You Think You're Better Than Me? - 1 Corinthians 4:1-13

You think you're better than me? Think you're better than me? You probably said that at some point in your life, thinking of someone. I mean, imagine you're in an office, and somebody's been there a long time, just faithfully doing the job, some new young folks show up. Suits are a little nicer cut, a lot of arrogance from them, and they start just kind of thinking they get to decide the, you know, job evaluation. And they just think that they're better than everybody. And people start saying, I wonder these people think they're better than us. You think you're better than me? Paul was wrestling with a similar problem in Corinth. And I think he may be saying the exact same thing to a subset in the church at Corinth in our message today in one Corinthians 4 verses one to 13, where he's speaking to them, writing to them. And they do think they're better than Paul. They've told him as much. But their reason for thinking that they're better, isn't based on God's standards of faithfulness, but on what the world would kind of view as a faithful person, someone that God would use. Paul doesn't measure up to their evaluation scale. And so they are basically saying, we're kind of done with you, Paul. We've moved on. We've grown. We are now kind of past your simple message, past your unimpressive looks, past your simple speaking, past how your life is unfolding, and we've arrived. And they think that they're better than Paul. And what Paul's gonna do today. to a subset in the church of Corinth. So it's not everyone at the church of Corinth, I believe. I think there's a small group there that thinks that they have kind of outgrown Paul. and outgrown the gospel in many ways, especially the message of the gospel about what a faithful servant looks like. In 1st Corinthians 41 to 13, Paul's going to flip the script on these elitist Corinthians, and he's going to show them the true faithfulness isn't measured by how great we look by worldly standards, but by how closely our lives resemble the crucified Christ. If you take one idea away from the message today, let it be this. Don't judge a Christian's faithfulness by the world's standards of success. Don't judge a Christian's faithfulness by the world's standards of success. Paul has been for several chapters now, writing to the Corinthian church. Paul had planted this church and a few years later, he's writing this letter to them. And when he came to them, he just came with a simple message. He said, I came to you with a basic message that God became human, died on a cross and rose again to free us from our sin. An idea that he said is foolish to those who are perishing, but the power of God to those who are being saved. In for several chapters, he's been wrestling with this idea of foolishness and wisdom. God's foolishness in the world's wisdom, and he's making a play on that, saying that God's foolishness is actually the true wisdom, and the world's wisdom, that the world's following, that these, this subset in Corinth was following is actually true foolishness. They had been elevating people to statuses that, like, and dividing over. So they had groups that were saying, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos. I think, by the way, yes, there are some divisions like that. But Paul's being very diplomatic in this letter. And he says, yeah, there's some divisions around Paul and Apollos. Paul's an apostle of Christ. Apollos was this really eloquent speaker, makes it into the Bible. So, you know, kind of a big deal in what was happening. And that the church is saying, hey, I like Paul, I like Apollos. But I think in Corinth, there was also a group of Corinthian believers who were really elevating themselves. and saying they were the ones that everyone should follow. They were the ones that they should listen. And Paul, instead of calling them out by name, says, let me use a policy myself as an example. Don't divide out over people. No one should be saying, I'm of this person or I'm of that person. He's going to point all of our eyes to Christ. And he says this even last week in our message, if you look at one Corinthians 321 to 23, he says, so let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life or death are the present or the future, all of yours, and you are Christ, and Christ is God's. And so he puts it squarely that where our eyes should be focused is not on God's servants, us, but on Christ, and that we are in him. He's the one that we unite around. And so in these next 13 verses, Paul's going to call out these Corinthians who had elevated themselves, who were thinking that they were better than Paul and better than others in the church. And he starts by arguing that is God who judges the heart. Look in verses one to five. He says, this is how one should regard us. This is us, as Paul and Apollos, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. The mysteries of God, as Paul's way of talking about the gospel, this good news that God has become human, died for us and rose again so that we could be set free from our sins. He says, here's how you should think of Paul and Apollos. These were 2 people that at the time, Paul had planted the church in