Challenging the awesomeness
This week is on 1 Corinthians 4:1-5:
These verses come right after some writing by the apostle Paul, where he challenges the whole "We are so awesome" mindset people get when they first get to know God. So these verses are him continuing that thought and saying that "We're just a bunch of ordinary guys trying to do what we're supposed to do."
We weren't invited to become Christians because of our awesomeness. It isn't some honor conferred on us for being righteous. Even being a leader isn't a badge of honor that allows us to start patting ourselves on the back. In another section, Paul challenges the idea that one leader is better than another, and that we can somehow pat ourselves on the back for following this leader over that one. Our righteousness isn't defined that way!
So now he gets into the whole concept of judgment and our self-proclaimed awesomeness. Paul is a humble man. He doesn't believe he's awesome because he knows he's not. He's just a guy. So he doesn't care if people judge him. He has no reputation to maintain, no delusions of grandeur. If people say he's great, that's fine. If they say he's horrible, that's fine too. If they make a mistake in who they think he is, it doesn't matter. He's fine either way.
Compare that to someone who has decided that they're awesome, that they're all spiritual and righteous. If someone condemns a person like that, they are furious! "Who are *you* to judge me?!!" Suddenly their idea of how awesome they are is challenged. The seat of honor they've chosen for themselves is no longer theirs and they're asked to move to a more realistic position. They're outraged! It's even worse when the person bringing the accusation is mistaken. Now they're not just outraged, but now they're judging the person who judged them for judging them! It's like a grade school food fight.
But Paul doesn't even judge himself. He doesn't grant a verdict of "guilty" or a verdict of "awesome!" That's the root of what humility is. If you have humility, you're not puffing yourself up, or beating yourself down. You simply acknowledge the truth. Paul puts it well when he says that his conscience is clear but that that doesn't make him innocent. God decides our value in the grand scheme of things. When we put our trust in him, and receive his forgiveness for our sins, he takes away our punishment. Guilty or innocent doesn't matter. We're set free. Good or bad doesn't matter. We're loved. It's a different game than the self-righteous are playing. Deciding that we're OK doesn't make us OK. Allowing God to decide we're OK does.
Puffing ourselves up with ideas that we're better than this group or that group is a form of judgment, the same as deciding that you're better than this neighbor or worse than that one. In doing that, we've decided our value and are seeing the world through our self-righteous eyes. If someone then tries to speak truth into our lives, we fight them as an enemy, because we've already determined our own value and what they say doesn't match up with it. We don't want to lose our seat of honor! If God determines our value, and we don't have to care about it anymore, we don't become that self-righteous person. Our righteousness is not from ourselves or our peers, but from God himself.
Paul says to judge nothing before the appointed time. There's no "OK that's it, I'm better than him, time to hand out the prizes." But there's also no "That's it. I'll never get this right. I'm doomed." There's only God covering our faults while helping us to grow. That's not to say that we shouldn't acknowledge uncomfortable truths or be happy about things we've truly done well. It's just that those things don't define who we are eternally, and that as long as we're here on earth we have time to change and grow. God defines our value, good or bad, and we won't know how much praise we'll get from him until we die. Until then, there's still time on the clock.
This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
These verses come right after some writing by the apostle Paul, where he challenges the whole "We are so awesome" mindset people get when they first get to know God. So these verses are him continuing that thought and saying that "We're just a bunch of ordinary guys trying to do what we're supposed to do."
We weren't invited to become Christians because of our awesomeness. It isn't some honor conferred on us for being righteous. Even being a leader isn't a badge of honor that allows us to start patting ourselves on the back. In another section, Paul challenges the idea that one leader is better than another, and that we can somehow pat ourselves on the back for following this leader over that one. Our righteousness isn't defined that way!
So now he gets into the whole concept of judgment and our self-proclaimed awesomeness. Paul is a humble man. He doesn't believe he's awesome because he knows he's not. He's just a guy. So he doesn't care if people judge him. He has no reputation to maintain, no delusions of grandeur. If people say he's great, that's fine. If they say he's horrible, that's fine too. If they make a mistake in who they think he is, it doesn't matter. He's fine either way.
Compare that to someone who has decided that they're awesome, that they're all spiritual and righteous. If someone condemns a person like that, they are furious! "Who are *you* to judge me?!!" Suddenly their idea of how awesome they are is challenged. The seat of honor they've chosen for themselves is no longer theirs and they're asked to move to a more realistic position. They're outraged! It's even worse when the person bringing the accusation is mistaken. Now they're not just outraged, but now they're judging the person who judged them for judging them! It's like a grade school food fight.
But Paul doesn't even judge himself. He doesn't grant a verdict of "guilty" or a verdict of "awesome!" That's the root of what humility is. If you have humility, you're not puffing yourself up, or beating yourself down. You simply acknowledge the truth. Paul puts it well when he says that his conscience is clear but that that doesn't make him innocent. God decides our value in the grand scheme of things. When we put our trust in him, and receive his forgiveness for our sins, he takes away our punishment. Guilty or innocent doesn't matter. We're set free. Good or bad doesn't matter. We're loved. It's a different game than the self-righteous are playing. Deciding that we're OK doesn't make us OK. Allowing God to decide we're OK does.
Puffing ourselves up with ideas that we're better than this group or that group is a form of judgment, the same as deciding that you're better than this neighbor or worse than that one. In doing that, we've decided our value and are seeing the world through our self-righteous eyes. If someone then tries to speak truth into our lives, we fight them as an enemy, because we've already determined our own value and what they say doesn't match up with it. We don't want to lose our seat of honor! If God determines our value, and we don't have to care about it anymore, we don't become that self-righteous person. Our righteousness is not from ourselves or our peers, but from God himself.
Paul says to judge nothing before the appointed time. There's no "OK that's it, I'm better than him, time to hand out the prizes." But there's also no "That's it. I'll never get this right. I'm doomed." There's only God covering our faults while helping us to grow. That's not to say that we shouldn't acknowledge uncomfortable truths or be happy about things we've truly done well. It's just that those things don't define who we are eternally, and that as long as we're here on earth we have time to change and grow. God defines our value, good or bad, and we won't know how much praise we'll get from him until we die. Until then, there's still time on the clock.
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