating ministers. It is a very important text and it is highly instructive for us. Now, it's been a long time since we last studied 1 Corinthians so let me remind you of a few general things. It'll help you to understand what we're talking about. The letter of 1 Corinthians written by the apostle Paul to the Corinthian church was written because there were so many problems in the church. The church was being crippled by the sequence of problems that became manifest.
But of all of the problems that they had and they had about all of the problems there were, the most severe one, at least the one to which Paul goes at the greatest length to discuss is the problem of division. It is very likely that all of the other problems contributed to the problem of division. But division is the problem with which he deals in the first four chapters and Satan, as you well know, loves to divide the church. We've seen this in our study of Satan the last few weeks. Now in the first four chapters then Paul is writing to counteract the division in the congregation.
He points up clearly that the division was manifest because of two things. The exaltation of human wisdom and the exaltation of human leaders. The people were fighting over opinions and people. In Chapter 1 there is evidence that they were arguing about philosophies. They had one philosophy and this group had another philosophy and so forth and so on. And they had dragged their philosophies into the church and even though they agreed on theology, they were polarized over human opinion.
And secondly, he says in Chapter 1, verse 12 they were divided over men. One would say, I'm of Paul; another I'm of Apollos; another I'm of Christ; another I'm of Cephus. And so they were polarized over human leaders with the exception of course of Christ and over human opinion. So Paul attacks that simply in Chapter 1 and 2 he attacks the sin of exalting human wisdom. In Chapter 3 and 4 the sin of exalting human leaders. And he shows in the midst of all of it that the basic sin underneath all of it is carnality, Chapter 3, the first five verses.
So we're in the midst of his discussion of human leaders and he has already in Chapter 3 pointed out how ridiculous it is to rank men over the others. To say this man is superior to that man and this man is superior to that man and he's number one and he's number two and he comes in number three. That's sinful. That's an unjust evaluation because human beings are not in a position to have the proper criteria to make the judgment. Now let me hasten to add this. It is clear in the New Testament that where a man teaches false doctrine, we have the right to make a judgment. That is very clear.
It is clear in the New Testament that where a man is living in sin we have the right and the obligation to discipline that man. But where all men are equally true in doctrine and equally pure in life, there is no basis for ranking them, for evaluating them. For setting one over the other. For saying this man is superior to that man, where you have them teaching true doctrine and living godly lives there is not to be favoritism.
Where false doctrine enters in or where sin enters in then the church has the obligation to separate the false doctrine or be separated from that person and to discipline the one who is sinning. But in the case of Corinth there was Peter, Paul, and Apollos and they were equally true and equally godly. And yet there had been factions that had grown up around each individual on the basis of the style of his ministry and his personality, etc., etc.
Now in Chapter 3, Paul pointed out that to make such an evaluation shows you misunderstand totally the ministry. Not only that, you misunderstand God. Not only that, you misunderstand the rewards and you misunderstand the fact that all teachers belong to you anyway and you ought to be thankful for all of them. And he went through that from verse 5 to verse 23 everyone of those little things. Now beginning in Chapter 4 he says when you evaluate these men, you also misunderstand the fact that only the Lord can make that judgment. And that's his point in Chapter 4, verses 1-5.
God is the judge, you are not. The evaluation of a minister of God belongs to God. And we have no right to come up with arbitrary human standards and say this man ranks above this man because he does this, etc., etc. His church is bigger than that man's. He's got more degrees. He's written more books. He's a better speaker, etc., etc., etc. As I said, if they teach false doctrine, Romans 16:17 says that's different. You need to separate yourself from them. And 1 Timothy says if they're living in sin, an elder can be rebuked before two or three witnesses and he ought to be publicly rebuked if the sin is correct.
Well, where there is sound doctrine and personal holiness, there's no justification for evaluating and ranking men above the others. Now in order to deal with this problem, Paul writes one of the most interesting passages in the whole letter, these five verses. And here he gives us four major features of the minister and I want you to get these because they are very helpful, not only in understanding my place and understanding the place of any other man of God. He gives us the identity of the minister, the requirement of the minister, the attitude, and the evaluation.
