I Corinthians 4:5  Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
6  And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.
7  For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?
8  Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
9  For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.

We need to keep the context in mind here. Paul stated that nothing should be judged before the time. This is not contradicting the command to judge righteous judgment. The context here is with regard to the carnal nature of the saints in Corinth. They were judging certain men based on speaking styles rather than on truth. Compromise is never acceptable to God. A pastor that wants to lead the people into modernism needs to be exposed and stopped. We do not need pastors who want to adapt to the culture. We need pastors who will submit to the truth and stand firm on the truth and teach the truth faithfully.
The Lord will come, and He will bring all things to light. There is nothing that we keep secret from the Lord. We mentioned another preacher who has been removed from his office as pastor. We stated that he is a Calvinist. He was a very popular preacher in certain circles. That just shows you how many people have been deceived into accepting the heresy known as Calvinism. This preacher was confronted by the woman’s father. He threatened to expose the preacher, and so the preacher decided to admit to the inappropriate relationship, at least in part. Apparently that relationship took place over a 5 year period. He was able to keep it secret for that long. However, it was never a surprise to God. This man had 5 years to deal with that sin, but he has had many more years to deal with his wrong theology regarding salvation and God’s sovereignty. This man chose to hold to his heretical theology and now has been publicly exposed. There will likely be people who will still hold to the false teaching this man has promoted. Others will turn away from all preachers because they will assume no preacher can be trusted.
The wise person will be reminded again that the Bible is our authority. If a pastor spins a yarn on a certain passage, we have the right to question that. Those who are saved have the Holy Spirit indwelling them and thus can study the Word of God for himself. The saved person needs to check his understanding of any passage with others who are walking faithfully with the Lord.
God is the ultimate Judge. He will reveal the facts and every saved person will have praise of God as we stand before Him. This again is not suggesting we should tolerate false doctrine from spiritual leaders. Paul was not guilty of teaching false doctrine. He was being judged on unimportant factors by saints who were not in any spiritual condition to judge anyone. Carnal Christians need to get their own house in order before they have anything to say to others.
In verse 6 Paul continued to address the problem. No man should be elevated to some form of deity. No man should become proud and assume they are better than others. Paul, Apollos, and Peter did not see themselves as being super important. Paul and Peter were both chosen by Jesus Christ to be apostles. Apollos was an eloquent speaker but he was not an apostle. Paul and Peter had the ability to do things that Apollos could not do. However, they were not gods. They did not fight among themselves for position. It was the carnal saints in Corinth that were trying to pit these men against each other. The people were distracted by things that did not matter, and they were blinded to things that do matter.
In verse 7 we are further reminded of the foolishness of the types of divisions that the saints in Corinth were doing. By implication, Paul was directed to remind the saints that they were not gifted by God to cause the divisions that they were promoting. They had developed their critical minds apart from the will of God.
Every true child of God is gifted by God. No one can boast of their self-improvement. There are many programs in our world that do promote this idea. There are groups you can join that encourage competition in speaking. They give out awards to the one they assume is the better speaker. There are other forms of competition as well. Paul reminded the saints that this is not the way true Christians deal with one another.
In verse 8 Paul reminded the saints that they were given gifts by God that they were not exercising. They were ignoring the blessings of the Lord and they were stifling the truth for the sake of pursuing ungodly ideas. Paul was pointing out that the saints were robbing themselves of blessings that God had provided for them. Paul did not put himself on a pedestal. He wanted to work together with them. He did not want to be put on a different level from other saints. He was on a different level than the carnal Christian. The reason was that the carnal Christians were choosing to refuse the blessings of the Lord for the sake of picking apart other saints.
In verse 9 Paul stated that God had not elevated them into a higher position. Their apostleship put them behind others. They were being attacked more than others simply because they were bold and faithful stewards of God. They did not have a position to be envied. They were in a position that was really not something to be fighting over.
Paul and the other apostles were not complaining about their lot in life. God chose them as apostles. There was certainly more exposure that they received as apostles. That exposure was not always positive. They were attacked by the Judaizers. They were attacked by government officials. They were misunderstood. They were not appreciated by many.
The Corinthian saints had an assumed view of the men they were fighting over. They were not walking as spiritual people should. They were living in an imaginary world that was not benefitting them nor anyone else.
The apostles were important and necessary for that time. Pastors, evangelists and teachers are all important today. They are not to be worshipped. They are not to be idolized. They should be respected and they should be respectable. Blind loyalty does not help anyone. Accountability is always important. Humility is always important. God’s work is important and essential. Many people have chosen to ignore that which they need the most. There will be many regrets after death. It is important to listen to the Lord and follow Him.
Pastor Bartel