Corinth, Apollos had come along and was teaching eloquently there and had a following, was really good at what he did, the gift that God had given him. He was using it faithfully. He says, here's how you should think of myself and Apollos. We are servants and stewards. That's it. We would just hired by God, in a sense, to do the job he called me to do. So you shouldn't elevate us beyond just servants and stewards. And he says, as stewards, we need to be found faithful. Now, I imagine some of you feel like me, when we go away, my wife and I, we have a dog named Rudy, and we have people stay at the house. Well, I say, hey, could you come stay at the house for several days while we're gone and just take care of Rudy? And my wife leaves a list of instructions. For them, like she does for me, on how do I do when she's gone? I just need the list. And we said, hey, just if you'll do this, everything's good. A steward, Paul says, a steward needs to be found faithful. And so that's the question. The Corinthians are saying, Paul, we don't think you're faithful. Your life looks very unfaithful. Not that he was doing sinful things, but he just wasn't successful by their standard of success. And so they said, God can't be working with you. He said, but a steward must be found faithful. And then he goes on to tell the Corinthians. Look at this. But with me, it's a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I don't even judge myself, for I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. So Paul says, Corinthians, you can judge me as and my faithfulness to God, but I don't really care about that because you're not my ultimate judge. I mean, you've been at work. I sure some people have said before. I don't think you're doing a great job. And you're like, I don't care what you think if I'm doing a great job. I only care what the boss thinks. He gets to evaluate me at the end. Now, Paul, again, when he's talking about this judging, the work can mean examine, and he's not talking about, like, he says, I don't care if you judge me. He's not saying, if he was doing something sinful and a fellow Christian said, hey, don't do that. He's not talking about that. He's talking about judging that he is faithful to God. And he's not doing anything wrong. They just don't like that he seems poor. And he's not eloquent. He doesn't seem sophisticated. He's too common for this elite group in the Corinthian church. And he says, I'm not worried about being judged by you guys. I'm not worried about being judged by human courts. Paul says, I don't even judge myself. It says as far as I know, I haven't done anything wrong. I have a clear conscience. And we should all strive for that. We should all strive to go, as far as I know, God, between you and me, between me and others, I don't know of anything that I need to go kind of deal with. There's no tension sitting out. He says, as far as I know. He says, but that doesn't mean I'm acquitted. Because Paul goes, ultimately, he doesn't get to decide in his job evaluation, if he's faithful or not. s God's decision. Look what he says. 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 his commendation from God. So Paul, as these elites in the Corinthian church, we're kind of trying to push Paul out, saying he's not faithful. God's not using him. Paul's saying, it's not a big thing to be examined by you and what I'm doing. I'm not worried about being examined by human courts. I don't even examine myself, Paul says. As far as I know, I'm okay, but it's God who judges. So he says, you need to hold off judgment until the time, until the day. And that's when Jesus returns. We often kind of cast judgment too soon. When Jesus was being crucified. There was a whole group of people. Paul included who would have said, that guy is a loser. He's being crucified. He's been rejected by God. He's been cursed. He said he was the Messiah, he's not. It's obvious, look at him. The Messiah wouldn't suffer like this. The Messiah wouldn't die on a cross. Paul cast that judgment and then he met Jesus and he had to rethink, I judged you too soon. I thought what looked like defeat was defeat, but in fact, it was God's way of victory. It was the way of the cross. And then Paul is saying the same thing. We don't want to cash judgment, Corinthians too soon. Paul says, I'm not even casting judgment on himself too soon. I'm going to wait for Jesus to show back up. He hasn't returned yet. Jesus has ascended to heaven. He's with the Father. Paul was waiting for him to return. We're still waiting for him to return. We believe that he will one day return and make the heavens and the earth brand new. And then he says, that's when we're going to receive our commendation from God, not from each other. That's not the ultimate commendation that we want. We want to hear God say, well done, good and faithful servant. But he gets to decide that. And Paul says, I'm not even going to decide it myself if I'm faithful. I'm going to say God, you know my heart. Paul says, as far as I know, in my heart, I was doing this for the right reasons. I was doing this out of love for God. He was ministering out of love for God. He was serving out of love for God. He said, but maybe deep down there was some other