Let's look first of all at the identity of the minister, verse 1. And just knowing who the minister is, who the pastor is, is really enough to create the proper attitude toward him. "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." Now he starts out by saying consider us. Let man consider us this way. Let this be our consideration. We are ministers of Christ. Let us be thought of as ministers of Christ.
Now unfortunately, the King James version has translated the word minister and we have taken the word minister and made it into something very dignified and something very great and something very wonderful and something with a whole lot of honor. The word minister is simply the word slave. Now it should better be translated that way and if I ever write a version of the Bible it will say "Let a man regard us as slaves of Christ." There is not a lot of dignity in the term people. Ministers of Christ is the first term of identification. Now you will notice that we are ministers of Christ. We talk a lot about serving the people, but our service is really rendered to God, isn't it? To Christ.
When I serve Christ I will best serve His people. But when I serve His people, I may not best serve Him. In other words, sometimes when a man gets focused too much on filling the needs of the people he may violate that which God wants. In other words, he may compromise true spiritual principles for the ends that he wants. But if I am always serving Him, then I will best serve people. For in His will I am the most benefit to His people. So many times in the ministry you can become so preoccupied with meeting the needs of people that you start doing things because people want them done and then you begin to compromise what you know is right. And you find that the end justifies the means.
In order to win people or to help people you start violating the thing that is most important. A simple illustration of that would be you become so preoccupied with meeting the needs of people on an individual basis that you don't study the word of God and then you don't meet the needs of anybody. It's important to remember that we are first of all ministers of Christ. In Acts 20:19, Paul says, I look at my ministry this way "serving the Lord with all humility of mind." Serving the Lord, this is the priority.
Now, look at the word minister and just forget it. It isn't even really the word here. The word servant in English has many Greek words. For example, you have the term in Greek oiketes, which means a domestic household servant. You have the word doulos, which means a bond slave, somebody in chains. You have the word diakonos, which means just simply an employee or a servant. Somebody who obeys the commands of another, but none of those words is used here. The word that is used here is the lowest level of slavery. It is the word huperetes. And huperetes literally referred to the person who road on the lowest level of the galley. They were called trireens. And they had three levels of oars, and the bottom group of guys who moved the oars that pushed that big hulk through the sea were called huperetes.
Huperetes guys were the bottom people. The word became synonymous with subordinate, with low, with the most menial person doing the most simple manual task, very common slave. So when you think of the pastor, remember that he is considered in the scripture here and Paul is speaking about himself as an apostle even, he is considering himself as the lowest level of slave. Consider us galley slaves, under rowers, the lowest. You don't exalt them. You don't exalt one galley slave over another. They're sort of just lost in the mass of all of the slaves. We are servants. We are the lowest of low servants.
The life of a galley slave was an unbelievable existence. The pain and the agony of the strenuous work and then someone there cracking a whip against the bare backs. This was an abject kind of life. Paul says we are nothing but slaves. In Chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians verse 5 when he was hitting the same issue. He says you're arguing about who's better, Paul or Apollos. He says who is Paul and who's Apollos? They're nothing but servants by whom you believe. And the word there is diakonos. It means servant, and again the same idea we're servants. We are nothing. The only reason we're even useful is because the Lord chooses to use us.
When the apostles looked at themselves, they saw themselves as low level galley slaves, Luke 1. Luke writes, "For as much as many have taken in hand to set for in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, among the apostles even as they delivered them unto us who from the beginning were eyewitnesses, that's the apostles and who huperetes of the word." Galley slaves again, same word. Galley slaves of Christ in 1 Corinthians 4 and galley slaves of the word. Why? Because to serve Christ is to obey His what? His word. You cannot serve Him without serving His word for His word is the revelation of His will. His commands are here. I don't get up in the morning and say Lord I want to serve you now. I'm checking in. What do you want me to do?
Whenever I hear somebody say the Lord spoke to me. I always feel bad because in all my life the Lord never said one word. You know what I do when I want to know what He wants me to do? I go to this right? And I read it. This is the revelation of His commands and I am a galley slave to Him, therefore, to His word. And Luke saw all the apostles that way. Our Lord Jesus Christ even saw them that way in John Chapter 18, verse 36 He was having a conversation with Pilate at the time of His trial. And He says this, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world then would my galley slaves fight." And He calls His disciples huperetes again, subordinates, low level underlings.
