For Men or God

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

FOR MEN OR GOD

1 Cor 4:1-5

4:1 So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. 2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

NIV

Are there two classes of people? Those entrusted with the secrets of God and those who are not? Who is the ‘us’ that Paul in talking about, just him and Apollos or all of us that men should consider as servants of Christ? Does the Spirit of God divulge more secrets to just a few men then what he does to all followers of Christ? It would appear this might be the case, but then it may not be the case also. Do not we all have to be proved faithful? Are we not all required to have a faithful heart? True, just as Paul, we may not be innocent, totally free from all sin, but if it is our desire to follow Christ, if we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior and thus have had our sins covered by His blood, we can have a clear conscience. If we sit around all day trying to judge other peoples motives or actions, it is purely a waste of time for of what value is the judgment of the human court, the human mind? We are told here that even Paul does not judge himself, but leaves that up to God. We should be careful then about wondering what is to be judged and what is not. It should be clear that it is the motives of our hearts which is what is hidden in the darkness. As Paul might have been speaking about those men who preach, teach and write words giving instructions to others as to how to live might be doing it with motives of personal gain, recognition, and for the praise of men, it also applies to all of us. Why do we do anything for the Kingdom of God? Why do we serve in any capacity within the Body of Christ? Why are we Sunday school teachers, small group leaders, ushers, choir members, instrumentalists, greeters, audio-visual workers, board members, or any other place of service? Why do we serve? Is it for the praise of men or for the praise from God? Maybe we should not even judge that for ourselves, but leave that up to God to judge. Yet it does raise the question as to the motives of our hearts. We do have to make sure we do not mistake this for God judging every single behavior of our lives, for that would be Him judging our sin, which has been forgiven and covered by the blood of Christ. But He is judging the motives of our heart as to why we serve Him. If our conscience is clear, and our motives for serving Him are out of our love for Him them surely we will receive praise from God. We well here those words, “Enter in, my good and faithful servant”. But if what we do is for the praise of men, well then “Here comes the Judge”.