motive. Maybe I was doing it for some other reason. I'm not aware of that. But God will judge. He'll be the judge at the end. And when Jesus comes back, he'll bring to light all the things that are currently hidden in darkness. So he says, look, God gets to judge. And then he tells the Corinthians in verses 6 and 7, you're not better than others. He's telling this substate, he says, you're not better than this. I've applied all these things to myself in Apollos for your benefit. that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. So here's where I think Paul begins this turn, that he's not just talking about himself and Apollo, like they're the real issue. The real issue is a group in the Corinthian church, not the old church, but a group that has elevated themselves as being the elite. We'll see in chapter 11, more than likely it's the wealthy in the church. Those who already had cultural and societal influence before they became a believer, who are now saying to the rest church. We are the important ones. We are the ones. And you can know where the important ones, because look, we're successful. We have power in the city. We have wealth. And so we should be the ones that get to decide. We are the ones that are spiritually elite, in our outward life. The worldly success that we have is evidence of that. Since I've applied theseselves to myself and a policy about how to think of us so that you wouldn't get puffed up and go beyond what is written. I think what he says, go beyond what is written. some scriptures on the screen. Paul has used some Old Testament scriptures about wisdom. It says, I would destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of this learning. I will thwart. Let the one who boasts boasts in the Lord. He catches the wise and the craftiness. The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. He says, don't go beyond what is written. God's already told us in the Old Testament that his way is not the same as the world's way. So you can't apply worldly standards, worldly wisdom. to God's plan, says, don't go beyond what is written. And then he says, I don't want you to become puffed up. That word puffed up could be arrogant. It shows up 3 other times in this letter. I'll put those verses on the screen also. First Corinthians 4. So next week in the sermon, he'll pick up on this. Paul will say, some are arrogant. and you're talking about some in Corinth. This is this group that had elevated themselves to elite status in their mind. They were thinking they were better than everyone else. It says, some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but the power. First Corinthians 8, the dealing with food offered to idols, and this idea that, hey, all of us possess knowledge, this idea that I know that the idol's nothing, will unpack this when we get there. The point of this passes, though, he says, if you think you have knowledge, but you don't love people, you're missing the point. You really don't have knowledge, you're not following God's wisdom. In that. And then in 1st Corinthians 13, four, he says it this way, love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant. It's not puffed up. This puffed upness is creating division in the church, and these elite in Corinth who had risen up, and we're now judging Paul as being unfit, that God wasn't using him because of his life, how it looked on the outside. Paul's going to unpack that in a second. He was saying that arrogance has caused these divisions, and that's not from love. That love doesn't go around saying, I'm better than you. It doesn't do that. And so Paul's calling them out. And then he says here in verse 7, and here's where Paul begins, and to use sarcasm. It's difficult in reading kind of a text. Sarcasm is very easy to pick up in person for most people, right? You just know if someone's being sarcastic. If you remember, there was a book that came out a while back called the 5 love languages, where you can figure out how you show love. One of mine is sarcasm. I love sarcasm. I love being sarcastic. Hopefully, though, you know, if you don't do it well, someone just gets mad at you because they don't know you're being sarcastic. Paul is using sarcasm to the Corinthians. Paul is a very sarcastic person. You have to read all of his writings and realize he's not afraid to kind of turn a phrase on someone and use their own words against them to reveal what he wants them to know. And so he's about to do that in this passage. And so he begins to show them that they're not better than others. He says this, for who sees anything different in you? That could be translated, why do you think you're superior? Why do you think you're better than everyone else? So that's a good question. Why are you guys thinking you're better? He says, what do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? What he's talking about here, this receiving, more than likely, if you go later in the book in chapter 12, Paul says all the spiritual gifts that the church has. And he had told the Corinthians at the very beginning of the letter. You have all the gifts. God has blessed you abundantly with all these gifts. Chapter 12, he says, all the gifts that God gives to build up his church, to advance his