14 I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.

I live in Iowa. This is my first election year living here. It’s pretty crazy. While the whole country is probably tired of the constant political ads and rhetoric, I didn’t know until I lived here that Iowa gets it much, much worse. We vote first in the caucuses, so everyone wants us. Last week 7 presidential candidates visited our little town of 25,000, and several of them had been here once or twice already in the past year.

What really comes clear during this time is that we choose who we will vote for by their words, their perceived wisdom, and their apparent power. And everyone one of them, under the guise, is narcissistic. I’m not sure you could get to where they are without that quality. One of them in fact gets criticized frequently for being too soft; too much of a likeable, nice guy.

The fact is, we are going to pick the one we like best based upon their words, perceived wisdom, and apparent power.

That is how the church at Corinth picked their favorite teacher. Who seemed wisest. Who taught the strongest lesson. Who projected the most confidence. And Paul has been warning them against that. Whatever genuine truth and wisdom their teachings delivered and whatever genuine power their lives conveyed, it was from God alone. He should be exalted, not them.

Verses 14-16 have hinted at a different meaning to me this time I studied them in context. It seems possible that Paul is looking at the followers of Apollo and Cephas and saying “don’t imitate them, imitate me because I fathered this church.” I’m not ready to say that’s what he intended, but I’m considering it. He does, in fact, say “you don’t have many fathers – only me” (v.15).

Regardless, Paul describes a different relationship between a church planter and the church he planted than what we’re used to today. As the one whom Christ sent to establish a church at Corinth, Paul considered himself to be the father of that church, one whose life in Christ they should model theirs after, and one who would administer discipline if needed.

He corrects these believers firmly but in love, as a father would for his children. He’s not trying to shame them, he’s trying to help them resolve a central problem that is keeping them from enjoying life in the Spirit to its fullest. Rather than treat just the symptoms, he’s taking them to the deepest levels to correct the systemic problem that causes the symptoms.

Paul was deeply passionate about his ministry. His deep sense of mission, his burning desire to faithfully accomplish what Jesus sent him to do, was extraordinary.

I don’t think the “authority” Paul seems to feel over the congregation he planted was from arrogance. It was from a humble realization that he was not doing his own work but the work of Jesus Christ. There was no doubt in Paul’s mind that Jesus both called and enabled him to build a church at Corinth, and he was going to do whatever was necessary to present that church to Christ as spotless.

It is in this way that Paul considers the members of this church his children and he their father.

17 For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church. 18 Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power. 21 What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

» V. 17
The Corinthian believers were Paul’s wayward children. Timothy was Paul’s faithful child. So Paul sent his faithful son to his unfaithful children to help them get back on track so that he wouldn’t have to discipline them on his next visit.

» V. 18-21
Some believers at Corinth had become overly self-confident. This will be important for us to understand a little later when we discover more vividly that they were exercising their own power rather than God’s power. They were evidently using whatever tools they had – persuasiveness, threats, strong personalities, arguments, etc. – to establish control over the happenings of the church. The power mongers among them were introducing “worldly wisdom” and “standards of the age” (3:18-19) into the decision-making process of the church. They spoke well. Their words made sense at a human level. Their teachings probably seemed like common sense. These worldly teachers were connecting the things they said to God and were winning people over.

In modern times they might have said things like:

• We need to believe in the power of prayer! [That sounds good, but it’s the power of God in line with His will that we need to believe in, not the power of prayer.]
  
• God wants you to be happy, doesn’t He? [But God’s primary goal is saving humanity for His glory, not your personal happiness]
  
• Yes, we’re supposed to love, serve, and forgive everyone. But surely God doesn’t want you to be a doormat. [Really? Reflect on the cross for a while and then try saying that again with a clear conscience. And if you think “being a doormat” is just for Jesus, read 4:9-13 again]
  
• Don’t confront sinners too strongly or you’ll drive them right out of the church. We need to be tolerant and loving. After all, God is a God of love! [God loves sinners enough to confront them with their sin so they may be healed and have closer fellowship with Him]
  
• If God made me this way, He loves me this way. If He didn’t like it, He wouldn’t have made it. [By the same argument, God made murderers and rapists that way too, so they shouldn’t change, either]
  
• Religion is a private thing. I don’t believe in flaunting it or making people uncomfortable because of my beliefs. [Try thinking for just a minute. Jesus and His disciples made a life out of making their “religion” public and making people uncomfortable because of their beliefs]

The worldly teachers in the church at Corinth, in other words, spoke words that seemed wise. They were persuasive. But they had no power.

In contrast, the word of God which we should speak is “living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” [Heb 4:12]. Read my short list of common modern “wisdom” above. Do those platitudes do any of the things that this verse says God’s word does? All true wisdom does.

The next chapter will deal with how to respond to sexual immorality in the church, and the chapters that follow will deal with others issues. Right now Paul wants to lay a crucial foundational understanding: CHURCH MATTERS ARE HANDLED VERY DIFFERENTLY THAN WORLDLY MATTERS.

I’ve written at length in other contexts about volunteerism, so I won’t do that here. I’ll just give my bottom line: Church “volunteer banquets,” “volunteer appreciation days,” and the like do nothing but damage. The church has no volunteers. God has ministers. And faithful ministers set themselves aside. Stroking their egos and giving them applause works completely against the type of heart God desires in His ministers.

If someone is of the kingdom of God It will be obvious by the spiritual power they demonstrate, not by the words they speak. In 2:4 Paul said “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power.” Now he says that when he visits again he’ll look beyond this church’s teachers’ words to see what spiritual power they have in their lives.

The Christian decision making process begins with reflection on what we know about God, what we know about Christ, and even what we know about God’s faithful servants. The results of that process will usually be much different than the direction our human natures would lead us.

We’re not fully studying the issues in Chapter 5 until next time, but I do want to look at the first few verses to see an example of what Paul has been building up to in the previous chapters. Everything Paul has written so far in this letter was prep for the issues he’ll be dealing with throughout the letter.

1 Cor 5:1-3 1 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. 3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.

A man in their congregation was having sex with his mother or step-mother. Notice that nowhere does Paul write direct words to the incestuous man and tell him to shape up. This is a crucial point. He writes to the church and chastises them. Why?

Did the Corinthian Christians handle the problem in the Holy Spirit’s power? No. Instead, they were proud! Not proud of the sexual immorality. Rather, they *ignored* the immorality and were proud of *themselves* for being tolerant! They continued feeling good about themselves, their church, and the wisdom they had because they had some great teachers and preachers - despite them immorality among them!

Paul reprimanded them. “If you had a REALLY good reason to be confident, the Holy Spirit’s power would be flowing through your church! But if THAT were happening, you wouldn’t be tolerating such grotesque sin! You would do what I would do if I were there – You’d turn this man over to Satan so that he may be saved!”

So the principle problem with the church at Corinth was that they sought wisdom over virtue. They desired power over holiness. They glorified men more than they did God. And these hard truths will cast their shadows over the next 7 or so chapters of this book.