1 Corinthians 4:1-5 Withholding Judgment
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: February 3, 2020 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. 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.
(Understanding the Text) Paul is telling the people to remember that all the teachers that they have learned from are sent by Jesus Himself and that these instructors are teaching God’s mysteries, not mysteries that belong to any one teacher. In other words, the Corinthians’ faith should be centered in God, not men. He is saying that the teachers must be faithful to their Master, not serving their own interests. This is the standard by which we should judge all preachers. Are they humbly serving Jesus, or are they arrogantly serving their own interests? Preachers and teachers of the gospel are God’s messengers, so if they are pointing to themselves, they do not represent their Master.
“But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.” Paul says that he does not worry about being judged by humans. He knows that there is only one Person that he has to please, and that Jesus will make it known to Paul if he is doing wrong. As long as Paul serves his Master well, he has no worries about humans. However, he says that even though Paul himself does not see any problems with his own actions and thinking, it does not mean that Paul is innocent. He is waiting until God judges him. This implies that Paul is saying that we cannot trust our own judgment. Thus, Paul does not trust the Corinthians’ judgement, a human court’s judgment, or even his own judgement of guilt or innocence. He only trusts God’s judgement.
Paul says that He does not have any knowledge from himself. His knowledge comes from God, and God will judge how Paul uses that knowledge. Then Paul tells people not to judge others because they do not know the heart and the hidden motivations. He says that when Jesus returns, He will open up these secrets to us and then we can judge. This is saying that we do not know why someone is doing something or what they are going through. Thus, we should withhold judgment until we have complete information. I don’t think that Paul is speaking of not making a judgment about the truth of a message. Instead, he is saying not to make value judgments about people.
I guess in forming factions around the various Christian leaders, the people were condemning the other groups’ leaders. They were judging their merit. Paul is basically telling them that the merit, or value, of a follower of Christ is determined by Jesus Himself, not by other Christians.
My application for myself is that I need to be careful in my judgments about the spirituality of others. I am tempted to judge numerous administrators and evangelists because I feel they seem to be putting on a show and do not seem to know You sincerely, but it is not time for me to make that kind of judgment. I don’t know what is going on inside of them. I need to be careful about my tendency to judge, and I need to withhold judgment of the merits of my fellow Christians whether they be famous leaders or humble church attendees or Christians of other denominations. Also, I pray to serve You well and to not worry about humans’ judgments of me or anything else.