kingdom are given to believers by the Holy Spirit. So it's not something that we kind of train ourselves in. It's God gives you a gift and says, that's yours. Do that. There were some in the Corinthian church, more than likely, who had gifts that were very visible and felt spiritual. So some of the spiritual gifts that we're going to talk about later in 1st Corinthians would be something like the gift of administration. If there was everything that didn't feel spiritual, It's like organizing things. Like, here's the person who made sure all the rooms in the retreat were full and all the cars got where they need to go, all the administrative stuff. And yet Paul says that's a gift. There are some gifts that are very kind of upfront. One of the gifts was being able to speak in languages you had not learned. So if Mason here all of a sudden stood up and started speaking Mandarin, Chinese, that's pretty impressive. I think I was working through Mason. There were those in the Corinthian church who had some of these more external gifts that were that seemed to be more spiritual in their mind. And this group was saying, we're just more spiritual. It was tied with those who are also wealthy in the church, who for worldly standards. And Paul saying, you were just given this gift. When Peter on the day of Pentecost spoke in a language he never learned, If Peter then stood up and said, I'm amazing. I put in so much work. I put in so much effort. I'm so much better than all of you. You only know one language. I know, like, five. Before those, God just said, I'll give you this language with no effort at all. He said, why are you boasting? You have nothing to boast about. Everything you have has been given to you. You're not better than others. Everything in our life has been given to us by God. Our very life has been given to us by God. We don't create our own life. God creates everything in this world. Everything's a gift, but here, Paul, is pointing out the things they were using, which would be these spiritual gifts. And they were saying, we're just better than you. We have the better gifts. And Paul, at the end, in Corinthians 12 is going to say, the real thing you should be shooting for is love, and these people weren't loving each other. These elite, we're not loving the other people of the church, because they had elevated themselves to a status of being so important. And then Paul confronts the wisdom of the wise in verses 8 to 13. And this is where he really turns on the sarcasm. And if you don't read the passage with that kind of tone, you may miss it. Here's what he does. He says, already, you have all you want. I imagine when Chloe's household came to Paul and said, hey, we got some problems in the church, they relayed a lot of the things that Corinthians were saying. And this group that Paul's writing to would have been saying, we have everything we want. We've arrived spirits, and we've kind of arrived at the point where like Jesus has returned and the world's perfect now. That's what we're looking forward to. They seem like we've already arrived there. He says, you have everything you want. Already you have become rich. Without us, you have become kings. Paul saying, I'm not reigning yet. I'm following the one who's reigning, but he's not returned yet, but I'm not reigning. And I would that you did reign so that we might share the rule with you. Said, we have all we need. We have all we want. We're already kings. And Paul said, I wish that was true because then I could reign with you because we're being this together as followers of Christ because the church is one is united. He said, I wish that was true. The Corinthians had the same idea, the same mindset, at least this group in Corinth does, that the church at Laodicea had, when Jesus gave his vision to John and John was writing these churches, listen to what he writes to the church at Laodicea. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor blind, and naked. That you have nothing. These people think, we've arrived. We've made it. We have this world success. We have kind of arrived at what the world were considered successful. And Jesus saying, you're just pitiful. You have not arrived. Then Paul says, and this is where he pours on the sarcasm. He says, where I think God has exhibited us apostles. An apostle is a messenger set out by Jesus to testify to his resurrection. These were the original 12 disciples, minus Judas who betrayed him. And then Paul was added to this group. They were the authoritative teachers that Jesus chose to send out to give his gospel. He says, for I consider that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We're going to miss an English. You'll probably miss what Paul means by a spectacle. The Greek word underlying that is theatron. And in the culture of the time in Corinth, they would have known exactly what Paul was saying. So when Paul says, I think God's put us apostles as last in the line, the image a 1st century person in Corinth would have had was, when the Roman Empire would capture a people and defeat a people, they would bring those captors to the city and they would parade them into the city. And at the very end of that parade, the last in the line would be kind of the