THE KING’S BUSINESS
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a fool, or seemingly foolish, if necessary, for Christ’s sake (iv. 10; 2 Corinthians xi. 16) xii. 6, 11) in the eyes of the worldly wise. No pride of intellect should cause # man to reject the gospel of Christ and thus lose his own soul. God would have His people realize that their inheritance is not human but divine; that they belong to no man, sect, or party, but to Christ: “Ye are Christ’s”—ye be long not to Paul, not to Appollos, but to Christ. “Therefore let no man glory in man” (iii. 21, 23). 4. The Summing up of the Case (iv. 6 - 2 1 ). This section closes with an exhortation not to be too quick to sit in judgment npon the work of God’s teachers. That is a task reserved for the Judge in that great day. Not the apostle himself (iv. 4, 5), nor the people (iv. 3), but the Lord alone is suffi ciently omniscient and therefore compe tent to be the Critic and Judge. The self-glorification of the Corinthians is graphically contrasted with the humilia tion of the apostles. The necessity of right estimates is emphasized. Thus does Paul seek to bring the saints at Corinth to a proper conception of their sane relations to and appreciation of their teachers (iv. 6-13). The declaration of the apostle’s right because of his fatherly relation to the Corinthians thus to speak (iv. 14-17), together with mention of his intended visit, as an earnest of which he sends Timothy to them, concludes this section (iv. 14-21).
a founder (iii. .10), a father (iv. 15). Min isters are husbandmen (iii. 5-8), builders (iii. 9-17), stewards (iv. 1-7). How little the apostle makes of human- teachers and how much of God! Note the emphasis on, “is” : “Who then is Paul, and who is Apol- los?” How are they to be accounted for? Compared with each other Paul and Apollos may hgve been something, but compared with God they were nothing. Paul is nothing; Apollos is nothing; God is everything (cf. iii. 20, 21). It is prob ably for this reason that God’s name is mentioned three times in these verses (iii. 5-7) and occurs last in the sentence, denot ing emphasis. “Paul planted,” denoting the initial work of the apostle as set forth in Acts xviii. 1-18; “Apollos watered,” denoting the building-up ministry of Apollos (Acts xviii. 24-xix. 1) ; and all the while God was giv ing the increase (Acts xiv. 27; xvi. 14). One is deeply impressed with the lesson here taught concerning the personal respon sibility of each teacher or minister for his work done for God. Five times in iii. 5-13 is the thought of personal responsibility mentioned as suggested by the words “each”, “every”, “his own”, all emphasiz ing the fact that God deals separately with each individual soul (cf. iv. 5; vii. 17, 20, 24; xii. 7-11). The work of each teacher will be severely tested in the day of Christ (iii. 13-15; cf. 1 Thessalonians v. 4; Romans xiii. 2; 2 Corinthians v. 10; Hebrews x. 25). This thought should ever be before the teacher. He must be willing to become
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