While chapter 4 develops its own themes, it is nevertheless related to chapter 3, on divisions in the church. Paul says in the first chapter that the church at Corinth was enriched with all spiritual gifts, and had a great deal of theological knowledge, as well as other good things, but which was divided over loyalty to one leader or another within the church. Some had declared that they followed Paul, or Apollos, or Peter. Some who thought they were the spiritual ones said that they followed Christ. Paul speaks in chapter 3 about those divisions, and it will be helpful to review some of that chapter in order to see how it connects with chapter 4. The central point he makes in chapter 3 as he deals with that problem is that ministers are servants of the church. I pointed out that in the history of the church, using the outline John Stott develops in his book, One People, there have been three wrong views of the relationship of ministers to laypeople.
First, there is clericalism, which is the view that the clergy is in charge, and that they should do all the work of the church. Second is anticlericalism, which we can see would be the reaction against the first approach. Because of problems that happen when the clergy has absolute authority, some went so far as to conclude that they do not need the clergy at all. The third view sought to land somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. People would say, “Alright, the clergy have their role, and they have to stay within that role. Laymen have their role, and they should stay within that. And neither one should transgress on the turf of the other.” In response to these three approaches, we said that the proper relationship is one of service.
It would appear from Paul’s statements in 1 Corinthians that the problem was the other way around. The difficulty, as Paul explains it, was not that Apollos or Peter or he was out of line. On the contrary, he affirms the work that each one is doing. Paul goes on to say in chapter 4 that he was blameless before the Lord, though it is for the Lord ultimately to decide. No, the problem was among the people. Paul is trying to overcome that erroneous and unnecessary condition of divisions.
In view of that, there are people who have said that chapter 4 is somewhat unnecessary because, after all, here in chapter 4, he is talking about the ministry. Yet, in chapter 3, in dealing with the divisions, he has already described what the ministry is, which is a ministry of service. Having said that, why does he have to say anything else in chapter 4? Well, he does for this reason. When he ends chapter 3, he is talking about the ministers being servants of the people. Consequently, there is to be no boasting about men. But it is possible that someone might read that and draw the wrong conclusions. They might say, “Well then, if that’s the case, if the ministers of the church are our servants, then we have the right to tell them to do what we want. We can say, ‘Go here,’ or ‘Go there.’ We can hire one; we can fire another. And if we choose to divide up among them, who’s to say anything to the contrary?”
I think it is in view of that kind of thinking that Paul writes chapter 4. In this chapter, without in the slightest repudiating what he said before about the ministers of the church being servants, he adds a further dimension, which from his perspective is all important. “Yes,” Paul says, “ministers are servants of the people, but above all they are servants of Jesus Christ.” Paul, and by extension any other minister in the church, is ultimately answerable to Jesus. It is before Him and His standards that the ministry of Paul stands or falls. As he begins in verse 1, “So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.” You say, “Oh, look at what he is doing now. He said he was a servant, but now he’s getting big ideas. He’s going to exalt himself.” No, Paul does not do that either. It is marvelous how he keeps a balance. He says quite clearly that he is a servant of Christ, and therefore he is responsible to Christ. But he also says that as a servant and minister he is one who has been entrusted with the mysteries of God.