worst of the society. So you'd have like the generals in the front. We've captured the generals, they come first. And at the very back would be the least important people. And then, when they would have these entertainment games called the Coliseum games, They would have gladiators fight. then at the very end, the last thing, the last part of the show would be, you would take the lowest of the low from the captured people, run them into the Coliseum, to be a spectacle, a theatron, and they would let loose the lions and the tigers, and the bears, and the gladiators, just to kill them. And the crowds would watch. And Paul says, I think God's made us like those guys. With the very end of the line, The dregs of society that has been run out into the theater to be eaten by the lions, for the entertainment of the masses. That's what I think God's made us. And then he goes on, he says, We are fools for Christ's sake. Paul and Apollos and the Apostles, but you, you Corinthians, you are wise in Christ. Now their wisdom is the world's wisdom of what success looks like. He says, we are weak. But you are strong. You are held in honor, but we, in disrepute. To the present hour. We hunger and thirst. We are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor working with our own hands. The Corinthians would have said, Paul. You're hungry and thirsty all the time. You barely can get by. You're horribly dressed. You're just poor. You buffeted and homeless. You work with your own hands. Now, when you read that as kind of an American and our culture, we would go, we pride ourselves in that. We pride ourselves in having calloused hands that we can put in a hard day's work. In Corinth, in the 1st century, if you were going to be a teacher, if you were going to be a philosopher, you would never engage in manual labor. You wouldn't be blue collar, so to speak. to be the elite. And there was a group in Corinth saying, Paul, he came here. And when he was teaching us, he just, he went out in May 10th in the daytime. He worked with his own hands. Look at the guy's hands. They're all callous from work. He can't be a philosopher. He can't be a teacher. He's poor. He's ragged. This is not the look of a philosophical elite that we would follow. Again, that's the world's wisdom. And Paul saying, God's put us on display. as a theatron, as a spectacle. I'm hungry and thirsty. I'm homeless. I'm poorly dressed. My hands are callous from work. When reviled, we bless. We don't revile in return, which in Corinthian culture would have been considered a weakness to not kind of fire back at someone. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we entreat, or you could say, we speak a good word, we have become, and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. Paul instead of kind of saying, hey, let me explain how you missed it. He just says, here's the deal, guys, in Corinth. I'm going to lean right into what God has me doing, because God has me homeless and poor. My hands are calloused. I'm reaching out in kindness to those who mistreat us. My clothes are falling apart. So that's the path God has me on. That's the way he's working in the world. And he's pointing back the whole time to Jesus on the cross to say, there's the evidence for why God's doing it this way. It's the way he actually saved the world. A man dying on a cross is God's wisdom to save the world. But in the world's wisdom, that guy just lost. Paul, going around homeless and thirsty to share the gospel. He's saying, this is God's way. Now, not everyone was that way. Paul said, I had times when I had a lot and had times when I had a little. Neither one of those were the mark of my faithfulness. I was faithful in both places. But the Corinthians were saying, because you were homeless and you're not dressed well enough. that you work with your own hands, then you're not faithful. God's not using you. And Paul just says, that's the wisdom of the world, that the Corinthians we're following, this subset we're going, you're going to disregard Paul because of that. That was 2000 years ago. What do we do today? How does this impact us today? Because we're not in Corinth. Went in the same situation? In fact, we live in a time, probably the wealthiest time in the history of the world, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. And so and we're in that country. So even in our differences of societal kind of differentation between rich and poor, if you put the United States with the rest of the world, we're in the one%, so to speak, of wealthy, we're extremely wealthy in this country. compared to the rest of the world. So how do we take what Paul said and apply it to ourselves? First, just the main point of this sermon. Don't judge a Christian's faithfulness by the world's standards of success. Now, and again, we think of faithfulness. It's not that we can't judge and help each other if we're sinning. Paul's going to spend a lot of time in the rest of this Corinthian letter talking to the Corinthians about things they were doing. They were obviously wrong, that they should stop doing because it's harmful and damaging, both to themselves and to God's kingdom. So when he says judge, it's not that. It's what we can't do is look at an