Paul says whenever you're tempted to rank ministers and exalt them, remember they are slaves. They are low level slaves. Acts 26:16 when Jesus spoke on the Damascus Road to the apostle Paul, He said, I want you to be a huperetes. I want you to be a slave. This must be the identity of the minister. Look with me at 1 Corinthians Chapter 9 and we'll get to this later in our study, but I want to point out a couple of interesting things. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 16, "For though I preach the gospel I have nothing to glory of." I'm sure in your minds many of you esteem me superior to you because I am here and you are there. And you think that because I preach the gospel there's something different about me. Well, that's true, there's something different about me if I didn't preach the gospel. But there is something different about me because I do. God has given me a very unique calling and I recognize that. But at the same time, if I preach the gospel, that's nothing to glory of, that isn't any great big thing for which I deserve a lot honor. Oh you've given your life. Oh what a wonderful person you are because of what you've done.
Paul says this, I have nothing to glory of. Necessity is laid on me. Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. You want to know something about me, you know why I preach the gospel, because if I don't I am in a lot of trouble. Woe means judgment. The Lord called me to preach, now if I disobey Him, I put myself in a very precarious place. Don't applaud me. Paul says I was just going down the Damascus Road minding my own business. The next thing I knew I was a preacher. And a lot of choice I had. If I'd had picked this thing, if I'd had chosen it of my own volition maybe I would have been worth something. He says, verse 17, "If I was doing it willingly, then maybe I'd have a reward." Maybe somebody could honor me if I just chose to do. But I'll tell you folks, I'm a slave. I got called into this deal and the point is, I didn't choose to do it, but if I choose not to do it I'm in a lot of trouble.
And you get the perspective. Nobody gets glory for doing what they're told to do. You just get in trouble for not doing it. So a man who preaches because God has called him isn't worthy of any special honor, he's just worthy of dishonor if he doesn't. Paul says in Romans Chapter 12, verse 1, he says just do your reasonable service will you. In 2 Corinthians Chapter 6 he gives a little insight into what this particular slavery is like. Here's the characteristic of a true servant. Not very glamorous incidentally.
Well, he says "As a servant of God," verse 4 of 2 Corinthians 6, again the word minister should be translated servant or slave. "As a servant of God here's how my life goes. I have to be patient. I have afflictions, necessities, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watchings, fastings." That's a rather negative life. But on the positive side, "pureness, knowledge, long-suffering, kindness by the Holy Spirit love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and the left." He says there are some good points. God is there giving me all those things.
So he says, I have trouble, I have God and then he says in verses 8-10 and boy am I ever, ever an object of confusion. "Some people honor me, some dishonor me. Some have an evil report of me, some a good report. Some say I'm a deceiver, others true. Some don't know and some know me well. I'm dying and yet living, chastened and not killed, sorrowful yet rejoicing. Poor yet making many rich, having nothing yet possessing all things." The life of a servant paradoxical, painful. This is my life. I'm misjudged by men, misevaluated by men, properly evaluated by others.
That's the lot of a servant. At all costs, I endure everything, all criticisms, all misjudgments, all malignity, I endure it all because I am a minister of God and my priority is toward Him, not toward people. I am not concerned with what they think. I'm only concerned with discharging my obedient duty to Him. I'll tell you something if you're going in to any kind of Christian service, whatever it is, when you get that perspective you're really on the right road. When you have lost the consciousness of trying to please people and become lost in the truth of pleasing God, you've really got a grip on what you're all about. Because people can drive you willies. They all have different desires.
Now what is the primary task of a servant. If I am a huperetes and I'm going to go through all of this, what am I supposed to do? What is the simple order that I have? Well, I told you that I read Luke 1 and it said we are huperetes of the word so it would seem to me that my obedience is to the word of God. Well, what am I supposed to do? Look at Colossians 1:25 and here it is. Colossians 1:25, Paul says, "I am made a minister," there's the word servant or slave again. "I am become a slave or servant according to the plan of God." The operation of God which is given to me for you. To do what? To fulfill what? The word of God and the literal Greek would say to give full scope to the word of God. And the idea here is to proclaim it. If I am a servant then I simply do obey the orders. And what are the orders? Take the word servant and give it out.
