I Corinthians 4:1  Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2  Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
3  But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.
4  For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.

It is a blessing to be a child of the true God. Deception is abounding these days. There are a number of reports given of massive revivals taking place. The gullible and untaught will get excited about these things. They lack discernment and do not see any problem.
The Bible has much to say about leadership. God’s design is that He be the Head. He created all things. He created man and instructed man. He gave man freewill but also showed him the importance of believing and following Him. Adam chose to test God, and he lost. He did not need to test God. He needed to believe Him and follow Him. Since he did not do that he lost out and all of humanity lost out. However, God has chosen human leaders throughout the generations that turn to Him in repentance and trust in His way of salvation and they have been there to help others to know the truth.
It is important to understand that we need good leaders. A good leader does not allow others to make him a god. We know that Paul and Barnabas faced that challenge. We can read one such account in Acts 14. God gave Paul, an apostle, the ability to heal people. He did that and the pagan people assumed that Paul and Barnabas were gods. They wanted to worship them. The text tells us that Paul and Barnabas had a hard time persuading the people not to do that. After they succeeded with that, some pagan Jews came and stirred up the people and convinced them that Paul was an evil man and they stoned him and left him for dead.
We learn from the Bible that not all leaders are good leaders. In fact we learn that few leaders are good leaders. God has a way of exposing leaders and others can observe them. Due to the depravity of lost people, they often choose bad leaders. We have that in our Parliament. We also see that in most religious groups. They do not know how to choose a good leader because they do not take God’s Word as their Standard.
The apostle Paul challenged the Corinthian saints and us to examine him. The Greek word translated as “account” means “to take inventory”. It is a reckoning of the person. You need to take note of the person in various situations and put it all together and see how the person adds up. Of course it is necessary to have a right standard to measure a person by. Our feelings are not a good standard. Our own intelligence is not a good standard. Paul pointed out that the only standard by which to judge a man is Christ. He challenged the people to measure him against the Standard of Jesus Christ. Was he being a steward of God? Was he faithfully revealing the truth to them?
In verse 2 Paul reminded the saints what a good steward must be like. We know that during Jesus’ earthly ministry, Peter was not a good steward. He needed to be rebuked several times. He went so far as to deny the Lord Jesus Christ three times. He needed to come to the place where he could be trusted. Even after Jesus’ ascension, the apostle Paul needed to rebuke him for his partiality and divisiveness. A good steward is not born that way. He needs to be taught. Even after a person is saved, they still need to be taught the imperative of being a good steward.
A good steward is one who is faithful. In our context, he must be faithful to God. He cannot be a “Sunday” Christian. He needs to have a consistent testimony of truth. I remember years ago that I had a business with my father-in-law. As a Christian, I wanted our customers to be reminded of the need to know the Lord. I put a small rack with tracts on the counter where customers would come to make appointments or pay their bill. There were others who were in business at that time who counselled us that this was not a good thing. They said we would drive business away. People would take offence to having those tracts on the counter. I found that strange advice. It is quite common to walk into a business and hear trashy music playing. Some might even portray pornography. Foul language is also often heard. No one seems to be concerned about whether that might drive Christians away. I realize that true Christians are in a minority. Economically, the world will not miss true Christians. Spiritually we are needed, but otherwise the world will do quite fine without us. Most churches have allowed the world to infiltrate them so that they have accepted the world’s music and language just to try to fit in.
I was speaking with a professing Christian this week who stated that he liked the country western “gospel”. I told him that music was no better than the rock music. That music uses the same tunes that they use to sing about the drunk and the cheating wife, etc. They just change the words, but the medium is the same. He did not recognize that as a problem. Many people do not see the problem there. It is only when a person is saved that they become open to seeing things that the devil has deceived them with.
A steward of Christ must be faithful to God. There needs to be a consistency in their life. It is not a matter of the roller coaster ride that many want to be on.
In verse 3 Paul stated that he was not intimidated by the judgment of the Corinthian saints. He knew that there was a standard of righteousness that was much higher than that of any man. True saints do not set themselves up as the ultimate standard. God is the ultimate standard. His standard is much higher than any man’s.
The apostle Paul welcomed the judgment of the Lord in his life. He was not an arrogant man who had reinvented the Lord. He actually knew the true Lord and he wanted to submit to Him. He did not just say that. He proved it to be so. This goes back to verse 2: a steward must be faithful. A true steward does not just talk about faithfulness. He proves it with his actions.
A faithful steward wants to be purified. He seeks out the truth. He is not content to be in a place that is carnal at best and lost at worst. Paul was taught directly by the Lord. He was directed by the Lord in his preaching and teaching. We are not in the same camp as Paul was. We are not apostles. We are not inspired by God. We are dependent on the Holy Spirit to guide us and open our understanding to the truth of God’s Word, once we are saved. We need to grow in the Lord. We need to be subjected to the truth and we need to be submissive to God’s Word. Apart from God’s salvation, we cannot serve Him faithfully. Even after salvation, we need to be submissive to God’s Word. The Corinthian saints were carnal. They were preoccupied with disputing over who was the better leader. They were not judging them based on doctrine. There was no difference in the doctrine of the men that were mentioned.
We do need to judge men based on their doctrine. That was not the issue here. The problem was with the saints. They were not listening to the men that God had sent them. They were nitpicking and judging the men on matters that are not important. They needed to judge men by their doctrine, not their eloquence or their plain speaking.
The Lord took Moses, a man who claimed he could not speak well, and trained him to be able to communicate just fine with Pharaoh and with the people in general. He took a donkey and caused that donkey to speak to Balaam. God wants us to be able to communicate. He prepares a man for the work He has for him to do. We need to be able to understand the man who is supposed to be teaching us. If we cannot understand him, we will not learn properly. There is a difference between understanding and entertaining. Biblical doctrine requires endurance of the hearer. If we do not want to apply ourselves we will not learn. Of course the lost have no interest in applying themselves. They want smooth words. They want easy talking. They want to grab their coffee and just sit back and relax as the speaker talks. They do not want their conscience pricked. They do not want to hear negative words.
The faithful steward, as Paul was, speaks the Word of God plainly and with boldness. He does not set himself up as the standard. He knows there is only one Standard and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He points people to that standard and every true saint needs to be growing to become more like the Lord Jesus Christ. The lethargy in modern day Christianity proves there is something very wrong with that brand of Christianity. We need to take the same Standard that Paul used in determining what faithfulness is. It is a blessing to be faithful to the Lord. We, those who are saved, need to be involved in that which is of eternal value.
Pastor Bartel