“I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. 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 their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?” (1 Corinthians 4:14-21 ESV)
The apostle Paul was in a very unique situation and position with regard to the church in Corinth. He wasn’t just one of their teachers. He wasn’t just another member of the body of Christ. But he was like a spiritual father to them, for he was the one who introduced them to the message of the gospel and to genuine faith in Jesus Christ. He said this in another letter:
“For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.” (2 Corinthians 11:2-4 ESV)
So, he wasn’t just someone who had spiritual authority over them, which he did, but he regarded them as his spiritual children, and he genuinely was concerned for them and for their welfare and with regard to their relationships with Jesus Christ and with how they were living, either as followers of Christ, or as those given over to the flesh.
But you know what? The Scriptures teach that all of us who are part of the body of Christ are to have this kind of care and concern for one another as though truly we are all part of one body. So, when one part suffers or sins or falls away or has victory or moves in a forward direction, these things should impact us emotionally as they did Paul. And the Bible instructs us that we are to encourage and exhort one another daily so that none of us are led astray by the deceitfulness of sin and so we help one another grow in Christ.
[Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]
But when we encourage and exhort one another daily, it should not be to be cruel nor to appear superior, but for the same reasons that Paul did what he did, because we really do care about our brothers and sisters in Christ, and all those who give lip service to Christ only, and all the people of the world, that they all come to genuine faith in Jesus Christ, and that they all walk in holiness and in righteousness in obedience to the Lord and no longer in sin. But we live in this time when all this is being discouraged and rejected.
Now, the apostle Paul lived such a godly and exemplary life (contrary to what many are saying about him) that he encouraged the Christians to be imitators of him and of his walk of faith, not in the sense of fakery, but in the sense of modeling their walks of faith after the example that he set before them with regard to how we are all to be living as followers of Christ. He was their model of what a Christian should be like in thought and deed and in word and in practice and in attitude, too. And it was a biblical model.
So many people today are misrepresenting the gospel of our salvation and what it means to be “in Christ” and to have our sins forgiven, which does not line up with the teachings of Christ nor of his NT apostles (if taught and understood in the appropriate biblical context). And they are altering the message of the gospel to make it less offensive to the people of the world and less strict with regard to holiness and righteousness and walks of obedience to our Lord in surrender to his will.
And so we do have many professing Christians today who are arrogant, as though Christ is not going to judge them for their rebellion against him and for their refusal to walk in obedience to his commands in holy living. So they continue in their sins and in maintaining lordship over their own lives in charting their own course, regardless of whether or not it agrees with God and with the teachings of the Scriptures. And God is giving out the same message: “What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?”
One day Jesus Christ is going to return to the earth to judge and to take his faithful bride to be with him for eternity. And many will stand before him on that day of judgment proclaiming him as “Lord” and claiming all that they believe they did in his name. But he is going to say to them, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” And this is because their “faith” in Jesus was lip service only, but they did not obey his commands, and they chose their own way to go, instead (see Matthew 7:21-23).
So, please know that the Scriptures teach that Jesus died and rose from the dead so that we might die with him to sin and be resurrected with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. So if we profess his name and claim to know him and to be in fellowship with him and to have the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God, but while we disregard him as our Lord (Owner-Master), and while we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, and not in obedience to him, we will not inherit eternal life with God.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
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