That's what I'm called to do. I'm not called to be creative. I'm called to be obedient. Not called to be innovative, but obedient. Not called to have great ideas and great thoughts, I'm called to be obedient. Simply that to proclaim the word and we served God best by giving men His word. Not our opinions, not our great ideas, not our innovations, God's word. So the minister's identity, what is it in 1 Corinthians 4:1, "A servant of Christ." What does that mean? Lowly place, no honor, no rank, just a simple task of giving the word.
Now he increases our understanding of the identity of the minister by the next term that he uses in verses 1. "And," he says, "stewards of the mysteries of God." We're not only ministers or servants of Christ, but stewards. Now you, if you've ever been on a ship, you know what a steward is. Or if you've ever been on an airplane you know what a steward is or a stewardess. Stewardess doesn't own the airplane. Did you know that? She doesn't own anything on that plane. The company owns that stuff, she just passes it out, right? She is giving the responsibility of taking the goods that belong to the company dispensing them to the people. This is a steward. A steward in the Bible appears many times.
For example, in Genesis 43 and 44 Joseph had a steward in Egypt and his steward was responsible for taking care of guests, for preparing meals, for settling all of his accounts. He was like a bookkeeper for him. All of these things the steward did as well as commanding the slaves. In Isaiah Chapter 22, the king Hezekiah has a steward whose name is even given, Shebna. And there are other incidents in the Old Testament, many of them that record for us the steward. Now the steward is the word oikonomos from two Greek words, oikos, which means house and nomos from nemo which means to manage. Somebody who manages the house. A house owner would have a steward and the steward would manage his household affairs, his property, his farm, his vineyards, his accounts, his slaves, his food, taking everything into account. He would dispense, take care of things make sure everything went well.
All Christians are God's stewards. God has deposited in us His resources, given us spiritual gifts, given us His information, His truth and we are to share it. We are to minister it to His house. We're stewards. 1 Peter 4:10 says all Christians are stewards, but particularly is the ministry of sacred stewardship and that's what Paul's talking about. In Titus 1:7 it says, "A bishop is to be blameless as the steward of God." Any pastor, teacher, any bishop is a steward of God. God has given us His goods to dispense to the house. What are God's goods? What is it that we are to dispense? The mysteries of God. It says it right there in verse 1. What are the mysteries of God?
Musterion, something hidden now revealed. What was hidden and is now revealed, but the New Testament, the word of God. This is it. The gospel of God. The revelation in the book. We are to take God's revelation and dispense it to the household. That's what we're to do. When I try to examine my ministry and say what am I to do, it's a simple thing. I simple say God has called me to take His word and pass it out to His people. That's all. I'm a waiter. That's all. Just a waiter, He gives me the food. I get it out of His kitchen and I deliver it to the table. That's all I do.
And the thing I want to do is make sure I don't mess it up on the way. Just get it to them the way God intended for it to be heard. In Acts 20:20, Paul says, "I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shown you and talked to you publicly from house to house." Now Paul says when I came to you I taught the mysteries of God and I kept back nothing that was profitable. You say well, how do you know what's profitable? The Bible says this, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is, what? Profitable.
What are you supposed to give out then? All of it. It's no wonder so many people have spiritual malnutrition. They don't get a good diet. There needs to be a balanced diet. And that is to declare the whole council of God, Acts 20:27. Paul said, "I am not shunned to give unto you all the council of God." It's all profitable. It all needs to be given out. That's what I'm to do. I'm just a steward to do that. But you know it's so easy to pervert the word of God and twist it and distort it and that is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 4:2 in a very interesting statement.
Paul looks at his own ministry in verse 1 and says see we have this ministry. Now here's our ministry. What is it Paul, verse 2. 2 Corinthians 4:2, "We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully." You know there are people who take the word of God and twist it around to make it say what meets their own needs and their own desires and their ends. The word of God is to be given out as God intended it, not to be twisted to meet my own whims and opinions and desires. There are all kinds of people who have opinions about things and they scramble around and try to find verses to support their opinions.