individual and go, well, this person looks successful by worldly standards, and they're a believers, so God must be blessing them. And this person doesn't look successful by worldly standards, and they're a believer. Maybe they're not being faithful to God. There's a whole movement in our country. The prosperity gospel which kind of teaches that, that if you're really faithful, you'll just have a nice car and nice clothes. And everything will be wonderful. And then Paul saying, I got really bad clothes. I don't have a nice car. I'm homeless. don't have anything. The prosperity gospel is just counter completely to what Paul is saying here. But we can get in the mindset often where we begin to judge faithfulness, not by kind of the person's heart and what they're doing where God's place them, but by external things. This is extremely easy in church culture, right? You just go, is a church successful because they built a lobby? Because they have a nice facility. We have a nice facility. We built a lobby. I don't know. I let God judge if we're faithful. When we built the libel, we think, I don't know. I feel like I'm doing it for a different reason to impress other people, but that's God's ultimate judgment to look at our heart. But if we think, oh, this church has a new building. they're really faithful, this church's building is falling apart, they must be unfaithful. Paul may say, no, they may be faithful and they may be highly unfaithful. that we can't use the world standards for faithfulness. It's are we doing the things God has called us to do. I think we can see how this plays out because when we start using the wrong standards, when we start thinking of people that way, we don't treat them right, and that way we should consider others as better than yourself. What we should say is, I think you're better than me. In 2nd Corinthians 8, 9, Paul says this, well, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor, so that you, by his poverty, might become rich, and his letter to the Philippians, he said, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, that though he was in the form of God, he didn't consider equality with God a thing to be grasped or held onto, but he humbled himself, taking the form of a servant. He became human and died on a cross. He said, we should think the same way. Just think of others as better than yourself. Love others, care for others. And then you say, okay, God, I'm doing what you asked me to do. And regardless of your circumstance outwardly, whether you got a promotion at work or you didn't, whether you have a really nice suit or you're kind of poorly dressed, that's not the measure of faithfulness to God. The measure of faithfulness to God is faithful to what he's called you to do, the way he's gifted you, the way he has empowered you, and then loving others. Consider others better than yourself, and then finally embrace the way of the cross. And what I mean by this is, again, we live in a very wealthy time in history, in a wealthy country, and our church is located in a fairly wealthy part of the city. And we can easily kind of go, I judge just faithfulness by, we have nice air conditioning. We have nice, comfortable chairs. And we get our eyes off of embracing the way of the cross, that God is going to move his gospel forward through suffering. That's how Jesus saved us. And we shouldn't be afraid of that. shouldn't be nervous of it. We shouldn't think it's odd when Christians suffer. And that's not just in the big kind of dramatic suffering where we see people killed for their faith. But it's just in the everyday where we go, no one's watching, no one's saying, how do I, in loving others, following Christ, take upon myself, they're hurt, they're suffering. and faithfully follow him. Embrace the way of the cross. The world's standard of success is not God's standard of success. May we be found faithfully embracing his way of suffering to advance his gospel, as Paul did, considering others as better than ourselves, so that we can be found faithful as a church and as individuals, that we have fulfilled the mission God gave us using the gifts that he gave us, so that we are united in Christ, which is what Paul was writing his Corinthians, to do. He says, don't think you're better than others, but consider others as better than yourself. Will you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this word that's challenging to us in many ways. Father, to think back to Paul. This unassuming man who, by his own words, says he doesn't speak well. He doesn't present well, and we know in our culture, we are very much attuned to people's looks, people's eloquence when they speak, and we think that validates a message. Father, help us to be attuned to your son, to his death on the cross. to his way of suffering for us and help us to live that same way for others, to consider others as better than ourselves. to care for them well. to strive for unity, and upbuilding among your people, that you would be glorified and that all eyes would be turned to you. And that attention would be given to you and to your majesty, and your love for us, exhibited on the cross of Christ for our sins. It's in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.