Take things out of context. I don't believe there should ever, ever, ever be given a sermon that is not in some sense expositional. And by that I mean you should never teach any scripture unless you know what the words mean, what the grammar construction means and what the context is so that you're using it in the way God intended it to be used. You can prove anything with the Bible if you take things out of context; anything. Push scriptures around, slam them together when they don't connect. You wonder how come the cults can prove their point by pulling scriptures everywhere. They're all out of context.
You know, it's like the guy who preached on the fact women shouldn't wear hair on the top of their head. And he used the text top not, come down. And top not, come down, where is that? Matthew 24, "Let those on the house top not come down." You can do anything with scripture if you just take the right little thing and put it in the wrong place. We are not to handle the word of God deceitfully. We are not to try to prove our point. To deceive people into believing this is what it means when it is not what it means. Do you see? The Bible is not a proof text for my opinions. I am to teach it in the way that God meant it. In fact, I think what Paul said to Timothy is so important. We need to be rightly dividing the word of truth. What does rightly dividing mean?
Oh that is an important word. Orthotamunta, in the Greek and what it means is cutting straight. We are to cut the word of God straight. What does it mean? That word was used in the Septuagint in Proverbs Chapter 3, verse 6 to speak of a straight road or a straight path. Our presentation of the scripture is to be so clear and so simple and so straight and so direct that it is easily to be understood and easy to follow. Opening the word up making it clear and straight so that it isn't confusing. Now in order to do that to rightly divide the word Paul said to Timothy, study to show yourself approved unto God. "A workman that needeth not to be ashamed," what, "rightly dividing."
You'll never rightly divide unless you do what? Study. What is the minister to do then? He is to dispense to the house of mysteries of God. Not adulterated, not handle it deceitfully, not twist it around and make it say what he wants it to say, but to give it as God intended it to be given. That means the only legitimate way to teach is to truly know what the text means. It's so important. So the minister's a steward. No big thing. Just a servant and all stewards were servants. He's a galley slave. He doesn't deserve any glory, he just deserves discipline if he doesn't do what he's told.
We are subordinates. It's a tragic think, you know, when the minister doesn't do what he's told to do. It's so simple to do. It's tragic. When like Milton said "The hungry sheep look up and are not fed." That's tragic. So many people exist in churches where the minister does everything but what he's supposed to do. He couldn't possibly dispense the word of God in the way God intended it because he never studies it. So the identity of the minister. People don't exalt us, don't lift us up, don't honor us, don't rank us over each other. We're nothing but slaves anyway. We're all obeying orders. That's just God's business, not yours, not mine.
Secondly, not only the identity of the minister, but look what Paul hits secondly, the requirement for the ministry. What is it? Verse 2, "Moreover," in addition to what I just said on top of that, "it is required in stewards," if you're going to have a good steward, "you want man that is found," what, "faithful." What's the hardest kind of employee to find? A faithful one, right? One that you can turn your back on, go on vacation for three weeks, come back, and he'll just work like he did when you were standing over his shoulder, ho, ho, ho.
Where can you find a guy like that? They're few and far between. When you got a steward for your house, boy you wanted somebody who was trustworthy. That's what the word faithful means. Trustworthy, you could trust him. God says, you know what I want out of you? I want to hand you this stuff and I want to make sure it gets to the table the way it came out of the kitchen. That's all. You don't have to spruce it up. You don't have to be creative and innovative. You just take what I've given and pass it out. That's all.
It doesn't say it is required of stewards that a man be found brilliant. That let's some of us out right off the bat. Educated, clever, glib, no. Faithful, faithful, He wanted stewards that you didn't have to watch. Stewards you absolutely implicitly trusted. God doesn't want brilliance, personality, doesn't want popularity. He just wants faithfulness. You know there are people who are faithful in something that may not look to you like it's much but if they're faithful before God that's the basis on which God honors them. Faithfulness. It's always been so with God. Look at verse 17 of 1 Corinthians 4.
The commendation of Timothy, "For this cause have said unto you Timothy," 1 Corinthians 4, "who i